The Struggle of the Wehrmacht in Romania, 1944.

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:54 am

If you want to fill a major gap on your bookshelves about the Eastern Front, I recommend:

"Luptele Wehrmachtului in Romania, 1944" by Klaus Schonherr (Editura Militara, Bucharest, 2004).

The author is an established German military historian who has had access to Romanian archives.

It is, regretably, only in Romanian. However, anyone with a grasp of other Romance languages such as French, Italian or Spanish shouldn't find understanding it an insurmountable obstacle.

It is more detailed on the German presence in Romania than the only book in English that covers the subject reasonably - the out of print "Thord Axis, Fourth Ally", which is devoted primarily to the Romanian armed forces in WWII.

Cheers,

Sid.

k-pp · Post by **k-pp** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 10:29 am

Thanks for the tip.

Are you able to estimate how well Schonherr covers the Luftwaffe's role in Roumania in 1944? I'm still trying to work out why my grandfather was located near Focsani (Focsain) in April 1944.

Best wishes,
Karl

Benoit Douville · Post by **Benoit Douville** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:32 pm

Sid,

Sounds really interesting, do you have list of the different Battles involving the Wehrmacht in Romania in 1944?

Regards

Lorenz · Post by **Lorenz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:41 am

If you read German, these are still very good to excellent:

KISSEL, Hans. Die Katastrophe in Rumänien 1944. Darmstadt: Wehr und Wissen Verlagsgesellschaft, 1964.
REHM, Walther. Jassy. Neckargemünd: Scharnhorst-Buchkameradschaft, 1959.

--Lorenz

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:32 am

Hi Lorenz,

Those are useful books of the purely German perspective, but they suffer from a lack of any access to Romanian sources and, indeed, German archives were not then fully open either.

Schonherr is able to rectify these failings.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi k-pp,

There is a Luftwaffe after-action report on events in Romania in August 1944 in the Imperial War Museum in London that is reproduced in German and Romanian in one of the document books produced in Romania in the 1970s.

From memory, Focsani was the site of a Romanian airfield that included Romanian fighters (and possibly Rudel's Ju87 group - check his memoirs). The Luftwaffe also had two Flak divisions in Romania, one of which (15th?) was behind the front in eastern Romania, where Focsani lies. In April 1944 the Red Army was entering Romania for the first time and I think the Romanians flew their highest sortie rates of the war. Presumably the Lutwaffe was just as heavily engaged.

If you want to know more, try the Romanian Military Forum. There is a lot of expertise on that link, including several of the leading authors on air activity in Romania.

Cheers,

Sid.

Lorenz · Post by **Lorenz** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:00 am

Sid -

The Schonherr book certainly sounds like a winner, but why in the world has this work by a German author only appeared in the Romanian language? I mean no disrespect to beautiful Romania and her fine people, but few know the language outside of that country. If Herr Schonherr set out to limit the readership for his book, then he certainly did a fine job! I am good in 3 European languages aside from English, but Romanian (sadly) isn't among them.

--Lorenz

k-pp · Post by **k-pp** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:43 am

Thanks for the pointers, Sid.

Best wishes,
Karl

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 7:19 am

Hi Lorenz,

I cannot answer that directly except to point out that the publisher is the Editura Militara (Military Publishing House) and perhaps it welcomed the opportunity to sponsor a book on a Romanian-related subject by a well respected German military historian to whom they could throw open their Ministry of Defence archives.

If any of your languages are Romance tongues like French, I think you may be suprised at how understandable Romanian is. About 80% of its vocabulary is reportedly derived from Latin, directly or indirectly.

Cheers,

Sid.

Lorenz · Post by **Lorenz** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 7:36 am

....I think you may be suprised at how understandable Romanian is.

I have a half-dozen books in Romanian, Sid, and yes, it is possible to follow the general drift of events and, with the help of a dictionary, pick out and amplify a sentence or two of particular interest. But it's a slow row to hoe, and much of the enjoyment and usefulness is lost since overall comprehension rarely exceeds 60% or so. The historically valuable information in Schonherr's work could have reached a much wider audience if the book had been published in at least one common language besides Romanian, such as the author's native German. But who knows? I am sure Editura Militara is well aware of this and may in fact have plans to negotiate a licensing arrangement with a German publisher for an edition in that language. It is entirely possible that Schonherr's original manuscript may already be in German. If you notice that this has occurred at some time in the future, I hope you will give us a heads up!

--Lorenz

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:39 am

Hi Lorenz,

Will do.

Cheers,

Sid.

Michate · Post by **Michate** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 1:01 am

It is really very unfortunate Schoenherr's work is only available in Romanian so far, but I think it will be published in German in volume 8 of the "Das deutsche Reich und der 2. Weltkrieg" series, the publication of which is planned for spring 2006, IIRC.

As a general information, Schoenherr is Colonel-Lieutenant of the German army and working as a historian at the MGFA, see here.

Lorenz · Post by **Lorenz** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:30 am

Michate wrote:

As a general information, Schoenherr is Colonel-Lieutenant of the German army and working as a historian at the MGFA, see here.

Ah ha! O.K. That's VERY good news. Thanks, Michate.