Are there any Romanian WWII reenactment societies?

Hi Kepi, Dania and Cristian,

Some very interesting and well considered posts. Thanks.

Could we not perhaps "build" a completely equipped Romanian infantryman here on Feldgrau from bits of clothing and equipment in the possession of forum members?

The first thing would be to prepare a master list of the clothing and equipment normally issued to a Romanian private in, say, 1942. (i.e. hemet, caciula, boneta, shirt, blouse, etc., etc.)

We could then send in photos of the appropriate pieces of equipment and cross them off the list one by one until we have our very own notional soldat.

I have a long lost friend with a Romanian Dutch-pattern helmet with the Carol monogramme on it. I will try to re-establish contact and get photos of it.

Cheers,

Sid.

Check out my WWII reenactment equipment, I am missing only a rifle one of these: Mauser 98k, VZ-23, Mosin Nagant. Hope to get one soon.



As it is written in the law, if you are a collector you can own a de-militarized gun that fires only blanks.

As a weapon collector you own, don't you?

A permit could be obtainable, but I was reffering on displaying your weapon "collection" (according to that law) outside your residence.

I can own 10 real cartridges for selfprotection and 50 blanks.I can have a particular route approved by police to carry my guns (at my request).But look at Mihnea! He's almost ready!

I know already that. You are just complying to the law's requests.

But once again, could be used this weapon collection in an reenactment action????

According to the law it seems that it is impossible. Not to mention that you, as a collector, should wait for police approval on your request to "move" your collection.

Edited: typos

This post has been edited by Dani on September 29, 2005 01:23 pm

Did Rumanian soldiers use the German-style round gasmask cannister?

Gen. Dénes

La Komarom, din nou in primul razboi mondial in Magazin Istoric No. 1 (January) 2005 (Romanian only)

As well as action (in Romanian only):
http://www.magazinistoric.itcnet.ro/?modul...777&format=html

Nobody done this untill now,so let's try! I think institutions like MMN will support such actions (Mihnea will help us ) if we'll have a pertinent request.Also police,if we will not present ourselves as a bunch of crazy lunatics who wants only to fire blanks on the fields

Hi Mihnea,

Excellent collection! You have made my project unnecessary from the start!

How did you manage to get together such a good collection of the clothing, leatherwear and weapons?

It is almost as if one individual had hidden it all in a waterproof and moth-proof trunk for the last sixty years!

Cheers,

Sid.

Yes.

Eh… my uniform is for reenactment so it is not totally original.

The tunic, trousers and cap are repros, of very good quality.

The boots are Swedish, post war, but they are the same type.

The belt is communist era, the Y straps, again very good quality repros also the bayonet frog and the carrying leather for the shovel are repros.

Here are some photos of German equipment used by Romanian soldiers, unfortunately the quality is very very low because my scanner has just passed out and I photographed the pictures.
Look at the red arrows.


Here is clearly seen the German gas mask.


You can just see the cup of the German water bottle.


Look closely at the second soldier and you will see the German canteen. My canteen is romanien, communist era, but identical to the German one you can find some in Lipscany area, antique shops, that’s where I bought mine.

I will be back with better images as quick as possible.

This post has been edited by mihnea on September 29, 2005 04:50 pm

Well done, Mihnea! Mihnea is already an advanced reenactor. According the recent law, for non-lethal weapons (which also includes neutralized military rifles) you need only a holder certificate (“Certificat de detinator”) . See: http://www.politiaromana.ro/acte_necesare_permis_arma.htm

There is not a particularly location for the reenactment group of the 6th Guard Dorobanti Regiment. I think the best person to be in contact is Horia Serbanescu, of the National Military Museum in Bucharest (e-mail: regt_6mv@yahoo.com ). He is the initiator of the group and the organizer of some reenactment shows. He is in contact with many reenactment group of abroad (Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria) and have participated at several shows in Komarom (1914-18), Dunaharaszti (1941-45), Shipka (1877-78), “Whings and Weels Show”, Ursel- Belgium (1941-1945), etc.

This group is not a MoD organization, is only a private initiative but for its activities the group has the Military Museum support (as other similar groups of abroad). The weapons are from the Museum when the show is in Bucharest but in some other cases, such as Komarom-Hungary, the group received demilitarized rifles from the organizers, that fired blank cartridges. Of course in all other countries (including Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, etc.), real reenactors have their own weapons and the organizers provide only blank ammo. The greatest part of the rifles are recalibrated for the 8 mm caliber (civilian).

I think that any new members are welcomed or new groups could be organized, for different armies (although is a necessity for a stronger Romanian military presence in different reenactment shows) or periods. Many reenactors are fascinated by Wehrmach/Waffen SS military performance and they organize German units (there are a lot in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, etc) but I think is more challenging to set up national armies groups.

More reenactors in Romania means the possibility to organize greater shows, to attract the interest of institutions and local authorities and to educate the public to pay respect for everywhere soldiers who died serving their country. We should fallow at least our southern neighbours’ exemple. In Bulgaria there are tens of reenactment groups which deal with different historical periods: medieval, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, the Balkan Wars, etc. and have organized large scale international reenactment shows, in which hundreds of reenactors participated with their own uniforms and weapons. The greatest part of them are collectors and I’ve seen impressive private collections of edged and fire weapons, uniforms, medals, etc. (see: tradicia-sh.hit.bg , unfortunately only in bulgarian)

But as I said before, this is a very serious job. As in other reenactment groups, a new member enters as a recruit, and should have a basic equipment: the head gear, tunic, trousers, boots and the greatest part of the equipment in order to participate at the first shows. Then, according his merits and contribution to the group activity, he could be promoted to higher ranks. Every reenactor should have a service book on which the commander records his activity. There is a kind of military regulation of the group, drew upon the real military regulation of the respective period, that stipulates the main duties of the members, according their rank, how to behave with the superior and subordinate ranks, the military drill and battle training, etc. The reenactors should respect this regulation when they are “in campaign”.

I hope to not discourage those who might be interested in reenactment but the seriousness makes the difference between adults playing soldiers and real military history fans.

For interested people I will post some drawings presenting the regulation uniform and equipment of a WW2 infantryman.

mihnea, please do not forget to mention the sources for the photographs you post.
At first glance, they are from the album Armata Romana in al doilea razboi mondial, Meridiane, 1995.

Here you can find some accessories of a Romanian soldier uniform of WW2. This could be a start for a colector or reenactor.


Different types of field caps ("Capela"), for officers and men, 1942-1945, side cap ("Boneta") worn in 1941-1942 and visor cap, worn especially by air force soldiers.


M.1939 tunic with different variants of cuffs, made in cloth or thick linen (in summer).


Another pattern of tunic worn from 1941.


Other ranks breeches.

More items of uniform:


The great coat.


M.1939 laced boots and leggings, replaced from 1942 by puttees.


M. 1939 equipment.