Romanians on the Italian Front 1915-1918

[Klemen]

Hi !

I am looking for any published memoires, war diaries or other personal testimonials ort Romanian servicemen who have served on the Italian Front and particularly the Isonzo Front 1915-1918. Can anyone help me with this, please? :-)

I have checked some of your recent messages and found out that one of your mentioned Second Lieutenant Emil Rebreanu, a highly decorated Romanian Officer from the Isonzo Front. Can anyone please fill me more details about his service on the Isonzo Front? :-O

Some other short comments:
a.) Probably the most famous Romanian deserter from k. u.k. Army (at least that I know of) was Romanian Leutnant Maxim, a staff officer in one of the Bosnian battalions of the 50th Infantry Division who deserted to the Italians several days before the start of the Karfreit Offensive 1917 with all the plans and documents. A quick look on the k.u.k. Schematismus from 1914 and 1917 reveals us that this officer was most probably Leutnant Aurel Maxim. It seems, though, that the Italians did not thrust hi much.

b.) It is not true that the South-Slavic regiments did have an exceptionally high rate of desertion. This indeed certainly didn't imply to Slovenian regiments (IR 17, IR 87 and particularly IR 47, which was a very strong and extremly reliable German-Slovene regiment until the very end), but also other regiments did fight and didn't face any high rate of desertions from other regiments. Probably the Czechs were the ones who had the highest rate of desertion on the Russian and Serbian Front in 1914-15 but even they later became very stead and their IR 28 was doing miracles on the Carso 1915-1917. Romanians too didn't desert en masse on the Isonzo Front, although it seems that the Austrian High Command did not exactly thrust much the Romanian regiments or battalions much, especially not the IR 51 from Koloszvar which was, especially in the first year of the war 1915, on a very low reputation and performed very bad. But on the other hand IR 41 from Czernowitz with a large percentage of Romanians fought extremly weel and courageously during the entire year of 1917 on Mt. Santo and Mt. Vodice.

c.) Mamula Island is a small island off Cattaro Bay (Boka Kotorska Bay), which is today situated in Serbian and Montenegro. It protects the entrance into the bay. During WW1 there was a small garrison on the island and some coastal artillery, while during WW2 the Italians held there a prison and a concentraction camp. There was, I think, also a Austro-Hungarian military prison. I think the best thing is to go to this website:
http://www.f24.parsimony.net/forum56651/
and ask the questions you would like to know. Ask for my dear friend Zvonimir Freivogel who is one of the best if not the best Austro-Hungarian WW1 Kriegsmarine expert. Tell him Klemen sends you and he will know. :-)

d.) As far as I know the Serbs did not desert to the enemy either. There were of course some cases of individuals or even small up to company size desertions during the war but I never heard of Serbian soldiers deserting in big numbers. Quite the opposite: Many of them fought courageously in some Bosnian and Hungarian regiments and if I am not mistaken at least two of them received the Maria Theresia Orden, the highest Austrian decoration for the bravery in battle.

Hope this helps a bit.

lp,

Klemen

[Klemen]

Hi!

Can I understand this silence and no replies as a definate answer that there is in Romania no published memoires or personal war diaries of Romanian servicemen in the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army on the Italian Front 1915-1918 (Isonzo-Dolomiten-Tyrol-Piave)? :roll:

Was there perhaps to your knowledge in Romania anything published about the 37th k.u.k. Nagy-Váradiner Infantry Regiment (today Oradea)? I am namely researching the history of the IV. Battalion of the IR. 37 on the Isonzo Front in 1915. I have already received the regimental history of IR. 37 from War Archives in Budapest, but unfortunately the history is very short and does not give some important details that I would like to know. Maybe anyone can help me here? :-)

lp,

Klemen

[Dan Po]

QUOTE

Can I understand this silence and no replies as a definate answer that there is in Romania no published memoires or personal war diaries of Romanian servicemen in the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army on the Italian Front 1915-1918 (Isonzo-Dolomiten-Tyrol-Piave)? :roll:

I think that you are right. I don t heared about this kind of book ... but ... i cannot say that i know averything wich is published in Romania

QUOTE

Was there perhaps to your knowledge in Romania anything published about the 37th k.u.k. Nagy-Váradiner Infantry Regiment (today Oradea)? I am namely researching the history of the IV. Battalion of the IR. 37 on the Isonzo Front in 1915. I have already received the regimental history of IR. 37 from War Archives in Budapest, but unfortunately the history is very short and does not give some important details that I would like to know. Maybe anyone can help me here? :-)

I want to help you from the bottom of my heart, but i have no information. I m from Oradea (Nagy-varod) but never saw any public information anout the pre 1918 military history of this town (units who was garnisoned and where the "bihoreni" s (Oradea is in "Bihor" county) fought.

If you think that I can help you in any possible way, please let me know !

:keep:

[mabadesc]

Klemen,

If I find anything, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I have a quick question for you. You said:

QUOTE

I have already received the regimental history of IR. 37 from War Archives in Budapest

I'm trying to retrieve some information for the Budapest War Archives. Could you please tell me how to go about in asking for this information? Do you have the web address (or physical address) of the Archives? Will they send out the info or would I have to pick it up in person from Budapest? Thanks...

[Dénes]

You can contact 'virtually' the Hungarian Military Museum and Archives, located in Budapest. Here is their web site:

http://www.militaria.hu/
http://www.militaria.hu/hadt.php3?page=500

Please note that this web site is only in Hungarian.
Nevertheless, there are several e-mail addresses where you can write to, in German or English, I suppose.

Hope this will help your research.

[Klemen]

Dan & Mabadesc,

***I think that you are right. I don t heared about this kind of book ... but ... i cannot say that i know averything wich is published in Romania***

First of all thank you very much for your replies. I am very sadden to hear that there is not a single published memoires, diary or even a article about the Romanian servicemen on the Italina Front 1915-1918. But still please if you will come up of any such books be sure to let me know. I am also interested in short individual stories about bravery shown by some Romanian soldiers on the Italian Front 1915-1918.

For example I would very much like to know the full story of this Second Lieutenant Emil Rebreanu and his decorations on the Italian Front.that one of you have mentioned in some previous post on this forum. When, which ones and why did he receive them? I have never heard of him before. :-(

***I want to help you from the bottom of my heart, but i have no information. I m from Oradea (Nagy-varod) but never saw any public information anout the pre 1918 military history of this town (units who was garnisoned and where the "bihoreni" s (Oradea is in "Bihor" county) fought.***

That is great! I am for quite a long time searching for anyone from Oradea who might help me to answer some questions or to do a small research in Oradea for me. I have been namely for the past two years extensively researching the Italian attack on Mt. Krn on 15-16 June 1915 which was defended by a company of IV/37, but I cannot and cannot find any decent material about this battalion. The Kriegsarchiv in Vienna has only the material from 1916 onwards and the Kriegsarchiv in Budapest apparently lost all of its material in 1944 during the Soviet siege. Cannot think of a bigger bad luck than this, hehe.... Anyway being from Oradea you might wanna get interested in the following book (actually it is a 32 page long booklet but still furnishes quite a lot of details and even maps), the regimental history of IR 37 and IR 137 in the Great War 1914-1918.

Desző Bittó: "A volt nagyváradi és biharvármegyei 37. és 139. gyalogezredek törtenete"; Athenaeum, Budapest, 1943

I have here in my small archive only the photocopies of pages concerning IV/37 in 1914-1918. Not much about Mt. Krn 1915 attack I am afraid.:-(

BTW: There are some other much more detailed Hungarian regimental histories of regiments from Transilvania and Banat.

***If you think that I can help you in any possible way, please let me know !***

Actually yes I would like to ask you if you could do some research for me in the libraries in Oradea. I tried to contact the University in Oradea to see if they can help me a bit but I have never received a reply back. :-(((( Please contact me at my private e-mail address: xxxxxxxxx

***If I find anything, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I have a quick question for you. You said:***

Thanks Mabadesc. I appreciate this a lot! Romanian, Ruthene and Slovakian WW1 memoires are one of the last that I'm still missing i.e. would very much like to get.

***I'm trying to retrieve some information for the Budapest War Archives. Could you please tell me how to go about in asking for this information? Do you have the web address (or physical address) of the Archives? Will they send out the info or would I have to pick it up in person from Budapest? Thanks...***

As Dénés has already kindly pointed out you may contact them through their website and hoping that you will get the reply. It also depends what are you looking for... Now I have somewhere the e-mail address, fax number and postal address of the Manager of the Archive, which has been kind enough to reply to my inquiry, but in order to pass them to you I would prefer if you contact me at my private e-mail address. If there isn't much to search I might even ask my friend, who works as the profesional military researcher in the Museum and Archive and I guess I can ask him the next time I each with him to pass your request to the department which is responsible for such requests.

Hope this helps.

lp,

Klemen

This post has been edited by Klemen on December 01, 2006 12:38 pm

[Victor]

A somewhat related topic:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=47090

[Klemen]

Hi Victor!

Thanks for your reply. I have heard before about MMThO recipient Major Popovici, but I don't think that he has won his MMThO in 1916 but rather in 1917 during the bloody 11th Isonzo Battle. I think that we could get more information about his feat in the regimental history of Debreczener Infantry Regiment Nr. 39, which was written by Győző Lepes-Artúr Matéfi: "A volt cs. és kir. báró Hötzendorfi Konrád Ferenc tábornagy debreceni 39. gyalogezred világháborus törtenete 1914-1918"; Debrecen 1939.

But brushing this aside can somebody please tell me who is Second Lieutenant EMIL REBREANU and which high Austro-Hungarian decorations did he receive, where and when? He sounds to me like a very interesting person.

One more thing: Sinve it seems that there are no published memoires or diaries of any Romanian from the Italian Front 1915-1918, does then anyone know of any memoires of a famous Romanian (writer, poet, mathematician, politician, soldier (ex-general or colonel who later served in the Romanian army) etc.) who had served in the k.u.k. Army in the Great War 1914-18 and who might have been also serving on the Italian Front? :-)

Mr. Dan from Oradea can you please contact me in the next few days if possible?

Best regards to all and thanks again for the wonderful replies.

Klemen

[mabadesc]

Denes - thanks for the links you posted....I'll try my luck...

Klemen - Thank you for your offer to help. I will send you a private email today, describing all the details and what I am searching for.

QUOTE

does then anyone know of any memoires of a famous Romanian (writer, poet, mathematician, politician, soldier (ex-general or colonel who later served in the Romanian army) etc.) who had served in the k.u.k. Army in the Great War 1914-18 and who might have been also serving on the Italian Front?

Actually, I just remembered, I bought an old book last summer about WWI, written by a Romanian general. The author is General Tataranu (or Tatarescu), and is entitled "Acum un sfert de veac", meaning, "A quarter-century ago". The book was published in the 1940's. I haven't read it yet, but I'll look through it to see if it has anything that may be of interest to you.

[Carol I]

QUOTE

I have heard before about MMThO recipient Major Popovici, but I don't think that he has won his MMThO in 1916 but rather in 1917 during the bloody 11th Isonzo Battle.

According to http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/mmto.htm Major Popovici has received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresia on 10 June 1921 (the 187th promotion).

[Carol I]

Also on http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/mmto.htm there is a Oberst Johann Boeriu von Polichna, commander of the 76th Infantry Regiment, who has received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresia on 17 August 1918 (the 184th promotion).

According to his last name (Boeriu) he might have been Romanian.

[Victor]

QUOTE

Also on http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/mmto.htm there is a Oberst Johann Boeriu von Polichna, commander of the 76th Infantry Regiment, who has received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresia on 17 August 1918 (the 184th promotion). According to his last name (Boeriu) he might have been Romanian.

Brig. gen. Ioan Boeriu was indeed Romanian and I mentioned him in a post in the thread on the Axis History Forum to which I gave the link above.

[Carol I]

Thanks Victor for the reply.

On the same site I have also found the following names that might indicate Romanian recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresia:

Major Joseph BOGDAN von Sturmbruck - 30 April 1802 (68th Promotion)
Major David URS de Margina - 17 October 1859 / 21 May 1860 (158th to 159th Promotions)

Do you (or anyone else) have information about these two officers and the circumstances under which they have received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresia?

[Dénes]

QUOTE

Major Joseph BOGDAN von Sturmbruck - 30 April 1802 (68th Promotion)

Bogdan is not necessarily a Rumanian name. It's actually a Slavic name, meaning 'Son of God', or something similar. For example, I know a couple of Polish guys, whose Christian name is Bogdan.

[Victor]

Denes is right.
Col. David Urs was the first Romanian who won the award.
He was born on 1 April 1816 in the Fagaras county in an old small noble family. In 1834 he entered the 1st Romanian Frontier-guard Regiment and by 1841 he was a 2nd lieutenant. In 1848 he took part at many Romanian meetings, signed several memos to the Emperor (he was part of the delegation which presented Ferdinand I in Vienna the "requests of the Romanian nation"). He was promoted 1st lieutenant and with the regiment he fought against the Szekler frontier-guard regiments which had passed on the Hungarian Revolution's side.
He was promoted captain at the end of the Revolution and awarded the Cross for Military Merit and the Russian Order of St. Anne.
He was moved to the 34th Infantry Regiment in Kassa/Kosice in 1850. The war with France and Sardinia found him as a major commanding a battalion of the 52nd Infantry Regiment. He distinguished himself at Solferino and Medole and was awarded the Iron Crown Order 3rd class and exceptionally for a non-Austrian, the Knight's Cross of the Maria Theresia Order and the title of Baron of Marginea. In 1860 he was promoted lt. col. and transferred to the 64th Infantry Regiment in Deva, which he took over under his command in 1863. In 1864 he was forced to retire, because he was accused of trying to turn the regiment into an exclusive Romanian regiment, by promoting only Romanian officers.
The war of 1866 with Prussia reactivated him (at his own request) and was named commander of an island in the Adriatic, Lisa, where again he distinguished himself, being hailed in the Austrian press as the hero of Lisa. He returned to the command of the 64th Regiment, but only until 1867, when he was again forced to retire.
He was invited by the Romanian government to take part in the organization of the army, but the Austro-Hungarian government forbid it and put him under surveillance. He then dedicated the rest of his life to organizing and running the Romanian frontier-guard schools. He died on 10 September 1897, two years after his schools had been turned into Hungarian state schools.