Independence War 1877-1878, Military campaign

Major George Şonţu


From Armata română în Războiul de Independenţă 1877-1878

Well, one of my basic interests is the uniformology, but I am not a "expert" about the turkish uniforms in the 1877-878 war. I made the addition acording this, what I have red and seen as colour plates. Kepi, your information, that the most of the turkish infantry uniforms are zuave style is very interesting and realy new for me.
Yes, the drawing of the Bulgarian volunteer in Osprey M277, and some elements of the russian uniforms there, are very incorrect. It is the same situation with the dorobanz soldier, shown there. Could you post here your notes about the Romanian vanator and line infantryman from this book ? My information about this uniforms is only from this source. Thanks in advance.

As I understand there was a failing of uniforms for the line infantry too ??
Actualy, how big was this failing for the all Romanian army in the eve of the war ?

Thank you for the photo

This post has been edited by Sturmpionier on July 23, 2006 10:02 am

I bought the Osprey title on the Russo-Turkish War many years ago, because it was one of the few titles I could find that contained information on Romanian and Turkish uniforms. However, I started to think that it was not very accurate, and I think a possible reason for this is that the author probably did not use any Romanian, Turkish, Bulgarian or Russian sources when he was writing the book.
Nearly all of the pictures come from different books published in England at the time of the war, or thereabouts, for example; Cassel's History of the Russo-Turkish War etc.
Much of the uniform and other information comes, I suspect, from 'Intelligence' manuals and other publications of the War Office in London, and possibly contemporary articles in military journals, but mostly UK ones. This means that there is scope for inaccuracies to creep in.

Nowadays, with more access to other sources, I think a much better Osprey could be written.

The problem with Osprey (and probably other publishers, which have some interest in publishing such 'exotic' topics) is that once they covered a particular subject, they would not touch it again for at least ten years.

I also published with them a book on Rumanian aviation, and when I approached them again with another (not similar) topic, they told me to get in touch with them in about ten years.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on August 04, 2006 02:02 pm

Hi Denes,
What is the title of your book?

Finally I found some. One guy from the Bulgarian military history forum ( http://forum.boinaslava.net/showthread.php...8137#post158137 ) has the idea to take photos of all monuments round Pleven. With his permission I post here the photos of Romanian monuments and items.


Romanian monument in Grivita


Part of this monument. Translation please


Romanian uniforms from the Grivita museum. Is the right uniform, uniform of a dorobanz officer ?


Romanian battle flags from the same museum. Are they battalion or regimental flags ?

This post has been edited by Sturmpionier on August 12, 2006 05:40 pm

"He/she who fights heroically, his/her name will remain eternal" (written in old-style Rumanian language).

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on August 12, 2006 08:03 pm

Thanks

Thanks for the photos.

The other side of the monument in Griviţa:

From the site of the Military Historical Museums in Plevna

I hope I will have more photos in future.
I have one one question more: How was the OoB of the two calarasi Brigades of Armata de operatii in August 1877 ? There were seven calarasi reguments, but how were they alignmented in the two Brigades ?

This post has been edited by Sturmpionier on August 13, 2006 04:48 pm

Nobody knows ?

There were actually a total of 10 cavalry regiments. During the war, some of these were temporarely grouped in several formations:
- The Cavalry Division, consisting of the Rosiori Brigade (1 and 2 Rosiori regiments), the "C. Formac Cavalry Brigade" (5 and 6 Calarasi regiments) and the 1st Horse Artillery Battery, this unit was later part of the Russian-Romanian Cavalry Corps
- the Rosiori Brigade was a part of the "General Meyendorf cavalry detachment", which also had some Russian cavalry units

After the war, during the tensions with Russia, the cavalry units were grouped in:
- 1st Cavalry Division (3,4,7,8 Calarasi Regiments)
- 2nd Cavalry Division (1,2,5,6 Calarasi Regiments)
- Rosiori Brigade (1 and 2 Rosiori Regiments)

Old Bulgarian postcard with the Carol I Museum near Plevna (from eBay)

Some news: The Romanian monument, was restorated and now it's locate in the centre of the town of Oryahovo. Unfortunately I fon't have any information about the cemetry.

Fascinating stuff, many thanks for the information. I'm planning a 54mm wargame on the war, and am about to embark on converting and painting the figures, so uniform info is great. I have the Osprey, and a couple of UK hobby magazine articles, but that's all, so more accurate information is really helpful. The results will end up appearing in an article in Toy Soldier & Model Figure, a UK toy soldier magazine. I will cite this DG and acknowledge the contributors, of course.

Can anyone tell me where I can buy the Armata Romana book, please? I have the earlier one for 1859-1866, but did not know of the 2nd volume as it is not listed on the 1st.

Also how to subscribe to a topic, please? All DGs seem to have different ways of doing it! Thanks.

Mike