The Romanian Battlefront in World War I
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I

Author: Glenn E. Torrey

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 0700620176

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Despite a strategically vulnerable position, an ill-prepared army, and questionable promises of military support from the Allied Powers, Romania intervened in World War I in August 1916. In return, it received the Allies' formal sanction for the annexation of the Romanian-inhabited regions of Austria-Hungary. As Glenn Torrey reveals in his pathbreaking study, this soon appeared to have been an impulsive and risky decision for both parties. Torrey details how, by the end of 1916, the armies of the Central Powers, led by German generals Falkenhayn and Mackensen, had administered a crushing defeat and occupied two-thirds of Romanian territory, but at the cost of diverting substantial military forces they needed on other fronts. The Allies, especially the Russians, were forced to do likewise in order to prevent Romania from collapsing completely. Torrey presents the most authoritative account yet of the heavy fighting during the 1916 campaign and of the renewed attempt by Austro-German forces, including the elite Alpine Corps, to subdue the Romanian Army in the summer of 1917. This latter campaign, highlighted here but ignored in non-Romanian accounts, witnessed reorganized and rearmed Romanian soldiers, with help from a disintegrating Russian Army, administer a stunning defeat of their enemies. However, as Torrey also shows, amidst the chaos of the Russian Revolution the Central Powers forced Romania to sign a separate peace early in 1918. Ultimately, this allowed the Romanian Army to reenter the war and occupy the majority of the territory promised in 1916. Torrey's unparalleled familiarity with archival and secondary sources and his long experience with the subject give authority and balance to his account of the military, strategic, diplomatic, and political events on both sides of the battlefront. In addition, his use of personal memoirs provides vivid insights into the human side of the war. Major military leaders in the Second World War, especially Ion Antonescu and Erwin Rommel, made their careers during the First World War and play a prominent role in his book. Torrey's study fosters a genuinely new appreciation and understanding of a long-neglected aspect of World War I that influenced not only the war itself but the peace settlement that followed and, in fact, continues today.

Prelude to Blitzkrieg
Prelude to Blitzkrieg

Author: Michael B. Barrett

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2013-10-23

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0253008700

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An authoritative study of World War I’s often-overlooked Romanian front. In contrast to the trench-war deadlock on the Western Front, combat in Romania and Transylvania in 1916 foreshadowed the lightning warfare of World War II. When Romania joined the Allies and invaded Transylvania without warning, the Germans responded by unleashing a campaign of bold, rapid infantry movements, with cavalry providing cover or pursuing the crushed foe. Hitting where least expected and advancing before the Romanians could react―even bombing their capital from a Zeppelin soon after war was declared―the Germans and Austrians poured over the formidable Transylvanian Alps onto the plains of Walachia, rolling up the Romanian army from west to east, and driving the shattered remnants into Russia. Prelude to Blitzkrieg tells the story of this largely ignored campaign to determine why it did not devolve into the mud and misery of trench warfare, so ubiquitous elsewhere. “This work will stand as the definitive study of the Central Powers part of the campaign for some time to come.” —Journal of Military History “Barnett’s book is a valuable addition to the field. He writes well and with authority. He has been able to illuminate a little-known corner of the First World War and provide a state-of-the-art operational history combining detailed narrative with prescient analysis.” —American Historical Review

World War One
World War One

Author: Norman Stone

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2009-04-28

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0786744626

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After the unprecedented destruction of the Great War, the world longed for a lasting peace. The victors, however, valued vengeance even more than stability and demanded a massive indemnity from Germany in order to keep it from rearming. The results, as eminent historian Norman Stone describes in this authoritative history, were disastrous. In World War Two, Stone provides a remarkably concise account of the deadliest war of human history, showing how the conflict roared to life from the ashes of World War One. Adolf Hitler rode a tide of popular desperation and resentment to power in Germany, promptly making good on his promise to return the nation to its former economic and military strength. He bullied Europe into giving him his way, and in so doing backed the victors of the Great War into a corner. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany -- a decision that, Stone argues, was utterly irrational. Yet Hitler had driven the world mad, and the rekindling of European hostilities soon grew to a conflagration that spread across the globe, fanned by political and racial ideologies more poisonous -- and weaponry more destructive -- than the world had ever seen. With commanding expertise, Stone leads readers through the escalation, climax, and mournful denouement of this sprawling conflict. World War Two is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the twentieth century and its defining struggle.

The Great War and the Romanians
The Great War and the Romanians

Author: Nicolae ne

Publisher: Histria Books

Published: 2022-09-01

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 1592111939

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Written during the First World War, this book describes Romania’s role in World War I during the critical years of 1916 and 1917. The book analyzes the situation of the Romanians living within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time and the causes for Romania’s entry into the war. The author then discusses Romania’s contribution to the war effort during 1916 and the first half of 1917. An important record of events for historians interested in the First World War on the Eastern Front, it includes several essential historical documents that illustrate the author’s account of the events of the time. The book also has a preface by Albert Thomas, French minister of Armaments and War Production at that time, and Maurice Muret. It is a valuable first-hand account of Romania’s involvement in World War I. The author, Nicolae Petrescu-Comnène was an important Romanian diplomat of the interwar period. He served as ambassador to Switzerland, Germany, and the Vatican, as well as a delegate at the League of Nations, before becoming foreign minister from 1938 to 1939. He authored numerous studies on history, law, and politics.

The Nation’s Gratitude
The Nation’s Gratitude

Author: Maria Bucur

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-30

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 100053541X

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A pioneering work for the history of veterans’ rights in Romania, this study brings into focus the laws and policies the state developed in response to the unprecedented human losses in World War I. It features in lively and accessible language the varied responses of veterans, widows and orphans to those policies. The analysis emphasizes how ordinary citizens became educated about and used state institutions in ways that highlight the class, ethnic, religious and gender norms of the day. The book offers a vivid case study of how disability as a personal reality for many veterans became a point of policy making, a story that has seen little scholarly interest despite the enormous populations affected by these developments. Overall, the monograph shows how, in the postwar European states, citizenship as engaged practice was shaped by both government policies and the interpretation a large and varied group of beneficiaries gave to these policies. The analysis provides insights of great interest to scholars of these themes, while it offers examples of engaged citizenship useful for an undergraduate and nonspecialist audience.

European Culture in the Great War
European Culture in the Great War

Author: Aviel Roshwald

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-02-14

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9780521013246

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A comparative study of European cultural and social history during the First World War.

The Great War and Memory in Central and South-Eastern Europe
The Great War and Memory in Central and South-Eastern Europe

Author: Oto Luthar

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-03-21

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 900431623X

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This volume presents a series of chapters about the Great War and memory in Central and South-Eastern Europe which will widen the insufficient and spotty representations of the Great War in that region. The contributors deliver an important addition to present-day scholarship on the more or less unknown war in the Balkans and at the Italian fronts. Although it might not completely fill the striking gap in the historical representations of the situation between the Slovene-Italian Soča-Isonzo river in the North-West and the Greek-Macedonian border mountains around Mount Kajmakčalan in the South-East, it will add significantly to the scholarship on the Balkan theatre of war and provide a much-needed account of the suffering of civilians, ideas, loyalties and cultural hegemonies, as well as memories and the post-war memorial landscape. The contributors are Vera Gudac Dodić, Silviu Hariton, Vijoleta Herman Kaurić, Oto Luthar, Olga Manojlović Pintar, Ahmed Pašić, Ignác Romsics, Daniela Schanes, Fabio Todero, Nikolai Vukov and Katharina Wesener.

Brief Romanian Military History
Brief Romanian Military History

Author: Călin Hentea

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780810858206

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One of the first historical mentions of an armed conflict in what is now Romania dates back to 335 B.C., when, prior to launching his legendary Asian campaign, Alexander the Great organized an expedition over the Western shore of the Danube to deter the Gaets and secure the frontier of the Macedonian Kingdom. Since then, the land located on the Black Sea and nestled amongst the Carpathian Mountains has seen more than its fair share of military struggles. Whether referring to the country's fight for independence against the Ottoman Empire in the 14th Century or the December Revolution in the late 20th Century, Romania's military history has been long and varied. This book presents a chronological and detailed narrative of the significant events in the nation's military history, covering everything from the campaign of the Persian king Darius I against the Scythians in 514 B.C. to Romania's admission into NATO in April of 2004. Beginning with a full chronology of the country's most important and decisive military events, Brief Romanian Military History then presents a general overview of 2500 years of Romanian history. Complete with biographies of significant military leaders and entries on important battles, wars, military organizations, structures, fortresses, uniforms, and weapons for each of the historical eras chronicled, this book is an essential reference tool for scholars, historians, anthropologists, journalists, and all others interested in the history of Romania.

The Brusilov Offensive
The Brusilov Offensive

Author: Timothy Dowling

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2008-06-18

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0253003520

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In the summer of 1915, the Central Powers launched an offensive on the Eastern Front that they hoped would decide the war. It did not, of course. In June 1916, an Allied army under the command of Aleksei A. Brusilov decimated the Central Powers' gains of 1915. Brusilov's success brought Romania into the war, extinguished the offensive ability of the Habsburg armies, and forced Austria-Hungary into military dependence on and political subservience to Germany. The results were astonishing in military terms, but the political consequences were perhaps even more significant. More than any other action, the Brusilov Offensive brought the Habsburg Empire to the brink of a separate peace, while creating conditions for revolution within the Russian Imperial Army. Timothy C. Dowling tells the story of this important but little-known battle in the military and political history of the Eastern Front.