Infantry uniform clarification

[Grizzly]

Hello All,

As most of you know I have been researching information for some modeling projects depicting armed forces of Romania and in my research I came across these color plates of two romanian soldiers wearing different types of equipment.
Now all the info I have found on this and a few other sites shows the puttees and have been sculpting them on the legs of some of my in progress figures; now one pic shows the soldier wearing anklets instead of the puttees and a larger ammo pouch instead of the smaller two i have seen here on this site; now i have some WW2 Japanese ammo pouches that could be converted to where I have to sculpt the other type so what I would like to know from those here who have the knowledge to tell me if the one color plate with the anklets and single pouch is accurate or not? For as I mentioned I have not found any pictures with Romanian troops wearing this equipment.
The early part of the war is what I am aiming to model so I want to be as accurate as possible.

[Kepi]

Those pictures were initially published in Andrew Mollo’s work “The armed forces of World War II”, released in 1981. Since many other books were published presenting Romanian army uniforms of WW2. I would recommend you the following studies:
• Mark Axworthy, Horia Vladimir Şerbănescu, The Romanian Army of Worid War 2, Osprey „Men at arms” series, Nr. 246, London, 1991;
• Horia Vladimir Şerbănescu L’armée roumaine 1941-1945, in “Militaria Magazine” No.110, septembre 1994;
• Cornel I. Scafeş, Horia Vl. Şerbănescu, Ioan I. Scafeş, Cornel Andonie, Ioan Dănilă, Romeo Avram, Armata Română. 1941-1945, Editura RAI, Bucureşti, 1996.

Malcom McGregor, the artist who produced the colour figures, used reference photos for his artwork, which are an extremely accurate source for a researcher but sometimes are not the most representative for the subject. The soldier with anklets belonged probably to a reserve or second line unit, that policed Transnistria in 1942-43, because he carries a WW1 big cartridge pouch, instead of two standard M.1939 Czech type small pouches. The rifle might be a M.1893 Mannlicher , 6.5 mm, and not the standard Vz.-24, Czech rifle. The folding spade is german and should be carried on the left hip.
From 1943 the traditional „Capela” (field cap) replaced the „Boneta” (side cap) and the putees replaced the anklets.

[Grizzly]

Oh I see; thankyou for the clarification on the two , so I am on the right track then still have to sculpt the czech ammo pouches
Thanks for your help Kepi and also for the tanker helmet question earlier this week.


I found the book by Andrew Mollo and it is in transit as well as a copy of that Osprey book but not sure if I can find any back issues of the Militaria Magazine as it isn't an easy publication to find in my area of California. I'll keep looking though

This post has been edited by Grizzly on March 24, 2006 02:44 pm

[dragos]

Here are some pictures from the Militaria magazine mentioned by Kepi. Sorry for the quality of the scan.


Source: Militaria No. 110, September 1994

[mihnea]

Why is the soldier in the left picture without a face!?

Here is a better scan:


The picture from the right is from Militaria Magazine nr 157 the article "Les tenues d’hiver de l’armee roumaine (2)".

Also there are two more articles from Militaria Magazin representing the romanian army "Les tenues d’hiver de l’armee roumaine (1)" (from Nr 154) and "Le fantassin roumain a Budapest" (from Nr 164).

[Grizzly]

These scans are just right! thankyou for doing this! I appreciate all the help everyone on this forum has provided for me and for putting up with all the questions
Hopeing to have some of my projects done soon to show in the modeling forum.