As Lt. Col., James A. Gunn, Group Commander, 454th Bomb Group, Cerignola, Italy JAG was shot down on a bombing raid over Ploesti, Rumania on August 17th, 1944. Interned as a POW in Bucharest by the Rumanians until August 23rd, 1944, when the Rumanian Government capitulated from the Axis to the Allied powers.
JAG, as the senior office among the 1,164 Allied POWs in Rumania, managed to contact the provisional government of Rumania. Through contacts in the government, JAG met Captain Constantin Cantacuzino, Rumanian, Air Force. Prince "Bezu" Cantacuzino was a Me 109 fighter pilot for the Rumanian AF with 54 victories and a member of the royal Rumanian Cantacuzino family. Cantacuzino offered to fly JAG to Italy in a Rumanian Me 109G if he would ride in the fuselage. JAG immediately agreed; the radio equipment was removed from Me109G, werk #166133, and AAF stars were painted on the wings along with prominent American flags on the fuselage. On the afternoon of August 27th, 1944 JAG and Cantacuzino flew from the outskirts of Bucharest to San Giovanni airfield in Italy.
Landing uneventfully (perimeter gun crews saw the American flag and held fire), JAG contacted General Born at 15th AF HQ. Over the next six days, 1,161 POWs were evacuated from Rumania to Italy as 15th AF Operation Reunion.
Related information:
OSS film, "Operation Gunn" (Nat. Archives)
Congressional Record, May 3, 1967, speech by the Honorable Henry B. Gonzalez, Representative