brit/us/nz troops in romania, question

i need to find out if there were ever any brit, us or nz soldiers fighting in the romanian/hungarian area during either ww1 or ww2 and who they were fighting against. i've been doing some research and have only found info regarding russian, german and romanian participation in battles in this area of europe during ww1 and i haven't really started researching ww2 extensively. i thought i could perhaps cut down the inevitable hours and hours of searching by enquiring here.

this is probably a huge question so if anyone is able to help by directing me to a site with some info on such battles or could inform of just one or two situations that'd be very helpful.

In Romania, in ww1, was a french mission under the command of general Bethelot - named by romanian soldiers "burtalau". Maybe some brittish officers for liason.
In ww2 where US, brittish and i think n.z. But they were POWs - US from downed bombers and fighters from day bombing mission, and brit's and n.z.'s where from night bombing missions. I think, also canadians were pows.
In Hungary, i think it was the same situation.
In pre '41 year - i dont remember well, was a try by a commando to make some sabotage on the Danube river.
Maybe others have more precise data.

Iama

In The Times History of the War, I have found the following fragment:

The text was illustrated with the photo below.

Attached Image

thanks heaps for the info. that's a good starting point for me to continue my research.

In November 1918, a British engineer unit crossed the Danube into Romania from Bulgaria. It built a bridge over the Arges River at Copaceni. A battalion from the Devonshire Regiment and several officers of the 26th Division (general A. W. Gray, the division's CO; lt. A. B. Gray, general's aid; col. E. S. W. Poole, chief of staff; general A. I. Poole, 79th Infantry Brigade's CO) took part at the celebrations on 1 December 1918, when the King reentered Bucharest.

Following the armistice the Royal Navy operated a Danube Flotlla, which it kept in service also in theinter-war era for a number of years.

During WWII, the USAAF and RAF conducted raids over Romania. 1,117 American and 31 British POWs were taken from the downed aircraft.

A British officer, Col. Norton Griffiths, had successfully accomplished the mission to destroy the oil fields at Ploieşti in November or December 1916. See Articles from 'The War Illustrated' and other WWI stories for more details.

According to The Times History of the War, a British mission of four officers under the command of General de Candolle contributed to the reorganisation of the Romanian railway system in the winter of 1916-1917.

I have found out some more details about this group. They were an armoured unit of the Royal Naval Air Service sent to assist the Russians in 1916 and which eventually came to be known as the Russian Armoured Car Division. Their exploits were described in a book titled "The Czar's British Squadron" by Bryan Perrett and Anthony Lord.

The commander of the unit, mentioned in the quote above might have been Commander Oliver Locker Lampson.


Source: BBC

I cannot be the only one who finds this phrase a bit bizarre. Broken out, it reads like "the army of the air force of the Navy".

Clicking on the link does have some interesting history, and says that its nucleus was a RNAS unit "serving in Belgium in support of aircraft reconnaissance". The implication is that the unit did not have aircraft of its own... maybe a maintenance unit? They would have a head start on the mechanical skills needed to keep armored cars running. The site refers to the book mentioned in the previous post, but it's not clear how they became an armored car unit.

The only comparably strange organization I can think of is U.S. Marine aviation: "the air force of the army of the Navy".

I cannot be the only one who finds this phrase a bit bizarre. Broken out, it reads like "the army of the air force of the Navy".

Clicking on the link does have some interesting history, and says that its nucleus was a RNAS unit "serving in Belgium in support of aircraft reconnaissance". The implication is that the unit did not have aircraft of its own... maybe a maintenance unit? They would have a head start on the mechanical skills needed to keep armored cars running. The site refers to the book mentioned in the previous post, but it's not clear how they became an armored car unit.

The only comparably strange organization I can think of is U.S. Marine aviation: "the air force of the army of the Navy".

I agree to you that the history of the unit is unusual. Indeed it may be that the unit was originally dealing with maintenance as its members were mainly drivers and mechanics. But since the very same skills were required for an armoured car unit, it does not come as a complete surprise why they were transferred to or became an armoured unit. Maybe more details on this can be found in the book mentioned in the text.

Anyhow, the wartime adventures in Russia and Romania of this particular unit seem quite interesting.

Hi Guys,

It is one of the peculiarities of military history that while Romania received limited ground and air support from the British in WWI, both came from the Royal Naval Air Service, which was part of the Royal Navy.

The origin of the armoured cars seems to lie in the Royal Naval Division, which was improvised from Royal Marines and landed in Belgium in 1914. It seems to have included improvised armoured cars.

An even more peculiar British organistion served in Romania in WWI - the Scottish Women's Hospital to the Serbian Army. The Russians formed a Serbian formation after the fall of Serbia and the hospital accompanied it into Romania in 1916. It also did very good service for the Romanian Army during the terrible winter of 1916-17.

Cheers,

Sid.

He destroyed the largest oil reservoir in Europe, at Moreni. It had a capacity of 100,000 tones.
However, I have found the british officer responsible for that called G. Griffith in a romanian book. That could be an error, or could there have been more british officers involved?

He destroyed the largest oil reservoir in Europe, at Moreni. It had a capacity of 100,000 tones.
However, I have found the british officer responsible for that called G. Griffith in a romanian book. That could be an error, or could there have been more british officers involved?

His full name appears to be John Norton-Griffiths.

I think it is worth noting that the Romanian book you mention gives only his initial, not his full name.

For sure his name was John Norton-Griffiths.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/nortongriffiths.htm

http://www.wimbledonnews.co.uk/news/featur...empire_jack.php

And a quotation from http://www.warchron.com/romanianOpsMurmanskRR.htm

My emboldment