become familiar with the new aircraft and dazzled the Americans with his aerobatics. On 25 February 1945, piloting his Messerschmitt Bf 109G, he shot down one Focke-Wulf Fw 190 piloted by Hermann Heim. This occurred about 3 km from Zvolenská Slatina in Czechoslovakia. Cantacuzino was credited with 43 aerial victories (one shared) and 11 unconfirmed. According to the counting system used through much of the war, his kill total was 69, the highest in the Romanian Air Force. After World War II After the war ended, Cantacuzino was demobilized and returned to LARES. The USSR imposed a communist regime that confiscated private property and began imprisoning the old elite and opponents of the regime. Cantacuzino lost all his land and soon his wife left him. In 1946 he married Nadia Gray. He managed to escape to Italy in 1947 and then he settled in Spain. There he was helped by the Romanian community to buy himself an airplane, in order to earn his living at air shows. He died on 26 May 1958. He was the father of novelist . Units served 5 July – 31 October 1941 – 53rd Fighter Squadron 26 April 1943 – 31 May 1944 – 7th Fighter Group 31 May 1944 – 9 May 1945 – 9th Fighter Group Combat missions: 608 See also Alexandru Şerbănescu Horia Agarici List of World War II air aces Romanian Air Force References Bernád Dénes, Rumanian Aces of World War 2, 2003, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England. Bernád Dénes, "Rumanian Air Force, the prime decade 1938–1947" Victor Niţu, "Constantin "Bâzu" Cantacuzino – The prince of aces", at World War II Ace Stories. Vasile Tudor, "Constantin "Bâzu" Cantacuzino – "Prince of the Aces", 2000, Modelism Publishing Vasile Tudor, "Războiul aerian in România. 1941–1944", Piteşti, Ed. Tiparg, 2006 1905 births 1958 deaths Military personnel from Bucharest Constantin Cantacuzino (aviator) Romanian Air Force officers Romanian aerospace engineers Romanian World War II flying aces Romanian expatriates in Spain Romanian ice hockey players