British Webbing

[James Blonde]

Hallo Fellow Members

prior to Christmas I obtained the following framed picture from a Flea-Market in the town of Timisoara,

showing a group of Romanian Military Officers (27) on the steps of the Hungarian Government Buildings in Budapest 08 September 1919:

To the rear is written:

"Memory from Budapest - Hungarian Parliament - officers of the 5th Hunters Regiment, with their famous general ahead of them, General Niculescu., Comander of the Ist Brigade" signature and date (08 Sept 1919).

Its interesting for the following points.

1. Romanian Occupation of Budapest was very short period.

2. Shows assorted Uniforms and styles of dress.

3. Some decorations are being worn.

4. The Regiments priest is shown wearing black and with a "cross" armband.

But the real interesting thing, is shown in the cropped part of the picture shown in the following post.

Connaught Stranger.

[James Blonde]

One of the Romanian sentries to the rear of the group of officers caught in time wearing

BRITISH 1909 Webbing (as seen on the front of the book,Osprey Militay, Warrior Series,

"British Tommy 1914 - 1918".

I believe pictures of British Military Webbing worn by WW1 Romanians to be extremely RARE

He is also wearing the Romanian Adrian helmets obtained from the French with the King Ferdinand Cypher.

Connaught Stranger

[DrB]

Since the Bulgarians were at it tooth and nail against the French, Greeks, Serbs and British north of Salonika, those could have been "furnished" from any number of occurances.

DrB

[4thGordons]

Interesting picture - is it possible to see what sort of rifle he is armed with?

Chris

[James Blonde]

Hallo Chris

many thanks for your interest.

As requested.

Connaught Stranger

[James Blonde]

Since the Bulgarians were at it tooth and nail against the French, Greeks, Serbs and British north of Salonika, those could have been "furnished" from any number of occurances.

DrB

Hallo DrB.

Possibly, but it it is known / recorded here in Romania, that Britain and France were sending supplies to Romania.

Connaught Stranger.

[4thGordons]

Hallo Chris

many thanks for your interest.

As requested.

Connaught Stranger

Thanks, Obviously it's pretty hard to tell, but if I had to guess I would suggest this looks like a Lebel. I'd be interested in others thoughts. I know nothing at all about the Romanian army of this period - what was their standard rifle?

[auchonvillerssomme]

With a squint at the bayonet just visible in the 2nd top picture I would agree.

mick

[James Blonde]

Bayonet details.

The following I quote from WW2.ro member Kepi :

1. The Adrian style helmet were ordered in summer 1916 and they started to arrive in Romania, through the long Nordic way (Archangelsk harbour), at the end of that year. These helmets were actually distributed to the troops in spring 1917, so all units were equipped with this headgear during the battles of summer 1917.

2. By the Royal Decree nr. 500 of 4th February 1912, Romanian army adopted a new campaign uniform, influenced by the austro-hungarian model, but made in grey-green (in fact a mixture of grey, green and blue threads of wool) cloth. The predominant colour of these uniforms was green.

During the Second Balkan War, most Romanian troops were equipped with M.1912 uniforms. However, many reservists still had M.1895 uniforms and equipment and, in many cases, even the officers wore a mixture of old and new, grey-green, uniforms.

Between 1914-1916, during the neutrality period, Romanian army was deprived from its main sources of supplies, so the original colours to dye the cloth were not available any more. Romanian authorities tried to use other paints (dyes) but the result was not satisfactory.

From 1915 in the Romanian army rose a great variety of models of uniforms, with different cuts, made in different types of cloth, from light-blue (horizon blue) to khaki. In 1916 the Allies (Russian, Italians) sent different quantities of their uniforms cloth in Romania, so, the Romanian army appearance became even more variegated.

During the 1917-1918, the shortage of cloth was so severe that every piece of tissue was used to make uniforms. Many officers converted civilian clothes into military tunics, having civilian bone buttons. For the other ranks, the uniforms were made in undyed cloth, as for the Confederacy troops of the American Civil War. Hopefully, in autumn 1917 Romanian army captured great stores of Russian equipment in Moldavia and Bassarabia, so this gave a respite to the Romanian military authorities.

During the intervention in Hungary against soviet Hungarian forces, Romanian troops were equipped with British khaki uniforms and web equipment, delivered by the Allied Danube Army troops, but carried French style Adrian helmets and long Berthier rifles, which gave an unique appearance to the Romanians soldiers.

Connaught Stranger