Customer Reviews

Third Axis Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941-1945

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Although Romania's contribution to World War II, both on the Axis and Allied sides, was much greater than Italy's, it has received very little attention in the West. This is mainly because almost all Romanian action was on the Eastern Front, save for air actions against Western Allied planes raiding over Romanian oil-refining plants, and therefore got little attention from West-oriented historians. Axworthy has remedied this situation with this dry, thorough, careful overview of the Romanian experience in World War II. This is a valuable reference tool, but not for pleasure reading...hopefully, the change in circumstances in Eastern Europe will eventually bring out livelier memoirs of Romanian veterans before they all pass away.

This book is not just the only English-language book on its subject, but it stands comparison with the best English-language studies of any individual country's armed forces in WWII.

The book has ten chapters. Chapter 1 is a survey of Romania and its armed forces prior to the war. Chapters 2-6 each cover one annual campaign over 1941-45. Chapter 7 is on Romanian armour, Chapter 8 is on the Romanian aircraft industry, Chapter 9 is on Romanian air force operations and Chapter 10 is on Romanian naval operations.

The book is packed with unique research, maps, line drawings, charts, organigrams and photographs, virtually none of which are available elsewhere. There is also a most comprehensive index.

I hesitate to describe any WWII book as definitive or indispensable on its subject, but "Third Axis, Fourth Ally" comes as close as any. Indeed, I consider it one of the ten most important books on the Eastern Front in WWII, dealing, as it does, with the third most important participant and its armed forces.

For anyone interested in the military history of WWII, I recommend it most strongly.

P. A. S. Jefferson

This is an excellent introduction to a subject unjustly ignored by English-speaking historians; to date, it is still the only comprehensive account of Romania's military involvement in WW2 in English. Very well written and lavishly illustrated with maps and diagrams, it is invaluable for anyone interested in operations on the Eastern Front.

However, it does have a number of shortcomings. On the minor side, a short guide to Romanian pronunciation would have been useful, and there should have been uniformity in the usage of Romanian diacritics; as it is, they seem to have been used haphazardly. An appendix with summary biographical data on the Romanian officers mentioned in the text would also have been a valuable addition.

A more serious flaw is the absence of a detailed bibliography; but the single most important shortcoming is the lack of a critical apparatus. There are no footnotes or endnotes to indicate the sources of various statements, so there's no way to verify their accuracy, consider the context, or follow them further.

The book has been too long out of print. One hopes that a reprint is not too far off; but I suppose that a new edition, including attributions, is a little too much to hope for.

Axworthy does (if you excuse the pun) a worthy job in taking us through the build up of the Romanian Armed Forces prior to World War 2 and then their actions in combat. Though some of the book may be overly detailed and the maps have too much information to be presented only in black and white, in the end you get all the information about each of the battles fought and the outcomes.

For a country that ended up having the heaviest casualties of all the non- major belligerents, Romania actually put more men in the field then the Italians on the Axis side, and more than anyone but the Americans, Brits and Russians on the Allies' side. Romania had over half a million soldiers on the Eastern Front versus 200,000 for the Italians. They were thought of as good soldiers by both the Germans and Russians. But they spent most of the war fighting with obsolete weapons and without the full training that would have made them a force equal to any of the major armies.

They fought best when fighting to clear the areas of their country that had been taken over by the Soviets in 1939 and when they forced out the Germans in late 1944 when they made a "volte face" and came over to the Allies. Sadly, those who fought the hardest for Romania, were treated as traitors after the war by the new Communist installed government and so there little written about their courage and bravery.

As an aside, the Romanians (as per Mr.Axworthy) did their best to save their Jewish citizens from the Germans, and in many cases refused to let anyone from post 1939 Romania be deported to Camps including Gypsies. Not that they treated them so well at home, but they didn't contribute to the mass murder of people like the Germans. They were very considerate in the Soviet Union to massacre whoever they came up against not matter their religion or political beliefs.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Simply put, this is the best book in English for the Romanian Armed Forces in World War II. Anyone interested in the Eastern Front in WWII must have it.