Osprey Publishing

Campaign #404

Romania 1944, The Turning of Arms against Nazi Germany

This new volume in Osprey’s long running (404 titles now), wide ranging series which examines military campaigns looks at the events involving Romania in the critical year of 1944, as the tides of war brought the Red Army onto Romanian soil. The books in this series all share a common size, format, and features.

Romania’s WWII story is somewhat complicated. It began with the Kingdom of Romania siding with France and Great Britain in 1939, and once France had fallen in 1940, the Romanians turned to Nazi Germany out of fear of Soviet Russia. During this period, the Romanian government fell, a coup led to a fascist dictatorship that then allied itself with Nazi Germany. Once in bed with Germany, the Romanians went ALL in, supplying almost almost half a million troops to the Nazi cause, serving mostly on the Eastern Front. In fact, the Romanians had more troops on the Eastern Front than all the other non-German Axis forces combined.

In 1944 as the Soviets hammered their way westward into Romania, the forces of Romania saw the writing on the wall and under the leadership of King Michael of Romania staged another coup, this time replacing the fascist regime. The Romanians then took up arms against their former German allies. The turbulent year of 1944 as it impacted Romania is the subject of this volume.

Vital Statistics

Format - softcover, portrait format

Page Count - 96 pages

Size - 7.5”x 10.75”

Photos - Black and White period images / Full color contemporary images 

Tables / drawings / diagrams - detailed maps, some including 3D topography, full color paintings of troops in action

All text and photograph captions are in English.

What's between the Covers?

As can be seen by the image above, the book’s content is laid out in a logical, easily followed manner. For a fairly compact volume, a very solid complete examination is made of the situation, the opposing forces, the leadership of those forces, and the actions that took place in 1944 Romania. The book even has a brief discussion on the battlefields as they exist today.

Above - a one page chronological listing helps the reader keep events in perspective from a “what happened-when” standpoint.

While the events unfolding in the Romania of 1944 were rather quick moving and complex, the way that this book is laid out helps the reader follow these events. The text covers much ground in a quick manner, but remains “readable”. There is a lot of interesting details embedded in this text, don’t be in a hurry to read through it.

This book describes the conditions and actions of the opposing forces; German, Soviet, Romanian, Hungarian, and even the impact made by American and British air power on the campaign. Events and actions are described clearly and in good detail.

Above right side- the many maps in this volume are very cleanly drawn and show good detail on the troop positions and movements. Good captions give great information as to what’s seen in the maps.

Above is another of the book’s very well done maps, this one rendered in a 3D manner to show the terrain. Troop placements and movements are well described in the accompanying captions.

Not forgotten are the efforts of the U.S. Army Air Corps and the British RAF to deny vital Romanian oil to the Germans. Interestingly, the map on the left side of the image above also shows airborne efforts to block the Danube River with mines. 

A Note on the photos - photos in this volume are of good interest and quality, although some are a bit dark. Many of the photos are rather small throughout this book, the larger half page sized ones are a bit scarce. However, this seems to be common in this series, as the authors/Osprey do pack quite a bit into these relatively slim volumes. They do manage to find a good balance between all of the text, maps, and artwork.

Above - there are three two page spreads in this volume featuring full color artist renderings of troops in action, providing a look at troops in action. These renderings are well done, showing uniforms and weapons in an atmospheric manner.

This book concludes with a short 3 page look at the Romanian battlefields today, followed by a single page Bibliography.

Conclusions

Romania’s journey through WWII had to have been a surreal nightmare for it’s people; coups, a fascist dictatorship, counter-coups, alignments with both sides, very heavy front line losses, and increasingly heavy bombardment by the Allies. The events of 1944 weren’t restricted to just WWII, the effects of the war impacted Romania for decades afterwards. 

The author has done a fine job of examining and explaining the complex situation that Romania found itself in during WWII, and the messy end to the war for them. The text is well written and despite how complex the situation was, this text is easy to follow. The maps are superb, and the photos are generally of good quality and interest.

For a relatively slim book, this book provides a remarkably clear look at (and context to) a very turbulent Romania in 1944. For anyone with interest in this relatively overlooked campaign, this book is an outstanding reference.

Highly Recommended! 

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review copy

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

AMPS 2nd Vice President, Midwest Region

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