Until 1940, Romanian military thought and military practice were guided by the French military school. However, after the defeat of France in June 1940, the Romanian military began to give preference to the German school. In October of the same year, a permanent German mission arrived in Romania. Its main goal was to prepare the Romanian army for war, with the greatest attention paid to the fight against tanks and the training of junior commanders.

The modernization program was only partially successful. A 7.92 mm Czech-made rifle replaced the old 6.5 mm Mannlicher system, and the cavalry received the light Czech ZB 30 assault rifle. At the same time, there were still many weapons of outdated models in the army. Anti-tank artillery was weak, although the Germans supplied the Romanians with captured 47 mm guns. Only the mountain rifle corps received modern Skoda artillery guns. Most field guns have been in service since the beginning of the First World War, although captured French and Polish 75-mm guns also entered the army. Most of the artillery was still horse-drawn.

On September 1, 1939, the Romanian army consisted of 1 Guards and 21 Infantry Divisions. In 1940, the intensive formation of new compounds began.

The general management of military development was carried out by the Supreme Defense Council, chaired by the Prime Minister. With the outbreak of war, this post was taken by the leader (conducător) Ion Victor Antonescu.

The military forces were directly led by the Ministry of War (through the General Staff).

The Romanian armed forces consisted of the ground forces, air force and navy, as well as border guard corps, gendarmerie and construction corps.

The ground forces included 3 combined arms armies (21 infantry divisions and 14 brigades). They were armed with 3,850 guns, up to 4 thousand mortars, and 236 tanks.

The Romanian infantry division in 1941 included 3 infantry regiments, 1 artillery brigade (2 regiments), a battery of anti-aircraft guns, a company of anti-tank guns and machine guns, a reconnaissance squadron, a communications battalion, an engineer battalion and service units. In total, the division had 17,715 people, it had 13,833 rifles, 572 machine guns, 186 guns and mortars (75 mm field guns, 100 mm howitzers, 37 mm and 47 mm anti-tank guns).

The regiments of the regular army bore numbers from the 1st to the 33rd and from the 81st to the 96th, and the regiments of the first group were traditionally called “grenadiers” - “Dorobanti”. Some divisions had "Vanatori" regiments, i.e. riflemen who wore numbers from 1 to 10.

After the First World War, elite mountain units were formed according to the Italian model, like the “Alpine shooters”. Each of these 4 brigades had 1 artillery and 2 rifle regiments, as well as a reconnaissance squadron.

A squad of skiers from the Romanian mountain riflemen. 1941

Romanian mountain riflemen in positions in Crimea. 1942

Attack of the Romanian mountain riflemen. Crimea, 1942

Was considered especially strong Romanian cavalry. In addition to the Horse Guards, in the summer of 1941 there were 25 more line cavalry regiments.

Romanian cavalry in the Ukrainian steppes. 1941

In 1941, the only separate tank regiment (which had existed since 1939) was combined with a motorized rifle regiment into an armored brigade. At the beginning of the war, the Romanian army was mainly armed with Skoda LTvz 35 tanks, and for reconnaissance, the units had a number of light CKD tanks. Most of the Skodas were lost in the battles of Stalingrad (some were later converted to self-propelled 76 mm guns), and they were replaced by German PzKpfw 38(t) and T-IV.

Romanian Air Force included 11 aeroflotillas: fighter - 3, bomber - 3, reconnaissance - 3, seaplanes - 1, balloons - 1. In total, the Air Force had 1050 aircraft, of which about 700 were combat: fighters - 301, bombers - 122, others - 276.

The Romanian naval forces consisted of the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Flotilla. By the beginning of the war, the Romanian Black Sea Fleet had 2 auxiliary cruisers, 4 destroyers, 3 destroyers, a submarine, 3 gunboats, 3 torpedo boats, 13 minesweepers and minelayers. The Danube river flotilla included 7 monitors, 3 floating batteries, 15 armored boats, 20 river boats and auxiliary vessels.

In the summer of 1941, for an attack on the Soviet Union, Romania allocated 2 field armies (3rd and 4th), consisting of 13 infantry divisions, 5 infantry, 1 motorized and 3 cavalry brigades, about 3 thousand guns and mortars, 60 tanks.

The offensive of the ground forces was to be supported by 623 combat aircraft. In total, 360 thousand troops were recruited to participate in the war against the Soviet Union.
Romanian military uniform.

1st stage of the war against the USSR

To wage the war against the Soviet Union, the Romanian army used mainly infantry weapons of its own production. In 1941, Romania produced 2.5 thousand light machine guns, 4 thousand machine guns, 2,250 60-mm and 81.4-mm mortars, 428 75-mm artillery pieces, 160 47-mm anti-tank guns, 106 37-mm mm and 75 mm anti-aircraft guns, over 2.7 million mines and shells.

The German command assigned the Romanian troops the task of ensuring the deployment of the 11th German Army in Romania and its offensive in Right Bank Ukraine. The headquarters of the 11th Army were reassigned from the 3rd Romanian Army 4 infantry divisions, 3 mountain rifle and 3 cavalry brigades. The remaining Romanian troops, consolidated into the 4th Army, were deployed on the extreme right wing of the Soviet-German front.

For combat operations in the Black Sea, Germany, not having its own warships there, used the Romanian Navy.

The 3rd Romanian Army included mountain rifle (1st, 2nd and 4th mountain brigades) and cavalry (partially motorized 5th, 6th and 8th cavalry brigades) corps. The 4th Army included the first three divisions trained by German instructors (5th, 6th and 13th) and other selected formations (guards division, border and armored brigades).

During the Siege of Odessa (August 5 - October 16, 1941), Romanian troops received significant reinforcements and eventually came to include the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th -th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 18th and 21st infantry and 35th reserve divisions, 1st, 7th and 9th cavalry brigades; in addition, separate German units were assigned to the armies.

Near Odessa, due to poor preparation and lack of weapons, the Romanian units suffered heavy losses - on September 22, 2 infantry divisions were defeated. After the garrison of Odessa was evacuated from October 1 to October 16, 1941, the 4th Romanian Army had to be sent for reorganization.

Military units from the 3rd Army (as well as the 1st, 2nd, 10th and 18th Infantry Divisions) remained at the front, although they came under the command of German generals. The mountain rifle corps fought in the Crimea as part of the 11th German Army, and the cavalry corps as part of the 1st Tank Army. Smaller units, such as the Romanian mechanized regiment and ski squads, also operated alongside German units during the winter campaign.

2nd stage of the war against the USSR

In the summer of 1942, there was a build-up of Romanian forces on the Eastern Front. The Mountain Rifle Corps (later the 18th Infantry and 1st Mountain Rifle Divisions) was involved in the attack on Sevastopol. In 1942, the brigade was reorganized according to Wehrmacht standards and the 1st Armored Division (later called “Greater Romania”) was created.

In August, a strong Romanian corps (which included the 18th and 19th infantry, 8th cavalry and 3rd mountain rifle divisions) crossed the Kerch Strait with battles. At the same time, the 2nd Mountain Division, which had been on vacation since the end of 1941, was transferred to the North Caucasus, where it became part of the 3rd German Tank Corps. The 3rd Army of General Dumitrescu reappeared at the front (5th, 6th, 9th, 13th, 14th and 15th Infantry, 1st and 7th Cavalry, 1st Armored Divisions ) and in October occupied the area north of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, the Romanian corps reached the forefront on the southern flank.

In November 1942, it was replenished with other units, and then transferred to the 4th German Tank Army (a total of 6 Romanian divisions: 1st, 2nd, 4th and 18th infantry, 5th and 8th cavalry ). Hitler proposed that most of the units of the German 4th Panzer Army go to General Constantinescu's 4th Army, and then, together with the Romanian 3rd and German 6th armies, form a new Army Group "Don" under the command of Marshal Antonescu.

The 4th Army moved forward and began deployment just at the moment when Soviet troops began an operation to encircle the Stalingrad group. Most of the Romanian divisions were defeated, and two (20th Infantry and 1st Cavalry) ended up inside the “Stalingrad Pocket”. The remnants of the units were collected into hastily organized army groups "Goth" (1st, 2nd, 4th and 18th infantry, 5th and 8th cavalry divisions) and "Hollid" (7th, 9th I, 1st and 14th Infantry, 7th Cavalry and 1st Armored Divisions), but they suffered such heavy losses that by February 1943 they were withdrawn to reorganize.

The morale of the Romanian military dropped significantly. This allowed the Soviet command to begin in the fall of 1943 to create from former prisoners Romanian formations in the Soviet army.

3rd stage of the war against the USSR

The counter-offensive of the Soviet troops led to the fact that many Romanian divisions were under the threat of encirclement on the Kuban bridgehead and in the Crimea (10th and 19th infantry, 6th and 9th cavalry, 1st, 2nd, 3rd me and the 4th Mountain Division). The Germans sought to remove them from the front line and throughout 1943 they used the Romanians mainly in the defense of the coastline and in the fight against partisans.

In April 1944, the 10th Infantry and 6th Cavalry Divisions, which were considered “resistant,” were defeated in Crimea. Most of the units were withdrawn from the battles and returned to Romania for reorganization. The troops withdrawn to Romania were used to defend Bessarabia.

4th stage of the war against the USSR

By May 1944, the 3rd and 4th armies went to the front. Now the Romanians managed to insist on establishing some kind of parity in the distribution of command posts in the German-Romanian group. On the right flank, as part of Dumitrescu’s army group, were the 3rd Romanian and 6th German armies (the 2nd, 14th and 21st infantry, 4th mountain rifle and 1st cavalry Romanian divisions fought here).

The 4th Romanian Army, together with the 8th German Army, formed the Weller Army Group (it included the following Romanian formations: Guards, 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11 -I, 13th and 20th Infantry, 5th Cavalry and 1st Armored Divisions). With the start of the Soviet offensive in August 1944, this front collapsed.

Romania in the war against Germany and Hungary (1944 - 1945)

King Mihai arrested Antonescu, and Romania joined the anti-Hitler coalition. Her participation in the war on the German side was over. At the same time some a number of convinced Romanian fascists voluntarily joined the SS troops.

After some hesitation, the Soviet command decided use Romanian formations at the front. The 1st Army (created on the basis of divisions and training units withdrawn from Crimea) and the new 4th Army (almost entirely composed of training units) again began fighting in Transylvania. In combat against German-Hungarian troops The Romanian Air Force showed itself actively.

In total, Romania lost 350 thousand people in battles with Soviet troops, and at the end of the war another 170 thousand in battles with German and Hungarian troops.

Romania in World War II

It was clear that Karol needed to receive divine sanction in the form of a patriarch heading the cabinet of ministers to implement radical changes. And they were not slow to follow. In February 1938, the king held a referendum to approve the new constitution. Voting took place as follows - the voter had to come to the polling station and verbally, of course, without any respect for the secrecy of expression of will, speak out for or against the fundamental law. The Constitution is adopted by a majority of 99.87%.

The new basic law radically expands the powers of the king. The existence of parliament, however, is also provided for, but the essence of this institution changes due to the fact that all parties are prohibited. Instead, the National Revival Front is created. Very quickly 3.5 million people join it. Young people do not have to make a choice at all - the entire population of the country who has reached the age of 17 enrolls in the organization “Guards of Tsariya”. It was in vain that communist propaganda then cursed Karol for many decades - after all, the man did so much to prepare the future citizens of socialist Romania and Soviet Moldova for their already very close communist future.

The death penalty is introduced, which was abolished by General Kiselyov more than a hundred years earlier. But suffrage now extends to women. Another thing is that only the youngest girls had a chance to survive until the next free elections - Romania and Moldova had to wait 52 years for them.

The country meekly accepted the destruction by the king of democratic institutions that had taken so long and difficult to build. Karol, in turn, did not apply repression to representatives of the democratic parties, being satisfied that they sat quietly. But in the legionnaires he saw serious opponents, the fifth column of the German Nazis, and it must be assumed that he was simply jealous of Codreanu’s popularity. So they were subjected to mass arrests and then executions. Codreanu was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, but in November 1938, on the orders of the king, he was killed in prison.

If at the time of the establishment of the royal dictatorship in Romania the situation in Europe was still relatively calm, then in the following months it, as if trying to justify the measures of the Romanian authorities for internal consolidation, began to rapidly deteriorate. The betrayal of Czechoslovakia by Britain and France, which led to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland in October 1938, was very bad news for Romania. The country felt abandoned by traditional allies, defenseless in the face of the USSR, Hungary and Bulgaria, who were thirsty for revenge. The ancient fear, which receded in 1856 and seemingly dissipated in 1918, begins to rise again from the depths of the Romanian soul.

In March 1939, Germany liquidates Czechoslovakia. The Little Entente, from which the strongest link has been knocked out, ceases to exist. Carol, although inspired by Italian and German examples in domestic policy, still wants to remain an ally of Great Britain and France. But the fear of Hitler is also growing. Therefore, Romania is trying to please both camps of opponents in the impending war.

The Romanians are inferior to the Nazis on the most important issue for the latter, which will run like a red thread through the entire history of Romanian-German relations during the Second World War - access to Romanian oil. On March 23, 1939, an economic agreement was concluded between Romania and Germany, according to which the latter becomes the priority buyer of Romanian oil, but Hitler does not want to pay in hard currency. The Germans pay by barter, mainly with weapons. This marks the end of the golden age of Romania's oil boom.

On the other hand, in April 1939 Romania accepted British and French military guarantees of its sovereignty. A project for joint opposition to Germany by forces of France, Great Britain, the USSR and Eastern European countries is beginning to be developed. Poland's refusal to allow Soviet troops into its territory led to the failure of this first attempt at an anti-Hitler coalition, followed by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the outbreak of World War II. The consequences of the Polish refusal became catastrophic, but the events of 1944 - 1948 proved that there were good reasons for such a decision.

Having agreed with Stalin on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, Hitler agreed to the return to the USSR of the territories that went to Romania in 1918, and at the same time that belonged to Romania, but populated mainly by Ukrainians of northern Bukovina.

Romania did not know that it had already begun to be divided, but the brutal defeat of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union could not but give rise to the most terrible forebodings about its own future. Great Britain and France, following the guarantees provided to Poland, declared war on the Nazis. The Romanian leadership, numb with horror, did not even dare to think about any attempts to join the fight on the side of its allies from the last world war. At the crown council on September 6, 1939, it was decided to strictly observe neutrality.

But the Romanians still showed a minimum of solidarity in the tragedy that befell Poland. The border with Romania was the only loophole where the Poles could escape from the German and Soviet clutches that were squeezing them. In September 1939, many trains passed through Romanian territory, carrying the Polish government and gold reserves, thousands of soldiers and refugees. They reached the Black Sea ports of Romania, from where they went into long exile.

While the trains carrying the unfortunate Poles were passing through Romania from the northern border to Constanta, events unfolded in the country, ugly in terms of the intensity of hatred and rampant barbarism. On September 21, 1939, Prime Minister Călinescu (who headed the government in March 1939, after the death of the patriarch) was assassinated by the Iron Guard. In response, the king, distraught with fear and hatred, ordered the immediate, without trial, killing of 252 legionnaires in prison. The bodies of the dead were thrown onto the main streets of Romanian cities and lay there for three days to intimidate the people. Romania dreamed of being like ancient Rome, and in some ways it achieved its goal. If Carol I is comparable in his merits to the Emperor Octavian Augustus, then in the person of Carol II the country received a ruler in the spirit of Nero or Caligula.

The Romanians might indeed have been frightened for a long time, but in their past, which was now returning, external circumstances often prevented the consolidation of the power of tyrants within the country. On May 10, 1940, German troops launched a general offensive on the western front. By the end of May, the French army was defeated, the remnants of the English fled from the continent. On June 14, the Nazis entered Paris. On June 22, France surrendered. On June 17, the USSR begins the occupation and annexation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Only 20 years have passed since the West was at the height of its power. But the top is slippery and windy, and it’s not easy to stay on it for a long time. From the turn of the 1920s to the 1930s, the economic crisis, the growing power of the Soviet Union and the Nazis' rise to power in Germany undermined the strength and influence of Western civilization so that it now stood on the brink of destruction. Romania had shared the West's triumph in 1918, and now it had to share its misfortunes.

The situation forces the Romanians to make decisions quickly - already on May 28, without waiting for the final fall of France, the Crown Council of Romania decides on the country's orientation toward an alliance with Germany. But this could not change anything in the fate of the eastern lands of Romania, already spelled out in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

On the night of June 27, 1940, the USSR presented Romania with an ultimatum demanding the immediate transfer of the eastern provinces. The British guarantees are still formally in force, but it is obvious to everyone that Great Britain cannot provide any assistance. The Romanians ask Germany for support, but receive a recommendation from Berlin not to resist the Soviet Union. On June 28, Romania accepts the ultimatum, and on the same day the Soviet army crosses the Dniester.

Units of the Soviet army occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in three days, ahead of the Romanian military units and administration trying to evacuate anything, as well as hundreds of thousands of refugees rushing to the Prut. Bessarabian Jews, being offended by Romanian society for anti-Semitism, and trying to curry favor with the new masters, welcome Soviet troops and plunder the property of the Romanian army and administration. On July 3, the withdrawal of Romanian troops from the provinces transferred to the Soviet Union is completed. Together with them, about 300 thousand refugees are leaving Bessarabia and northern Bukovina - a significant part of the representatives of the propertied and educated classes of these lands. Those who risked staying soon regretted it. In the year from the moment of the Soviet occupation until the offensive of German and Romanian troops in June 1941, 90 thousand people were subjected to repression in Eastern Moldova and Northern Bukovina. The most severe blow to the population of the regions was the deportation of 31 thousand Bessarabians and Bukovinians in June 1941. There was also a considerable return flow - 150 thousand residents of Eastern Moldova, who were in other regions of Romania, either hoping for a better future under socialism, or fearing the closure of the border , hastened to return to their homeland.

On August 2, 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the creation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. At the same time, the borders in the region have undergone serious revision. Northern Bukovina, as well as southern Bessarabia adjacent to the Danube and the Black Sea, where Moldovans were a minority, were transferred to Ukraine. Part of the Bulgarian and Gagauz lands went to Moldova. But there are no Germans left in these lands. By agreement between the USSR and Germany, all 110 thousand of them were exported to German territory. The Germans traveled in greater comfort than those Bessarabians whom the Soviet authorities took to Siberia, but it is unlikely that this made separation from their homeland, where several generations of their ancestors lived, much easier.

But a strip of land along the eastern bank of the Dniester, on which Moldavian autonomy previously existed, was taken from Ukraine and transferred to Moldova.

The new possessions of the communist empire were brought to the all-Soviet standard with maximum speed. Already in July, lei were exchanged for rubles, which provided the population of the new Soviet lands with equality in poverty - only a very small amount was exchanged, and all savings in excess of it turned into nothing. On August 15, 1940, a law followed on the nationalization of all large and medium-sized enterprises in Eastern Moldova and Northern Bukovina. And the Soviet authorities did not have to close the free Russian-language press of Bessarabia - the Romanian royal dictatorship did this job for them in 1938.

Greater Romania no longer existed. The country was again defenseless, desperately looking for a ruler whose protection would allow it to survive. King II demonstrates his readiness to accept any humiliation in order for Hitler to protect the unfortunate country from its neighbors.

The surviving legionnaires are given an amnesty, and their new leader, Horiya Sima, is included in the cabinet. Jews are being dismissed from government agencies, and a law is being passed banning marriages with representatives of the “small people.” By continuing to live with a Jewish woman without formalizing the relationship, Karol, presumably, shows his subjects that the ugly law he himself adopted can be bypassed. Romania refuses British military guarantees and leaves the League of Nations, then asks to join the Berlin-Rome axis.

After leaving the eastern regions, Defense Minister Ion Antonescu demanded that the king grant him emergency powers, for which he was removed and sent into exile. Carol's power still held, but the events that would put an end to it were approaching quickly and inexorably.

Romania seems to be able to count on Germany’s understanding, given the importance of its oil sources. But Romanian fuel is not yet of critical importance for the Nazis. Relations with the USSR are good, and Germany can buy oil there. So Karol receives from Berlin the most terrible answer he expected - Germany will condescend to an alliance with Romania only after the claims of Hungary and Bulgaria regarding compensation for what they lost in 1918 and 1913 have been settled.

Budapest demands to give up most of Transylvania, agreeing to leave some areas along the southern Carpathians to the Romanians. Bucharest tries to object. Germany, as the supreme European arbiter, undertakes to make the arbitration decision. On August 30, 1940, the decision of the Vienna Arbitration is announced - Transylvania is divided in half. Romania must give Hungary the northern part of the region with Cluj and the Székely lands. Thousands of Romanians themselves flee northern Transylvania, while other thousands are deported to Romanian territory by the Hungarian authorities. In total, Romania receives another 300 thousand displaced people. In a number of places, reprisals by the Hungarian army against the Romanian population are taking place.

Finally, on September 7, 1940, an agreement with Bulgaria was signed in Craiova on the return of southern Dobruja to it. Although the Bulgarians and Romanians do not seem to share fierce hostility, according to the custom of the fierce times that have come, the parties agree on mutual ethnic cleansing. Several tens of thousands of Bulgarians are being deported from Romania, several tens of thousands of Romanians are being deported from Bulgaria. In total, Romania lost a third of its territory and a third of its population in 1940.

Cruelty, corruption and the pervasive influence of the Jewish favorite had long made King II unpopular in the country. For the time being they were afraid of him. But the endless nightmare of surrendering Romanian lands without a fight forced the Romanians to overcome their fear. The finest hour of the legionnaires has come. After the announcement of the decision of the Vienna Arbitration on Transylvania, hundreds of thousands of people across the country, responding to the call of the leadership of the Iron Guard, went out to demonstrations demanding Carol's abdication of the throne. The king did not dare force the army, which had just given up many lands to foreign peoples without a fight, to fight against its own people.

He is trying to find mutual understanding with society, putting the disgraced Minister of Defense Antonescu at the head of the government on September 4. But he deals him the final blow - on behalf of the army he joins the Iron Guards’ demand for the king’s abdication. There is nothing more to hope for, so on the morning of September 6, Carol II abdicates the throne. The day is spent collecting and loading money and valuables that will help the deposed king and his girlfriend spend the rest of their days comfortably, and in the evening Carol and Elena Lupescu board a train that takes them to the Yugoslav border.

The deposed monarch lived until 1953, settling in Portugal. Having left his homeland, which brought so much trouble and grief to this man who loved a good life, Karol finally formalized his legal marriage with Elena Lupescu.

Mihai returns to the Romanian throne. He has already reached adulthood, but no one intends to allow the king to rule the country. The only thing he needs is to give Prime Minister Antonescu dictatorial powers. But the young man can meet his mother again. Queen Helen returns from exile.

Frightening-looking columns of legionnaire fighters are marching through the streets of Bucharest. Multimillion-dollar royal batch of the 1938 model. disappears overnight without a trace. Romania is proclaimed a "national legionary state." As in the early days of Turkish rule, when Dracula was rampant in Wallachia, the people are not ready to come to terms with the loss of the country’s former status. Discipline, determination and ruthlessness towards enemies should help the nation overcome its merciless fate.

The objects of revenge for Romania's powerlessness in the face of external enemies are people of the “wrong” nationality living quietly inside the country. In the fall of 1940, laws were passed on the nationalization of the property of Jews and Hungarians, then on their dismissal from all more or less decent jobs. The persecution of Jews also serves to improve relations with Germany, with which hopes for revenge are pinned.

And things are improving in this area. The Nazi government claims that now that Romania has shared its lands with its neighbors, it can provide it with guarantees of territorial integrity. The latter very quickly receive material embodiment - in October German troops are brought into Romania. On November 23, Antonescu was favorably received in Berlin, where Romania’s accession to the Berlin-Rome axis was formalized.

All that remains is to decide who will lead the country to revenge - Antonescu or the legionnaires led by Sima. The government formed in September included several legionnaires, but key positions were occupied by military men loyal to the prime minister. The Iron Guards are putting more and more pressure on Antonescu, demanding that control over the army and police, all public life and the country's economy be transferred to them.

The reburial of Codreanu and other legionnaires who were victims of the royal dictatorship, organized in November, led society into a state of hysteria. The general brutality, the first victims of which were Jews and Hungarians, now fell on the Romanians. On the night when Codreanu’s secret burial was discovered in the courtyard of the Jilava prison, the legionnaires killed 64 officials from the royal dictatorship who were sitting there, and in the following days the economist Madjaru and the historian Iorga. Nature seemed to also respond to the madness of people - in November 1940, a powerful earthquake led to great destruction and casualties in the south of Moldova and in the east of Wallachia. In Bucharest, the elite Carlton residential complex, a 12-story concrete brainchild of the economic boom of the second half of the thirties, collapsed. Thus, Romania’s hopes of quickly and easily achieving an industrial democratic society fell apart.

However, Romanian historians are divided on whether there was a Holocaust in their country. Because the Romanians exterminated Jews, but not on Romanian territory. In Romania itself there were no persecutions after the Iasi pogrom. Many were even able to keep their property, since the 1940 laws had enough loopholes, such as an exception for Jews “having services to the Romanian state.”

Although the Moldovan peasantry, of course, bore the burden of the war on their shoulders, for them the short return of the Romanians was a respite between Soviet taxes. During the three years of Romanian rule in Bessarabia, 417 thousand tons of grain were collected in the form of taxes and requisitions, while in 1940 - 1941, in just one year of the Soviet administration, the state took 356 thousand tons of grain. And in 1944, the returning Soviet government pumped out 480 thousand tons from war-ravaged Eastern Moldova!

If there was no significant partisan movement in Eastern Moldova, then 10,000 partisans settled in the huge catacombs of Odessa. The Romanian army did not make a single attempt to defeat them; the partisans were also limited to minor operations. So, throughout the two and a half years of occupation in Odessa, two powers existed side by side - Romania on top, the USSR below.

Meanwhile, the quagmire of war was dragging Romania deeper and deeper. We had to fight not only with the USSR, which had taken away the eastern provinces, but also with those to whom the Romanians had no claims. On December 7, 1941, Romania declared war on Great Britain, and on December 12, fulfilling its allied duty to Japan, it declared war on the United States. In the east, the battle between the USSR and Germany reached its climax. In the spring of 1942, after success near Moscow, the Soviet army launched a series of counter-offensives against the Germans, but was unprepared and was driven back with heavy losses, after which the Nazis launched an offensive on the southern sector of the front. The Romanian army took part in the most important battle of the spring campaign of 1942 - the defeat of Soviet troops near Kharkov. In June–July 1942, the Romanians helped the Germans take Sevastopol.

By the end of the summer of 1942, the Nazis managed to ensure the greatest mobilization of their European allies. It had already become clear that it would be incredibly difficult to defeat the Soviet Union, but after the German victories in the spring of 1942, Hitler’s chances still seemed preferable. Therefore, two German, one Italian and one Hungarian armies launched an attack on Stalingrad. There were two Romanian armies, just like the German ones. In total, Romania had about 400,000 people on the eastern front in 1942 - two thirds of the forces at its disposal. Hungary sent only one third of its army to the eastern front. Of all the Europeans forced to fight for Hitler, the Romanians continued to sell their souls to the Nazi devil with the greatest enthusiasm.

By the end of August, when German troops began the assault on Stalingrad, the Romanian forces (third and fourth armies) were entrusted with the important task of covering the German troops fighting for Stalingrad on both flanks. The Third Army occupied a front line extending northwest from Stalingrad along the Don and facing central Russia. The Fourth Army was deployed on a huge front between Stalingrad and the Caucasus, in the steppes of Kalmykia.

September, October, half of November passed. The terrible massacre in Stalingrad continued month after month, but Soviet troops fought to the death and did not allow the Nazis to reach the borders designated by Hitler. Romanian soldiers froze in the trenches and died in battles thousands of kilometers from their native land. Moreover, they died ineffectively. We had to fight against the Soviet army, which, despite the terrible situation of the country, received tanks, guns, and planes in abundance. The technical lag of the Romanian army in the Second World War was almost greater than in the First. An outstanding achievement of the interwar period was the construction of its own aircraft factory and the creation of good combat aircraft. But the artillery was poor, and the enormous war had exhausted its capabilities - by November 1942, the Romanian Third Army had only 20% of the ammunition it needed. The Romanians were representatives of an oil-producing country, but their army had only 30% of what it needed in the most important strategic direction.

And most importantly, there were negligibly few tanks. The Third Army consisted of eight infantry and two cavalry divisions, there were no tank formations in it, and hundreds of combat vehicles of the Soviet Fifth Tank Army were deployed on the northern bank of the Don to attack the Romanian infantry and cavalrymen.

So the artillery and tank hell that broke loose on the Romanian positions along the Don on November 19, 1942 did not give the Romanians any chance. In the history of the Romanian wars, as we know, there were cases when the army fought to the last, but this happened only when defending the last line on its native soil. There was nothing similar here, so the third Romanian army fled and was destroyed in a matter of days. The Fourth Army, which was attacked by the Soviets on November 20, withdrew with heavy losses. The lightning defeat of the Romanians allowed the Soviet army to very quickly, by November 23, encircle the German forces that stormed Stalingrad. In January 1943, the Nazis began to withdraw from the Caucasus. At the same time, the only Hungarian army sent to the eastern front died near Voronezh.

The enemy turned out to be stronger not only than the Romanians, but also the Germans. In the early 1920s, the Russian Bolsheviks experienced great disappointment when the rest of the world, even after a terrible war, failed to make a communist revolution. But the Bolsheviks did not lose faith in the correctness of the communist idea, so it was decided to make the world happy by force. And in creating a strong army called upon to carry red banners and impose the power of party committees throughout the land, the USSR succeeded. The general confiscation of property by the state from the people made it possible to create a system of resource mobilization unprecedented in efficiency and cruelty. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the 30 thousand Bessarabians sent deep into the USSR to work under slave-like conditions - for minimal food, without a penny of wages, and about the scale of grain procurements in Eastern Moldova.

And one more earlier circumstance. In 1933, Romania began to emerge from the crisis, agriculture was reviving and nothing like famine was observed. And beyond the Dniester, where climatic conditions could not be seriously different from Romanian ones, millions of Soviet peasants, from whom everything was taken away for the sake of the industrialization of the communist empire, were dying of hunger. At Stalingrad, those peasants who survived in 1933, but now died in millions on the fronts of the bloodiest war in human history, were given moral compensation for their suffering - they became citizens of a great power. And for the Romanians, in the winter sky over the frozen Don steppes, merciless fate began to write the first lines of a new chapter in their history - the era of communist rule.

Defeat

Nazi Germany did not have truly loyal allies. After the defeat of its army near Voronezh, Hungary curtailed its participation in the struggle on the eastern front. Bulgaria, which benefited from Hitler's victories over Yugoslavia and Greece, never sent a single soldier against the Soviet Union. Far to the west, Franco, who came to power largely thanks to German support, could have prevented the penetration of the American and British fleets into the Mediterranean, but he did not even think of doing this. A country whose official ideology was nationalism taken to the extreme hardly had the right to expect anything better. Antonescu was Hitler's best ally, but his words about his readiness to go to the end were not sincere.

The country's harsh history has given the Romanian elite an exceptionally keen sense of who is holding power and fortune at a given moment. And if in 1940 the Romanian crown council decided to seek an alliance with the Nazis even before the final fall of France, then Antonescu gave the order to withdraw most of the Romanian forces from the eastern front already on November 26, 1942. Complete the withdrawal of the remnants of the third and fourth armies within the Romanian borders possessions succeed in February 1943. Romanian troops numbering 40,000 remain on the eastern front, fighting in the North Caucasus, then evacuating to the Crimea, where they receive a respite until April 1944.

Antonescu's strategy is changing. He is doing everything possible to restore and strengthen the Romanian army, but is in no hurry to throw it back into the heat of the eastern front. Domestic policy is softening. There is no longer any talk of further extermination of the Jews. Hitler's demand to begin sending them to concentration camps on the territory of the Reich is ignored by the Romanian authorities. The Jewish population of Odessa, although it suffered losses in the first months of the occupation, was largely preserved thanks to the change in the approach of the Romanians. At the same time, Germany’s attitude towards Romania is quite loyal - Hitler knows that without Romanian oil he will be finished.

Romania's hopes are pinned on the offensive of American and British troops, especially since the main theater of their operations is located relatively close to Romanian territory. In May 1943, the Allies defeated the Germans and Italians in Africa, and on September 8 their landing in Italy led to the overthrow of the Nazis and the country's exit from the war. This development of events gives rise to the hope in Romania that the troops of the Western participants in the anti-Hitler coalition will land in the Balkans, and then it will be possible to join them in order to expel the Nazis from South-Eastern Europe and prevent the communists from entering there. But the course of the Italian campaign may already give rise to doubts about the reality of the prospect presented by Romanian politicians. The reluctance of democratic governments to shed the blood of their citizens, which led to the enormous defeats of the West in 1938 - 1940, even now results in indecisive conduct of military operations. The Americans and the British allow the Germans to capture more

An intelligent person and a professional in his field, who, however, does not know what battles are currently going on to increase the paper population of the fascist invaders and their allies who died in the Great Patriotic War. It is clear that despite all the conscientiousness of the person, many of the numbers somehow do not compare with my sources.

Data from G.F. Krivosheev in "Classified Secrecy..." look like this:


Collection "Prisoners of war in the USSR. 1939-1956" Grigory Fedotovich’s figures regarding the captured Romanians are sufficiently confirmed; the discrepancy of four thousand people is crumbs, we will neglect it.

However, in this situation, it is logical to ask what the Romanians themselves think about their losses in WWII.
And the Romanians agree "Armata Romana in al doilea razboi mondial", Meridiane, Bucharest 1995. think about their losses as follows:

Table error. In missing persons after 08/23/1944, numbers columns Total armies are copied from those killed. Instead of 21.355 there must be a number 57.974 .

According to their data, the Romanians lost a total of dead and missing in battles with the Red Army: 380 138 military personnel.
According to Soviet data, from this figure from 225 518 before 229 682 Romanian soldiers were captured. Accordingly, the remaining from 150 454 before 154 620 Romanians either died or deserted during the fighting in the territories of Moldova and Romania and fled to their homes. This is especially true for Moldovans.

We look at the sign from G.F. Krivosheeva above with 245 388 dead "Rumaneshti" and begin to guess where and where the extra ones in it came from one hundred thousand Human. Here you won’t even be able to nod to the Romanians who died in captivity, since they are shown in a separate column regarding the fate of those captured. And even if we could add up these numbers, 40-50 thousand heads would still not be fought.
Let's look further.

The total losses of Romanian troops in killed and missing in battles with the Wehrmacht amounted to 79 709 Human.

It must be said that the Germans were a little out of sorts from the “betrayal” of the Romanians, the war by the end of 1944 had reached extreme bitterness, and accordingly the Germans were somewhat reluctant to take their former allies prisoner. I think at least half of the descendants of the Romans who went missing in battles with the Nazis died; taking into account the massacres of prisoners and the problems of survival in concentration camps in the last months of the war, the reliable figure is probably closer to two-thirds, or even more.

Taking into account the last conclusion, the estimated number of Romanian army personnel killed in battle, died from wounds and diseases, and died from accidents in the Second World War will be:

On the Soviet-Romanian Front: approx. 150,000-155,000 people(in this figure, the number of deserters counted as missing is unknown).

On the Romanian-German Front: approx. 60,000 people.

Total - approx. 210 000 military personnel.

In addition, in Soviet captivity until 1956, according to G.F. Krivosheeva died 54 612 captured soldiers of the Romanian army and, according to my estimates, approximately up to 20 000 captured Romanians were killed or died in German captivity before Germany's surrender.

In principle, when adding or partially adding the above figures (those killed in the SRF, those killed in the RGF, those killed in captivity in the east and those killed in captivity in the west) and corrections for the difference and completeness of the sources, the result turns out to be somewhat close 245 388 to the dead Romanians from the table of Grigory Fedotovich. But if his group really counted the Romanian dead using this method, I can say that all its participants at one time made a mistake with their profession, they all should have become accountants or economists. In the “era of capital accumulation” of the late 80-90s. neither competitors nor inspectors would have anything to catch, and Deribaska, unable to withstand competition with such wolves, would now be tinkering anywhere in Arzamas, or even sweeping the streets.

Plan
Introduction
1 Background
1.1 Foreign policy. Rapprochement with the Third Reich
1.2 Ion Antonescu's rise to power. Greater Romania

2 World War II
2.1 Armament and state of the army
2.2 Invasion of the USSR
2.2.1 Bessarabia and Bukovina
2.2.2 Battle of Odessa
2.2.3 Occupation of Bukovina, Bessarabia and the area between the Dniester and Bug rivers

2.3 Assistance to German troops
2.3.1 Crossing of the Dnieper and invasion of Crimea
2.3.2 Battle of Sevastopol, counteraction to the Soviet landing
2.3.3 Kharkov region, attack on Stalingrad
2.3.4 Offensive into the Caucasus
2.3.5 Stalingrad

2.4 Situation within Romania
2.4.1 Political situation
2.4.2 Socio-economic situation
2.4.3 Jews and Gypsies
2.4.4 Aerial bombing of Romania

2.5 Defeat of Romanian forces
2.5.1 Kuban and Taman Peninsula
2.5.2 Retreat from Crimea, Operation 60,000
2.5.3 Loss of control over Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transnistria
2.5.4 Coup d'etat, reorientation of foreign policy. Entry of Soviet troops into Romania

2.6 Final period of the war
2.6.1 War in Transylvania
2.6.2 Romanian troops allied with the Red Army

3 Post-war years
3.1 Famine of 1945-1947. Economy
3.2 Politics

4 Revisionism of history

6 Footnotes and notes
6.1 Footnotes
.2 References


7.1 In Russian
7.2 In Romanian
7.3 In English


8.1 External links
8.2 Maps
8.3 Video

Introduction

The Kingdom of Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis powers on June 22, 1941, at the same time as the Third Reich attacked the Soviet Union.

Romanian troops took part in the battles on the eastern front along with the German ones. In 1944, the theater of military operations moved to Romania, after which a coup d'état took place in the country. Ion Antonescu and his supporters were arrested, and the young king Mihai I came to power. From that moment on, Romania sided with the anti-Hitler coalition. After the end of the war, the People's Republic of Romania (Socialist Republic of Romania) was proclaimed in 1947.

1. Background

1.1. Foreign policy. Rapprochement with the Third Reich

Signing of a treaty between Germany and the USSR

Romania grew closer to France and Britain in the final months of the First World War. French and British politicians considered it a good "cover" against communism in South-Eastern Europe. Romanian troops took part in the war against Soviet Hungary in 1919. Romania also included Bessarabia, which was later claimed by Soviet Russia.

However, by 1939, the Versailles system of international relations had completely collapsed. Defeated in the First World War, Germany, where the National Socialists came to power, began to pursue an aggressive expansionist policy. This entailed a chain of political events that aggravated the situation in Europe: the Anschluss of Austria, the entry of German troops into Czechoslovakia, the establishment of pro-German regimes in a number of Central European countries. The policy of “appeasement” of the League of Nations was not effective enough. A similar pre-war situation developed in Asia. The Japanese Empire, having annexed Korea, began to penetrate deep into mainland China, establishing two puppet states in its north - Manchukuo and Mengjiang.

On September 1, 1939, the day World War II began, Romania was still a partner of France. The “Strange War” that began on September 3 did not change Romania’s attitude towards its partners in Western Europe, although it remained neutral.

The non-aggression pact, signed by the Third Reich and the USSR a few days before the start of the war (August 23, 1939), effectively divided Eastern Europe into Soviet and German “spheres of influence.” The Soviet Union wanted to take over Bessarabia, which had previously been part of the Russian Empire, from Romania. The USSR unsuccessfully disputed the ownership of this region for 22 years. In 1924, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed as part of the Soviet Union - a “springboard” for the creation of the Moldavian Republic within the Soviet Union.

In the spring of 1940, Romania found itself in a difficult situation. On the one hand, France, its ally, was defeated by Germany, on the other, the situation on the Soviet-Romanian border worsened. Incidents involving the use of weapons have become more frequent there. Soviet diplomats several times presented notes to the Romanian authorities demanding the return of Bessarabia. A pre-war situation was emerging.

Another major territorial loss for Romania was the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary on August 30, 1940 after the Second Vienna Arbitration. This territory was ceded to Romania in 1918, after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, and, according to the Treaty of Trianon, was part of Romania. The transfer of part of Transylvania to Hungary caused Romanian-Hungarian contradictions, which the German side took advantage of to strengthen its influence in the region. In the event of unrest in Transylvania, Germany retained the right to send troops into the oil and gas regions of Romania. F. Halder wrote in his diary: “Hitler hesitated […] between two possibilities: either to go along with Hungary, or to give Romania guarantees against Hungary”.

However, the Hungarian-Romanian conflict was resolved through German mediation. On September 7 of the same year, Romania lost another territory - Southern Dobruja (see Treaty of Craiova), obtained in 1913 as a result of the Second Balkan War. Southern Dobruja became part of Bulgaria. Despite this, the state became increasingly dependent on the Third Reich. On November 23, Romania joined the Berlin Pact, while negotiations began with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

1.2. The rise to power of Ion Antonescu. Greater Romania

Manifestation of members of the Iron Guard in September 1940

After major territorial losses, King Carol II finally lost the trust of politicians and the people, who also lost faith in the policies of the authorities due to thriving corruption. This was taken advantage of by fascist and nationalist organizations that wanted the restoration of Romania within the 1939 borders - “Greater Romania”. Among these organizations, the Iron Guard, led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, stood out.

Corneliu Codreanu in 1923 became one of the founders of LANC (National Christian League), which in the parliamentary elections of 1926 received 120,000 votes and won 10 seats in parliament. Despite its anti-Jewish slogans, anti-Semitism was not the basis of the party's program. In 1927, Codreanu left the party because he considered the LANC program insufficiently developed and advocated radical methods of struggle. That same year, he founded his own nationalist organization, the Legion of the Archangel Michael ("Iron Guard"). The Legion became the ideological enemy of LANC. In the 30s, the Legion gained popularity among voters and began to win parliamentary elections, gaining more and more seats in parliament each time. At the same time, Ion Antonescu established contact with the legionnaires.

A postage stamp with the emblem of the Iron Guard and the inscription “help the legionnaires”, issued on the eve of the 1931 parliamentary elections. The money received from the sale of stamps went to the development of the Guard

At the same time, relations with the king deteriorated, and in 1938 the Legion was disbanded, and a wave of searches and arrests swept across the country. At the same time, the Iron Guard, in order to fight its opponents, organized the party T.P.Ţ., or “All for the Kingdom”, “All for the Motherland” (Romanian: Totul Pentru Ţara [Totul Pentru Tsara]). Carol II dispersed the legionnaires only because he sought to subjugate this fascist organization, and first it was necessary to weaken it. For this purpose, Codreanu was arrested, and Horia Sima took his place in the Legion. Sima began terrorizing and militarizing the organization. Antonescu was also removed from politics and placed under house arrest. During Hitler's visit to Romania, a wave of ethnic violence swept across the country, organized by members of the Iron Guard.

At the beginning of September 1940, after the loss of vast territories, the Iron Guard moved to decisive action. On September 5, under pressure from radicals, Carol II was forced to abdicate in favor of his nineteen-year-old son Michael I. The old king fled with his wife by train to Yugoslavia. In Timisoara, the train was intercepted by legionnaires; they were confronted by station workers loyal to Carol II. A battle broke out, but the train left the city on time and crossed the border. On September 15, a new fascist government was formed, dominated by members of the Iron Guard and led by Ion Antonescu. Horiya Sima was appointed Deputy Prime Minister. Mihai turned into a puppet king, subordinate to the fascist government. Romania was proclaimed a “national legionary state” and finally sided with the Axis powers.

February 14, 1945 the air war became even more fierce. Five Romanian Hs-129s destroyed four trucks and several carts in the vicinity of Podrichany. Then the Henschels, together with Ju-87 dive bombers, attacked the Lovinobanya railway station. This day was also not without losses: one Henschel crashed in Miskolc during a flight after engine repairs, the pilot adjutant Vasile Skripčar was killed. Skripchar was known in Romania not only as a pilot, but also as a talented reporter and artist.
On January 15, the first goal of the offensive operation was achieved - Soviet troops liberated Luchinets. During the offensive, Romanian aviation carried out 510 sorties, flying 610 hours and dropping about 200 tons of bombs. The pilots bombed nine prefabricated trains, three trains with fuel, three important bridges and a large number of pieces of equipment. The reports of the Romanian pilots were reflected in the operational reports of the command of the Soviet 27th combined arms and 5th air armies. http://www.allaces.ru/cgi-bin/s2.cgi/rom/publ/01.dat

On February 20, the commander of the 5th Air Army, General Ermachenko, and the chief of staff of the 40th Army, General Sharapov, arrived at the command post of the 1st Romanian Air Corps. The generals discussed the plan for upcoming actions with Romanian officers. On the morning of February 21, guidance officers of the 1st Air Corps of the Romanian Air Force moved to forward observation posts to study the terrain in detail and prepare the data necessary for planning air strikes. In a speech to the Romanian pilot technicians, the Soviet general, in particular, said an interesting phrase: “... we hope that our Romanian comrades will not let us down.” And they did not disappoint.

In certain areas, direct air support for the advancing troops was assigned exclusively to the Romanian Air Force. Bad weather delayed the start of combat operations by one day. On February 25, the sky cleared of clouds and the planes were able to take off.
This day is marked in the history of the Romanian Air Force with unusually high activity, victories and losses. In 148 sorties, Romanian pilots dropped 35 tons of bombs on German positions in the Ochova-Detva-Zvolesnka Slatina triangle. The pilots reported three destroyed half-track armored vehicles, one self-propelled artillery mount, two cars, five horse-drawn carts and eight machine gun nests, and many enemy soldiers and officers killed. While attacking ground targets, Adjutant Viktor Dumbrava's Henschel received a direct hit from an anti-aircraft gun; the pilot barely pulled it across the front line and crashed into an emergency landing near Detva.
The 25th was also a busy day for the fighters. On the fifth mission of this day, Captain Cantacuzino and his wingman adj took off. Traian Dрjan. Above the front line they discovered eight Fw-190Fs storming Soviet troops. Without hesitation, they rushed into battle, one by one.
http://www.allaces.ru/cgi-bin/s2.cgi/rom/publ/01.dat


This is how Romanian pilots, not sparing their lives, covered our troops from the air.
On May 6, the last offensive operation of the war in Europe began - a push towards Prague. Romanian aviation supported the ground forces advancing on Protea. On May 7, Romanian pilots managed to destroy 15 vehicles northwest of Proteev.
On May 8, pilots stormed columns of enemy troops and equipment on the roads in the vicinity of Urczyce and Vysovitsa. The 2nd Fighter Group lost its last pilot in the war - it was SLT. av. Remus Vasilescu.
On May 9, 1945, only IAR-39 biplanes took to the air under the escort of Messerschmitts, which scattered leaflets. The Germans surrendered without offering resistance.

However, the war ended a little later for Romanian aviators. On May 11, the Romanians carried out attacks on units of the Russian Liberation Army of General Vlasov. The Vlasovites had nothing to lose, and they desperately resisted in the forests near the Hungarian Ford. On the evening of May 11, 1945, the planes (several bombers covered by four Bf-109Gs) returned from the last combat mission of the Romanian Air Force in the Second World War. Romanian pilots fought over the territory of Czechoslovakia for 144 days.
In total, until the end of the war (on May 12, 1945), the 1st Corps accounted for 8542 sorties and the destruction of 101 enemy aircraft (including anti-aircraft gunners). Losses amounted to 176 aircraft, shot down by fighters, air defenses and broken up in numerous accidents in bad weather conditions in the winter and spring of 1945.

There is specific data only on the participation of “henschels”; for the rest, the data is fragmentary. So, during five months of hostilities, from December 19, 1944 to May 11, 1945, the pilots of the 41st attack squadron ("Henschels") flew 422 sorties, flying 370 hours and dropping 130 tons of bombs. As a result of the squadron's actions, 66 columns of enemy troops were scattered, 185 cars and 66 horse-drawn carts were destroyed, at railway stations the Henschel pilots destroyed 13 trains, among other enemy property destroyed - artillery pieces, mortars, machine guns. The squadron lost eight HS-129B attack aircraft. Stuka pilots in Slovakia alone completed 107 combat missions, logging 374 hours of flight time. They dropped 210 tons of bombs on 37 railway stations and 36 enemy positions. The destroyed included 3 tanks, 61 trucks and 6 anti-aircraft batteries.
During the entire war, the Romanian Air Force lost 4,172 people, of which 2,977 were fighting for Germany (972 dead, 1,167 wounded and 838 missing) and 1,195 fighting against Germany (356, 371 and 468, respectively).
http://www.allaces.ru/cgi-bin/s2.cgi/rom/publ/01.dat
Thus, the Romanian Royal Army, starting the war as one of the main allies of the German Wehrmacht, ended it as one of the main allies of the Red Army, in the southwestern direction of the Soviet-German front.
A paradox of history, however, many Romanian soldiers and officers in the victorious 1945 had on their ceremonial uniforms both Romanian awards they received for the capture of Sevastopol and Soviet medals for the capture of Budapest.
Romanian King MihaiIstill remains the only living holder of the highest Soviet military Order of Victory