Royal Romanian Naval Aviation

The Royal Romanian Naval Aviation was the air arm of the Royal Romanian Navy. The Naval Aviation was founded in the 1920s, its first floatplanes and flying boats being of Romanian origin. These were followed by imports from Italy (flying boats) and Germany (floatplanes), resulting by the time of the Second World War in a sizable and active force of over 70 watercraft.

Development

The first Romanian seaplane squadron was founded in the late 1920s. It consisted of four native-built RAS-1 Getta reconnaissance flying boats.[1] The first Romanian seaplanes were essentially floatplane versions of the SET 7 biplane, a total of eight being built for the Romanian Naval Aviation.[2]

Italian flying boats

Before the war, Romania acquired seven Savoia-Marchetti S.55 double-hulled flying boats as well as eleven Savoia-Marchetti SM.62 biplane flying boats.[3] Five of the latter were licence-built locally at the IAR factory in Brașov.[4][5][6] In 1941, twelve CANT Z.501 were also purchased.[7] The twelve Z.501s formed Escadrila 101, with more acquired later for Escadrila 102, which also possessed an unspecified number of Savoia-Marchetti S.56.[8] An unspecified amount of Savoia-Marchetti S.59 was also acquired before the war.[9]

German floatplanes

For training purposes, three Heinkel He 42 were purchased.[10] Before the war, 24 Heinkel He 114 were also acquired, followed by an unspecified amount of Arado Ar 196 during the war.[11]

List of seaplanes

Flying boats
Name Picture Origin Quantity Note
RAS-1 Getta  Romania 4 First Romanian flying boats; unarmed
Savoia-Marchetti S.55  Italy 7 Double-hulled, unarmed
Savoia-Marchetti S.56  Italy Unknown Biplane, unarmed
Savoia-Marchetti S.59  Italy Unknown Biplane bomber, one 7.7 mm machine gun
Savoia-Marchetti SM.62  Italy
 Romania		 11 Five licence-built locally; biplane bomber, four 7.7 mm machine guns
CANT Z.501  Italy 12+ Largest Romanian flying boats; monoplane bomber, two or three 7.7 mm machine guns

Floatplanes
Name Picture Origin Quantity Note
SET 7H  Romania 8 First Romanian floatplanes
Heinkel He 42  Germany 3 Used for training
Heinkel He 114  Germany 24 Light bomber & reconnaissance, one 7.92 mm machine gun
Arado Ar 196  Germany Unknown Light bomber & reconnaissance, two 7.92 mm machine guns and two 20 mm autocannons

Operational history

The most notable achievements of the Romanian Naval Aviation during World War II were the sinking of two Soviet submarines by a single Z.501 in August 1941, followed by the capture of a Soviet armed merchantman by a group of Heinkels in October. Romanian seaplanes monitored Soviet Navy locations and movements for the Luftwaffe bombers, which, with assistance from Escadrila 102, extirpated Soviet submarines from the Black Sea by late-autumn 1941.[12]

A slight defeat came in the autumn of 1943, when a Z.501 was shot down by Soviet ace Grigoriy Rechkalov.[13]

gollark: Yes, it is.
gollark: Doesn't make it nondrug.
gollark: Your body contains glucose, which we established is a drug.
gollark: If I make a bacterium which synthesizes cocaine, that does not make cocaine not a drug.
gollark: In what way?

References
  1. Romanian Review, Volume 36, Issues 8-12, Europolis Pub., 1982, p. 31
  2. SET 7 on airwar.ru (in Russian; site includes a list of literary sources)
  3. Spencer C. Tucker, World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia (2 volumes): An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 633
  4. Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, p. 272
  5. Francesco Sorge, Giuseppe Genchi, Essays on the History of Mechanical Engineering, Springer, 2015, p. 144
  6. Anthony Robinson, The Illustrated encyclopedia of aviation, Volume 11, Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1979
  7. Hans Werner Neulen, In the Skies of Europe: Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945, Crowood, 2000, p. 92
  8. Ronald L. Tarnstrom, Balkan Battles, Trogen Books, 1998, p. 357
  9. David W. Wragg, Jane's Air Forces of the World: The History and Composition of the World's Air Forces, Collins, 2003, p. 152
  10. Cristian Crăciunoiu, Jean-Louis Roba, Aeronautica română în al doilea război mondial, Modelism, 2003, p. 259 (contains translations in English)
  11. Frank Joseph, The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe, ABC-CLIO, 2011, pp. 165-166
  12. Frank Joseph, The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe, ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 166
  13. George Mellinger, Soviet Lend-Lease Fighter Aces of World War 2, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, p. 72
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