Operation Reunion: WWII POWs Repatriated

When the Soviets swept into Romania in late August 1944, the subsequent release of 1,162 captured Allied airmen sent a wave of optimism throughout the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, as well as a major morale boost for the American public back home. Operation Reunion stands to this day as one of the high-water, feel-good moments of World War Two.

As the highest-ranking prisoner of war in Romania, Lt. Col. James A. Gunn promptly received permission to organize the repatriation of Allied POWs to their British and Italian airbases.

Constantin Cantacuzino

Gunn teamed up with Constantin Cantacuzino, a 38-year-old Romanian prince who commanded the Ninth Fighter Group for the Romanian Air Force, “Bâzu,” as he was known to his friends, cut a dashing figure with his movie-star good looks and vibrant personality.

Before the war, Bâzu had captained the Romanian hockey team, broken an automobile speed record between Bucharest to Paris, and later won a national aerobatics championship that elevated him to superstar status in Romania. Adored by women, according to one of his friends, Bâzu had his pick “from countesses to cooks.”

With Gunn wedged into the cramped radio compartment of Bâzu’s German-built Messerschmitt 109, with American flags hastily painted on both sides of his fuselage, Bâzu flew the pair into Gunn’s home airbase at San Giovanni, Italy, delighting an audience of Fifteenth Air Force personnel when the much-love commanding officer emerged from the tiny single-seat fighter.

56 B-17s were mustered for the airlift of POWs, flying into Romania in three waves of 12 bombers each, timed to arrive in Bucharest at one-hour intervals. A total of 739 POWs were repatriated on August 31st, while the remaining 393 prisoners would fly home on September 1st, including twelve ambulatory patients on stretchers.

The final stragglers who had evaded capture in Romania would be flown home on September 3rd, closing out Operation Reunion with a total of 59 Fortress sorties, 94 Lightning sorties, 281 Mustang sorties, and one C-47 sortie, repatriating a total of 1,127 Americans, 31 British airmen, two Dutch naval officers, one French soldier, and one Romanian stowaway with shaky claims to American citizenship. Back at their respective bases, half-starved POWs slowly came back to life.