WesWorld

Romanian Holidays in Q1/40

January 1st New Year's Day- Romanians celebrate the New Year by getting smashed on various alcholoic beverages.

January 2nd Day After New Year's Day, a holiday in Romania to allow the people to sleep off the effects of the various alcoholic beverages consumed the day before.

February 29th Not technically a holiday, however seeing as it only comes every four years, the Romanian government have decided to make it another national holiday called Leap Year's Day.

March 8th Mother's Day- Romanians go out and honour their mother's by cooking them lunch and cleaning their house for them. Actually, that is the propaganda set forth by the Romanian government, the reality is slightly different.

HA!

January 3rd

Today marks the departure of the Romanian Expeditionary Force for Turkey. The REF will take a tour of all the nations in the WP over a 2.5 year tour, and it is hoped will build friendships with other nations in the WP. Officials from the Foreign Office were asked about the itinerary, specifically why Turkey and not Poland was first. The officials stonewalled, and made "no comment" answers, especially when asked if the reason for Turkey being first was due to poor Indo-Turkish relations in the last few years.

January 5th

The Romanian Ministry of Defence annouced another phase in its rearmament program, with the purchase of 700,000 ZB24 rifles, 500 Skoda M34 100mm light howitzers, and 360 Skoda M34 150mm howitzers. The Romanian Army also wishes to begin motorization of its armed forces, and therefore 400 Praga RV 2-ton, 600 Tatra 93T 3-ton trucks have been ordered for the motorized rifle battalions and cavalry. 150 Skoda 6LTP6L 2-ton, and 1,000 6ST6L and 6STP6L 4-ton trucks have been ordered for the artillery. 500 Skoda VL2 2-ton trailers have been ordered for the artillery also. Finally, 200 Tatra 93C and 93R 6x6 command and reconnaisance cars have been ordered. While this seems like a substantial number of vehicles, it is in reality nowhere near what Romania requires for its armed forces, and it is quite likely such large orders of trucks will continue. (1)

January 19th

The Ministry of Defence has annouced today the purchase of 80 Fairey Firefly Mk I fighters to replace the Eclipse Hurricanes purchased in 1936.

(1) All of the above orders except the Firefly one are as historical interestingly enough, and all are anywhere from a year to 3 years late.

How big is the Romanian Expeditionary Force? Is the same force going to deployed continuously for 2.5years as well? In the UK we tend to operate today at 1:5, so for every unit in the field you need five overall. This'll typically be one deployed, one working up, one working down, and two resting. If this force is brigade size, that's eaten up about 25,000men in peacetime, and is costing quite a bit of money.

Its two brigade, one cavalry and one mountain, and the cavalry brigade is a horsed one, not the motorized one. The total manpower being sent is ~19,000 men, or slightly more than a full division. I think its well within Romania's financial means to supply such a force in peacetime, seeing as they did supply a much larger force on the Eastern Front in World War II.

Remember Gavin, this is 1940 not 2010 its quite abit less expensive to send 19,000 men out touring in 1940 with horsedrawn transport and logistics than it would be to send a similar sized force today with all the modern military paraphernalia. It is also the same guys being sent on a 2.5 year mission, im not rotating out the units. Its a training mission, not a combat one so expenses won't be that high either.

April 5th

The Ministry of Defence has announced today another step in its modernization program, the purchase of 125 60mm mortars, 188 81mm mortars, 180 M1936 105mm medium field guns, 200 13.4mm and 25mm Hotchkiss AA guns from France. There are also rumours of the Voina armament factory looking to purchase a licence to build the mortars in Romania.

April 8th

The Ministry of Defence annouced today that the 76th Bomber Squadron has completed its replacement of the IAR 79 bombers to the new Ripon-Bloch bombers it purchased from Atlantis. The 76th is the first squadron to be fitted with the new bombers which will gradually replace the IAR 79 in frontline service. In other aircraft news, the Ministry has sent a tender to IAR for a new reconnaisance and light bomber aircraft desigin, able to meet the following requirements:

Speed: 465 km/h
Range: 850 km.

Almost there for recon/LB a km/h short

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAR_47

Interesting. I like the look of that...

Thats the one IAR will be developing.

May 3rd, 1940

The Ministry of Defence annouced today the order of a substantial number of the M40 75mm field piece developed in Yugoslavia. Production of this weapon is to be handled by the Resita, Astra, and Concordia factories, and it is hoped that in three years all of Romania's French 75's will be replaced by the new weapon. Production will then continue, with the M40 replacing the older Anti-tank weapons in Romanian service.

June 28th

The leader of the Romanian Expeditionary Force, Major General Radu "Kernal" Korne looked thoughtful as his special train departed Byzantion enroute to Bulgaria. His small force of 2 brigades had just spent the last six months touring the various Turkish Army bases. There had been some interesting moments of course, one could never forget the singing of the two National Anthems near the Turkish-Persian Border. If he listened faintly enough he could still hear the military bands playing "Awake thee Romanian" and "Independence March". The bands had played the anthems at several spots along the Persian border, and it had become a contest who could sing and play the loudest, a contest which he was proud to report the Romanians had won. Of course not everything had gone smoothly, there had been incidents, several Turkish ladies were returning with the REF as it continued its tour of the Warsaw Pact nations. It seemed, Kernal Korne thought ruefully that the attraction between young soldiers and young women was universal the world over, no matter the race or religion between the two. What was also common were fathers, several young men had to be "persuaded" to see their future brides at first, although now it seemed it was becoming quite harmonious. And several young soldiers had been aghast when they had been told there would be no pork for six months, the Turks being Muslims of course, and we wouldn't want to offend our hosts. The shish kebabs had taken off though, one of the Turkish ladies in fact was the daughter of a prominent cafe owner in Ankara, and was planning on opening a cafe in Bucharest once they returned. He was quite certain it would become a popular place. The tour had been wrapped up with a football game against the Turks which to the delight of the home crowd the Turks had won 3-2. Of course it hadn't all been fun and games, there was discussions and comparisons in tactics between the two forces, and much had been learned on either side. Overall, Korne was extremely proud of how his command had behaved like true Romanians, and had stood toe to toe with the Turks throughout the tour. Considering the record of the Turks in the Great War, the Romanians could take pride in that fact. And he thought he hoped he had done as his political masters wished in sending a clear message to India and its Persian puppet. If they don't get the hint we might have to do something more obvious like parade the entire Romanian Army up and down the border for a week, Korne mused. As Bulgaria neared though, Korne left thoughts of Turkey behind, for he could taste the rakia and skara already.

Q3 News

The first deliveries begin of the new Fairey Firefly fighter for the FARR. These fighters will begin replacing the Eclipse Hurricanes in FARR service, 80 have been ordered.

Groundbreaking begins at the Automobile Dacia factory in Mioveni. Once completed, production will begin on a line of Skoda based automobiles for the Romanian market.

Q4 News

The Romanian Expeditionary Force (REF) left Bulgaria at the end of December after celebrating Christmas with their new allies. During their two month stay, the Romanians had learned and taught from their Bulgarian hosts. The Bulgarians certainly had some interesting weaponry which they were only too glad to demonstrate for the Romanians, chiefly being their semi-automatic rifle, the SK-36. While the Romanians had been duly impressed with its capabilities, Maj. General Korne knew it would be some time before the Romanians would be able to reequip their infantry divisions to the new rifle. Also, the rifle currently in use by the Romanian Army the ZB model 24 was still one of the best bolt action rifles in the world.

In the Chamber of Deputies, a bill is brought for funds the Autostrada to be built by the Warsaw Pact powers. Debate begins, and continues until the Chamber breaks for Christmas.