The reconstruction of Arges River Battle

The battlefield...

The veterans

The entrance in the Mogosoaia Fort.

My pictures:

http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m175/dpusca/Mogosoaia/

Great photos, thanks! But I failed to notice any Austrian or Hungarian reenactors. Were there none there to re-present the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army???

p.s. As for the annoying journalists: Perhaps we should start doing with them what coalition and insurgent troops are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. This would teach them a lesson or two.


This post has been edited by Klemen on September 03, 2006 09:49 pm

Press comments
http://www.cotidianul.ro/index.php?id=6803...Hash=6e4c363315
http://www.adevarulonline.ro/2006-09-04/Ac...lor_197061.html

http://www.romanialibera.ro/editie/index.p...04092006&idx=18

I am sorry to say this but those from Cotidianul are real idiots... Too bad such 10th hand reporters are allowed to write articles - especially about important historical events.

You are right only stipid people can write such things.

No,apparently there were no austrian or hungarian reenactors.
Apart from the bulgarian reenactment group there was only a french reenactor with proper equipment (a pitoresque figure anyway).

Here are some of the pictures I took Friday:

Going to buy a snack...


Looking for some good quality products.


Waiting in line


Trying to pay with a credit card


Going to the camp with all the goods.


After eating, a short nap is always welcomed...


Here is the article from gandul, not only that it presents the Romanians as inferior because they lost the fight, they also don't know math.


Has any body seen the commemoration in Park Carol, Friday evening?

Despite the malicious press comments, one thing remains :FRIENDSHIP

See pictures from the event, posted by our bulgarian friends
http://snimka.bg/album.php?album_id=60094

http://www.traditsia.com/forum/showthread....14043#post14043

The event in the bulgarian press. Maybe Sturmpionier can translate

Sure

Club "Traditzia" displayed fighting spirit in Romania

The members of club "Traditzia" from Veliko Turnovo won the ovations during the reconstruction of the capturing of Bucharest. The historical battle was played on a big ground in the Romanian capital (actualy ot of Bucharest - my edit). They were invited from the Romanian military ministery. The people form Veliko Turnovo (actualy not only form Veliko Turnovo- my edit) represented 18th infantry regiment. The members weared orginal (actualy replicas - my edit) uniforms which they have restorated and also carried exact replica of the regimental flag. The reconstruction was in memoriam of 90 years of the capturing of Bucharest. In the so mentioned battle the bulgarians are part of the Romanian enemies Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey. They together fought against France, Romania, Russia, Serbia and England (It seems that the stupid journalists are not only in Romania )
"We were exceptionally well welcomeed ", said Vurban Tenev- the president of the Veliko Turnovo branch of club "Traditzia" . " The Romanians demonstrated great respect and freinship to us as we were representatives of the Bulgarian military ministery."
The reenacting show was 3 hours. The Bulgarian army fought with the Romanians and after two assaults entered in Bucharest. More than 5 000 people watched the show. "They applauded us a lot and they were delighted by our skils and spirit. After the reconsturction many of them came to congratulate us. We heard comments as "Now we know why the Bulgarian army captured Bucharest during the war. " "
In the center of Bucharest was a special ceremony in front of the monument of the unkniwn soldier.
"I was very sad that on one Bulgarian journalist or a deputy of our embassy in Romania came to us" said Vurban Tenev.
Specially for the bulgarian reenactors was open in the rest day the Romanian Military historical museum.
Club "Traditzia" is invited to participate in the reconstruction of the delivering of the Samara flag in Ploesti, in May, next year.

This post has been edited by Sturmpionier on September 05, 2006 05:33 pm

Well, the Event of Fort Mogosoaia is over.

This extremely difficult project tormented us a lot during the last weeks. It was not easy at all to gather so many persons, to select and check rifles and HMGs that didn’t fired from decades (it was a whole story to find the right Maxim HMG ammo belts), to provide the blank ammo and prepare the pyrotechnical effects, to train the “german” and romanian troops (extras) according the german and romanian WW1 drill regulations, etc. etc.

We had no idea about how long this show should be and if we will have any public. According our registered “tickets” it seems that more than 2,000 people have participate at this event.

Unfortunately because of the burden schedule there was no time to make a general rehearsal of the show (with the Bulgarian squad, the extras and the commentary/music background). The special effects technician just finished to set the explosives and had no time to train the guns crews. The HMGs simply refused to fire on automatic mode even if we used the original ammo belts. Cristian could tell you more about this aspect.

It seems that the public liked this demonstration despite the deficiencies. The mass media was more reluctant and emphasized especially the bulgarian-romanian “conflict” as a prelude of that night football contest. Many critics came from the patriotic defenders who consider a bad idea to reconstruct a “lost battle”. They don’t understand that our intention was to commemorate the fallen soldiers and not to celebrate a WW1 victory or defeat.

I have to note the Bulgarian squad participation. They belong to the “Traditsia” association branch of Veliko-Tarnovo, and keep the traditions of the 18th Infantry Regiment “Czar Ferdinand” which bravely fought in the Balkan wars and WW1. They were well trained and had the experience of several similar shows (mainly with the Independence War subject) organized every year in Bulgaria. Their national association had more than 300 members, with branches in almost al Bulgarian towns. Our group has only 15 registered members and is two years old.

A solitary French reenactor and collector, the famous Titus, well known from the Militaria Magazine issues in which he portrayed WW1 soldiers from two decades, has seen our notice in the July issue of Militaria Magazine and decided to participate dressed in a splendid M.1915 Poilu original uniform. He said that the event was a success – as this kind of combat demonstrations are difficult to organize in the West because of the high costs. He very much appreciated the enthusiasm and the friendship of the participants.

Unfortunately, other foreign groups cancelled their participation only a few weeks before the event, mainly because of the distance (it’s not easy to travel in a big country with no motorways). We also lost the opportunity to ask the support of the Director of the Hungarian military museum of Budapest, who visited the National Military Museum and is very familiar with the reenactment movement, to help the Hungarian reenactor groups with some mean of transport. So, we didn’t have any austro-hungarians in our “battle”.

We also must to mention Colonel Ion Ceraceanu’s enormous support for this project. Without his enthusiasm, we would be not able to cover the huge expenses asked by the logistic facilities (full equipped military tents and field kitchen, location, manpower, etc.). Unfortunately for us, he was recently promoted as chief of the signal troops in the romanian army. Even if he is now also the chief of the 48th Signals Center, he is not the direct commander anymore, so he will not be directly involved in any possible future events.

I don’t know if this experience will be continued in the next years, but I think that as long as we would not have a strong reenacting movement, with hundreds of enthusiastic participants who might explain to the ignorant people what are the main reasons of these events: the praise for the past time fighters, the commemoration of the tragic moments of the history, the reconstruction of soldiers’ every day life and the respect for antique sites and Militaria items as an attempt to save them from the loss and forgetfulness, it will be very difficult to further develop such projects.