Comportarea în luptă a unor ofițeri de rezervă în timpul celui de Al Doilea Război Mondial. Rezultate ale procesului de formare profesională desfășurat anterior anului 1941
The Combat Conduct of Reserve Officers during the Second World War. Assessing the Outcomes of Professional Training before 1941

Summary/Abstract: This paper can be considered a continuation of the article The Professional Training of Reserve Officers, 1938-1940. The Valorisation of Oral History Testimonies in which we described how Constantin Năstase and Iosif Rus received their military training as reserve infantry officers of the Royal Romanian Army between 1938 and 1940.In this article, we aim to describe how the two officers mentioned above, along with Gheorghe Chioreanu, a brave mountain infantry officer (light infantry trained in mountain warfare), performed their duties during World War II, particularly while serving on the Eastern Front. A common thread among the three officers is that they were trained in the use of weapons before the arrival of the German Military Training Mission in Romania and, consequently, before the change in combat doctrine. The primary sources used for this article were the officers’ personal files held at the Romanian National Military Archives in Pitești and oral history interviews conducted by the author in 2022 and 2024, as well as the 2016 interview with Gheorghe Chioreanu, that was included by Mr. Dan Ramf in the 3rd volume of Our Grandparents, Our Heroes.All of them commanded subunits under exceptionally difficult conditions, particularly during the shift in the balance of power between 1942 and 1943. Gheorghe Chioreanu and Iosif Rus fought in the Kuban and the Caucasus Mountains until they were wounded and evacuated, while Constantin Năstase led his men through the encirclement of the Don Bend. The awards they received, both Romanian and German, stand as a recognition of their combat skills.

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