Romanian Campaign of 1918 .Resurrection.

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From 15th of February followed that the Russians had to begin to restitute to Romanians the lend provissions ,sending them some 30 carriages daily from the deposits in Odessa.This engagement has not been respected ,such that also during February the Russians have lived out of our reserves ,endangering the population of the country ,of which daily ration was diminished more and more.When the transports begun ,were done without rule ,with many interruptions .Only at the beginning of March ,after the installation at Iasi of Finland General ,Talgrin ,the Commander of the Russian troops ,the situation got better*.

After the dangerous crisis of January has been defeated with great efforts ,was established at Iasi ,on well organized bases ,a Direction of Alimentation ,which to take care for the problem of alimentation of the Army ,as well as of the population .Thanks to the well functioning of this Direction ,the genius and work of those who led it ,it is owed the well order thus introduced ,and as such, the ensuring of life in Moldavia**.A well cared inventory of the resources in Moldavia established that,taking out the provissions given to the Russians and ensuring the seed,the provissions were enaugh for a population of 3 000 000 until August,at the new crop.Ensuring the life was thus a matter of organization ,methodically,systematic distribution ,rationing.The organization was realized and followed with rule.There were made scondary centers of milling and have been organized transports by waggons of the wheat and flour,to avoid the congestionated train lines , blocked.There have been created three big deposits in Iasi :at Pacurari Mill ,at Rascanu Mill and at Socola Mill,for local replenisment ,and also for those arriving from Russia.Then secondary deposits through other localities ,sheds of consume (only in Iasi were 15) from which the population was regularly replenishing herself based on cards ,tea shops etc.It has been intensified the agricultural production ,not letting without seed any corner of land ;especially has been given great attention to the vegetables crops,cultivating over 3000 hectars .

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The second big problem was the one of combustible.During normal times ,the need of combustible was satisfied in our country ,especially by petrol and lignit.The principal exploatations were however to be found in the occupied territory.In Moldavia ,the only existing mines were those of Trotus Valley :Comanesti and Solont -Moinesti.The normal randament of these mines was though far from satisfying the needs of transport,of the industry and for heating of the population increasing and of the numerous public stabiliments ,transformed in bureaus ,barracks and hospitals.It has been used at the beginning the petrol ,brought with train carriages for petrol transport,evacuated from Muntenia ;then has been organized the exploatation of pits in Trotus Valley with the help of the specialist workers evacuated,by the care of the authorities ,from the petrolifer counties in Moldavia ,until maximum of randament was obtained.The posession of Trotus region has become in this way a vital matter for the Romanian State ,which explained the ferocity of the figths given there.Still,face with the great consumation asked by the exceptional situation in Moldavia ,the petrol and coal was alltogether not enaugh.It has to be used the wood.It has been established a plan of exploatation ,intenssive, of the forests by soldiers contingents and available workers.Long convoys of waggons with wood circulated between forests and population centers.Especially the mills and hospitals have been largely provissioned.The hospitals in Iasi,lacking in the beginning of the epidemics of exantematic typhus ,by the last stick of wood,have been able,after two weeks of terrible missing ,abundently provissioned and well heated.

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An equal gravity was presented by the desorganyzing of the transports .Because of the lack of combustible ,of the worn out locomotives ,but especially because of the aglomeration of the rolling material ,the transports with train carriages was made very diffcult.Some situations were completely blocked by the crowding of trains with materials evacuated from Muntenia.The metal road almost did not function anymore.It had to be organized transports by waggons ,especially for combustible and grains .But the animal's food had been consumed by the numerous Russian cavalry and the cattles died in great number due to retreat tiredness ,of hunger and cold.In the Army's ranks ,only one Division ,the 4th ,have lost during January a number of 1 100 horses!This situation agravated in a way alltogether dangerous the matter of replenishing of the Army and of the population .The solution has been presented by Colonel Parafit ,of the French Mission.All trains with materials ,which stationed through train station,and all the rolling material unutilized have been derailed ,meaning taken out of the tracks and taken down ,on traverses.With this face have been deblocked the train stations ,have been descongestionate the rails and was ensured the regularity of transport.

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The care of sheltering of the masses of people -Army and population -carried in Moldavia by the retreat wave ,imposed as well taking of appropriate measures.There have been created real cities of wooden constructions and bungalows ,in which have been made the troops incartiruire and of the surplus of population ,in the cities and also in the organized centers of the Army.

Special preocuppations of concern gave to the extraordinary number of the drifters of all ages and social categories ,which were filling the Capital of the refuge.There were people which run from in front of the occupying armies ,many times with only what they had on them ,or evacuated by order ,and which were drifting on to the streets of Iasi ,hungry ,barefoot and almost naked.There were days in which were presenting to the police 200 -300 refugees ,declaring that they have no address(home),that they spend the nigths through the stationed train carriages ,in sheds of the city hall ,cofee shops ,on hallways of the authorities.The greatest contingent was given by the workers of the factories from Bucharest ,Ploiesti,Craiova ,the peasants youth evacuated and the school pupils.

The private initiative associated to the state action ,to get involved,escape from perishing and help these missfortuned ones.A committe for the refugees assistance and of the evacuated has been constituted in this aim at iasi ,out of the initiative and under patronaje of the Queen.He made a huge and noble work.The refugees and evacuated have been installed through shelters ,cantines ,colonies,hospitals ,manufacture buildings,some of them existing before and now extended and set proper,some created and installed through schools locals.The general principle ,established and followed ,to obtain through work the means of living of the refugees able to work.The aids in money were given only until suited occupation could be found ,with the age,sex and social condition of the refugees.Numerous manufacture shops ,which worked especially for the Army ,got out of this preoccupation .Outside Iasi have been installed colonies through monasteries and villages close to Iasi .Numerous filiales have been established through the cities in counties of Moldavia .The school youth have been gathered in colonies for schoos,organized by the scouts system ,which has given very nice results ;the most important school colonies have been the ones at Sculeni ,on Prut and at Bilca ,on Trotus .The members of the didactic corps ,from Moldavia have refugeed ,have been all over the most active leaders of the colonies and of the assistance institutions.Has been made,with this face ,a masterpiece of the most useful of humanitarism ,of higiene ,of social foreseeing ,of education and good economy.

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Other institutions with humanitarian and national interest have been established to ease the sufferings of all kinds.Next to the helping of the families of the figthers ,the round up ,sheltering and caring of the numerous orphans of War has been a great masterpiece and very difficult one ,in which the Romanian women ,grouped in "the Ordodoxe Society" ,have made a great work and an inspired devotion of the most noble feelings.

Thanks to the descongestioning of the transports on the railways ,has been reglemented the replenisment of the Army ,could latter on be ensured also the transport of the clothing effects ,of which lack was increasing the physical exhaust of the Army ,and of the refugees also.But what was more principal ,the regulating of the transports permitted the tight connection with Russia and,by it,with our great Allies ,for that the War material ,indispensable to the reorganization of the figthing Army ,to be able to arrive.

Because ,through all the hardships we were passing ,and through all sufferings we endured ,each Romanian,from the Sovereign to the the last men from the village,was aware that the principal effort ,towards aimed all energies and for which had to be made all sacrifices ,was the reorganyzing of the Army ,the ribirth from dezastre of our military powers.And this was followed with haste ,with tenacity and method.

*During the War Romania gave to Russia as "loan" t" 100 000 train carriages of replenishments which have never been restituted ,nor liquidated.

**The Alimentation Direction has been led by a capable organizer ,Intendency Colonel State Leonte .It comprised of six sections :1.preparation,organization ,deposits ,distributions and personell ;2.replenisments of aliments ,vegetables and gardens of vegetables ;3.replenisments of animal food and the production of it;4.wood replenisments;5.the mills for milling;6.meat service ,abatories, replenisments and distribution with cattles.

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The exanthematic typhus

As if the terrible winter ,hunger,the lack of combustible ,of clothing and of means of transport ,would have not been enough for our missfortuned country and for the wasted Army ,a new flagell,most terrible than all others together,came over Moldavia ;the epidemic of exanthematic typhus .The others lacks of all kinds opened up the way for it.The military convoys and those of the refugees filled the cities and villages.The houses were sawed ;in one room were crowded ,one over the others ,as much as they could get in.The hospitals could not intern nobody anymore .Two three wounded in one bed ,and others stretched onto the floor without even some coat of straw,without winter blanket ,without care .The train stations were filled by wounded and sick in agony ,waiting for the trains which were not arriving ,or which could not leave ,anymore.In the cold of -20 -25 Celsius ,the poor human bodies ,mined by cold ,hunger ,wounds ,were dying out ,and when death did not follow as a consequence of the inanition ,of the frost ,of the cangrenas of the wounds unattended or unoperated ,remained a weakened body ,a live corps ,the most favorable terrain for unleashing of epidemics.The uncleanliness was unendurable ;it crowded through the houses and over the people's bodies .With what could have been maintained the cleanness ,when there were no changing clothes ,there was no fire ,no petrol ,no soap?As a result ,the parasites multiplied ;soon they were swarming all over the place ;through houses ,through train carriages ,through horse carriages and especially through the rags of the clothes .Inpossible to escape them.In the flagel/scourge cortege ,the louse(Pediculus) the inseparable mate of misery has put its master over the Army and over the population weakened by misery.

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Next to the exanthematic typhus appeared the recurent feever ,which if did not kill first ,weakens and destroys all that is strength in the human body.The two epidemics ,especially the exanthematic typhus ,helped by the crowding and promiscuity of the population ,by its debility ,by the lack of means of prevention and combat of it,hves spread so much until they took catastrophe proportions .The villages,filled by troops ,have been contaminated .Who could take care the masses of sick ,the soldiers and the villages population?They were dying through the houses ,on the lanes of the villages ,through train stations ,on big roads .There were dug holes in which were throw tens of dead bodies . here are villages in which the entire population died ;at the 4th Division ,which was on Iasi outskirts ,were dying daily some 50 men.The 5th Rosiori Regiment has been as unborned;the horses had to be assigned to other regiments ,because there was no one left to take care of them.

In the cities ,the crowding of population was making the spectacle even more sinister and more painful.At the hospitals gates ,on terrible frosts ,raws of sick ,draggig by themselves ,or having been brought by wagons and snow wagons ,were waiting death to few the ones inside ,to make room for them.Cause the crowding inside was as the one outside .In February month ,for the 5000 beds of the hospitals of Iasi city ,there were 11 000 sick ;in the ophtalmology service of Spiridonici Hospital ,100 exanthematics were sharing the 14 beds .By nigth ,through street corners ,before some stronghold ,the dying were giving their souls ,shaken by feever ,frozen in to the snow.Filled waggons with dead bodies coverd with some blanket from which empty legs were getting out ,livid and rinkled ,were carrying every morning to the big commune holes in the ground(graves) ,from "Eternitatea" ,the dead ones over the nigth.At one moment,produced in Iasi a conflict between Market Commandment ,which could not deliver timber for coffins and the authorities of the church ,which pretended to be thrown ,even in the commune grave ,the four ritual timbers(the coffin).The epidemic cost so many lives as lost in ten big battles.

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Drastic measures have been taken to dam the dezastre.Have been established infirmeries next to all troops Corps ,for the soldiers ,as for the civilian population .Have been improvised hospitals and divisionary ambulances ,baths of steam and ovens for deparasitation.A general director of public health had to coordinate the taken measures for the Army and population .The entire Romanian sanitary personel has been mobilized .British and French missions have hasted to help.A real crusade have been unleashed against the terrible scourge /flagel .In this way ,the medics have carried their own War with the invisible enemy ."Give us doctors",was the shout sounding from all parts .But the doctors were few ,faced with the immensity of the evil.To face up to it,they had to to multiply themselves ,and to ten their strengths ,to fight with the disease and with the lacks of the means of guard.And they go , heroiclly ,to duty,to defend with science the life of those defending the country with the weapon.As they ,they must fight ;as they ,they fall into battle.

Because ,what was fatal to happen ,did happen ;death started to cut down the medics.There are regiments were there went seven eight in a raw ,to sure death .The flower of the medical corps has payed with life the devotion for carrying for the close by.Two hundred and fifty medics ,the eight part of the Medical Corps of the country perished and,next to them ,one thousand sanitaries ,humble and unknown heroes of duty.Of this palmares of glory ,it is right to choose the names of some of the most known.From the chiefs of great sanitary units have died Medic Colonels:Andreescu V.,Balteanu ,Dumitrescu-Mumuianu a.s.oo.Out of ten members of the military medical commissions have fell ill five and died three:General Buta ,Colnel Vereanu and Colonel Papadopol ,the director of the Medico-Military Institute.Has died Doctor Botescu ,which have renounced to the deputy prerogatives ,to be there,where his warm heart and his prodigious work found sufferings to ease;he left the sick beds only once to go to a meeting of the Chamber ,to make there the deserved apology of the Medical Corps .has died Sanitar inspector Popescu-Azuga ,a thinker and literat.And so many others :University Professors Felix ,Giani,Virgil Popescu ,Zigura ,Visoiu -Cornateanu ,Medigreceanu ,Uscatu,the Medic from Ardeal, Pertea ,a.s.o,a.s.forth...In the great golden book of the heroic martyrs ,which prepared the rise of the Romanian hood /nation,it is worth to be gratified also the page of contribution brought by the Medical Corps of the country.

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The nuisances of the Romanian-Russian colaboration

The state of moral of the authorities and of the population ,especially of the one refuged from Muntenia(to Moldavia) ,was in the months of December and January very depressing one.The resistance Front was not consolidated."The Evening Communicate" ,which was shouted in the evening on to the streets and lanes of Iasi city ,were bringing worse and worse news .The Romanian Country (Muntenia) was shrinking all the time:Buzau county,Ramnicu Sarat county ,Braila,Focsani counties were falling in the hands of the enemy ,one by one.The troops arriving ,retreated from the Front ,were in a miserable state .The officers had their moral shaken;some-and of the brave ones,which have stood entire months in the firing line -were expressing their regret that they not fell in the hands of the enemy as prisoners to escape the misery.The exanthematic typhus started to make ravages in the ranks of the Army and of the refugees.The few newspapers coming out,had the columns filled by necrologues(obituary) .To increase the population sadness ,a catastrophe on the railway ,happened at Ciurea near Iasi ,the most terrible which took place in our country,made some hundreds of victims ,throwing the mourning and grief in the sad and demoralized population.

An unrest was starting to overtake the Romanian population ,because of the Russians .The Russian aid ,for so long asked and wished for,without coming in time ,was becoming now very pressuring and concerning.There were now on the Moldavia territory about half a million of figthing troops ,dragging after them an equal number of stage troops (troops of stage),services,hospitals etc.This crowd of a million people which was flooding the country ,swarming through all cities and villages ,crowding and displacing the Romanians ,was manifesting ,clearly ,certain intentions.In Iasi the Russians were buying houses ,or were renting apartments /flats for five years time.In the Danube River Delta ,they unbirth the Romanian authorities ,they have arrested the Geandarms ,they asked for the evacuation of the Romanian population ,leaving only the Lipoveni on place ,they have installed a big "hydrotechnic service" ,which in fact put master on the entire Delta of Danube,measures which were rising suspicions ,the intention to put in practice the old political plan of mastering of the mouths of Danube River.

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In general ,the public was dominated by the belief that the Front will not resist and that,as a consequence ,Moldavia is only a first phase of the definitive evacuation towards Russia.That is why ,the refugees from Muntenia and from Ardeal especially ,were looking to ensure from time the ableness of evacuation.At the passports Bureau and especially at visa by the French Consulate ,was a crazy aglomeration.Entire weeks ,one had to walk until the passport could be arranged.The Russian military authorities were alimenting the start towards this exodus in mass.The imense Russian Army ,crowding in Moldavia ,were finding more and more difficulties of replenishments.The Commandment of the Russian Army ,which had its own replenishment center at Odessa and which stages were stretching from Nistru River until the Carpathian Mountains ,started to complain to the Romanian Government that the presence and organization of the state services and of the Romanian Army, in its first lines(of the Russians) of stages are making harder its own organization.The Great Russian Headquarter asked the Romanian Government that all Romanian railways to be put under Russian Commandment .The Romanian Government opposed with the most strength to satisfy this pretention.The Government and the Great Russian Headquarter make insistences ,more and more powerful for the evacuation in Russia of the Romanian Government ,of the Romanian Army in reorganizing ,of the hospitals and of the population civile on refuge.Amongst the material means of pressure ,was also the hunger.Almost every day the Russian authorities at Odessa ,tasked with the expedition of the replenishments to Iasi city were complaining that the replenishment station at Socola is blocked because of not unloading in due time of the transports and was announcing the stopping of the expeditions.There were in fact pretextes to slow the expeditions for to stop them,especially of the aliments expeditions,to reach the wanted aim:the retreat of the Romanian Army into Russia .

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The intervention of the French Mission ,which has delegated an officer especially tasked with supervising of the transports ,put an end to this situation.For to reach their goal ,the Rusians did not back nor even from some moral pressures;the Russian government ,insisting for the evacuation of the Romanian Parliament ,was insinuating next to the Entente governments that,if the Romanian Government refuses the evacuation ,it is making it on purpose ,to make possible by the fall of the Parliament in the hands of the Germans ,a separate peace.The representatives of the Allied powers ,giving in to the Russians insistences and,counting themselves the situation in Moldavia as unsure -the danger of a breaking of the Front at Siret River not being excluded -have made collective actions in the same sense next to the Romanian Government .Ofcourse that such a decision was not easy to be taken.It would have meant abandoning of Romania as an anexe of Russia .A simple stage territory of the Russian Army ,on one side,and a government without country ,on the other side,Romania would have lost any power to have her fate in her hands ;she would have given herself tight by hands and legs to Russia.The situation of the government was made difficult by the important number of the influent Romanians which,out of fraid or taking things the easy way,were making great pressures for evacuation.It has formed in this way a real "party of evacuation",which has established the center of operations at Odessa neighbour and sheltered of danger ,from where were aimed real campaigns of which result could be only the weakening of the power of resistance of the Romanian Government ,which represented the country towards foreigners.The Romanian Government has resisted though with all strength ,supported by common sense ,Romanian,by the love of the land of the Kingdom and by the advices full of trust of the French Mission which,also with this occasion ,knew to be close by our heart.Out of the expression of the feeling of true patriots ,which were looking with terror the evacuation plan ,Nicolae Iorga quoute in the Deputies Chamber the words of Gheorghe Voda Stefan which,at 1650 ,in a resembling circumstance of crossroads ,have exclaimed :"Instead to leave forever here ,better to be eaten by the dogs of this land!".Partial evacuations have been made ,still,and have been taken measures of precaution for grave eventualities .The Romanian State ,the King ,the Government ,the Army and the principal organs of administration of the Kingdom and of the great masterpiece of remaking of our military power ,have remained here ,on the ancestral land.

The members of the Parliament ,refugees from Muntenia,have been evacuated at Cherson ,city placed at the mouth of Nipru ,where they have been homed by the care of the Russian State;some parliamentaries have stopped and fixed in Odessa .At Cherson were made preparations even by installing of the Royal Family and of the Romanian Ministries.Have also been evacuated some authorities which had to be sheltered and which were not so much needed at Iasi .Has been evacuate dto Moscow the Thesaurus of the National Bank .the greatest part of the evacuated were private persons ,which were starting on foreign lands on their own risk.An important movement of funds have been made with this occasion and some speculants have found the occasion to make important profits ,speculating of the Leu(Romanian currency) exchange rate and of the Ruble(Russian currency) between Iasi and Odessa .

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Bratianu at Petrograd

During January Prince Carol the inheritor of the Throne together with the Primeminister Bratianu ,went to Petrograd ,with the aim to tight the connections between the two Reigning Courts and between the two Governments ,which would have to carry a commune action.Grave matters of military order were asking for an urgent solution.Grave dangers were rising in front of us ,not only from the enemy part ,but especially from the Ally.

Bratianu made contact with the Tzar of Russia ,with the personalities of forehead of the political and military Russian world.In this golden world in which it was dancing on the edge of the abyss which would open up in a month ,to swallow entirely,in the face of those dignitaries which were preoccupied more with the plans of crushing their own population ,was rising threatening ,under the boot of hunger and of the unhappinesses accumulated in decades ,than the fight against the enemy from outside ,the primeminister came to plead for a soon as possible offensive and to ask for new contingents and the promised weaponry to away the enemy from the land of the country.But here there were different conceptions .The Siret Front was considered as a short wile station ,of which abandoning had no significance whatsoever faced with the immense space stretching behind.As serious strategic lines were considered Prut River and especially Nistru.And for preparing that retreat ,was asked from us as the remaking centers and of instruction of the Divisions (ours) ,tired in fights ,to be moved over Nistru ,and the Allied Governments were asking that,this time ,to destroy all alimentary deposits ,which could not be evacuated ,without taking into account our population ,left behind.

Many and big discussions needed the Romanian Primeminister to away these conceptions ,fatal ones,to defeat the inertia and bad will reigning at Russian Stavka ,against us ,although instructions ,favorable to us ,received from the Emperor.How many wheeling and dealing had to be made ,through all ways ,Russian ones and Allied ones ,military ones and civilian ones ,to defeat the excessive claims that the Russian Armies in Moldavia to be fed by the poor resources of the country ,or to be retreated towards Prut!With the help of the Allied Missions ,has been organized a control of the transports and have been organized missions,to search and bring the ordered materials by us,which have been hidden and lost through the immensity of the Russian territory.

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In the same way ,had to be brought back to discussion all kinds of matters of collaboration between the two Commandments ,which have been regulated by the military convention from the beginning of the alliance ,but which the Russian did not respect anymore and many times not even knew about.

At the inter allied conference ,which was held in the same time at Petrograd ,the presence of Bratianu had not been admmited but only after the Primeminister of Romania ,in an energic protest ,declared that"the dignity of the Romanian State did not admit as the Chief of the Government to stay in the antychamber of the hall ,where matters essential for it were operated".The conference decided nothing relative about the much discussed matter of the offensive to disengage of Danube River and freeing of the petrolifer land(Ploiesti) ,with all the support of Lord Milner and of General Castellnau[3] ,as it have not decided nothing about France request about the intervention of Japan on the European War Theatr.

By the end of January ,the stabilizing of the Front on Siret and the visits of the inheritor Prince and of the Primeminister of the country at Petrograd have eased a little the spirits in the country and some of the refugees came back to Iasi or in the localities where they have sheltered.The population remained to suffer only by the terrible winter ,of hunger and epidemics and has been renounced ,for the time being ,to the other planned evacuations.

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Reorganization of the army

The remains of the operation Army in Muntenia ,retreated in Moldavia ,have been made in half.One part ,aproximativelly six divisions ,constituting the II-nd Romanian Army ,have remained on the Fighting Front ,in Vrancea region ,interposed between the Russian units ,which were occupying the whole of the rest of the Romanian Front .The other part of the Army ,made out of the rest of the divisions most disorganized ,has been taken out of the fight alltogether and transported in the North of Moldavia ,in the remaking zones.She constitutes the I-st Romanian Army.

With how many hardships could be reconstituted however the units of the Army!There had been needed several weeks to gather the scattered men ,which lost their regiments and were wondering through the country ,hungry and frozen ,without knowing where their units ar ,and sometimes without trying even too hard to find out.Nether the authorities knew ,most of the times ,to guide them ,surely.they were most of the time send in a village or a city ,where they arrived after entire days of road ,on terrible blizzards and,once arrived ,they were finding out that their regiment was never there.It has been possible,slowly,to put order and this state of affairs came to an end by the beginning of February .The soldiers have been gathered from the roads and villages and send all to their units ,reconstituted and placed in the localities of Southern Moldavia.

The principles after which the Romanian Commandment led itself in reorganizing of the Army ,have been the followings:the Army effective has been decreased to the number allowed by the resources of the country,for a long term campaign.That is why ,has been reduced the number of the Divisions at 15(there were 23 in 1916) of Infantry and two of Cavalry,meaning what we had before the War.Have been closed down the units made in haste during the mobilization from elements taken from other divisions ,with weak framing,with reduced services and weaponry.The 8th Romanian Division has been reconstituted out of the brigades which have been attached before to the 15th Romanian Division ,during the Fights at Oituz and Casin.A new Division ,the 15th ,was established with different elements .In this way the divisions have become homogeneous units as efectives ,framing/assignment and weaponry.

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The Divisions have been grouped into Army Corps ,which were consolidated as Commandment units ,being able to be formed by a bigger number or smaller one of divisions ,after the operative necessities .For the time of the remaking have been organized five Army Corps,constituted by three Divisions each.

The Army Corps have been grouped in Armies ,after the same principles as the Corps.have been atribbuted to the Armies elements which did not enter in the composition of the Divisions :the Army Cavalry -usually a brigade -heavy artillery ,pontooneers/river bridges ,Aviation ,stages.

In the I-st Romanian Army have been grouped Corps Ist, IIIrd and Vth ,and in the II-nd Romanian Army ,Corps IInd and IVth.

The number of the Regiments of Infantry has been fixed at 80 ;of these ,Regiments 1stto 40 were entire regiments ,and the ones from 40 to 80 were combined two by two ,carrying each regiment a double number .In fact ,so,there were 60 Regiments of Infantry of three Battalions each ,to which was added 10 more Regiments of Hunters of two battalions and a Brigade of border army(Graniceri) of two regiments.The Divisions were made out by four Regiments of Infantry ,grouped in to two Brigades ;Divisions 1to 10 had also a Hunter Regiment each.Next to each Division was attached also a Pioneer Battalion.

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The Field Artillery has been constituted of 15 regiments -one for each Division-formed up by nine batteries of four cannons ,as well as 15 regiments of howitzer of four batteries ,also one regiment for a Division.In reality ,not arriving the entire material for the regiments of howitzers ,these regiments have been constituted only by two batteries ,one of 105 mm and one of 120 mm.There have also been kept the small cannons of 53 mm and 58 mm ,one battery next to an Infantry Regiment.The Heavy Artillery has not been distributed on Divisions ,but has been attached to the Armies.Have been constituted four Regiments of Heavy Artillery ,each one with two divizions of long cannons of 120 mm and a divizion of 155 mm.The Anty-aerian Artillery and two Mountain Divizions completes the tableau of Artillery.

We have received from France a number of 297 fire mouths ,cannons with fast firing on field ,92 long cannons and short ones of 120 mm ,20 heavy howitzers and 130 mortiers of trenches of 58 mm.All this material ,ordered by us before the mobilization of the Army ,was excelent,superior to the other cannons pertaining the ballistic qualities.

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The Cavalry has been formed up by two Divisions of six regiments each.One Regiment was made out of six Escadrons ;one escadron was equiped and trained for pedestrian fight .Each Army had a Brigade of Calarasi (horsemen) ,of which one divizion pedestrian ,and each Division had a divizion of Cavalry,of which only one Platoon pedestrian .At the Cavalry Troops were attached a divizion of mounted Artillery ,Detachments of Cyclists and motorcyclists .One Regiment of Royal Escort completed the Cavalry.

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The Aeronautics ,almost innexistent in 1916 ,received a development according to her great importance .Have been organized 12 Squadrons(escadrile) of airplanes ,of which six Squadrons of Farman type -six to eight planes for a Squadron -three Squadrons of Nieuport of seven planes each ,one Squadron of Caudron of four planes and a Squadron Breguet-Morane ,for bombing.The crews of pilots and observers were both French ,and Romanians ,prepared in the antena schools ,pilots and commandment ,under the leadership of the French Mission.The Aerostation had five Companies ,having a balloon for each Army .In this way ,the sky stopped to be in the mastering of the enemy -as in 1916- and the white birds ,with the Romanian threecolors ,rove now the space ,making not only useful reconissance misions and taking photograps to enemy positions ,but sure of their superiority ,were giving victorious attacks against enemy squadrons armed.

The total of the combined Romanians forces ,without the sedentary parts and of stages ,was rising up to almost 400 000 men.

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The reorganizing of the I-st Romanian Army has been made by Divisions.At each division have been gathered the remains of all units which have been part from the order of battle of the Division ,in the day of the mobilization ,in which have been added the sedentary parts corresponding to them ,the recruits of 1917-1918 contingents and all services of the Division.This addition of the men to the Division which they belonged to ,has been made with great difficulty.The Divisions have been grouped in Army Corps,giving to each Corps a certain region of stationing and remaking.

the IIIrd Corps of Army ,made out of Divisions 5th,13th and 14th ,were in Botosani and the surroundings .It has finished the fastest the reorganization and was ready at the beginning of June.

The Vth Corps of Army,with Divisions 9th ,10th,15th ,were in Vaslui region .They have finished their reorganization at the end of June ,without the 9th Division ,which has been ready at the beginning of June.

The Ist Corps of Army ,with Divisions 2nd,4th,11th ,in the surroundings of Iasi ,heavily trialed by diseases ,has finished the reorganization the last one and only pertaining the Infantry.

The reorganization of the II-nd Romanian Army has been made even on the Front.It has been constituted on two Army Corps :IInd Corps ,composed of Divisions 1st,3rd,12th with Hedquarter at Cotofanesti and the IVth Corps ,composed of Divisions 6th,7th ,8th with the Headquarter at Onesti.By reorganization,the 7th Mixt Brigade has been closed down ,and her elements have been given back to the units they belonged organically.Sedentary parts and the recruits of the II-nd Romanian Army have however been send also in the Nort of Moldavia ,where they have been trained .

The special circumstances in which the II-nd Army was making here reorganization have imposed special measures .Her units were retreated ,by rotation,behind the Front ,for a period of one month ,to rest,complete,gear up and train.Still,some units ,especially the Artillery ,have reorganized just on the Front ,under the enemy fire.

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The greatest attention has been given to the Infantry ,which needed to be given an organization and instruction conform with the learnings of the War experience.The Infantry Regiments have been constituted on three Battalions of four Companies each ,of which one of Machineguns with eight pieces.The Companies were with smaller effectives than in 1916 :180-190 men ,instead of 260 ;however ,although much smaller numerically was,because of the weaponry available ,much stronger.Have been distributed rifle-machineguns ,eight pieces for a Company and has been organized a Group of Grenadieri for each Platoon.In this way ,from where in the 1916 Campaign the Infantry Regiments had from no machinegun at all to six machineguns ,no riflemachinegun,and some 24 Grenadieri soldiers for a Regiment,using 3-5 systems of grenades ,in 1917 each Regiment had 24 machineguns ,96 rifle-machineguns and almost all soldiers were also Grenadieri(grenade throwers),throwing the grenade at at least 25 meters.The grenade has become the favorite weapon of the Romanian soldier ,which gave him the outmost trust.The wittiness of the peasant at throwing with the stone was finding now the fortunate application at using of this weapon ,so much on his taste.

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Officers and soldiers had metal helmets ,French model ,defenders against bullets ,as well as masks defenders against axfixiant gases .

For completion of the gaps made by the fights ,have been created next to each Division ,two Regiments of March.The first regiment had four five Battalions ,one for each Regiment of the Division ;the second one had only two Battalions.

The reorganization of the Army has been acompanied also by an important change in the composition of the Commandment.H.M King Ferdinand of Romania was the Leading Chief of the "Romanian Front" of the Allied Armies ,comprising under this title the totality of the Russian Forces and Romanian ones from Bucovina until the Black Sea *.The Chief Leader had two aids:a Russian general and a Romanian general.The Russian General had the Command of the Russian troops on the Romanian Front.Until April ,has been in this Commandment ,General Zaharov then,after a short interrimat held by General Lecitki ,has come General Serbacev.Worthy military and man full of tact ,he has maintained rapports of tight collaboration and sincere friendship with the country Government(of Romania) and with the Romanian Commanders,during all circumstances unsaid hard in which he had to exercise his Commandment .Chief of General Staff of the Russian Commandment was General Golovin ,a capable military.

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The Romanian aid of the Leading Chief has been General Prezan ,Cief of General Staff of the Romanian Army ,a military which has made the probe of his eminent qualities ,as Commander of the Northern Romanian Army and the of the Group of the Southern Romanian Armies,during the great Battles on Neajlov and Arges.He has prezided at the remaking of the Romanian Army ,which he then Commanded during the great fights of summer 1917 ,as during the hard times which have followed .The country and the army had the good luck to find in the person of General Prezan ,in the hardest times,a gifted Chief with special qualities.Unmoved in his beliefs and ideas ,well balanced spirit ,calm in the midst of most difficult situations ,military with clear views ,enjoying an outstanding authority ,in front of his soldiers and towards the Allies ,hardworking and modest.Prezan devoted himself exclusively to fulfilling his military attributions ,serving the Kingdom and his King ,without any preoccupation ,ambition or veleity of other kind.In his hard task and full of responssabilities ,General Prezan has been helped ,as Sub Chiefs of the Great General Staff ,by General Constantin Christescu ,until June and then by General Al.Lupescu .An important reshuffling has been made in the composition of units Commanders.Have been changed almost all Commanders of Divisions ,being name Generals which have distinguished in 1916 Campaign.

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*The Russian Army in Europe was grouped in four Fronts:Northern one ,Western one ,South-Western one and the Romanian one.

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A new school

Parallel with the reorganization of the Army ,was unfolding a huge work for the instruction of the officers and of the soldiers ,for familiarizingthem with the new fighting methods ,fruit of the experience of the Mondial War .This activity is one of the most characteristic of the remaking of the Army .She had as result not only the transforming of the Army of the defeat into a strong fighting instrument ,but determined a deep change in to the soul of the Romanian soldier.Numerous schools were functioning all over ,to all Commandments ,teaching the men to know the weapons ,the instruments and systems for fight in attack ,in defence and in all kinds of works pertaining the War.Next to each Commandment of Division was a center of divisionary instruction(of the Division) ,which had a school of NCOs ,school of machineguns ,school of grenadieri ,school for telephony and signalling with ligth rockets ,school of rifle-machineguns ,school of fortifications ,school of patrols ,of observers ,of liassion agents ,of brancardiers.Next to the Army Corps were schools of antena ,for radiotelegraphy.Next to the Armies :schools of balloon observation ,schools of safety agents -concerning the espionaj and informations.

In Bacau city ,where was the General Headquarter of the II-nd Romanian Army ,has been created an impresionant instruction center ,where was grouped a great number of schools and where ,were coming all those evacuated from hospitals ,the recruits and the others for to be instructed ,before to be send on to the Front.At Husi has been also organized a center for fortifications school ,frequented by the Brigades Commanders of Regiments and by the officers of General Staff.Numerous conferences were held with the Commanders ,for leading the Divisions.

After the individual instruction ,has been made instruction on greater units ,fighting exercises ,have been made, fortifications and real trenches ,giving position fights ,exercising the troop ,to defending the strongholds/redoubts as well as to the attack against them.Have been made also manoeuvres with great units ,real rehearsels of war.In which took part the troops of a entire Division ,in which the Regiments were attacking fortified positions ,under the protection of the Artillery fire ,directed by airplanes.

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