Romanians on the Italian Front 1915-1918

Even is a little bitt out of topic I i want to remember that the italians formed some "alpini" units with romanian prisonier and dessertors. If I remember well were 1 batallion, "Avram Iancu". They were equiped with "alpini" uniforms and whey had the same organisation as those elite italian units. Maybe somebody know more about this subject ....

During WWI four regiments were formed in Italy from Romanian POWs (former Austro-Hungarian soldiers). They were equipped and organized as the Alpini. They did not get to fight as the war ended by the time they were ready to be deployed.

I've not heard of mass desertion of Romanians in the Imperial Army on the Italian front either.
But there were lots of Czechs and Slovaks changing sides: the Czechoslovak Legion, with Italian equimpent, fought alongside the Italians.

One of the main reasons of a lack of deserters of Slovenes and Croats on the Italian front, is that there have always been ethnic tensions between them and the Italians of Istria and Dalmatia.
Italy was planning to take over all these territories, (according to the secret London pact of 1915, between the Entente powers and Italy), so the Italians were seen as competitors by the slav populations that lived inland on the Adriatic coast.
On the other hand realtions between Italians and Serbs were good, they had a common dislike of Austria, and had no inter-ethnic tensions.
But I'm going off topic now!

I didn't know about the "Romanian" Alpini, I have a friend in the ANA, Associazione Nazionale Alpini, I'll ask him if he knows where I can find any documentation on them.
The Alpini are a very popular army unit, their association is one of the largest of their kind in Italy.

Second lieutenant Eusebiu Jemna (with the foot on the rock) with his company, somewhere on the Italian front in WWI, before the Isonzo river battle (where he was wounded).


Source: Mircea Jemna collection on Memoria.ro

Second lieutenant Eusebiu Jemna (first on the right on the upper row) before leaving the Baon v. Cholm hospital in Austria where he was treated after being wounded on the Italian front.


Source: Mircea Jemna collection on Memoria.ro

Thank you Carol for the photos. Has Second Lieutenant Eusebiu Jemna left any war diary or memoires about his service in World War I? I couldn't find any note about any "written material" on Memoria.ro.

Anway I'm still looking for any diaries or memoires of Romanians from Italian Front 1915-1918. Could not find anything, except an unpublished short memoires of a Romanian Officer of German origin from Transilvania.

You are right Klemen, on Memoria.ro there is no material from Eusebiu Jemna himself, only from his son (Mircea Zemnea) who was born after WWI (in 1924) and who tells the story of his refuge from Cernăuţi in the summer of 1940.

Thanks Carol for a reply of what I have already suspected. Nevertheless here you can find one of rare memoires of a Romanian Officer in the Auzstro-Hungarian Army 1914-1918, in this case a report by Lieutenant Octavian Taslauanu and his recollections of the Battle of the Carpathian Passes.

URL: http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/carpathianmemoir.htm

Nothing about Italian Front. I have checked the Maniu's Archive at the Hoover Institute like I have been suggested. They have nothing of his service in WW1, only about his post-war political career. They have several WW1 manuscripts by former Imperial Russian generals and officers, though.

Also wrote the Romanian University Library and got no reply back. The Romanian National Library doesn't seem to be working.

Is there anyone in Romania who is actually researching Romanians in the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army or . . . ?



This post has been edited by Klemen on November 14, 2005 11:45 am

An article in Jurnalul Naţional about the mansion of Col. David Urs (in Romanian language).

There were indeed no mass desertions of Romanians from Romanian-Hungarian regiments, but there were still some notable individual cases of Romanians crossing the side, the most famous being a Romanian officer who defected to the Italians on the eve of the Caporetto offensive in October 1917. He was a staff officer and ran away with some confidential papers about the offensive. "Luckily" [] the Italians didn't thrust him much. His surname, so it was recorded, was MAXIM. A bit strange for a Romanian, I think. Could he be a Romanian Jew or Transilvanian German?

I attach here two pages which I have received from Italian War Archives about Austro-Hungarian deserters. Perhaps it will be of some interest to you.

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/7339/in...102170018pw.jpg

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6269/in...102170021mk.jpg

Anyway I am still eagerly looking for any diaries, memoires or just simple testimonials of Romanian soldiers or officers who have been serving in the k.u.k. Army during World War I, particularly on the Italian Front 1915-1918.

Is there still "total amnesia" about this subject in Romania or what? I have checked everything what I could check and the result was/is zero. Even the Romanian military attache was of no help.

Is there really not a single such book in entire Romania???

This post has been edited by Klemen on June 03, 2006 06:45 pm

Perhaps this photo can be of some interest as well. It was taken at the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery in Prosek (Prosecco) near Triest (Trieste) by a friend of mine some years ago. I am sure that you shall be able to recognize the Romanian soldiers on it. Unfortunately many surnames have been mispelled - in this element are Italians very good.



This post has been edited by Klemen on June 03, 2006 06:54 pm

Soon I'll post a biog. with photos and doc.of a relative of mine ,who served in the Austro-Hung army,took part at the fights at Verdun and the Italian front.

The photos will be changed with better ones....

Wonderful! I am looking forward of his biography and better photos. Yes, in 1918 the Austrias send an army corps to France made up of mostl Hungarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Polish troops. I have actually somewhere memoirs of a Polish soldier in the k.u.k. Army who was at verdun as well. He attended there a machine-gun training course and luckily didn't see much fighting.

Still looking for memoires, diaries, testimonials... I have found them for almost every nationality of the former monarchy, except Romanians and Serbs.