General Leonard Mociulschi

More and more websites are created with a mind on presenting the Romanian military history to the world. In this matter, I recently discovered a website dedicated to General Mociulschi. The website offers detailed information about the general, his life before the Second World War and his work during as well as other personal information.

Leonard Mociulschi participated in three of the 20th century wars (2nd Balkan War, World War I and World War II), being decorated with more than 25 high awards. In the First World War he had received the French “Cross of War “ (Croix de Guerre) from the general Henri Mathias Berthelot, the commander-in-chief of the French Military Delegation in Romania, according to Brevet No. 834 from the 13th of November 1918. He also received the Order of the “Romanian Crown” (Coroana Romaniei) with swords in the rank of knight, for his “bravery and skills proven in the fights of 1916” (according to the Royal Decree No.1416 from the 13th of June 1917) as well as the Order of the “Star of Romania” in the rank of knight (Steaua Romaniei), received on the 6th of August 1919 (H.D. No.3323). The major Leonard Mociulschi that time was awarded with the “Honor Sign” (Semnul Onorific) by the High Royal Decree No.2292 from the 4th of July 1932, occasioned by his 25th anniversary in the service of the nation. Later on, in June 1945, he received the same distinction for his many decades of active service in the Romanian Army, too.

Visit www.general.mociulschi.ro for more information.

The Vauban fortification of Alba Iulia,  Romania,  is impressive; however it was not the most impressive of its kind – another Vauban type fortification was established in Timisoara, with remarkable sizes that surpass the one at Alba Iulia.

Anyway, the fortress was built upon the site of two previous fortifications: the Roman fort that hosted the 13th Gemina Legion and a medieval rectangular castle. It was built following the designs sketched by the Italian architect Giovanni Morando Visconti and it incorporates a number of defensive trenches, remarkably high walls that have over 20 meters in elevation and superbly ornamented gates.  Forged by a team led by the famous artist Johann Koenig, the gates were decorated with sculptures and statues inspired from Roman antiquity.

As you can see from the image above, the fortress follows quite loyally the prescriptions of Seigneur de Vauban who designed this type of fortification (on this I will probably return with a more detailed article).

The fortress itself was built at the beginning of the 18^th century, between 1715 and 1738 to be more accurate.

On 27 July 1941, Hitler sent a letter to general Antonescu (he was promoted marshal a month later), in which he asked for the further cooperation of the Romanian troops beyond the Dniester River and the Romanian administration of the territory between the Dniester and the Bug rivers. Antonescu accepted on 31 July. In fact the 3rd Army had already crossed the river on 17 July.

Lt. general Nicolae Ciuperca’s 4th Army commenced the advance over the river on 3 August. The 5th Corps (15th Infantry Division and 1st Cavalry Brigade) forced the crossing between Tighina and Dubosari. During the night of 5/6 August, the 1st Armored Division joined the 5th Corps.

On 8 August, the Romanian General Staff issued the Operative Directive No. 31 stipulating that the 4th Army has to defeat the enemy between the Dniester River and the Tiligulskiy Bank and to occupy Odessa from the move. It was thought that

However, Odessa was a heavily fortified position, which, thanks to the superiority of the ChF (Soviet Black Sea Fleet), could not actually be completely surrounded. The defense was organized on three lines with trenches, AT ditches, pillboxes etc, etc. The first line was 80 km long and situated some 25-30 km from the city. The second and main line of defense was situated 6-8 km from the city and was about 30 km long. The third and last line of defense was organized inside the city itself. The forces that initially manned the fortifications were made up of the 25th and 95th Rifle Divisions, the 9th Cavalry Division, the 421st Marine Division, the 54th Rifle Regiment and an NKVD Regiment. In total some 34,500 men and 240 artillery pieces. Air support was provided by the 69 IAP, two seaplane squadrons and one bomber squadron. Later, other fighters joined the defenders, as did an Il-2 squadron (42 OShAE). Bombers from Crimea and Nikolaev also participated in the battle.

Read the full article on WorldWar2.ro

War means misery, death and destruction to some and endless business opportunities to others.

During an operation that targeted a Taliban militant, the coalition forces found 2.5 tons of marijuana stored in an Afghan school. Read the full article 

It’s been all over the media that Russia sends S-300s to Iran, but as we could easily anticipate, the Russian officials deny everything related to this.

Quite recently a brief article published by the AFP says that Russia denies delivering S-300 missiles to Iran. Read the full story here.

S-300

The S-300 is an efficient surface-to-air missile – in other words it can easily bring down an aircraft. The AA weapon was first produced in the USSR starting in the late 70s. Over the years it proved itself to be on of the best anti-aircraft missile system available.

The involvement of Romania in WW2 is hardly known internationally. Major works often ignore or give just a brief account of the Romanian politics, army and campaigns during the Second World War. Nevertheless there are a few websites that focus on this subject. Among the most popular is WorldWar2.ro – there you can find exhaustive information on the Romanian commanders, tactics, weaponry, campaigns and even memoirs of those who served in the front line. They also have a forum dedicated to all aspects of WW2, not just the Romanian involvement.

 Romanian military history as a whole is scarcely known and this mainly because of the Communist regime that influenced the nation’s history for almost half a century. In this period, historians tried to glorify every step taken by the army and minimize its defeats and lack of equipment.  Anyway, the website gives plenty of information on the Eastern campaign and as well as on the campaign against the Germans with no political influence.

www.worldwar2.ro

You may know about the heroic stand of the small Finnish army against the infinite numbers of the Soviet Union. If you thought that Russia was defensive in the first part of WW2, then you are mistaken. The communist military might (at that time pretty much expressed through sheer numbers than to military tech and able command) treated to conquer Finland.

However, their way was blocked by a small force of Finnish soldiers. They have firstly resisted any Russian attack and even counter-attacked in some cases. Using the strategic advantages offered by their land and mobility, they’ve managed to stop “the Old Bear” (as Churchill would later refer to Stalin) from transforming all of Finland in Russian territory.

This movie is simply great. Of course, you never have heard of any of these actors, yet they did a great job. ‘Talvisota” is probably one of the best movies there is about WW2. 

Perhaps I’ll write a post on the Winter War in the near future.

This relatively new game for me is probably a masterpiece, if not it is surely a good improvement to the first Blitzkrieg game. The first one was quite simple, if you had artillery and the enemy didn’t, you could artillery zeroing the entire bloody map.

Well, I did that in my first approaches to the game. Anyway, if you do not have artillery but do have tanks you should definitely use them. In the first Blitzkrieg, they are practically invincible in easy mode, however if you play in suicide mode the story is quite similar, but you will lose a few.

The second Blitzkrieg game, superbly dubbed “Fall of the Reich” is another story. Now you will have to focus on all aspects of the battlefield, including supplying the army and doing the necessary reparations to vehicles and armor. If you do not focus on these vital details, you will definitely lose. The tanks are not indestructible, even in easy mode they will be blown away by enemy AT artillery. Thus, strategy and tactics are important now, you know.

Blitzkrieg 2 comes with some interesting graphical improvements. The matrices in which the graphics were done remind of the first game but the player can easily sense the innovation. One interesting aspect is the fact that you can zoom in to get a better look at your troops.

Overall, I think this game is one of the best I’ve ever played.

As a huge fan of the first two Commandos (especially C2), I finally embarked in a daring adventure to check out Commandos 3. I say daring because I was  expencting disappointment, but naturally I tried to avoid it by self-suggestion – with no particulary success. 

The 3rd Commandos game is more than it should be. The game is already very complicated even on easy mode, yet the creators made the game even harder with all that various video aspects. So, there I sit with the knowledges gained with the first two games trying to make the first mission. Eventually, I did. It was hard, damn hard, but more it was frustrating and totally unenjoyable. 

Graphics and stuff are pretty cool, but that’s about it. This game was a huge disappintment for me, and I will keep playing the first two Commandos games.

Wallachia and Moldavia before the events of 1821

Since 1711 the Romanian Principalities, Wallachia and Moldavia, have come to bow to the Ottoman Empire and pay tribute. Also, the Ottomans installed their political peons as rulers (domni) of the two Principalities, they are known as Phanariotes.

Coming from the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, known as Phanar, they were among the wealthiest and influential Greek families. In order to rule in Moldavia or Mutenia (Wallachia), they would quite literally buy the function. Once they were ‘domni’ they would also sell the key administrative positions of the country to different aristocrats. Additionally, their income was enormous and it was coming from taxation, known as bir – capitation, a tax every male peasant had to pay beginning with the age of 16, and different other taxes. The main goal of Phanariotes was to gain as much money as possible from the lands they ruled. However, this does not mean that they did not try to improve the well-being of their subjects, they needed healthy workforce, and overall, the Phanariotes started a process of modernization of the Romanian Principalities.

Although, the taxing system, the administrative and cleric institutions where reform in one way or another, the army was almost dissolved. Probably, the Ottomans did not want these two countries to have any military power, perhaps because in the past they were keen to oppose the Turkish plans of expansion. In the same time, the Ottomans encouraged sporadically the forming of a Romanian military presence in the two countries, with the intention to fight the Russians. In any case, we must also consider the possibility that the Phanariote Princes have had a private bodyguard or even private small armies. In Iasi (Moldavia’s capital at that time) or in Bucharest, the Ottoman garrison was definitely unable to stop any invading forces and during the nineteenth century, the number of invasions grew.

One of such army was that of Nicolae Mavrogheni, the great-uncle of Manto Mavrogenous, a heroine of the Greek War of Independence. Nicolae ruled Wallachia during 1786-1790. His army was composed mainly of infantry and cavalry, numbering approximately 11,000 men. During one of the Russian-Austrian-Ottoman conflict, he managed to have some successes against the Russians and the Austrians. However, it may have been that loses were irreplaceable, or other undetermined factors brought a series of defeats. Finally, the breakdown came when the Austrian Army entered Bucharest in November 9, 1790 and Nicolae Mavrogheni was decapitated.

Another attempt for setting up a longeval Romanian army was done by Alexandru Moruzi (Alexander Mourousis). He managed to bring maybe 9,000 men to arms, but it seemed that military training was not applied. Due to probably total absence of discipline – the soldiers started to plunder the lands and cities they where supposed to protect – the army was dissolved from within.

Other attempts in creating a permanent Romanian army have been made by Constantin Hangerli, Alexandru and Constantin Ipsilanti. The last two tried to establish a military force that would act in the interest of the state.

The spark of revolt

In late December or in the first days of 1821, Alexandru Şuţu, the last Phanariote Prince of Wallachia died, perhaps even murdered. This was the perfect scenarios for the boyars to assume control of the country and to bear away the Ottoman suzerainty. Their plans were to work along side Etairia and facilitate the military intervention of Russia in the Balkans.

Etairia, also known as Filiki Eteria, meaning Society of Friends, was a secret society founded in 1816 in Odessa with the purpose to organize and lead the Greek diaspora in an attempt to free Greece from the Ottoman rule. This could be done only in the background of a general uprising of the Balkans and the intervention of the Russian army in the region. In this matter, Etairia has had clear plans for Wallachia and Moldavia. The first was to facilitate the crossing of the Russian troops to the south of the Danube, and Moldavia had several operation points.

Russia also had designs for the Balkans and the two Romanian Principalities. They were keen to expand their influence in the region, even to occupy the territories. In this matter, they encouraged the uprising against the Ottoman Empire by invoking the principle of solidarity between Christians. Additionally, in 1774, the Russia had officially assumed the role of the protector of all Christians in the Ottoman Empire.

As Etairia needed the Romanian Principalities in order to complete their plans of freedom, they initiated Tudor Vladimirescu in the society’s military plans. Tudor Vladimirescu was appointed the leader of the insurrection by the ‘Comitetul de oblăduire” – the interlocutory administration formed after the sudden death of the Phanatiote Prince, Alexandru Şuţu. Tudor and the leader of the Etairia, Iordache si Farmanache, signed an agreement of collaboration.

Tudor Vladimirescu came from a relatively wealthy family. He never pursued any higher education and documents seem to point out that he learn the basics from a ‘condicar’ (writer of some sorts) named Lupu. After that, a ‘higher’ education was received from a family friend. He was never preoccupied with studying the art of war, but he did eventually become a lieutenant in the Russian army during the Russian-Ottoman conflict of 1806-1812. Even more, he received the medal ‘Saint Vladimir’.

The Revolution of 1821

Tudor started the insurrection on January 15, 1821 when he began the march on Bucharest. Camping at Ţânţăreni, his army numbered only about 4000 infantry, made up mostly of ‘panduri’, and 500 cavalry and 2 additional artillery pieces from which one was hardly usable. Through the ‘Proclamation of Tismana’ Tudor Vladimirescu urged the population to arm itself and join the insurrection. The population responded in great number.

The next camp was made at Slatina. Here Tudor’s army was probably 6000 infantry, 2000 cavalry and 3 artillery pieces, the number grew eventually to 8 cannons. Here at Slatina a ‘war council’ was gathered and it approved plans for marching on Bucharest, securing the right flank from a possible Turkish threat and establishing contact with Alexandru Ipsilanti, the leader of Etairia.

The army had a simple, yet efficient, structure of command. The infantry was devided into ‘polcovnicii’ composed of 1000 men each. Every single of the ‘polcovnicii’ was divided into units of 100 named ‘căpitănie’ commanded by a ‘căpitan” (captain) and helped by a ceauş. The cavalry was formed up mostly of ‘arnăuţi’ and ‘panduri’ organized in ‘căpitănii’. As for the weapons, the troops were equipped with rifles, pistols, scythes, bludgeons, axes and iron forks – as most of the combatants were peasants called to arms by Tudor.

By the end of March, the army had arrived in Bucharest. Additionally, Alexandru Ipsilanti also arrived in the capital and a government was established.

The beginning of the end of the Revolution represented the defection of Etairia and Russia which left the Romanian forces extremely vulnerable to an imminent Ottoman invasion. At the same time, the contradictory policy followed by Tudor started to bring to surface the imperfection of his plan. It at this time that Tudor’s position towards the boyars changed. To this event, they were seen as the mean reason for the problems that Wallachia had, alongside the Phanariotes’. Now, Tudor urged the peasants to join forces with the boyars and establish a common front against the Ottomans let by Cara Ahmed Efendi.

However, Tudor’s downfall was clear when the personal correspondence with the above mentioned Turkish leader, the pasha of Silistra was discovered. He was trialed for treason by the Etairia leaders and eventually executed.

The Revolution of 1821 meant a big step forward towards the modernization of the Romanian Principalities and an attempt to resurrect a Romanian army that was dissolved during the Phanariote regime.