| | Prowling the Pacific Night - Flight Journal Magazine Article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04) |
 | | In an hour-long battle, 36 of 130 B-24s were shot down-10 by Romanian Bf 109Gs and IAR 80 fighters, seven by the Luftwaffe and the remainder by flak. |
 | | The IAR 80-the only domestically designed Romanian fighter to see service during the War-was obsolete compared with the P-51 Mustangs and P-38 Lightnings flown by their U.S. opponents. |
 | | The cannon-armed IAR 81C was, however, particularly effective against the bombers, and in the eight raids flown against Ploesti between April 5 and June 6, 1944, the bombers averaged an unacceptably heavy seven-percent loss rate. |
| www.flightjournal.com /articles/P38/blackDay.asp (1574 words) |