Comments on: Forgotten Army, Lost Victories

By: alexK

alexK — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:43:02 +0000

http://lifesupportintl.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/romania-air-campaigns/

By: Marius

Marius — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:14:21 +0000

Some points from a Romanian:

1. Transilvania was taken, we didn't offer anything.
2. We choose our enemies not our allies, because we never saw Germany as our ally trully, like France and UK – Romania's tradional allies. As you remember, in 1940, France was defeated and UK was fighting for survival. Simply put, URSS was the worst evil, so we choose to fight Russians. All the Germany allies gained territory, except Romania who was ripped off and parts of our teritory went to Hungary and Bulgaria, as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.
3. It is said that there was an agreement between Hitler and Antonescu that granted Romania to receive back Transilvania. This was a strong reason why Romania choose Germany.
4. We didn't fear Hungary… During WWI, Romanian troops entered the Hungarian Parliament, in Budapest… There are still some jokes about it…

By: dave roberston

dave roberston — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:32:44 +0000

Maybe you should view also this

http://lifesupportintl.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/romanian-army-atrocities-in-wwii/?preview=true&preview_id=410&preview_nonce=a27077130b

By: Andrei Zamfirescu

Andrei Zamfirescu — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:47:19 +0000

http://www.worldwar2.ro/

interesting discussion…here is an interesting site about Romanian army for those who are interested in this subject

By: Alex Gabriel

Alex Gabriel — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:23:49 +0000

From the books you peoples read does anyone noticed that Romania was a robbed country all the time ? Romanian's gold is kept in Russia , in the past Ottoman empire has kidnapped kids , stolled gold, food, and anything they have found ? Germans and Romanian alliance in WW2 ? that was some kind of "with us or against us" and Romania made the choice. And now … those politics they are robbing that country without shame. Nobody can talk based on opinions. Now probably somebody will read a Swen Hassel book and will explain how the WW really was.

By: aetius

aetius — Mon, 30 May 2011 21:32:17 +0000

beside all these, even von Manstein admitted that:
"I have already shown what could and could not be expected of Romanian troops in various situations. But they were still our best allies and did fight bravely in many places." – Field Marshal Erich von Manstein in "Lost Victories"

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:50:04 +0000

I grew up with "the hided stories about Eastern front in ww2, Odessa, Sevastopol,Kuban,Stalingrad " of my old relatives who fought there. I said hided , becuse were forbited in history books in comunist era in Romania. About ww2 Romanian history books wrote only about Romanian Army fought only in Hungary and Cehoslovakia.
But what I want to say?
First I realy appreciate the comments , especially of Citino and Alex Constantin!
Second ,do not forget something…. Red Army was almost finished at the end of 1941,the moral was low , supplies were not enough. What all romanian veterans who fought on Eastern front told was that if americans and british did not suplly with weapons ,truks,tanks,aeroplanes,raw materials and food, Soviet Union could not resist to the Axis allies!
Third, shame to von Manstein about the performance of Romanian Army !
At Stalingrad when Romanian Army 3 was overwelmed of three Russian armies and tanks, 40,000 Romanian soldiers were encircled and formed "Lascar Group". The "Lascar Group" had same order to fight until last man as german allias . Even if they had not more food and ammunition they refused to became POW and fought until few could to break the ecircled positions ( an battalion). In contrast von Paulus did not respect the direct order from Hitler and give the order to became POW to remains of 20th romanian Infantry division and 1st Cavalry division who were under his command.
Plus von Manstein have to remember that Romanian 6th Corp Army even underequpped and with heavy losses advanced in Southestern front until 1942 800 km kepping up with 4th Panzer army . MORE than any other german unit !
Odessa, Sevastopol, Caucas, Kuban….. Stalingrad these are big oprations where romanian participated active and did their jobs more than remarcable and with honor !

By: John Merkatatis

John Merkatatis — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:00:53 +0000

Yes Alex ,apologies for the oversight,it was the 11th not the 7th,an oversight-the 7th belongs elsewhere-but I don't know where you draw your information from,…be that as it may,in your Second point:
what does "tired of Italians lack of cooperation" mean? certainly the Romanians were placed there not to replace the Italians whose lines where to the north of the Romanians in an oblique line…
So the Romanians found two Soviet bridgeheads along the Don.It means two well entrenched bridgeheads which,If you don't know what a Soviet bridgehead meant read Guderian,especially about Baranov;if they already confronted the Romanians openly,Dumitrescu at best could only contain them,let alone destroy them.Since the bridgeheads were in his front,he didn't need permission to eliminate them if he could.
In reality,he most likely didn't have the means and needed German intervention;that he needed 'permission' for a local operation within the area of his command sounds a lame excuse,army commands don't have so strict operational control from above unless they were …Soviet armies..anyway the 6th army(Paulus) and the 4th army(Hoth) were fully engaged at the time,in and around Stalingrad and couldn't spare units for an independent operation aside from the main objective.
About the local economic and political situation in Romania I know it from Romanians of different beliefs,well placed to express an opinion,from German archives containing reports of assessment directed to superior commands and therefore reliable,from published documentation of embassies at the time in Romania(one of them was that of my country) and from individuals who were in contact with members of the Romanian Goverment at the time and I met such persons in the sixties.If they gave me 'false' or misleading information Alex then I have an unfounded argument,but,with respect,allow me to give credit to such information as it has been cross-checked over the years;I shall also trouble you to remember that the Russian occupation may have bedevilled Romania, but it has also prevented the arrest and trial of certain people who could have shed true light to certain aspects of the workings of the Romanian government from 1939 to 1944 and having passed under the protection of the communist regime for various reasons,had become inaccessible.

By: Tommaso

Tommaso — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:51:22 +0000

However, Lost Victories is a great account of an incredible part of our history. Obviously, the author was also an actor at the time, and the reader have to take this into account.
The descriptio of the behaviours of the Italian Army by von Manstain follows a similar if not a worst path. Obviously, the Rumenians had a much bigger involvement in the events than the Italians or the Hungarians.

By: Alex Constantin

Alex Constantin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:05:20 +0000

Fallowing the loss of territory in 1940, Romanian army was partially reorganized.
In 1941 there were only 3 Armies (1st, 3rd and 4th), 7 Army Corps (I-VII), 18 Infantry Divisions (1-11, 13-15, 18-21), 6 Cavalry Brigades – later divisions (1, 5-9), 4 Mountain Brigades – later divisions (1-4), 2 Guard Divisions, 1 Frontier Guards division and 6 Reserve Divisions which were disbanded at the end of that year (25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 35), plus other smaller units, totaling some 686.000 men.
The Romanian Army started a process of modernization in the mid of 1930’s, by purchasing or licence manufacturing a series of French, British, Czech, Italian and German weapons. This equipment, although sound for the late 30’ came obsolete during the war. As the war progressed the home industry produced more and more weapons, including rifles, machine guns, mortars, AT and AA guns, and developed it’s own SMG, Orita 9mm, and AT gun, Resita 75mm, and even a tank destroyer, Maresal, that never got to production because of the Soviets.
Another cause for the Romanian army’s lack of adequate equipment was Germany’s incapacity to provide the promised weapons. When Romania joined the Axis, she was promised substantial quantities of equipment which never came. The deliveries were slow and few and the weapons were in many cases obsolete.
Regarding the Polish planes, I know that several PZL models were locally produced under license at IAR, along side the natives IAR 80/81 and IAR 39, and later Me 109. As fore the equipment of the Polish forces which fled to Romania, some if not all of it was transferred through an agreement.