Question regarding Romanian Army equpiment, Adrian helmets, blue-grey uniforms...

According “Romania in the World War 1916-1919”. Vol. I, Chapters I-VIII, Bucharest 1934, page 64, written by the Historical Service of the General Staff, “When Romania entered the war, the heavy machinegun endowment of the infantry regiments was very poor. Regiments nr. 1-40 had only one company with 4-6 M.1910 Maxim 6.5 mm heavy machineguns and the regiments nr. 41-80 and the rifles (Vanatori) regiments had a company of 4 heavy machineguns. The (IVth) territorial battalions and the militia battalions had no machineguns at all.

A few days before the mobilization 170 (sic) French 8 mm heavy machineguns arrived in Romania, and were distributed to the head bridges of Turtucaia, Silistra, Cernavoda and to the 16th Infantry Division.

The French and the Austrian heavy machine guns that arrived after the beginning of the war (sic) have been distributed to the units depots in order to organize and train the new HMG companies that will be send on the front. Until the beginning of October 1916, every infantry regiment received 2-6 french heavy machineguns and the IVth battalions, 2-3 french or austrian heavy machineguns. So, from October, every battalion had 2-4 heavy machineguns.
….
Every (cavalry) regiment had 2 heavy machineguns….”

These remarks are not quite correct as Romanian army lost great quantities of weapons during the first months of the campaign. It seems that in 1916 Romanian army lost 265 Maxim HMGs of the 449 existing in august 1916, and 50 Austrian Schwartzlose of the initial 88. So the number of the automatic weapons within the Romanian units remained inferior comparative with the enemy.

Maybe Ruy will give you a full answer regarding Eibar gun manufacturers! As we discused on other topic, Dahetze seems to be a subcontractor, who selled guns from several manufacturers located in Eibar. Bayard and S&W revolvers were spanish copies of the belgian and american originals. Errasti and Arizmendi Y Goenaga were gun manufacturers in Eibar at the turn of the XX century

Here is the other topic
http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=1998&st=45

Thank you Cristian for your information.

There are many questions concerning the weapon private producers in WW1. As the state arms companies of the Allied countries were fully engaged to produce equipment for their own armies, the Romanian government turned to the small companies. For example, all the swords made in France during WW1 were produced by such small workshops: Balp & Fils of Saint Etienne for the M.1916/82, infantry officer swords, Horner (?) for M.1916/90 artillery swords or V. Gauguin (?) for the M.1916/82 cavalry troop swords. The state factory of Chattellrault produced only for the French army.

Regarding french swords, I have two "Manufacture francaise d'armes et cycles" catalogues of Saint Etienne from the turn of XX century. The french military swords are presented for sale for civilians by postal order.They are targeted for the romanian market also(" Spre a ne scrie..." is written in the opening page), and I think is possible that some romanian officers had ordered their swords as private order, following their personal desire and fashion, despite the official model design.

There were several orders for important quantities of swords. These swords had to equip the reserve officers, as they had no personal edged weapons, or the horse artillery and cavalry drafted soldiers.

As from September 1914 the traditional supply sources of the Romanian army were cut off, Romanian authorities were looking for other producers.

In September 1915 it was signed a contract with Balp & Fils company of Saint Etienne for 2,000 swords for foot officers and 500 swords for mounted (cavalry) officers. These swords were copies of the M.1882 french officer swords but with yellow metal hilts. They were delivered from April to November 1916.

The cavalry officer swords were similar to the M.1882 french pattern. They were delivered in the same period as the infantry officer swords. On June 1916 another 1,000 cavalry swords were ordered to the same company. 640 swords were delivered in November 1916, the rest of them arrived after the war, in 1919.

In October 1915 there were ordered 352 swords for cavalry troopers, similar to the model (M.1882) used in the French cavalry, to the company V. Gauguin(?). These swords were of poor quality. Because during the war cavalry fought mainly as mounted infantry (the M.1893 Mannlicher carbines were equipped with improvised bayonets), it was no further order for cavalry swords.

In August 1915 romanian authorities ordered 6,000 artillery swords to be produced by Horner(?) company. These were unsuccessful copies of the austrian M. 1890/06 pattern. The hilt was similar but the blade was straight and was recovered from the old French M.1882 cavalry swords. These blades were shortened to be easy carried when the artilleryman was on foot.

All these unusual swords were withdrawn from service after WW1.

I have few questions and observations concerning that list:

First, according to “Istoria militara a poporului roman” (1988) the 4 French AA guns were Puteaux 75 mm, and the 4 Depport 75 mm were also listed as AA cannons, being purchased from Italy. Is that interpretation correct? And weather it is correct or not, were those guns maufactured in Italy?

My second concern is about the Chatellerault MGs. I have searched on the internet and the only results found were about a light machine-gun, the Chatellerault model 1929; here are two links I found: http://www.gunsworld.com/french/fm2429_us.htm, http://ww2photo.mimerswell.com/vapen/fr/mg/m1929.htm . So could we presume that the 178 MGs were light MG, or that the “Chatellerault” designation is not correct or was used for something else (for a different type of MG)? And if the last version is right, what model could that be? What type of French MGs were in use in Romania during (the beginning of) WW 1? According to the same book mentioned above, Romania imported from France the Hotchkiss model 1914 8 mm air-cooled MG, the main French heavy MG in WW 1. You can find a short description here: http://www.gunsworld.com/gun_mg/Hotchkiss_M1914.htm

What about the trench mortars, what model were those and from what country were purchased? Were they distributed to the troops before August 1916, and if yes how (what number/unit)?

Why were so many pistols/revolvers bought? One should remember that in 1912 as many as 50.000 “automatic” Steyr 9 mm were imported from Austria (according to the same “Istoria militara a poporului roman”). I think the total number of pistols was by far exceding the total number of active and reserve officers and NCOs, the estimated losses from the frontline included.

It seems that the so called Chattellerault HMG were in fact M.1907 Saint-Etienne HMG produced by Chattellerault plants. Romanian army bought about 2,417 M.1907 Saint-Etienne/Chattellerault HMG (178 until the beginning of the war, 685 until December 1916 and 1,554 until November 1917). Romanian authorities named these heavy machineguns Chattellerault simply because this was the name of the producer.

A similar situation was with the M. 1915 CSRG light machineguns. The French LMG was widely known as “Chauchat” but in Romania it was named “Gladiator” after the name of one of the (bikes) factories who produced them. Romania bought 4,495 CSRG LMGs in 1917.

Romanian army also used the M.1914 Hotchkiss HMG. It seems that 248 weapons were delivered in 1916 and 456 in 1917.

Concerning the French 58 mm. trench mortars, 100 weapons were received before Romania entered the war and 30 other until December 1916. I think they were used within the infantry regiments as a kind of support weapons. During the war several other types of trench mortars (Russian, captured German, Austrian or, even, Romanian) saw service. Unfortunately, this aspect is not very clear yet.

In august 1916 romanian army had about 17,500 (active + reserve) officers and a similar number of NCOs. Not only the officers and NCOs carried pistols/revolvers. All foot and horse artillerymen were also equipped with revolvers. There were 25 field artillery regiments, 1 horse artillery regiment and 5 light howitzer regiments and several other fortress artillery units. The machine gun crews and a number of auxiliary units (transport, medical, logistic, aeronautics) were also equipped with revolvers. However is difficult to explain the whole quantity of about 143,000 small arms.

(Source: Different tables of “Romania in the World War 1916-1919”. Vol. I, Chapters I-VIII, Bucharest 1934)

On the other hand, on many occasions during 1916 the rosiori and calarasi units were used as cavalry; too many occasions, one could say, and I’m not talking about mounted recon missions. The charges from Bazargic, Robanesti or Prunaru were, I think, among the last cavalry charges from WW 1. Scaled replicas to the British “light brigade attack” from the Crimean War (less the charge from Prunaru, which involved the entire 2nd Rosiori regiment, the colonel in the first row and among the 200 who were killed), they were meant to save the day… at least in theory.

MEMORIAL REGARDING WAR PREPARATIONS OF ROMANIA BETWEEN 1914/1916

General conclusions

1. The troops

At 1st January 1914 the number of soldiers available was less than 500.000. There were no reserves in the OOB.
Between 1st January 1914-14th August 1916 the men available increase from 9.948 oficers (from which 5.696 were oficers in reserve) to 17.625 (from which 11.582 were oficers in reserve). Number of soldiers available for mobilisation increase to 1.080.313.

2. Equipment

At 14 august 1916 there were at troops and in warehouses:
-2.400.000 shirts
-2.400.000 cloth trousers
-1.200.000 coats
-1.200.000 jackets
-1.600.000 trousers
-1.200.000 boots
-2.000.000 knapsacks
-1.000.000 tarpaulins

3. Food

At 1 January 1914 the troops had 1.073.870 rations of canned beef, which were the remnants of 1913 campaign. They also had 230 stoves, which could bake a maximum of 230.000 breads daily.
At 14 august 1916 the number of stoves increase to 649, with a capacity of 80.000 breads daily, plus 15.000 field kitchens.

4. Armament

At the date of mobilisation the infantry had 376.636 model 93 rifles.
From France arived after Romania entered war a number of 288.018 Lebel rifles with 108.000.000 cartriges.
At the date war was declared the army had a number of 681 machineguns. At the begining of the year 1917 the army received an aditional number of 3.188 machineguns.
Field artilery had 624 canons of 75 mm, 120 field howitzers of 105 mm, 100 trench mortars of 58 mm.
Lately, from Bucharest Citadel and Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati the artilery was removed and used on the field. The total number of artilery pieces taken out from those fortifications was 330, equiping 55 bateries.

5. The Navy

At 1 January 1914 the Navy had 99 oficers; 95 specialists, civilian employees and administrative NCO's; 57 cadets; 2.200 troopers.
At 14 august 1916 the effectives were: 156 active oficers; 94 reserve oficers; 5.800 troops.
The number of torpedoes is increased with an aditional number of 1.600 (Vislovky and Radulescu).

6. The horse power

At 1 January 1914 the army had 23.388 horses.
At 14 August 1916 the army had 281.000 horses. From this number, 9.928 were bought during 1914, 1915 and 1916, the rest were requisitions.

7. The air power

At 1 January 1914 the papers spoke about 29 airplanes.
From France was bought a number of aditional 80 planes.
At the day the war was declared the number of able airplanes was only 37, due the accidents occured.

8. Sappers
9. Medical Service

10. Maps

At 1 January 1914 at Topographic Service were a number of maps, diferent scales, insuficient in numbers for a war; same situation for Basarabia, very few for Bulgaria and none for Transilvania and Serbia.

11. Comunications
12. Budget

Members of the Comision: viceadmiral V. Urseanu, general Cica, Bossy, N. Budisteanu
President of the Comision: general I. Popovici
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Resume from: General D. Iliescu, Documente privitoare la rasboiul pentru intregirea Romaniei, Bucuresti, 1924, p. 3; 5-9; 141-144, apud, cited by Institutul de studii operativ-strategice si istorie militara. Comisia de istorie militara - Romania in timpul primului razboi mondial

About airplanes: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?sh...indpost&p=66557