Page 464 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

464 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

retaking would have represented a gift for Führer’s birthday (April 20). .
24
What also must be taken into account is the Romanian military potential, which was
made available to the Coalition of the United Nations after August 23, 1944. Until the
end of hostilities, Romania sent on the front 538 536 men (308 003 – infantry, 73 667 –
aeronautics, 9 468 – naval forces), 175 000 of them being in constant contact with the
enemy. The losses stood at 169 822, among which 21 035 killed, 90 344 wounded and
58 443 missing. It is worth mentioning that the expeditionary corps was exclusively
supported from internal resources, in addition to the fulfillment of the provisions of the
armistice convention signed in Moscow during the night of September 12/13, 1944 .
25
The importance of Romania’s act of August 23, 1944, and of the military contribution
that followed received a symbolic recognition through the decoration of King Michael
I, the head of the Romanian state between 1940 and 1947, by the major actors of the
Coalition of the United Nations. In 1945, he received from the Soviet Union the highest
military decoration, the Order of Victory, given to very few foreign personalities. The
document stated that the order was bestowed “for the brave act of turning Romania’s
policy towards the break with Nazi Germany, allying with the United Nations, in a
moment when the German defeat was all but certain”.
On March 20, 1946, President Harry Truman awarded King Michael I with Chief
Commander of the Legion of Merit, the highest military decoration that a head of state
can receive from the government of the United States of America. He also received
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order from Great Britain and the Grand
Cross of the Légion d’Honneur from France.

Conclusions
The political decision of August 23, 1944, taken by the constitutional factors and by
the main Romanian political parties, to break the alliance with Germany and to join the
Coalition of the United Nations, was followed by an ample combined operation, achieved
by the Romanian military forces under the command of the General Staff, which was
given complete freedom of action. The circumstances in which it unfolded were highly
complex, comprising both favorable aspects (such as the Soviet offensive launched on
August 20, 1944, which immobilized the main German forces) and unfavorable factors,
among which the lack of communication with the allies, especially with the Soviets,
before the switch in alliance.
Through the operation executed by the Romanian armed forces, who responded in
their entirety to the orders issued by the supreme commander, King Michael I, without
hesitation or cracks in the chain of command, Romania managed to avoid unconditional
surrender, reiterated at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. In it true, however,
that the Soviets, by not recognizing the change that had taken place in Romania, tried

24 Inside the Third Reich. Memoirs by Albert Speer, translated from German by Richard and Clara Winston,
The MacMillan Company, p. 434, 474; see also Henrik Eberle, Mathias Uhl, Dosarul Hitler (Hitler Dossier),
Editura Meditatii, Bucuresti, 2007, p. 301-304.
25 Gheorghe Romanescu, Nicolae Ciobanu, Alesandru Duţu, L’Armée Roumaine dans la campagne de l’ouest
1944-1945, Editiona Militaires, Bucarest, 1991, p.253-290.