Are there any Romanian WWII reenactment societies?

Kepi, is there any picture or original holster for Buescu Md.1876 revolver used by artillery units?
I'm interested in gun firing , too. Do you use blackpowder? Where can I buy some, legally?

This post has been edited by Cristian on January 06, 2006 05:21 pm

Good evening to everyone.

Mihnea,I found 3 of the 4 ammo pouches which I have and looking at the back of the pouches two have some sort of marking the 3rd dose not.
Pouche no1 has a number on the right hand side near the top"172".
just below that number on the same side is the following"janos"and a secound 7 letter word which is not easy to read because of the wear marks on top of it.
The year"1952"is below those two words
Pouch no2 has the number"195" up near the top of the,right hand side but this time the back of the flap and stiching is position directly over the number.
Same side,below are two words but this time the first word is worn down and the secound word is"Harbak" and the year 1952.
That last word is questionable as the first three letter are hard too read.
Pouch no 3 has no marking but is in the best condition of the lot.
The color of all three pouches is a deep chestnut brown.

RHaught the guy in the 45th german div is joe solaris(I hope I spelled his name correctly) and the last time I spoke too him he was half way through putting his romanian impression together.

I know the unit which you belong to and you seem a great bunch of guys!
I belong to the 272nd Fusilier comp. base up in up state new york.
Scott Thompson host the Odessa event every year.
Some where along the road I have too make a decision whether too stay with them or look for another unit as they are far away and now they seem to travel less and less to the event down here.
Or for what matter they seem too be doing less events all away around!

Have you had any trouble with the SPOOKS in casement 5 at fort mifflin?

Kepi,The gentleman who is makeing the uniforms at the museum,dose he do ww2 as well and do you think he would be able too get some of them here to us in the u.s.?
What sort of price is he charging and how long dose he take in making these uniforms?
Any information would help.

It would seem that beside the gentleman at the museum making uniform there is the othe source who may have a package out soon.
What is the conversion of 800 euros into u.s. dollars?

I received some replies for a possible source for a uniform. There is a guy in California who might make them but do not know the cost yet. A person the Wehrmacht reenactors yahoo list sent me a name and email. Will contact him as well. Have no idea so guessing 800 euros is about $1,000-$1,200.

Equipment looks like it will be the more difficult challenge. Dutchie Militaria offered to help me search, just send him a list of items.

Casemate 5 at Fort Mifflin, no issues (for those not familiar, Ft. Mifflin was a Revolutinary fort used till the 1970's near Philadelphia, PA. It is in the top 20 most haunted places in the US and featured on the History Channel for this as well). Did have an experience the last time there and 2nd event in the bakery.

I'll PM you for the rest.

Finding the proper equipment to do romanian will be a problem.
It took a long time for the correct ammo pouches to come my way and I had too use a leather austrian pouch for a while.
The only other piece of equipment that seem to be easy to find is the bayonet/frog combination.

What is the story with the french gas mask bag?
I was told that the romanian army used them also during the war.
Can anyone shed some light on this matter?

I have been useing a unknown tent halve for romanian which I know is post war but from which country I do not know.
It is a green color,with the button press on,not sewn and the center has a opening for your head.
The color is green and I found no marking on it anywhere.

RHaught if you want too email me with more storys on fort mifflin contact me at needlem3point@yahoo.com
I have a couple of question too ask which do not fit into this forum.

Another item which come around for sale is the shovel/carrier combo which I am not too sure if it original or repro.

I'm posting now my little collection of WWII ammo pouches, all of them are original WWII: 2 brown (army), 1 brown painted white for the guard regiments, 3 black (air force or navy).

So here are the pictures:

Black and brown ammo pouches front and back.




The white one front and back.




One of the brown ammo pouches filled up with 5 Mauser 98k/ ZB-24 clips. But because of the age of the ammo pouches only two can still be closed with 5 clips in.


PS I will post tomorrow detailed photos with the rest of my equipment.

Nice pics of items mihnea!

Starting to gather items for infantry but would like to do mountain troops!


Darius, email isn't working so sent through the one here!

Another question for the forum.

The books I have (Third Axis, Fourth Ally, Romanian Army of WWII (Osprey) and The Romanian Army WWII (Romanian book with English) really do not go into equipment in detail. Does someone have the items that were carried by the regular infantry and mountain troops? Thinking to do early war impression since it would allow for more events.

Good morning to everyone!

Mihnea,I like your collection of ammo pouches! I have never seen a pouch color in white before.
Are these hard too find?
I try too buy as many pouches as I can so long as they are not priced to high!
If a white color pouch ever shows up I will buy that one for sure.

RHaught,How is that book Third axis,Fourth ally anyway?
Last year on ebay I was bidding on a copy but the price was up over $80.00 which was a bit high for me.

Of the 6 events which I have done romanian,2 were 1945,1 was stalingrad,1 was Kursk and the last two were just free for all type events,no time line just eastern front.

But I only fought with the allied just one time against the germans at the last 1945 event and I was in company of another romanian and 1 red army soldier
Last part of the day we were holding a hill and the american unit behind us came up and told me they were leaving the hill, there by leaving us three the only soldier on top of the hill.
A few minute later up come about 30 germans and before they seen us the other romanian and myself retreated down the hill to a more defenceible position.
Which turn out to be nice,round big fat trees with a clear field of fire!
Our red army comrade was on his belly behind a few rocks up on that hill with his oversea cap on a stick trying too play sniper,he thought he could fake the enemy out with his tricks!
He said early in the day that that famous russian sniper at stalingrad used that trick!
So as he played with his cap on a stick the German army came up the hill and shot him full of holes!!!
Later on as he came down he ask why did we leave him up there alone.
As we explain too him that holding the hill was madness and we romanian lived too fight another day I could not help laughing too myself that the romanian army had sacrifice a soldier of the Red army to the enemy so that we may live another day!
Beside this fool shows up in the morning at this event with just 15 blanks for his rifle.
He had to be out of ammo when the German storm the hill,alot good he would have been in the fire-fight.

I have my impression set up around 1941 to late 1943,just standard infrantry.
RHaught any special reason for doing Mountain Troops?

I have two original ww2 romanian postcard/letters comming in the mail.
One is from a soldier in the 20th div dated 1942,that should be interesting.

According the M. 1873 Infantry uniforms regulation, officers should carry their M.1873 “Galand-Lebeau” revolvers in natural leather holsters. NCOs and artillery gunners carried the same holsters but in black leather. The M.1876 (so-called “Buescu”) revolvers had the same size as the M.1873 pattern, so officers and men used the same holsters. As far as I know, the Museum doesn't have such a holster. The oldest type seems to be the M. 1896 pattern, for the "Saint Etienne" revolver.

I enclose a reconstruction of the M.1873 holster, made two decades ago, according the regulation description (unfortunately not very clear). I suspect the dimensions are not very accurate, but if you have the pistol, you could adapt the dimensions for the size of the weapon.







(Photos of Cornel I. Scafes, Horia Vl. Serbanescu, Corneliu M. Andonie, Ioan I. Scafes, Armata Romana in Razboiul de Independenta, Editura Sigma, Bucuresti, 2002)

When you said you're interested in gun firing, would that means artillery gun firing? If you are interested to reenact Romanian artillerists I would help you to round your equipment according the 1873 regulation. It will be interesting if during the Museum Open Gates , we’ll be able to make a demonstration with one of the Krupp guns displayed in the Museum courtyard. I think we should have at least three artillerists in the group in order to make a credible demonstration. This group could also “fire” during the WW1 show of September. Please let me know if you intend to develop this idea. I’ll be very happy to help with any information you need.

I don’t know where we could find black powder for firing old weapons. This powder is frequently used during the reenacting shows in Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, to name only our neighbours. For this year events I think the Museum (military institutions) will help us on this matter. Another variant is to have the support of some cinema specialists for special effects (explosions, gun fire).

Kepi, thank you for the very, very usefull info. And yes, I'm interested in artillery gun firing. I'm happy to hear some guns in the museum are in working order for reenacting purposes. As I noticed in the past , most of them have the firing mechanism welded or dismantled. Black powder should be use for guns of that period; the white smoke and the specific noise of black powder blast is very effective for the accuracy of the moment.

Romanian second line troops (AA artillery, gendarmes, navy) equipped with M.1895 Austrian Mannlicher rifles, also carried Austrian WW1 cartridge pouches, because their clips had an specific inclined shape. But these pouches don’t fit with the VZ-24 or Mauser 98k rifles.

Romanian army never used French gas masks during WW2. Until the mid 1930s, Romanian troops were still equipped with French M.1918 ARS gas masks and different versions of the WW1 Russian Zelensky-Kumant types. Then Romanian army obtained the licence of the Polish WZ. 32 gas mask and this was produced by Sarogaz in big quantities. It was carried in a cloth bag identical to the polish model. During WW2 Romanian soldiers carried this model, but also the M.1939 civil defence model (with a cylindrical tin box) or even the German model.

The Romanian tent sheet was a khaki rectangular piece of cloth, heaving metallic butons and holes on the sides, reinforced holes for the tent poles in the corners and a lace passed on a semicircular sewer in a corner, in order to wear the tent sheet also as a cape.

For gas masks, you can read this older topic: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=1072

dragos03 has one and could also post some photos.

The infantry / mountain troops equipment was identical, except the head dress and the foot gear. Many reserve or recently created mountain units (as the 18th Infantry/Mountain Division) worn infantry puttees and boots. I don’t even know if the soldiers of the 18th Mountain Division changed their Capelas with the more fashionable Mountain berets.



For some details (and pictures) concerning the WW2 Romanian army equipment I would also recommend Horia Serbanescu’s articles in “Militaria” Magazine: « L’armée roumaine 1941-1945 » Nr..110 / September 1994; « Le fantassin roumain a Stalingrad» (I) and (II), Nr.154/ May 1998 and Nr. 157 / August 1998; « Le fantassin roumain à Budapest, 1944-1945 », Nr.164 / March 1999.

This post has been edited by Kepi on January 10, 2006 12:39 pm

Now the bread bags:

In all the pictures: the ones on the left and right are clearly post war, the one in the middle is from WWII.

In the pictures the difference in size is clearly visible and the color of the leather is different the WWII one has the leather painted very dark green-gray combination. This paint was used only in WWII.




Here are some detailed pictures of the markings on the interior of the covering flap.
The ADMIS (translated: accepted) marking was standard for the WWII era made objects; there is also a year marked on the flap, 1942. Not very clear in this picture.


The post war ones have different indescribable markings.



The straps for the mess tin are all post war; the WWII ones didn’t have the metal end it was simply sewn.

I bought mine for around $50 off of Ebay. There are deals out there, might be able to find it at the GAP this month. Plan to be there for Friday-Sunday just for the fleam market, but might have to go out into the Bulge battle though.

[QUOTE]I have my impression set up around 1941 to late 1943,just standard infrantry.
RHaught any special reason for doing Mountain Troops?


I like the beret better? Anything but a damn helmet! They suck and when the impression calls for something a little softer like it. Plus the SMG doesn't hurt either!


This post has been edited by RHaught on January 11, 2006 02:35 am