Romanians on the Italian Front 1915-1918

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BTW: Carol, can you please explain to me who is Emil Rebreanu?!:roll:

Emil Rebreanu (born on 17 December 1891) was a 2nd lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army who was executed by hanging in Ghimeş on 14 May 1917 for trying to defect to the Romanians. As you probably have imagined, he was of Romanian origin. He became famous through his brother, Liviu Rebreanu, a Romanian novelist from Transylvania who settled in Romania in 1910. Liviu was very impressed by the tragedy and he wrote a short story, Catastrofa (The Catastrophe), and a psychological novel, Pădurea Spânzuraţilor (The Forest of the Hanged), about his brother's drama.

Some links (two English and one French) on Liviu Rebreanu with references to his brother Emil:

http://www.louwerse.com/romania/rebreanu.htm

http://museum.ici.ro/transilvania/bistrita...m_rebreanu.html

http://linguaromana.byu.edu/spiridon2.html

Zivjo Carol!

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Emil Rebreanu (born on 17 December 1891) was a 2nd lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army who was executed by hanging in Ghimeş on 14 May 1917 for trying to defect to the Romanians. As you probably have imagined, he was of Romanian origin.

Thank you for this info. But do you know perhaps any details about his military service in the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army (which regiment was he serving?)? I think I have read in one of the messages on this forum that he was a heavily decorated officer from the Italian Front. Do you know any details about his career in the army between 1914-1917?

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He became famous through his brother, Liviu Rebreanu, a Romanian novelist from Transylvania who settled in Romania in 1910. Liviu was very impressed by the tragedy and he wrote a short story, Catastrofa  (The Catastrophe), and a psychological novel, Pădurea Spânzuraţilor  (The Forest of the Hanged), about his brother's drama.

Oh, so this is his brother. When I looked for anything about him through net or book catalogues I could get many hits about one Liviu Rebreanu. :wink: But what about Liviu? Did he see any military service in World War I?

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Some links (two English and one French) on Liviu Rebreanu with references to his brother Emil:

Thanks for the links. I have already seen ad read the last two, but not also the first one, so thanks again. :keep:

lp,

Klemen

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Thank you for this info. But do you know perhaps any details about his military service in the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army (which regiment was he serving?)? I think I have read in one of the messages on this forum that he was a heavily decorated officer from the Italian Front. Do you know any details about his career in the army between 1914-1917?

Sorry, I do not know anything about Emil's career.

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But what about Liviu? Did he see any military service in World War I?

I have read a note that Liviu Rebreanu volunteered for service in the Romanian Army (he settled in Romania in 1910), but his request was denied.

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Sorry, I do not know anything about Emil's career.

Too bad :cry: but it's OK. Let me know if you will find anything new. :wink:

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I have read a note that Liviu Rebreanu volunteered for service in the Romanian Army (he settled in Romania in 1910), but his request was denied.

I see.

lp,

Klemen

It probably doesn't have any relevance to this subject, but my great grandfather, who served in the A-H army, fought on the Italian front. In fact he was a POW in Italy. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find out his regiment or the battles he took part in.

If you're interested, you can see a document that belonged to him (he was awarded a red cross medal) at the following link:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=56953

Zivjo EU!

Ups, it almost slipped my eyes... :rollroll:

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It probably doesn't have any relevance to this subject, but my great grandfather, who served in the A-H army, fought on the Italian front.

Interesting..... :mrgreen: Tell me, did your great grandfather leave any documents or letters from the front? I mean to say how do you know he was on the Italian Front if you don't know which regiment was he in?

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In fact he was a POW in Italy. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find out his regiment or the battles he took part in.

Actually if you are really 100% sure that he was captured on the Italian Front, then you might find information about his unit, rank, parents, nationality, place of capture (!!!) and date of capture. There exist such files.

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If you're interested, you can see a document that belonged to him (he was awarded a red cross medal) at the following link:

Do you know if he have received any other decorations? Contact me off line or via PM and we will continue this discussion further. I will give you the e-mail address to contact in regard of possible records of your great-grandfather. If he was decorated then there are soem chances that we could find his military records in Vienna or Budapest.

lp,

Klemen

It seems that the leader of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and later of the National Peasants' Party and primeminister of Romania in the inter-war period, Iuliu Maniu, served on the Italian front. He was drafted in 1915, as a way to keep him under surveillance and although he could have taken advantage as his legal consultant status and stay home he served for 28 months on the Italian front at Piave, in a mountain artillery unit, starting from the simple rank of soldier and arriving at the rank of reserve 2nd lt.

Yep, you are right. I myself have just found out about his World War I service on the Italian Front a couple of days ago. Anyone know any more details about his time in the army? Has he written memoires or anyone his autobiography, where we could find/look for any further details?

I doubt he was 28 months on the Piave River. The Austrians and Germans did not reach this river until December 1917. Most likely he was on the Tyrol Front.

According to my friend also famous Romanian aviation pioneer TRAIAN VUIA was drafted in the k.u.k. Army and eventually found himself in a POW camp in France (-> this is not suprisingly since many Austro-Hungarian POWs from Serbia and Italy were send to France, including those captured by the French troops on the Piave, Mt. Tomba and Asiago sector in June 1918). Anyone know if this is true? I couldn't find any confirmation him ever being drafted and from what I could tell he lived in France before the war.

lp,

Klemen

Maniu's Archive is at the Hoover Institute.

Hi Victor!

I think this mainly concerns his correspondence he had with American Romanians. I don't think we will be able to find much information about his life, political activities in Austro-Hungary (he was actually one of the few Romanians elected in the Hungarian parliament during the 1907 election) or his career in the Great War.

But thanks for the hint anyway.

lp,

Klemen

This post has been edited by Klemen on September 18, 2004 11:12 pm

No, it is his entire archive, not only the correspondece with Romanian-Americans. In fact the info on his service was drawn from a biography published by Magazin Istoric from that archive. My guess is that you should at least give it a try.

Are you sure, Victor? I couldn't find any notes or other extra material about him on that website except some papers he wrote to Romanian community in USA. I have checked some issues of the Magazin Istoric (found a wonderful article about Romanians in Istria!!! I always wondered why my map of Istria from 19th century shows Romanians living in Istria!!!) and found there a short article about him, whre it says (if everything is right with my Romanian that he had served in IR 64 from Szászváros. This regiment, if I am not mistaken, fought on the Isonzo and then Piave Front. It would be majestic if he had left any written memoires form that time.

Thanks again for keeping your eyes open and let me know when you will find any other names or titles of books which contain any material about Romanians on Italian Front.

lp,

Klemen

It sais that he entered sevice with the 64th IR in 1918 as a 2nd lt. The biography from the Simion Manuila archives within the Hoover Institute mention service starting in 1915 as a simple soldier.

Thanks for the translation. This fits perfectly in his story about being on Piave Front. The IR 64 was part of the Colonel Guha's 69th Infantry Brigade of the 35th Infantry Division (FML von Podhoranszky) and was lined aong the Piave River. It would be though interesting to know which regiment did he serve before 1918? Probably the same. In any case, it would be nice to read some of his memoires form the war. I have send a message yesterday to Hoover Institute and we shall see how, where, if anything ...

lp,

Klemen

As I stated above, before 1918 he was in a mountain artillery unit.