Did the Mustangs fly east of Berlin?

[-DED-t0t3m]

Hello everyone,

I've been pondering the following question recently. Perhaps someone here might know the answer.

When I read Captain Lipfert's diary (https://www.jg52.net/ritterkreuztraeger/helmut-lipfert/), I noticed in the chapter about Romania that Lipfert fought against the Mustangs.

Source: https://www.sudden-strike-maps.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7444

As far as I know, the Allies didn't fly any missions with P-51s on the Eastern Front. At least, I haven't found any evidence of this in Russian-language sources. However, I did find that the Checkertails Clan pilots (https://www.checkertails.org/) did indeed escort the bombers from Italy all the way to Bucharest (Romania) and were involved in the air battles against Luftwaffe. They even stopped to refuel by the Russians.

https://www.checkertails.org/Archived_Webpages/325thfg/325 His.htm

Does anyone know of any other sources about the air battles east of Berlin where the Mustang was used?

 

[AndyJWest]

Eighth Airforce P-51s participated as escorts in Operation Frantic, the B-17 raids that took off from England, bombed targets in eastern Germany, and landed at Soviet airbases, then doing the same thing in reverse.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-p-51-mustang-was-quintessential-fighter-world-war-ii-era-180978302/

https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=346

The Wikipedia article has a long list of raids, though I'd recommend looking for secondary sources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frantic

 

 

 

Edited November 27 by AndyJWest

[AndreiTomescu]

On 11/27/2025 at 6:10 PM, -DED-t0t3m said:

noticed in the chapter about Romania that Lipfert fought against the Mustangs.

Lipfert was the main and best trainer for several Romanian aces (Dobran included) , younger ones, that came later into the fray.

He also fought in the skyes above Ploiești defending the oil refineries and there he met the Mustangs covering the bombers.

He is mentioned several times in The Journal of Lt Dobran, an awesome book.

While Dobran was training with Lipfert, they made a bet: who could fly as low as to scratch the ground with the propeller. Dobran did, and so Lipfert nicknamed him "Fakir".

 

[AndreiTomescu]

P.S. sorry, Ploiești is a city in Romania. So technically speaking, he fought American Mustangs on the .....Central Eastern front.

The front line was about 300 km away to the east, as the soviet armies advanced with great speed.

I have some wonderful stories, as told by Dobran, who loved and admired this great man greatly, in his book. If interested, I can translate with Google Translate and put here those pages. Including how they saved Lipfer from being a prisoner of the Red Army, after changing sides.

[Panzerkatze]

Erich "Bubi" Hartmann...aka "Karaya one" gained 352 Victories in total and seven of them were P-51s over Rumania, defending Ploesti. So, there were P-51s in east of Berlin.

[AndreiTomescu]

43 minutes ago, Panzerkatze said:

Erich "Bubi" Hartmann...aka "Karaya one" gained 352 Victories in total and seven of them were P-51s over Rumania, defending Ploesti. So, there were P-51s in east of Berlin.

all so true. with a little side note, Ploiesti is in the S-E of Berlin. And, wow. I didn't know that the ace of aces flew here! i mean in Ro. Wow, and thanks.

[Mysticpuma]

I created 3 films on the 325th FG.

If you skip to the 34m 10s mark in Part two of the films, it covers "Operation Frantic" and their involvement, including a dogfight with Romanian Pilot Ion Dobran.

https://youtu.be/swUTp2-yiR0?feature=shared