Romanian helmets

Hello!
I am new to this forum...
I am from Romania.Targoviste...
I have seen pictures whit Romanian soldiers....
My question is:
Were the helmets made in Romania?
From what I?ve read the helmets were poorly designed...
And why do some of the soldiers have hats and some helmets?

Thanks!

Hello (dreaded) Comrade Commisar, and welcome to the forum.

Before 1939, the standard helmet of the Romanian soldiers was the "Adrian" model 1916, similar to the French helmet of the First World War.

In 1939, Romanian army imported the Dutch helmets made by "Verblifa", known as the "Dutch" helmet model 1939. Some of them had the Carol II cypher, but it was removed after Carol II abdicate and became unpopular in Romania.

Some of the Romanian troops, especially cavalry troops, wore German model 1935 helmets. However, they were removed from service after 23 August 1944 for obvious reasons.

So for your question "Were the helmets made in Romania?", the answer is no, they were made in Netherlands.

"From what I?ve read the helmets were poorly designed..."
I don't know because I didn't have the opportunity to wear one

"And why do some of the soldiers have hats and some helmets?"
If you refer to the fur caps, they were part of the winter equipment in the first part of the war. In the later part of the war, they were replaced with the Soviet caps, the latter having the advantage of allowing a steel helmet on top of them.

The German style steel helmet was worn by some Rumanian troops also on the so-called 'Western Front', against the Axis, until the end of 1944. There are photos to prove it.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on March 11, 2005 09:05 pm

Ok thanks a lot !
Seams that nothing important was made in Romania whit all Romanian parts..

The German style steel helmet was worn by some Rumanian troops also on the so-called 'Western Front', against the Axis, until the end of 1944. There are photos to prove it.

Gen. Dénes

Apparently, some of the Romanian cavalry troops were given German helmets starting from winter 1943-44, and they continued to use them during the campaing in the West.

I don't know how the fact that the helmets were not produced in Romania could lead to your conclusion. There are many examples of enough "important" things produced in Romania.

Like what ?
Exept small arms and small artilery ?

If you refer strictly to war industry, then you can add aircraft, trucks, AFV conversions and improvements, the project of "Mareşal", communication equipment etc. etc.

Of course, the industry was not comparable to Germany's, but we had some very good engineers (Ştefan Burileanu, Gabriel Negrei, Ghorghe Bungescu, Nicolae Ghiulai etc), and generally, the Romanian projects were innovative.

I tought aircraft had motors from Germany or Holland.

There were engines produced in country. Of course, many were produced under license, such as the Ford engines, used also by the many vechicles of the Soviet Army. The point is that Romanian technicians did the best with the resources and the industry available. If you want to go in depth about technical issues, please open another topic.

Ok thanks for your awnsers !