The Romanian uniform color debacle

[Morar Andrei]

It's been an extremely long amount of time since I have last written something on this forum, and many things have changed since my last visit. One of the things that happened has been that I joined a historical reenactment group in Romania, and I had the chance to learn a lot of interesting things while wearing the 1916 Romanian campaign uniform. 

There is one thing that is extremely confusing though - what color actually were these uniforms? Until now, I have been exposed to two narratives, each contradicting the other. 

 

1) Romanian uniforms were grey-blue (something similar to the French)

This is usually the "mainstream" narrative, perpetuated by the historians and illustrators of the National Military Museum. It says that the uniform changed colors in 1916 due to economic reasons, and it remained as such until the early 1920s. It is also the narrative that I used to believe until recently, and which I even talked about in other threads regarding the Romanian Army of the era. 

 

2) Romanian uniforms were grey-green (and a lot of other colors too)

I will try to explain this line of though the best I can. It is the idea that our reenactment group goes with, in contradiction with that of the Museum:

- in 1913, around the time of the Second Balkan War, Romania adopted a green-grey colored summer uniform; this is as much as it agrees with the "mainstream" narrative 

- in 1916, there was no change in uniform color, Romania entering the Great War in the same green-grey uniforms; they were also using using older uniform patterns like the 1895 model, even if for second line and reserve units 

- due to shortcomings, insufficient materials and overall situation following the retreat to Moldavia (losing on the way 2/3 of the national territory), the Romanians ran out of green, so all the newly produces uniforms from local materials became grey; grey uniforms would remain in use, along with the remaining green-grey uniforms for the following years 

- the French delivered, along with armament and munition, textile materials and dyes resembling those of the French Army; therefore, some uniforms created at the time resembled those of the French and which, along with the introduction of the Adrian helmet, gave the looks of a completely different army 

- after the war, in order to create good impression and show their love for France (at the time, Romanians were very Francophile, which was also one of the reasons why they preferred fighting on the side of the Entente), they sent uniforms made after the French pattern to various museums in Europe, which created the impression they looked like an imitation of the French Army in some contemporary illustrations 

- even weirder, as the war was about to end and soon after the end of the war, large amounts of surplus equipment arrived in Romania, which gave us such things as British cartridge straps and even full American uniforms 

- while some illustrations from the era depicted Romanian soldiers in blue-grey uniforms, other illustrations depicted them in green-grey 

- nowadays, the National Military Museum in Bucharest, along with its historians, are still presenting that Francophilia sentiment, pushing the narrative of the "Bleu-Horizon" Romanian Army as the sole uniform model worn by the Romanians at the time; even in official materials and museum presentations, out of the huge collection of uniforms they own, they are mostly exhibiting those uniforms that fit with their story 

 

 

Conclusion:

With all of this in mind, things are very messy, and nobody seems to be any close to reaching an agreement. Probably the best thing to do would be to look for an army regulation book from the era, but we are currently still in the process of finding one such book. Until then, it remains to be seen who is right