Photographs from my albums

To test my new scanner, here are some photographs from my family albums.



On the back of the photos is written (from top to bottom):

1. Una din cele mai grele zile de instructie. Viscol puternic. Bucuresti, 21 Dec. 1939. (One of the hardest training days. Heavy blizzard.)

2. idem

3. Ultima zi complecta de instructie. Bucuresti, 30 Dec. 1939. (The last training day)

4. idem

1. Bucuresti, 6 Mart. 1940. Manutanta Centrala.

2. idem

3. Sc. of. rezerva Ad-tie. Bucuresti, 17 /III 1940. Cei ce au fost colegi de Academie si camarazi in ... (indescifrabil)

1. Predarea armelor. Bucuresti, 25/III 1940

2. idem

Nothing written on the back of this photograph.

At war (Nothing written on the back of this photo, probably taken at Odessa).

Nice, very nice pictures.

Does anybody know what kind of slippers the two solders wear in this picture?

Also, the 1st Lt. in the first row, at right, appears to wear air force vest, but army hat. Am I correct?

Gen. Dénes

Do you recognise him? He appears to have quite a lot (two rows) of ribbon bars. Bravery? Long service?

And also the iron cross II class.
I think he might be from the AAA (anti aircraft artillery).

No, unfortunately not. He doesn't appear to wear either the pilot's (or observer's) badge, or the airmen's patch on the left sleeve.

Gen. Dénes

P.S. He also appears rather old, possibly in his '40s. Probably not a flyer.

Yes, the three-colour ribbon in the upper button hole.

Gen. Dénes

I dug for more photos, and I found the following, in pretty poor condition.

Very nice photos.

It’s interesting to see the mixture of different models of uniforms: M.1924, with four pocket flaps tunics, collar patches, breeches and puttees and the new M.1939 model with two pockets tunics, no collar patches, baggy trousers and leather leggings. They also have M.1939 field visor cap, with a round crown, that should replace the traditional “Capela”, but later was carried only by Air Force enlisted personnel.
They seems to be “short term” soldiers (“Militari TR”) in an engineer unit / school ?
All are equipped with M.1893 Mannlicher rifles, as the new VZ-24 rifles were distributed mainly to first line units.

The wooden sole slippers were used that time as rest shoes in barracks. Before 1930s soldiers still used a kind of peasant shoes (“opinci”) as reserve or rest shoes.

From 1939, AA and Air Engineers (“Geniu Aero”) personnel wore air force uniforms but with artillery/engineers cap badges, black velvet cap bands (piped red for engineers) and, of course with no “propelled wings” badge on the left arm as they were not part of the flying personnel.

This post has been edited by Kepi on October 18, 2005 05:56 am

If Kepi's guess about the photos being taken in an engineering unit is right, then the officer in question might indeed have been an Air Engineer.

I would incline more to the AA artillery variant. The air engineers did not have had that many opportunities to earn an Iron Cross 2nd class as compared to the AA crews.