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| WorldWar2.ro Forum > Romanian Army at War > The Romanian Soldier |
| Posted by: Der Maresal October 02, 2003 01:44 am |
| How do you best describe the Romanian soldier?
What are his qualities? What is he best at? To what is he most loyal to? Under what conditions does he fight best? At what point in history did he show the most courage? What was the Romanian soldier like...in World War II, World War I ..and in the ancient and medieval days.. :?: 
http://www.miscarea.com/capitala.html Pictures of the Romanian revolution in 1989, |
| Posted by: Bernard Miclescu October 04, 2003 09:25 am |
| About the Romanian soldier in WW2, a good description you can find in the memoirs of feldmareshall von Manstein.
Most of the soldiers were country men and they fought well but they were bad endowed. Also Romanian Army didn't have good/enough subofficiers. With good commanders they done a lot of remarcable acts. Tours, BM |
| Posted by: C-2 October 05, 2003 07:36 pm |
| A problem in the Rom army in ww2 was that there was a corporal punishment,the Germans didn't like it.The comanders in the Rom army were more "distant" with the soldiers,in contrary the German oficers treated the lower ranks with a "parent"touch.
I think that the Romanian soldier was at his best at Odessa and Sevastopol. A few months ago I had the oportunity to meet some of the Vets that recieved the M.Viteazul order and were promoted by the prezident to Generals.I heard some amaizing stories about the Crimeea campain. |
| Posted by: dragos October 06, 2003 10:53 am |
| There was a significant lack of training, that caused a huge amount of losses of NCOs and lower ranked officers. Platoon/company commanders were replaced continuously and they hardly had time to get acquainted with their troops. As a result, in critical situations soldiers often disobeyed orders. Fighting tanks was also a problem. Green troops were usually fleeing at the sight of Soviet armor. At the begining of war, there were cases in which Romanian soldiers fired at their own aircraft flying at low altitude. |
| Posted by: Orok October 06, 2003 06:55 pm |
| [quote]About the Romanian soldier in WW2, a good description you can find in the memoirs of feldmareshall von Manstein. [/quote]
We are all familiar with German comments on Romanian performance in WWII. But what are the comments from the enemy - the Russians - before the turnabout? Also has anybody read about comments from Romanians other allies who might have observed the Romanians fighting, such as the Italians, Hungarians (? :roll: ) and Bulgarians? Regards! |
| Posted by: Bernard Miclescu October 06, 2003 07:27 pm |
| The only one who can tell something about the Romanians should by one of the former allies till 23/08/1944: memoirs from the Hungarian troops. Unfortunatly I don't know what the Hungarian officers wrote about the Romanian troops. I hope that Denes or Csaba will help us more.
For the Italiens I only know the episod with the Ruspoli brothers who were fighting against the VVS in the ARR. Yours, BM |
| Posted by: Orok October 06, 2003 07:32 pm | ||
Can you please direct me to a website on this or can you please elaborate on it with more details? It sounds very interesting! Thanks! Regards! |
| Posted by: C-2 October 06, 2003 07:40 pm |
| It's no much to tell about the Ruspoli brothers;they came to fight against the Russians with their REggianne airplanes and some grownd crew.
At the begining they were not let to fight. After some time they started flying some missions.In one mission two of the the brothers were killed and the third left for Italy. The relations between them and the ARR pilots were exelent. If you want a site about the ARR try www.arr.go.ro |
| Posted by: Orok October 06, 2003 07:53 pm |
| Thanks C-2.
When I said Italians I was thinking about members of the Italian 8. Army which was stationed alongside Romanian troops on Ostfront. I am interested in what they had to say about the Romanians' performance in war and their general opinions about the Romanian soldiers. I understand many Romanians considered Italians first cousins of them, all decended from the ancient Romans. I wonder if this feeling was reciprocated from the Italian side. Thanks a lot.  |
| Posted by: Dénes October 06, 2003 08:37 pm | ||
The death of Ruspoli brothers in air combat over Bessarabia is only an urban myth. The story is originating from several Rumanian veterans' memoirs and was lifted into various books unchecked. In fact, only one of the Ruspolis was a pilot and he did not die in Rumania. Dénes |
| Posted by: Dénes October 06, 2003 08:39 pm | ||
Hungarians could not write anything concrete about the quality of Rumanian troops prior to Sept. 1944, as they did not fight together. The Germans made sure that the two armies were separated on the battlefield. Dénes |
| Posted by: C-2 October 06, 2003 08:54 pm | ||||
Denes, So another bed time story... I heard from Dobran I think about one Ruspoli so I thought the story I red in you know who's book is true.... :cry: seems not :evil: |
| Posted by: Dénes October 06, 2003 09:03 pm | ||||
This bed-time story in I-don't-really-know-whom are you referreing-to's book is not true. Indeed, there was one Italian volunteer pilot, Carlo Maurizio Ruspoli, Prince of Poggio Suasa, who fought for a while in the ARR in 1941 and force landed with his Macchi MC.200 at least once, but did not die. He returned safely to Italy. Dénes |
| Posted by: Dénes October 07, 2003 04:15 pm |
Here is a picture showing Rumanian soldiers at the fall of Odessa, in Oct. 1941 (photo found on eBay):
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| Posted by: Dr_V October 07, 2003 09:14 pm | ||
The "green" Romanian soliders made more than fleeing from Soviet tanks. There were ocasions when they've fled from any tank, even German or Romanian, causing panic in the retreating columns. More, some "intelligent" young officers were ordering the men to attack tanks with bullets and offensive grenades and the results of such opperations contributed to the popular belief that a tank cannot be destroyed by any infantry unit. As for the planes, a veteran told me that they were shooting at anything that was flying above, they did not knew how to recognize the friendly aeroplanes, nighther how to estimate the altitude. But there were a few experienced men that learned fast what the training did not offered them. Another veteran I know was a pioneer (sergeant) and he has a very acid opinion about the Soviet tanks. A "Molotov" cocktail solved the problem "almost too easy", he was more concearned by the heavy artilery and the Russian strongpoints that he had to attack. He told me that the Soviet tank crews were especially affraid of being burned alive by the pioneers and if one or 2 tanks were incendiated the others quickly changed direction and fled from that area. "Der Maresal " I promiss to finish translating the story of sergeant Zamfir (my old veteran friend) in a couple of days. I'll put it on the forum as a new topic, it has about 5 pages in Word. It's a look of the battles through the eyes of an infantry seargent (pioneer), from the tranches. I hope you'll find it interesting. |
| Posted by: dragos October 08, 2003 10:15 am | ||
I can publish it on Memoirs/Journals section of the site if you send it by email. |
| Posted by: Der Maresal October 10, 2003 04:58 pm |
| Sounds very interesting, :wink:
+ the picture Dénes put earlier with the romanian troops at odessa does not work, but I found one from the same collection which I particulary like.. that is one with Antonescu meeting his favorite Fighterpilots - that's at least what the german title suggests. I can recognize Cantacuzino.... does anyone know who the rest are?  |
| Posted by: Dénes October 10, 2003 08:52 pm |
Here is another scan from the same site (this time personnel of a Rumanian Stuka group):
 i
Dénes |
| Posted by: Florin October 18, 2003 05:33 am | ||
Hi Orok, I cannot offer a quote or a text as a proof, but I can tell you that the Russians really did not like the Romanian mountain units. By "did not like" I mean they would prefer to don't encounter them. Another important thing I don't see mentioned in this forum is that the Russians preferred to surrender to Romanians in stead of Germans, any time they had a choice, in 1941-1942. These Russian prisoners were not handled over to Germany, unlike after August 1944, when all German prisoners got by the Romanians were confiscated by our new big friend, Soviet Union. Florin |
| Posted by: Victor October 18, 2003 05:45 am |
| Actually not all Russian POWs were kept by the Romanian forces and many were surrendered to the Germans, especially when the Romanian unit that captrured them was directly subordinated to a German one. |
| Posted by: Der Maresal October 22, 2003 04:35 am |
| Found this rather impressive Photograph of Marshall Antonescu adressing what appears to be hundreads, litterally hundreds of Romanian Troops, south of Kharkov.
Great Photograph!
:idea:  |
| Posted by: Dénes October 27, 2003 05:55 pm |
Soldier with submachine gun (Orita?), found also on eBay:
 |
| Posted by: mabadesc November 04, 2003 09:06 pm | ||
C-2 previously said:
Don't keep us in suspense - please share some of the stories you heard with us. I'm sure everyone is interested in reading them. |
| Posted by: TIM November 12, 2003 12:18 pm |
| the romanian soldier was a breve one
most off them where from the county side and they was in grate shape the condition from the front sometime for soldiers was even beter than home my grandgrand parent was a soldierin aainfantery at the ploiesti moved from the heavy artilery he was wonded in the batle for defending the rafinary aria he was a wonded by a shrapnel in the right leg after the 23 aug when romania begin to fight against ger hy go back to the havy artilery he fight on too the hungary,cehozlovacia he had fight whit a vicios ss |
| Posted by: TIM November 12, 2003 01:58 pm |
| THE ss was the real problem for the hevy artilery transport
10 or more ss men have left behind and camufleted on the ground or anything than can be used i remember one time when my granfather told me what it hapend when his men face at the river crossing in hungury . when a machingun have plased near a rod in a tree ,a very big tree and kill some 5 men .also 2 horses used to cary the canonos. they imediatly bombarded the tree. often ss where fanatics ,and did kamikaze many time during the rod to berlin |