Figure 1.--Here we see a portrait of a Romanian Army officer with his infant son. The portrait is undated, but comes from the World War II era.

We do not know a great del about the World War II Romanian military. This is in part due to the fact that the Romanians fought on the Eastern Front mostly against the Soviets and then disappeared behind the Iron Curtain after the War. This mean information on the Romanian military was difficult to assess by Western scholars. The subject is, however, of some importance because the Romanians were the primary German ally supporting the Wehrmacht in Operation Barbarossa. The German had other allies, but none supplied more troops than the Romanians. The Romanian Army was primarily an infantry force. There was artillery, armoured, and mountain units as well as an air force and navy, but most of the country's military strength was made up by the infantry. The Romanians begn 1940 with 22 infantry divisions (1-22 Divisions and the Guards Division). The Army had to disband three divisions (the 12th, 16th and 17th) when the regions where soldiers were recruited were ammexed by neighboring countries. At the time of Barbarossa the Romanians still had a substantial calvalry force. Their armoured units, however, were equipped with largely obsolete tanks. We know very little about the training and effectiveness of Romanian units. Poor equipment and the limited availability of motorized equipment certainly impeded their operations. We are not sure just how effectively they aided the Germans or how rthey compared to other German allies. The failure of the Romanians during te Battle of Stalingrad was a major factor in the War. We are unsure, however, to what extent this reflected a failure of the Romanian soldier as opposed to inadequate equipment and supply and the overwealming supperiority of the attacking Red Army force.

Created: 12:41 AM 8/17/2006
Last updated: 12:41 AM 8/17/2006