The Romanian Soldier

[Der Maresal]

How do you best describe the Romanian soldier?
What are his qualities?
What is he best at?
To what is he most loyal to? Under what conditions does he fight best?
At what point in history did he show the most courage?

What was the Romanian soldier like...in World War II, World War I ..and in the ancient and medieval days..

:?:





http://www.miscarea.com/capitala.html
Pictures of the Romanian revolution in 1989,

[Bernard Miclescu]

About the Romanian soldier in WW2, a good description you can find in the memoirs of feldmareshall von Manstein.

Most of the soldiers were country men and they fought well but they were bad endowed. Also Romanian Army didn't have good/enough subofficiers. With good commanders they done a lot of remarcable acts.

Tours,
BM

[C-2]

A problem in the Rom army in ww2 was that there was a corporal punishment,the Germans didn't like it.The comanders in the Rom army were more "distant" with the soldiers,in contrary the German oficers treated the lower ranks with a "parent"touch.
I think that the Romanian soldier was at his best at Odessa and Sevastopol.
A few months ago I had the oportunity to meet some of the Vets that recieved the M.Viteazul order and were promoted by the prezident to Generals.I heard some amaizing stories about the Crimeea campain.

[dragos]

There was a significant lack of training, that caused a huge amount of losses of NCOs and lower ranked officers. Platoon/company commanders were replaced continuously and they hardly had time to get acquainted with their troops. As a result, in critical situations soldiers often disobeyed orders. Fighting tanks was also a problem. Green troops were usually fleeing at the sight of Soviet armor. At the begining of war, there were cases in which Romanian soldiers fired at their own aircraft flying at low altitude.

[Orok]

[quote]About the Romanian soldier in WW2, a good description you can find in the memoirs of feldmareshall von Manstein. [/quote]

We are all familiar with German comments on Romanian performance in WWII. But what are the comments from the enemy - the Russians - before the turnabout? Also has anybody read about comments from Romanians other allies who might have observed the Romanians fighting, such as the Italians, Hungarians (? :roll: ) and Bulgarians?

Regards!

[Bernard Miclescu]

The only one who can tell something about the Romanians should by one of the former allies till 23/08/1944: memoirs from the Hungarian troops. Unfortunatly I don't know what the Hungarian officers wrote about the Romanian troops. I hope that Denes or Csaba will help us more.

For the Italiens I only know the episod with the Ruspoli brothers who were fighting against the VVS in the ARR.

Yours,
BM

[Orok]

QUOTE

For the Italiens I only know the episod with the Ruspoli brothers who were fighting against the VVS in the ARR.   Yours, BM

Can you please direct me to a website on this or can you please elaborate on it with more details? It sounds very interesting!

Thanks!

Regards!

[C-2]

It's no much to tell about the Ruspoli brothers;they came to fight against the Russians with their REggianne airplanes and some grownd crew.
At the begining they were not let to fight.
After some time they started flying some missions.In one mission two of the the brothers were killed and the third left for Italy.
The relations between them and the ARR pilots were exelent.
If you want a site about the ARR try www.arr.go.ro

[Orok]

Thanks C-2.

When I said Italians I was thinking about members of the Italian 8. Army which was stationed alongside Romanian troops on Ostfront. I am interested in what they had to say about the Romanians' performance in war and their general opinions about the Romanian soldiers. I understand many Romanians considered Italians first cousins of them, all decended from the ancient Romans. I wonder if this feeling was reciprocated from the Italian side.

Thanks a lot.

[Dénes]

QUOTE

It's no much to tell about the Ruspoli brothers;they came to fight against the Russians with their REggianne airplanes and some grownd crew. At the begining they were not let to fight. After some time they started flying some missions.In one mission two of the the brothers were killed and the third left for Italy.

The death of Ruspoli brothers in air combat over Bessarabia is only an urban myth. The story is originating from several Rumanian veterans' memoirs and was lifted into various books unchecked. In fact, only one of the Ruspolis was a pilot and he did not die in Rumania.

Dénes

[Dénes]

QUOTE

The only one who can tell something about the Romanians should by one of the former allies till 23/08/1944: memoirs from the Hungarian troops. Unfortunatly I don't know what the Hungarian officers wrote about the Romanian troops. I hope that Denes or Csaba will help us more.

Hungarians could not write anything concrete about the quality of Rumanian troops prior to Sept. 1944, as they did not fight together. The Germans made sure that the two armies were separated on the battlefield.

Dénes

[C-2]

QUOTE

QUOTE It's no much to tell about the Ruspoli brothers;they came to fight against the Russians with their REggianne airplanes and some grownd crew. At the begining they were not let to fight. After some time they started flying some missions.In one mission two of the the brothers were killed and the third left for Italy. The death of Ruspoli brothers in air combat over Bessarabia is only an urban myth. The story is originating from several Rumanian veterans' memoirs and was lifted into various books unchecked. In fact, only one of the Ruspolis was a pilot and he did not die in Rumania. Dénes

Denes,
So another bed time story...
I heard from Dobran I think about one Ruspoli so I thought the story I red in you know who's book is true.... :cry:
seems not :evil:

[Dénes]

QUOTE

QUOTE The death of Ruspoli brothers in air combat over Bessarabia is only an urban myth. Denes, So another bed time story... I heard from Dobran I think about one Ruspoli so I thought the story I red in you know who's book is true.... :cry: seems not :evil:

This bed-time story in I-don't-really-know-whom are you referreing-to's book is not true.
Indeed, there was one Italian volunteer pilot, Carlo Maurizio Ruspoli, Prince of Poggio Suasa, who fought for a while in the ARR in 1941 and force landed with his Macchi MC.200 at least once, but did not die. He returned safely to Italy.

Dénes

[Dénes]

Here is a picture showing Rumanian soldiers at the fall of Odessa, in Oct. 1941 (photo found on eBay):

[Dr_V]

QUOTE

Dragos said: Fighting tanks was also a problem. Green troops were usually fleeing at the sight of Soviet armor. At the begining of war, there were cases in which Romanian soldiers fired at their own aircraft flying at low altitude.

The "green" Romanian soliders made more than fleeing from Soviet tanks. There were ocasions when they've fled from any tank, even German or Romanian, causing panic in the retreating columns. More, some "intelligent" young officers were ordering the men to attack tanks with bullets and offensive grenades and the results of such opperations contributed to the popular belief that a tank cannot be destroyed by any infantry unit.
As for the planes, a veteran told me that they were shooting at anything that was flying above, they did not knew how to recognize the friendly aeroplanes, nighther how to estimate the altitude.

But there were a few experienced men that learned fast what the training did not offered them. Another veteran I know was a pioneer (sergeant) and he has a very acid opinion about the Soviet tanks. A "Molotov" cocktail solved the problem "almost too easy", he was more concearned by the heavy artilery and the Russian strongpoints that he had to attack. He told me that the Soviet tank crews were especially affraid of being burned alive by the pioneers and if one or 2 tanks were incendiated the others quickly changed direction and fled from that area.

"Der Maresal "
I promiss to finish translating the story of sergeant Zamfir (my old veteran friend) in a couple of days. I'll put it on the forum as a new topic, it has about 5 pages in Word. It's a look of the battles through the eyes of an infantry seargent (pioneer), from the tranches. I hope you'll find it interesting.