Romania in the Second Balkan War, Internet sources

At the time of the St. Petersburg Protocol, it was custumary in international relations to act according to the compensation principle. Bulgaria had increased in size following the 1st Balkan War and this threatened the ballance of power in the region. Thus, according to the Great Powers, Romania was entitled to compensations. These were agreed upon between Romanian and Bulgarian delegates: Silistra and a piece of land of the northern part of the Cadrilater.

Silistra was an important port on the Danube, which had ample permanent fortifications around it. Remember that at the time war was still thought in the terms of of the late 19th century conflicts. Silistra could be used as a pin in the back of Bulgaria. It could have been a good base for operations South of the Danube in case of conflict.

Some lessons were learned from this odd campaign and in the autumn of 1913, the Parliament granted extra funds for the reorganization and reequipment of the army, but it was too little too late and not all the proposed measures were implemented until August 1916. Also, the easyness with which victory was achieved created an feeling of overconfidence in the some of the Romanian high-ranking officers, with the disastrous results of 1916.

According to the official statistics, out of 9,052 men who fell ill with cholera, 1,964 died. That is 21.6%

Dragos, Romania imported the first Krupp 75 mm cannons for its army as early as in 1868 (bronze-made). I was not referring to Krupp 75 mm cannons in general nor to fortifications guns (as those you mentioned could have been) but to the model 1904 rapid-firing Krupp cannon, which use smokeless gunpowder and was an improved model of the rapid-firing Krupp model 1899, the latter being the standard field gun of the German army in WW1. Now I don't know if Bulgaria had any of those. In the period, in Romania the gun was known as "tunul roman de 75 mm cu tragere rapida" (the Romanian 75 mm raid-firing cannon) because of the modifications Krupp manufacturer had to do to its initial specifications, following the requests of a Romanian technical commission.

I think you’re wrong. Actually the funds were granted in the end of 1912, before the war, following the increasing tensions between Bulgaria and Romania and Bulgaria and its former allies. In 17/30 December 1912 the parliament voted an extraordinary credit worth 151 millions Lei, over 80 millions being used for buying armament: over 200.000 Mannlicher model 1893 6,5 mm rifles, 50.000 Steyr model 1912 9 mm pistols, 130 machine-guns (probably Maxim 6,5 mm and/or Schwarzlose 8 mm), 36 batteries of 75 mm and 105 mm model 1912 Krupp rapid-firing cannons and various quantities of equipment (14 Marconi telegraphy stations, among others) and ammunitions. Also during the hostilities, another (much) smaller credit was voted, to cover the army necessities in the campaign: approx. 10 millions Lei, form which 9 millions for armament.

Since there were no special funds granted by the Parliament during Autumn 1913 (after the war ended) you were probably referring to the increase of the army budget for the year 1913-1914, voted during the debates for the general budget; indeed there was a small increase (approx. 7,5 millions Lei) - not at all impressive comparing to the previous sums, no big scale measures planned. And the total figure of the army budget for 1913-1914 was around 82 millions, hence the relevance of the credit from December 1912. New supplementary sums for the reorganization and reequipment of the army will be voted only after the beginning of WW1.

Source: Milea, Pascu, Ceauşescu (ed.) Istoria militară a poporului Român, Bucharest, Editura Militară, 1987, vol. V.

The information came from Mihai Macuc, Pe frontul celui de-al doilea razboi balcanic (1913), Dosarele istoriei no. 5/2002

Something interesting in romanian about Craiova treaty at
http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi200...rrent1/mi26.htm

This post has been edited by Kosmo on January 04, 2006 07:57 am

Kosmo, you can also find history fact about the 1913 campaign in the first volume of Kiritescu's " Istoria razboiului de reintregire".
He writes (along with a small description of the events and the conclusions of this campaign), about the poor equipment of the troops (the rifle sling was actually just a tied rope, the bread was carried toghether with the cartridges, etc..) and also about cholera victims.

Would it be possible for Imperialism (the user's name) to post this map again? I missed it at the time and now the link doesn't work anymore

Map of OOB and operations:

http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=12/35604511614.jpg&s=x12

source for info and map: Istoria Militara a Poporului Roman

Thank you !!!!!!!!

I will soon do it Lysimachus

take care

Based on Bulgarian sources, their aviation was at least at pair with the Rumanian one in 1913. For example, they used aerial bombs, while the Rumanians did not.

Gen. Dénes

This does not mean the Romanians could not do the same. They just did not want to do this.
A selection from this link:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=1422&st=30

Lieutenant Capşa N. explores in flight, at an altitude of 2600 meters, the Araba, Konach and Sarandi gorges. He was gliding with his airplane, marked with our tricolor, above the Bulgarian capital. He dropped, instead of bombs, a manifesto with the regards of the Romanian soldiers for the inhabitants of the city of Sofia.
Also some nice photos in
http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=1422&st=0



This post has been edited by Florin on October 13, 2006 03:34 am

What was the composition of these army corps? I suppose it wasn't the same as it was later on in 1916. The list you present suggests that the I Corps included the 1st and 2nd Divisions, the II Corps the 3rd and 4th Divisions, the V Corps the 9th and 10th Divisions and so on.

And was the organisation of the infantry divisions the same as it was in 1916 (three brigades of two regiments each plus a light infantry regiment of two battalions)?

I thank you in advance for any info you can provide me on this.

First of all I think I noticed a small error in my post you quoted. The Dobrogea Corps had as reserve the 3rd reserve division, not the 3rd division.

Each army corps had 2 divisions. Each division had 2 infantry brigades of 2 regiments each, and an artillery brigade made up of 2 artillery regiments. I dont know about any light infantry regiment.

take care

Thanks for your reply.

So the order of battle would go something like:

Main Operations Army
I Corps (1, 2 Divs)
II Corps (3, 4 Divs)
III Corps (5, 6 Divs)
IV Corps (7, 8 Divs)
1, 2 Cvl Div
+ 2 reserve divs somewhere in here

Dobrogea Corps
V Corps (9, 10 Divs)
3 Reserve Div

I read somewhere that there were a total of 5 reserve divs (possibly with one assigned to each of the Army Corps?), but the list above accounts only for 3.

This post has been edited by Corswandt on December 06, 2006 04:11 pm

who wants some pictures with romanian soldiers in second balkanic war

Uniforms of the romanian army in le petit journal from the 1913 capaing

Romanian military horse drinking in Bulgaria

Bulgarian prisoniers interogated by romanian oficers

the pasing of the artilery over a romanian ponton bridge

romanian army entering sistovarat

romanian army pasing the danube

romanian army in bulgaria (1913) infantry halt

the camp of a romanian army division

The Romanian forces were organised in 2 groups:

Main Operations Army
- 4 Army Corps (1 to 4)
- 8 active divisions and 2 reserve
- 2 Cavalry Divisions

MOA was concentrated between the Jiu and Olt rivers.

Dobrogea Corps
- 5th Army Corps
- Divisions 9 and 10
- 3rd Division as reserve

OOB:

1st Army Corps - Bechet
4th Army Corps - Corabia
2nd Army Corps - Islaz
3rd Army Corps - Turnu Magurele
5th Army Corps - Medgidia

Map of OOB and operations:

http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=12/35604511614.jpg&s=x12

source for info and map: Istoria Militara a Poporului Roman

Hello can you please tell me names of all the commanders of the army and the corps which fought in Second Balkan War. I tried to find this book which you used as a source but I couldn't find it anywhere.