General Gheorghe Avramescu

Wow, great find! Thanks for the picture, too.

Unfortunately, not much is known about his military activity prior to WWII, except that he participated both in the Balkan war (1913? or 1914?) against Bulgaria, and then in WWI, where he was wounded.

If you find any more info about him in those books, please let me know. You can either post it here or email me privately.

Thanks again.

[quote]...Balkan war (1913? or 1914?) against Bulgaria...[/quote]
Romania participated only to the Second Balkan War of 1913.

[quote]Romania participated only to the Second Balkan War of 1913.[/quote]

That's the one, then. Thanks for correcting me, Carol.

Pencil sketch drawing.

I was really shocked to see this, Regal.

This is actually a color oil painting that's hanging in my grandmother's apartment in Bucharest. It has a beautiful gold-painted solid wood frame in the shape of oak leaves.

It was painted in 1942 by (the name escapes me now), an artist who Avramescu met on the front as a young soldier. He found out the poor guy was an artist, and he pulled him back from the front line and assigned him administrative duty. The guy turned out to be a fairly consacrated painter after the war, well into the 1970's, and my parents bought a few paintings from him in the 1970's.

This portrait, of course, was given to Avramescu by this painter in 1942.

If you look carefully, you'll see that the DKIG swastika, the ribbon from the Iron cross, and another medal were covered up with black paint. This was done by my grandmother just after the war because she was afraid people would see them.

After 1989, we tried to erase the black paint from the medals, but as you can see, we couldn't do it completely.

I'm curious how you got this picture, though. The only way, I think, is that a couple of times some photographers came from the Military Museum and from a newspaper for an article and took its picture.

Anyway, thanks for posting it, though. My grandmother passed away last August, and this painting was supposed to go either to myself or to my uncle, Radu, who knew him well (Avramescu took him around the front lines all the time - my uncle was 10 - 14 years old during the war). Obviously, even though I really wanted the painting, I thought he was more entitled to have it.

Thanks again, though. This was quite a coincidence and I enjoyed seeing the painting again

QUOTE

Pencil sketch drawing.

Where is this resource of the picture?

Mihai

QUOTE

I was really shocked to see this, Regal. This is actually a color oil painting that's hanging in my grandmother's apartment in Bucharest.  It has a beautiful gold-painted solid wood frame in the shape of oak leaves.  :D   It was painted in 1942 by (the name escapes me now), an artist who Avramescu met on the front as a young soldier.  He found out the poor guy was an artist, and he pulled him back from the front line and assigned him administrative duty.  The guy turned out to be a fairly consacrated painter after the war, well into the 1970's, and my parents bought a few paintings from him in the 1970's.   This portrait, of course, was given to Avramescu by this painter in 1942. If you look carefully, you'll see that the DKIG swastika, the ribbon from the Iron cross, and another medal were covered up with black paint.  This was done by my grandmother just after the war because she was afraid people would see them. After 1989, we tried to erase the black paint from the medals, but as you can see, we couldn't do it completely. I'm curious how you got this picture, though.  The only way, I think, is that a couple of times some photographers came from the Military Museum and from a newspaper for an article and took its picture. Anyway, thanks for posting it, though.  My grandmother passed away last August, and this painting was supposed to go either to myself or to my uncle, Radu, who knew him well (Avramescu took him around the front lines all the time - my uncle was 10 - 14 years old during the war).  Obviously, even though I really wanted the painting, I thought he was more entitled to have it. Thanks again, though.  This was quite a coincidence and I enjoyed seeing the painting again

Hi mabadesc,
Wat size this poriginal pictures that your grand mother has?
You can see the same monocolortyoe of this scan in the book""Ordinula militar de Razboi Mihai Viteazul.2000 modelism.
Mihai

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Hi mabadesc,   Wat size this poriginal pictures that your grand mother has?

Mihai,

The original painting is about 1m by 0.5m.

What I want to do next time I come to Romania is make a professional color copy (lifesize photograph), frame it and send it to the Veterans Circle in Braila. The Veterans' Association in Braila is named after Gen. Avramescu and all they have is a small portrait of him when he was young.

I have found several information that can be added to the biography of Avramescu:

- in 1916 company commander in 78th Infantry Regiment

- during 1923-1929 chief of staff in 10th Infantry Division

- during 1939-1941 commander of 10th Infantry Division

Thanks Dragos,

I knew about the 10th ID commander position (it was his last assignment before being put in command of the Mountain Corps), but not about the other 2.

I find it very interesting that he was chief of staff of a division.

I think he also worked as chief of Section 2 (intelligence?), but I don't know for which division.

I have found in the book “Antonescu Maresalul Romaniei si rasboaiele de reintregire”, editura Europa Nova, a narration of the discussion between Colonel Magherescu and General Dragomir some time after the war.
On page 532 and 533 you can reed about the events from 22 August 1944 related by General Dragomir and on page 536 about the supposed desertion attempt.

AGC







This post has been edited by AGC on April 09, 2007 03:11 pm

The book is an interview taken by Iosif Constantin Dragan to Colonel George Magherescu (fost Sef Birou 3 din cabinetul Maresalului pe toata perioada rasboiului) in 1981. In this interview Colonel Magherescu relate about General Dragomir an his discussion with him in 1973-1974. You can see how distrustful the soviets were.
Unfortunately it is not a direct interview with General Dragomir and we do not know how accurate the narration of Colonel Magherescu is.

AGC

In 1945 the soviets where afraid of a possible romanian defection.
Recently I heard a story from my uncle who was a artillery officer in the 8th cavalery divison. It happened near Zvolen in 1945. Because the Romanian cannon where extremely worn out he often had to go in the first line to make observation and to correct his canon shots. With that occasion he went with a “sergent telefonist” in the first line short before a german attack. He made his calculation when he heard “The Germans!”. In the next seconds the romanian soldiers left the trench and short after arrived a group of german. He and his sergeant had no time to flee. So he was a german prisoner. After 10-15 minutes the Romanian attacked and the germans fled without taking him prisoner.
For this adventure he had to go to the division HQ and wait 8 hours for a soviet military prosecutor. He was accused of desertion attempt. For the next 6 hours he had to explain what happened in the first line. In the end he was lucky and was released.
Until the end of the war the soviets where “paranoic” in this problem.

AGC

Magherescu's story needs to be taken with a LARGE grain of salt

Victor, I wholeheartedly agree with your statement.
The account is skewed not just with respect to the rumors around a possible "defection" of the army to the Germans in 1945, but also with respect to the way Magherescu describes things as having taken place at 4th Army headquarters on the eve of August 23, 1944.

AGC - thanks for posting the excerpt, though.

You're right, the Soviets were extremely paranoid in this regard, and your uncle's story illustrates this very well.

Anyway - overall, the book is a good read and it does have some interesting anecdotes, though Col. Magherescu clearly worshipped Antonescu and describes him as pretty much "perfect".