Bucharest mural honors Romania’s last surviving World War II pilot

A mural recently unveiled on a wall of the Mojo Hotel in Bucharest is dedicated to 102-year-old lieutenant-general Ion Dobran, Romania’s last surviving Second World War pilot.

The mural, the work of artist Obie Platon, references the air battle of June 6, 1944, when Dobran, who was flying a Messerschmitt Bf-109 aircraft, took down the Mustang P-51 of US pilot Barrie Davis, according to a release of the Defense Ministry.

The two pilots are depicted as mythological characters battling above the Caraiman peak, while the Caraiman Cross, a monument commemorating Romanian soldiers who fought in the First World War, is shown resembling an aircraft.

Barrie Davis and Ion Dobran met for the first time on the ground 66 years later, at an event organized by the Aviation Museum in Bucharest, MAPN explained. Davies died in 2014, aged 90.

(Photos: mapn.ro)