Kneaz (Prince) Leonidas Damianov Ivanovich Maximciuc
NAME- Kneaz (Prince) Leonidas Damianov Ivanovich Maximciuc
NATION- Bessarabia (former USSR)
DATE (S) INTERVIEW (S)- July, September 1994, various interviews from 1995-2000.
PLACE OF INTERVIEW (S)- Wilmington, North Carolina, 1994-2001.
LANGUAGE (S) CONDUCTED- English
SIGNIFICANCE OF SUBJECT- -Youngest combat fighter pilot in history.
Hereditary heir to the principality of Bessarabia. Grand-nephew of Czar Nicholas Romanov.
Youngest squadron leader in history
Post-war partisan combating Red Army and Romanian Communists.
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE- July 1994, Norman Melton,
September 1994; Randell W. Bridges,
1995-2000 none.
FORMAT- Q & A format standard.
SUPPLEMENTAL- Ongoing research for future biographical book on subject.
Long time personal and family friend.
Q- Where and when were you born?
A- I born in Bessarabia, which was part of Imperial Russia before I was born, and later a part of Romania on 5 January 1927.
Q- Give some background regarding your family.
A- This started with my grandfather, Vassily Maximciuc, who was head of the Imperial Cossack Guard of Czar Nicholas. During the 1905 Revolution he single-handed beat back a large angry mob trying to enter the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. He was on horseback and carried a whip, and he beat the crowd back all alone. Later he married a niece of Nicholas, my grandmother, and given the principality of Bessarabia. He was also a Hetman of the Don Cossacks, and my father and I were raised and trained in Cossack fashion.
Q- What was that like?
A- From when you were able to walk good you were trained to ride and fight from the saddle. I was trained personally by two hetmen. You learn to live with the horses, live off the land, survive in the wilderness, that sort of thing. You also learn the rituals and laws of the clan, and as the future leader this was important for me. I did this training despite the fact that the Communists had taken over Russia.
Q- Your family suffered during the purges, didn’t they?
A- My grandfather was executed and my father was also killed by the NKVD. This happened when the Bolsheviks took over and began killing the aristocracy, as well as Cossacks, Ukrainians, and many others. My father negotiated the transfer of Moldavian and Bessarabian territory to the Soviets in 1940, and his role as the chief military negotiator did not protect him. The Soviets arrested him, even though he was a Romanian officer. He was later killed by the NKVD, after refusing to openly support the Soviets.
Q- How did you get to flight school at age fifteen?
A- My uncle was the commandant of the Royal Romanian Air Force Academy, and after my father was gone I went to visit him. I was fascinated by the planes and pilots, so one of the instructors took me for a ride. I was flying as a student and he let me take the controls. After letting me fly and we landed, he allowed me to take it up myself. I flew a couple of circuits and when I landed I overshot the runway and crashed through a fence. I tore up a farmer’s crop of corn, and my uncle saw everything. After he chewed my ass he said that I had a choice to make; he would tell my mother what I did and she would have to pay the damages to the farmer, or I could join the academy and learn some discipline. I took the flight school option. He saw that I had a natural talent for flying. In May 1942 I graduated from the RAFA. This was followed by two weeks of training under the Luftwaffe south of Vienna.
Q- What was training like?
A- Well, it was naturally tough. We also had to earn to parachute as part
of the training. We started in gliders, which were towed off a
mountain side. Once you finished you went to powered aircraft, but
there was a lot of classroom instruction, mathematics, aerodynamics,
that stuff. Later at the German Fighter School we had to fly trainers
and Me-109s very low under a ribbon without cutting it with the
propeller or crashing into the ground. A couple of guys were killed
that way. After this period I was assigned to an the Interceptor Squadron Defence of Romania to protect against Soviet aircraft.
Q- What kinds of aircraft did you fly?
A- We flew ERA fighters, the Romanian version of the British Supermarine Spitfire. Before that I also flew the Junkers Ju-88 medium bomber, but I wanted to fly fighters. I was able to transfer to fighters after pulling a loop and buzzing the field in the 88, and the base commander transferred me to fighters. It was later that I flew with the Free Ukrainian Air Force against the Soviets until 1944, when I joined the Free Russian Air Force under Colonel Maltsev, and Vlasov was the overall commander of the Free Russian Army, or ROA, and we had our own markings, as seen in the photograph I gave you. Our crosses on the fighters were the reverse of the German markings; white crosses outlined in black without swastikas and the letters ROA on the tail fin. It was in August 1942 when I was promoted to first lieutenant, and assigned duties as flight commander.
Q- What was your unit assignment?
A- We were supporting the panzer divisions Field Marshal von Kluge and Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front.
Q- You met Field Marshal Guenther von Kluge. Tell us about that.
A- We had been flying continuously for several weeks, and I was a new pilot in the unit, but we had flown many ground support and covering operations for Army Group Centre. Kluge was very impressed by the fact that we flew in any kind of weather when many Luftwaffe units did not. He later officially designated us as his combat air support over the Luftwaffe units. That was quite an honour.
Q- You also met Goering. What was that like?
A- Goering came to the unit in June 1943 and handed out decorations for valour, and I was given the Iron Cross Second Class by him at that time. He had received reports about us from Army Group Centre.
Q- Did you ever meet anyone else famous during the war?
A- Rommel came to our training station once and had lunch with us. I was very impressed by him; he treated us very well and almost like equals despite his high rank. That was memorable.
Q- You had some humorous experiences that we discussed earlier; tell me about the liquor problem again.
A- Our guys had found an old barn stocked with thousands of bottles of wines, cognac and liquors, and we enjoyed ourselves. Soon after the German commander learned about it and placed it off limits to us, placing a guard on it. We decided to dig a tunnel from our bivouac area to the place, and after several days of everyone working together we broke in and had access. We just took what we wanted when we wanted it. It was great. Another time in the winter of 1943 we had a flight surgeon who was an old pilot from World War I. He devised a way to help us fly in the extreme cold. It was so cold, sometime around forty to fifty degrees below zero Fahrenheit, that everything froze; men, machines, everything. We could not take off sometimes due to the canopies being frosted over reducing visibility. Well, one day this doctor had a great idea. He gave me something to drink, so I swallowed it. I suddenly felt so hot I not only forgot about the cold, I could not breathe. He asked me if I thought I could fly now, and I tried it. It worked. I finished the drink, started my fighter with the canopy left open so that I could stick my head out to see ahead of me and took off. The wind chill was well below minus sixty degrees Fahrenheit, but I felt fine. I landed and ordered six of my pilots to take the drink, and we prepared for a mission. We flew and my body was sweating incredibly. My skin on my face paid a price for it though. We really caught the Soviets off guard that day.
Q- What were some of your more memorable combat sorties?
A- There were many, such as when we sank the Soviet battleship Moskva in October 1942 in the Black Sea. On 3 January 1943 I was on a routine flight to the rear headquarters when I spotted nine Soviet Yak fighters. I dropped out of the sun shooting down two of them on the first pass. Another one of them tried to climb away, but I had converted my altitude into airspeed and caught him in the climb, placing bullets into his fuselage and he fell away in a flat spin. As I rolled over and away to avoid being hit I saw another one and fired again. He caught fire and fell away. I pulled around and fired at another with good lead and got hits but could not tell if it was serious damage. I did not see the others, I think they fled, but the remaining two Yaks caught me in a crossfire and shot me down. I had fire in the cockpit and bailed out, and as I was descending in my parachute, I took off my left boot that was on fire, and they started to machine-gun me. To my good fortune one misguided his approach and crashed in the snow below me, and he was considered my fifth kill due to damage. His plane was probably unable to pull out. I was picked up by a farmer with a horse cart, and he took me to a field hospital, and I recovered in the hospital. I still have the scar from the burn. While there I received the news that I was promoted to major, the youngest on the Eastern Front at age sixteen and placed in command of the entire unit. My CO, Vadim Donchuk had been killed in action, and now I was in command of sixty aircraft, sixty-one pilots and three hundred ground personnel. Soon afterwards on 10 June 1943 I was promoted to acting (brevet) lieutenant colonel, again the youngest. This was when I received my new replacement aircraft, a brand new Messerschmitt Me-109G. Another time I saw one of our pilots bail out of his crippled fighter. The plane began a slow spiraling descent to earth, circling the pilot in his parachute. The plane eventually came closer and closer, until the left wing clipped his risers, collapsing his canopy. This guy was about fifty feet above the ground; the plane crashed and exploded. The explosion blew upward and stopped his free fall in mid-air for a few seconds, and then he fell to the ground and bounced. Except for a few bumps and bruises he was all right. He actually walked away from that. He was damned lucky.
Q- What about the time you almost froze to death?
A- This was during the winter of 1943, when I was forced down behind Soviet lines in my Me-109G. A flak hit had severed my fuel line, and our panes were equipped with skis at that time. As soon as I landed I grabbed the repair kit issued to all the pilots, and the cold rubber hose fell apart in my hands. It was that cold. My wingman flew back to get another kit, and for three days and two nights I ran around the plane so I would not freeze to death. On the last day I heard an engine, and it was a Me-109 trainer with my crew chief Vassia, along with a regular fighter as wingman. They dropped me the fuel line so I began to repair the problem. I had just started the plane from a cold start, and remember you had to crank the engine over from the outside with the inertia starter. I was then told over the radio that enemy troops were coming at me, and quickly. I could not see them, or they me because I was in a small valley. I decided that I could not wait for the plane to warm up, so I rolled forward and picked up sped on a down slope. I pulled back on the stick and gave it full throttle. As soon as I cleared the embankment I saw them; a lot of them. I passed right over them and heard noises in my plane. When I returned to base I counted thirty-nine bullet holes behind my armour plated seat. I tell you, I needed a drink after that one!
Q- You were also involved in a rescue mission for a rather famous airman. What about that day?
A- This was in 1943 when we were flying ground attack, with German fighters flying top cover. The Stuka pilot [Hans-Ulrich] Ruedel was forced down, and he and his tail gunner jumped out and began running towards the enemy, that crazy guy. They reached a small wood and were hiding, and we were strafing the Soviets who were running towards them. We made many low-level passes, and I radioed the nearest Luftwaffe unit for assistance.
Q- That was JG-52 under the command of Dietrich Hrabak. Guenther Rall also remembered that day, and some of the greatest pilots f the war were over-head; such as Krupinski, Hartmann, Barkhorn, Steinhoff, and others. Rall and Hrabak knew Ruedel and stated he was crazy.
A- He must have been to do what he did. They finally landed a ‘Storch’ and picked them up, and it was a busy day.
Q- What did you do as the war closed out?
A- I met with Vlasov for the last time in August 1944, after Romania switched sides in the war, as we knew that the end was coming, and asked his advice, and he gave me two options. He said that if the records were destroyed and the men went back as civilians, no one would know who they were. The other option was to come with him and surrender to the British or Americans at a later date. I destroyed all of the unit records and twenty-two planes, and the men scattered, with twenty-two returning to Romania with me. Those who surrendered with Vlasov were handed over to the Soviets by the British and Americans, and they were all killed or sent to Siberia. I was lucky that I had decided to return to Bucharest to see if my mother was still alive. Those of us who stayed in Romania were under the protection of the royal family. I enrolled in the University of Bucharest, majoring in aeronautical engineering. The Air Force Academy gave me two years of credit, so in October 1947 I graduated with a BS degree in aeronautical engineering.
Q- How many missions did you fly during the war?
A- I logged 2753 hours of combat, and many more not logged. I was credited with fifty-two kills and twenty-seven destroyed tanks. I was awarded fifty-seven decorations from Germany and Romania, including the Iron Cross and Virtutea Militara, Romania’s highest award.
Q- How were you captured?
A I was arrested by Romanian Communists, who had been collecting information on everyone who had fought against the Communists. They caught me at my place in Bucharest and taken to the police headquarters on 30 December 1947. I was beaten and interrogated for five days and nights without sleep, but they were unable to get any useful information from me. I knew what was going to happen then. They loaded many of us in a truck convoy that was headed for Moscow, then more than likely to Siberia, if we survived the coming tortures and trials. I knew that it was over. We drove for quite a while under armed guard, when suddenly there was a great com-motion, and we saw partisans were attacking the convoy, shooting the Soviets. We looked at each other and took advantage of the confusion, jumping out of the still rolling trucks and heading for the woods. I was once again free, but I did not know for how long.
Q- How long did you stay with the partisans?
A- I worked with them until August 1948.
Q- What types of activities were you doing?
A- Harassing Soviet and Romanian troops, raiding camps, stealing weapons and
provisions and recruiting others into the partisan group.
Q- What forced you to leave Romania?
A- In August 1948 I was called to my friend Neil Popescu’s house and told that the government had placed a high bounty on my head. He was afraid that because of the price tag I was no longer safe even among our own partisans. I had to leave the country, and get far away from the Communists.
Q- How did you escape?
Q- The arrangements were made through Popescu’s wife, who made contact with a British officer while posing as a prostitute so as to not attract attention. I was to go to Coustantze (Constansa) and board a freighter at anchor. I dressed up as a Soviet Red Army Colonel, bluffed my way in past the guards, even dressing down a soldier who had challenged me and asked me for my identity papers. The partisans had trusted men working at the docks and they helped me. I then stripped out of the uniform, even the boots and passed as a dock worker. I was to be smuggled on board through a trap door with a small bag of sandwiches and a melon, and this was thrown in after me, which almost knocked me out when it hit me in the head. This was my only food for the next three days. The sandwiches never made it. I was told not to move from my hiding space until the ship left port. The ship went to Odessa, and after two days when we came into port the engines stopped. I was always afraid that I would be discovered or betrayed, but it was a British ship, so I hoped it was safe. I made a big mistake. I wanted to get out of there for a while. I pulled this rope to open the door in the hold, and I was almost suffocated by a mountain of corn, which was part of the cargo. I crawled through this stuff trying to keep my head up, screaming for help. I was finally rescued. The funny part is that in my country, as in most of Europe we did not eat corn, it was cattle feed. So I never thought about eating it, even as hungry as I was. It just never crossed my mind. I would have starved through ignorance and cultural bias. In hindsight I see the comedy, but at that time it could have been quite tragic if the journey had lasted much longer.
Q- How long did the trip last?
A- Three weeks, until we reached Hull, England. This was when I requested political asylum. Instead I was arrested and taken to jail where I was inter-rogated. On the second night the lights came on, at about two in the morning. One of the immigration officers came into my cell, and I was told that I was to be placed in the finest hotel, and they apologised for my treatment. The man who escorted me was very apologetic, and said, ‘We did not know you were a prince of the Romanov royal family,’ and my stay was much more pleasant from then on.
Q- What happened after that?
A- I enrolled I drama classes, which was considered the best way to learn English. I tried to find work in my field, since I had a degree in aeronautical engineering, and I took a course at the British Institute of Engineering in London. But I could not find any work because I was a foreigner. Only British nationals could hold such jobs in the defence and armaments industries. On the advice of my friend Ernie Hamilton I took the examination for the Merchant Marine in May 1950, and given the rate of third mate.
Q- How long did you serve in the Merchant Marine?
A- Two years on board a Greek ship, the SS Eleni under Panamanian registry. I travelled from Europe to Cuba, South America, Africa, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.
Q- You had some unique experiences as a sailor, didn’t you?
A- Yes. I was in a hurricane once. Our deck was thirty feet above the waterline, yet we had fifty-foot seas in the Atlantic Ocean that broke over the top. One wave smashed all the lifeboats on the port side and cracked the deck in two. We sailed on and it was later repaired.
Q- When did you come to the United States?
A- I received an immigration visa through Miami and on 10 April 1952 I entered the USA. In learned that the US had the same problem as the UK; I could not work in my field, but that American companies had government contracts. I found a job in my secondary field of mechanical engineering with a company in Tulsa, Oklahoma; McNamar Boiler and Tank Company as Maintenance Engineer and a year later I moved to Braden Winch Company as Chief Tool Design Engineer. In December 1952 I joined the Civil Air Patrol, thus beginning my involvement in CAP.
Q- How did you join the military?
A- While on vacation in Los Angeles, California I received a ‘greeting’ from ‘Uncle Sam’ and I entered the service of the US Army in May 1954. After Basic Training, since I had been appointed as cadre during Basic, I was asked to remain as an instructor at Fort Ord. I turned the job down and was shipped to Korea. With the armistice in progress I was placed on a flight back to the States and assigned to the Aviation Section of the 503rd Airborne Regiment at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On my arrival the CO reviewed my papers and my background and filed papers that amounted to a transfer of commission at a lower rank under the Friendly Foreigner Act. I attended special review and started flying L-19, L-20 and L-23s. Meanwhile the commanding general of the division put out a directive that all personnel, regardless of status or assignment will have to take jump training, so all the pilots had to attend jump school. They were amazed that I already had parachute jumps from flight school, but also out of burning aircraft.
Q- Where did you go next?
A- We went to Alaska for ‘Operation Snowbird’ in January 1955 and the regimental CO asked me to set up a training curriculum to make the regiment more efficient, since we were to be the aggressors. I laid out the same method used by the Finnish Army against the Soviet Union by Mannerheim. That strategy worked so well the umpires asked us to stop after three days, since we had scattered the Alaskan Army so bad they wanted us to stop.
Q- What happened next?
A- In December 1956 I was sent to Europe with the regiment and in March 1956 I was transferred to Military Intelligence to set up Special Float Security Team for NATO. I received two congressional extensions due to my critical MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) and I served in this capacity until I was discharged in December 1959. Then I went to work for the Eastman Kodak Company as a production engineer in charge of manufacturing and assembly of movie cameras, projectors and other equipment. Meanwhile I continued reserve training in Military Intelligence and the CAP. In January 1960 I completed the Army War College.
Q- When did you transfer to the US Air Force?
A- I transferred from the Army reserve to the Air Force Reserve and after six months of active training I was assigned to a Fighter Reserve Squadron. While on this assignment, two other officers and I left for Texas to undergo checkout training in the F-102 Delta Fighters, which proved inferior to the F-100 Super Sabres that we were flying. Also at this time I checked out in the F-101 Voodoo, which proved superior to anything I flew till then. However, the Air Force would not authorise it to the reserves. I requested a transfer to a unit with more advanced planes. Instead I was caught in a period of Air Force reorganisation.
Q- What was the next milestone in your career?
A- I was assigned to Air Force Assistance Programme of CAP and held duties as Operations Group Commander, Sector Director of Operations, Mission Co-ordinator Search and Rescue and training Co-ordinator of Canadian/ American Training Exercises. I participated in sixty-eight RED CAPS; twenty-eight of them as Mission Co-ordinator, including the great flood disaster of Hurricane Agnes that lasted from 21 June till 8 July 1972. In August 1971 I attended the National Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base. In August 1976, while on my monthly tour of reserve duty I checked out in the FB-111 at Platsburg AFB. In July 1977 Kodak chose me to set up a manufacturing plant in Brazil, so I had to take a leave of absence from the reserves. While in Brazil I was requested by the Air Force Command to act as advisor to the Brazilian Air Force. This was to organise the Search and Rescue procedures in Brazil. I returned the US in 1982 and returned to the National Headquarters as Co-ordinator of Canadian/American Training. In June 1986 I retired from Eastman Kodak and also from the Air Force after thirty-two years of service in both the Army and Air Force. In September 1988 I relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina and was asked by the North Carolina Wing Commander to help with maintenance and operational Control of aircraft assigned by the Air Force to the CAP. Also at this time I was part of organising the new Air Force Association Chapter in Wilmington. I served as Chapter Treasurer, Vice President, President and State Treasurer. Currently I oversee the status of Air Force aircraft assigned to the NC Wing CAP and co-ordinate new purchases and inspections. I am also working as consultant and assistance in establishing Joint Venture Operations.
Q- You are still flying, tell me about that?
A- I now fly the F-15E Strike Eagle, and was ferrying aircraft to Italy during the Kosovo crisis, and I still maintain my flight status. My son is a major, and he flies on KC tankers, and he refueled me once over the Atlantic. I have flown everything, including the F-4 Phantom, but the F-15 Eagle is the easiest aircraft I have ever flown.
Q- How does it feel to have flown World War II piston aircraft and gliders to supersonic jets?
A- I feel lucky to be able to do what I love for so long.