REACȚIA IMEDIATĂ A BRITANICILOR FAȚĂ DE ANEXAREA SOVIETICĂ A MOLDOVEI DE EST: NOI SURSE ȘI PERSPECTIVE ASUPRA PROBLEMEI BASARABIEI CA SUBIECT AL DREPTULUI INTERNAȚIONAL ÎN PERIOADA INTERBELICĂ
THE IMMEDIATE BRITISH REACTION TO THE SOVIET ANNEXATION OF EASTERN MOLDOVA: NEW SOURCES AND PERSPECTIVES ON THE ISSUE OF BESSARABIA AS A SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Summary/Abstract: British sources portray the Romanian retreat from Eastern Moldova/Bessarabia (June 1940) as a logistical, organizational, and military disaster. Military attaché Macnab recorded confused orders (“immediate withdrawal west of the Prut”), columns marching ~140 km in two days, misuse of trucks and railcars for officers’ personal effects, and 75 officers sent to court-martial for “inefficiency and cowardice,” alongside a few exemplary cases. Officer–rank-and-file relations collapsed amid bad food and poor equipment, producing “complete” demoralization and resignation about losing Southern Dobruja. Material losses were severe: initially the equivalent of 3–4 infantry divisions and one cavalry division, then reports of equipment lost for 7 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions, with two more infantry and one cavalry division left at 50–70% strength; Bessarabian desertions were put at a minimum of 150,000. About 65 officers were killed and 646 went missing, and abandoned materiel was valued (likely inflated) at £30 million; U.S. reporting partially confirmed the scale. The Foreign Office highlighted structural internal causes (social division, an inefficient and corrupt administration, stark inequalities), echoed by consular reports; Romanian voices like Dinu Brătianu and Iuliu Maniu realistically assessed the risks of ceding without a fight. The picture was compounded by unmet British commitments (13 April 1939; the 28 October 1920 Treaty) and by the spread of the German- and Soviet-framed claim that the 26 June ultimatum was “instigated” by Britain.

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