The romanian mountain troops - a new reenating group

I just noticed on 6dorobanti.ro that there is a group in Romania reenacting the mountain troops and the 2nd Vanatori Regiment/Battalion.

Here you can read more about them but only in romanian: http://6dorobanti.ro/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1191259499

This weekend the Mountain Group decided to participate at the Don Tour in Hungary. This is a annual commemoration march organized by some WW2 hungarian re-enacting groups to commemorate the soldiers who fell on the Eastern Front at the Don River Bent during the winter of 1942-43. They invited also some representatives of the old Axis allies to join them for this Tour. Even if the relationship between Romania and Hungary was not very good during that time, a group of Romanian reenactors (2 mountain rifles and 3 infantrymen of the 6th Dorobantzes regiment), equipped with WW2 romanian winter uniforms, decided to participate at this event in order to commemorate the romanian soldiers felt during the Battle of Stalingrad .

This Tour is not an easy task. The reenactors should march about 25 km every day, in severe winter conditions, with all the equipment and weapons (borrowed by the Hungarian reenactors) and at the end of the day they will present arms in front of some war monuments in the villages/towns where they will stay for the night. During the march there will be some tactical exercices – the Axis troops will be "attacked" by the partisans, etc.

The route of this march is Nagykáta - Jászberény – Jászfényszaru (about 100 kms East from Budapest). It started yesterday and will finish on Sunday, 27th of January.

It’s surprising that no one in Romania remembered the Battle of the Don River Bent, that occurred 65 years ago.

It's also surprising it received few attention on this foum:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=4358

I suggest a down to earth reenactment: Romanian soldiers going to the forest to gather some firewood, and as they are gathering firewood, they are "gathering" a partisan, too.
(It may sound funny, but it is a real situation happened to my grandfather. He was not alone when they captured the partisan.)

Off topic posts have been split t oa new topic: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=4498

Hi,

Here are some photos about the tour mentioned above:

They arrived in the early morning...


...slipped into something more comfortable...


...and off we went to this place to pay a short visit.


Ah, there used to be a coat of arms on the statue, made of bronze. Well, there are certain people in Hungary in dire need of metal objects (preferably made of bronze, copper etc.). So, next time either mold it in plastic or booby trap it with plastic.


On the tour itself Romanians had good times...


...and bad times. This photo was taken after first day's march. After the second day it was much worse. RESPECT!


Operation "Jolly Roger" (if you know what I mean:-) ). Having learnt about your strict gun control rules (concerning even rusted pieces of metal dug from the ground) I can fully understand...


To put in some narrative: they expexted some 5-6-km marches then truckride, lunch and perhaps a second leg of another 5-km walk daily. Well, on the first day we managed to cover the 17-km distance between Nagykáta and Jászberény with a 30-km march. The second day was shorter but as the sun came out the dirt road thawed quickly and it was not JAN43 but rather OCT41. At noon we arrived at Pusztamonostor with trembling legs, where there was a celebration. The speaker put in an eclectic and especially long speach. Perhaps Hungarians and Romanians quarrel about things but this time our feelings were unanimous: all of us wanted to grab the old fart by his hair and smash his face hard against something solid...

They left this morning, are still on a Bucharest-bound train and still have three hours left of their journey. I am sure they are going to post loads of pictures.

Bye,
Krisz

This post has been edited by CB1 on January 27, 2008 08:05 pm

Congratulations to all the participants!
Thanks for sharing the pictures CB1!


This post has been edited by ANDI on January 31, 2008 05:47 pm

Krisz, do you have some other pics from the action it would be nice to see the other reenactors.

EDITED: I have removed a part of my post that could have been considered offensive.

This post has been edited by mihnea on January 28, 2008 02:40 pm

If you need any tips with regards foot care and ways to harden up the skin on the heels and feet, feel free to P.M. me.

We were used to clocking up 25 - 35+ km a day in the Irish Army by foot, hardening the feet is a gradual process, but there are some ways of easing the process by wearing the correct socks etc.. etc..

Please feel free to show pictures of all participants in this event, its time the "them" and "us" mentality was done away with in this day and age, re-enactors regardless of nationality are one big club.

Kevin in Deva.

This post has been edited by New Connaught Ranger on January 28, 2008 02:07 pm

Please feel free to show pictures of all participants in this event, its time the "them" and "us" mentality was done away with in this day and age, re-enactors regardless of nationality are one big club.

I meant that the ones in the background are not clearly visible and there uniforms and equipment aren't clearly visible.

I'm not in any way nationalist or have something against Hungarians or Hungary. Also the Hungarian reenactors are far ahead of the Romanians reenactors on any chapter (my first reenactment was in Hungary so I know what I'm talking about).

I'm sorry if I was misunderstood or if I offended anybody.

Now before anybody asks about the uniforms, they are communist era (but are inspired by the M1924 uniforms that were used by some units in WWII the big difference is the absence of the red piping and collar tabs) only the RSR buttons were changed also the caps are repros. The officer has a reproduction equipment but he is also the only "WWII veteran" from this group the rest are at their first WWII action.

Hi,

Us and them mentality: no trace of that, the tour went surprisingly smoothly. I do not say there were not certain jokes but they stayed within good manners. Before you ask, let me tell you an example: those who wanted could have a very short try at horse riding. As anywhere else here are also "initiation ceremonies" after the first ocassion (that usually includes hitting the novice's butt, this time with sword blade). The hussars had something like that in mind for poor Romanians but conditions did not allow for a longer ride for them. So the hussar, visible behind the horse, said that "We are mad about Transylvania and wanted to hit you in the ass very hard. But for this short ride there is no initiation." Mircea answered "Oh, you can have my ass anytime, but not Transylvania." We laughed.

NCR: by all means, publish your tips here not in a PM so any of us can profit from them. By the way, the problem this time was mainly arising from wearing brand new boots.

Photos: I do not want to spoil their fun. I am sure Kepi will rummage through their memory cards. Besides, I shot mainly short clips I can create "newsreel" from.

Bye,
Krisz

Please feel free to show pictures of all participants in this event, its time the "them" and "us" mentality was done away with in this day and age, re-enactors regardless of nationality are one big club.

I meant that the ones in the background are not clearly visible and there uniforms and equipment aren't clearly visible.

I'm not in any way nationalist or have something against Hungarians or Hungary. Also the Hungarian reenactors are far ahead of the Romanians reenactors on any chapter (my first reenactment was in Hungary so I know what I'm talking about).

I'm sorry if I was misunderstood or if I offended anybody.

mihnea

many thanks for your explanation

Kevin in Deva.

Congratulation for the organizers and participants!

I wished to participate but unfortunately it was not possible because of other commitments. Hopefully the new created Mountain Group took the initiative and is great that some of the Dorobantzes joint them. I hope this is a good start for other common actions and do hope to have also some Hungarian reenactors in Romania for our events. They were most expected during our WW1 show of Fort Mogoshoaia of September 2006.

We plan a new reconstruction battle for September 2008 and hope that the Hungarian reenactors will participate. Bucharest is not far from Budapest – only one night travel by train – and a go/return ticket costs about 70 Euros.