Petre Otu - Îmbrăţişarea anacondei, Politica militară a României 09.39-06.41

This seems a great and very documented book:
Petre Otu, "Îmbrăţişarea Anacondei. Politica militară a României în perioada 1 septembrie 1939 - 22 iunie 1941", Bucureşti, Editura Militară, 2006. From what I understood, it is the PHD thesis of Mr. Otu, one of the best military historians at the moment. I just began reading it. Again, any of you have read it? What do you think of that?

I started a couple of times, but abandoned it in favor of other titles. The third time was a charm and managed to finish it a couple of months ago. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the organization of the Romanian Army in 1939-40.

However, I would have preferred the author would have stuck more with the military aspects, including a more detailed retreat of the forces from Bessarabia and the skirmishes that occurred. Maps with the detailed deployment of the units would have been also more than welcomed.

In conclusion, it isn't the complete book on the 1939-40 Romanian Army that I was waiting for.

It is, however, the first detailed account (based on archive documents rather than memories or likewise) of the retreat from Bessarabia!
This time, the book (and thesis) being of military history, the title gives the exact description of the contents. It is about military policy, right?
The access to sources is eased nowadays, even more because the 50-years-limitation-statute (or whatever its name is) does not apply anymore to ww2...
PS: There will never be a complete history book! History cannot be complete!

I didn't say it wasn't a good book. It just isn't what I hoped it to be.

It is not detailed enough in the military aspects. There isn't even a detailed OoB of the Armies on the frontiers (it just states how many divisions were, not which divisions were). There no real accounts of the skirmishes that occurred, skirmishes which led to casualties on both sides. It would have been interesting to know more about these.

Maybe you looked in the wrong place, then! As a military PHD, it has to be very concise and focused. A book, first of an unfinished series, is much better for your "demands": "Eliberarea Basarabiei şi a nordului Bucovinei; 22 iunie-26 iulie 1941", Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, 1999, coord. Alesandru Duţu, Mihai Retegan. Have you seen it?
Later edit: only two more volumes appeared: "Pe ţărmul nord-pontic" and "Golgota estului", covering the war until march 1944. Then, as Mr. Pentelescu kindly explained me, there was 9/11 and the focus turned on the NATO and counter-terrorism issues...

This post has been edited by MMM on August 10, 2009 01:47 pm

The book you mentioned seems to be referring to the events in 1941, not 1940, at least from the title.

Quite so, but it has a loooooooong intro: only from chapter V, page 156 begins the war ("Intrarea României în război"). Chapter 2 ("Organismul militar românesc în perioada sept. 1940-iun.1941", pages 52-109) seems to be helpful to your purpose. The book can be found in libraries as well...

Not really. The retreat from Bessarabia and most of the skirmishes occurred in June-August 1940. After September 1940 the only notable event was the occupation of the several islands in the Delta.

But what is what you're looking for? The only detailed account of the Romanian retreat from Bessarabia I found was in Otu's book.
What skirmishes? With the Soviets or with the Hungarians?

Skirmishes with the Soviets. There were some incidents during the retreat, but also in August, when Romania was under pressure to give up Transylvania.

For example, this is what I found a while ago in the Monitorul Oficial of the era:

Royal Decree No. 156bis/27 January 1941
The Virtutea Militara Medal peace version 2nd class awarded to:
serg. Dumitru Damian
cap. Vasile Arion
fruntas Vasile Cretu
sold. Marin Dumitrascu
sold. Dumitru Gradinaru
sold. Ioan Calugaru,
who distinguished themselves during the attacks made by the Russians with superior forces on the Tiganasi and Ocrub posts on 11 August 1940.

This is a subject that hasn't been researched enough IMO.

Quite so... I only read about skirmishes in generally, but nothing precise. I guess the best way is to see which unit(s) those guys belonged to and search in the respective records. I'll get to Piteşti Archives in september, anyway...