DESCRIPTION

Romanian Infantry WWII

Before WWII the densely populated but industrially underdeveloped Romania had a similar army - numerous but poorly armed and supplied. Manliher rifles of local modification were used along with rare samples of French MAS submachine guns and Czechoslovak hand machine guns of early modifications, all of which could hardly compete with the more recent types of joint British-Czechoslovak production (the famous Bren), whereas the uniform headdress protected from the cold so poorly that it was officially allowed to replace them with the sheep skin peasant hat - chakuloy. Along with the latter a characteristic element of a Romanian soldier silhouette was a Dutch helmet, that partially was purchased in 1938 and partially transferred to the royal army by Hitler from stocks captured in the Netherlands.

Not surprisingly, the army that was moved in the southern regions of the USSR to assist the Wehrmacht, didn’t meet even very moderate German generals’ hopes. Moreover, Romanian soldiers revealed a complete unwillingness to fight on foreign soil for interests that were alien to them. Badly and irregularly supplied due to the vast Russian communication lines, the army soon developed the habit of looting, thus creating additional difficulties for their more disciplined ally. Nevertheless, the presence of Romanian troops on the Eastern Front was very noticeable – up to 500,000 at a time with some units offering strong resistance to Soviet troops, at least in the first stage of the war.