Training Activities of the German Army Mission to Romania from 1940 to 1942
Training Activities of the German Army Mission to Romania from 1940 to 1942

Summary/Abstract: The deployment of an army mission as part of a Wehrmacht mission to Romania in October 1940 was inextricably linked with the plans of National Socialist Germany to wage a racial-ideological war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. German military interest was primarily focused on securing the rich oilfields of Romania for modern mechanised warfare. From the very beginning, the tasks of the German army mission included training the new ally’s armed forces, which had to be reorganised and modernised. Essentially, it was about sharing German combat experience as well as German command-and-control and combat principles for coalition warfare. After an initial phase of priority training that two German armoured divisions conducted as training units for selected Romanian “model/core divisions” for Operation Barbarossa, the training activities of the army mission from the end of 1941 focused on broadly qualifying large elements of the Romanian army. At first, German military elites met the Romanian army with arrogance and contempt, not least because of racially based stereotypes. After the first campaign experiences, however, this attitude changed into a certain appreciation for the comrades-in-arms who would remain important in the future.

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