Interview with gen. de escadra Ioan Dobran, a Romanian ace

[Victor Nitu]

This interview was taken by Victor Nitu and Claudiu Stumer one rainy morning in September 2002 in Bucharest.
Claudiu Stumer: When you were a child, did you have any experiences with airplanes. I think you loved aviation since then.
Ioan Dobran: Yes, there isn't a child who does not love airplanes! I used to build models. The first serious contact with aviation was in 35-36, on a field near the military high school, where an airplane had landed. I did what I did and managed to go and see it. I was disappointed. It was only wire and cloth. I don't know what it was. Something really old. Probably a Potez XIV. I was intrigued though by the fact that this wreck could actually get airborne. Then I joined ARPA [the Romanian Association for the Propaganda of Aviation]. I also had subscription to "Cerul nostru" [Our Sky] magazine. I cultivated my taste for aviation. I had technical skills, but at school I did not do to well. The parents tried. i was at the "Sf. Sava" high school [one of the best in Bucharest in that period and even today]. But when I had some spare time, I generally went to workshop nearby where one repaired bicycles and radios. The grades: 4,5, 6 and 7 [in Romania grades are between 1 and 10]. The parents got worried and hired a tutor. How was I going to foul this guy? Well, I told him the lesson I studied that day, not the one I was going to the next day. I had paid attention in class to it and knew it already. "Mrs. Dobran, I don't understand! He seems to know the lesson with me. I do not know why at school he forgets it!" So the parents sent me to the military high school. Discipline, supervision. I said: "Fine! But you will let me join the air force after that!" "You are young! You will get over it!" But after I graduated from high school I was admitted in the Air Force Officer School and on 1st September 1939, the first day of war, I was entering through its gate. We graduated on 10 May 1941 [Romania's national holyday in that period]. All the new 2nd lieutenants were lined up from Victoria Square to the Aviators Statue. Slt. Marius Constantinescu, the first of the 1941 class, an infantryman, presented the honors. The infantry was still the queen of battle. He died later that year during the siege of Odessa. We were then sent to Ghimbav, near Brasov. There they were going to split us among the different branches of the air force. We flew together to a point and then they said: you are going to the fighters, you to the bombers, you to the reconnaissance, liaison etc, according to one's qualities. At Ghimbav we continued the fighter training on the IAR-27, a low-wing monoplane well suited for aerobatics and on the Nardi [FN-305]. This airplane had put the old pilots into offices and was flown only by young enthusiastic pilots. It was highly maneuverable, a helpless penguin on the ground, but perfect in the air. After this we received our license on the PZL P.11, a high wing single engine monoplane, which had two machine-guns. It was a light fighter which fought in the 1941 campaign in Bessarabia and at Odessa, but after that it was withdrawn, because it was obsolete. In October we were sent to the units. I was assigned to the 1st Fighter Flotilla, which was the only flotilla with 3 groups. A fighter group had three squadrons, each with 12 aircraft plus three in reserve. Here we started flying on the IAR-80. Initially we loved this airplane. But before it we also flew a German airplane...
Claudiu Stumer: The He-112B?
Ioan Dobran: Yes, but only for a short while. it was a good plane, but it could not keep up anymore. In 1942 we entered in state of alert, following the first American raid: Halpro. They managed to reach Ploesti [on 12 June 1942]. But they did not come again until 1 August 1943. In 1943 we were sent to Tiraspol to train on the Bf-109. It was a very interesting experience for me. Our instructor was Helmut Lipfert. We flew first on the Bf-109F and immediately after that we passed on the "Gheu" [this is how the Romanian pilots dubbed the Gustav]. I was the first one to fly on it, together with Bazu Cantacuzino, who soon left for the front for the second time [the first time was in 1941]. He was a complete sportsman. The war was more a sport for him.
Anyway, I reached the front on 15 August 1943.
The rest of the interview on my website, at this address:
http://www.arr.go.ro/dobran.htm