Land fortifications Bessarabia 1941

I am very interested, what kind of fortifications were build in Bessarabia as a respone to constant presure from the soviets?

i found the answer myself.

there were to be la large ditch filled with water and in the case of invasion petroleum would float on water and then be ignited. i think it was called carol's ditch.

The following 3 photos appeared in "Hutchinson's Pictorial History of the War", in the Volume covering 14 February to 9 April 1940.

In the photo captions the word dike is used in place of the word ditch.

Does any member know if these excavations were of any use and if the burning oil tactic was ever used?



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Alan in Bradford

Actually a defense line was planned and partially built, I have found information in the archives with a few maps and some sketches of the casemates for MG. Probably they were going to build something similar to what was built in Transylvania the Carol II defense line.

From Wikipedia:

"The Soviet Union had planned to accomplish the annexation with a full-scale invasion, but the Romanian government, under a Soviet ultimatum delivered on June 26, agreed to withdraw from the territories in order to avoid a military conflict."
Who read this may think that the Romanian officials and other staff were already aware of the Romanian agreement to withdraw, everybody withdrew peacefully and no incidents happened.

The way I was told long time ago: in the night preceding June 26, the Red Army crossed the Nistru / Dniester en masse, and caught the Romanian military personnel not only by surprise, but most of them sleeping. I was told about officers running in their underwear, in the night preceding June 26, to avoid capture. Others run in civilian clothing.

I just need a confirmation that what I was told is true.
Thanks,
Florin

This post has been edited by Florin on August 17, 2012 04:39 am

I don't want to start any political discussion or deviate the topic to anything than pure history, but I think that you'll find, at least, some answers in this book:

http://www.price.ro/preturi_paul_goma_sapt...vrei_426859.htm

search the book on scribd.com , it is free to read

Thank you, "romrail" and "adicontakt".

The book does not exist in this moment in "www.scribd.com".
Considering the short foreword available in the link from "romrail", I guess somebody deemed this book "politically incorrect" and made sure to be removed from there.
My main question still stands - which of these two options happened?

1. The Soviet Union issued an ultimatum, and the Romanian Crown Council accepted it before the Red Army crossed Nistru / Dniester.
or
2. The Red Army first crossed Nistru / Dniester in the night preceding June 26, then the Soviet Ultimatum arrived at Bucharest, and the Romanian Crown Council accepted the situation already "de facto".

This post has been edited by Florin on August 17, 2012 03:49 pm

According to many archive documents I've read during the last years, I tend to consider that the true variant is #1.

Althoug there are several local incidents reported prior to the date of June 28th 1940, it seems that most of the russian troops advance was carried out that day.

No. 1 is the correct version. However, the two parties convened a handover schedule which the Soviets did not respect, hence the impression that actually no. 2 happened for many in the field.

Here it is again:
Săptămâna Roşie

As for the surprise of some Romanian troops, I sincerely doubt there were "officers running around in their underwear". The "Bessarabia problem" was raised by Molotov in March, the Soviet troop movements were noticed in the vicinity and the general disposition was quite positive, everybody (beginning with Carol II) was boasting they'll fight for every inch of Romanian territory. The facts went so far that when the contigency plans were made for the withdrawal of Romanian troops, either by fighting or by evacuating, these were not communicated lower than divisional echelons, for fear that "morale" might suffer. The actual entrance of Soviet troops on Romania's territory began on the night of 27/28.06, without having a definite answer from the Romanian (vacillating) government.
I'd advise reading some already discussed books:
Petre Otu: Îmbrăţişarea anacondei

This post has been edited by MMM on August 19, 2012 11:39 am

Interesting.
I am not arguing about this.
I mentioned before my question: "The way I was told long time ago..."