Romanian Armed Forces Day
The date of 25th October 1944 is celebrated as the day when the Romanian territories were liberated, an action that involved over 520,000 Romanian troops.
Mihai Pelin, 25.10.2017, 12:45
73 years ago, on 23rd August 1944, Romania broke its alliance with the Axis powers and declared war on Nazi Germany and Horthyst Hungary. In these difficult circumstances and through immense national effort, the Romanian Army began fighting to liberate the country’s entire territory. In the autumn, general Gheorghe Avramescu, the commander of the Fourth Romanian Army, decided to begin an offensive to liberate the town of Carei, the last bit of Romanian land still under Hungarian occupation since 1940.
The victory was dedicated to King Michael, who was to turn 23 on 25th October. This day is therefore also directly linked to Romania’s last sovereign, the only living Romanian to hold the title of marshal and who was the supreme commander of the Army in 1944. The Romanian troops also fought alongside Allied troops outside of Romania, leading to the great victory of 9th May 1945 that marked the end of the Second World War. In 1959, after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Romania, 25th October was officially declared Romanian Armed Forces Day, which meant that the communist authorities ironically continued to celebrate the birthday anniversary of the king they had driven out of the country at the end of 1947.
Today, the Romanian Army is constantly adapting to the changing security environment in the region. Chief of Staff, general Nicolae Ciuca: “The Romanian Army has prepared and implemented a series of processes aimed at the transformation and structural adjustment of its units, for all types of forces. We have been carrying out a wide-scale training process together with our strategic allies. Also, we have increased our presence and participation in exercises on our territory and outside it, activities that improve both the level of training and in particular our interoperability, which we need to keep as balanced as possible in terms of the compatibility of combat capabilities.”
Romania is a strong ally and a frontier state in the face of Russia’s aggression, says a message sent by the Pentagon on Romanian Armed Forces Day. According to the officials of the US Department of Defense, Romania is an example for the other NATO member states, and the United States fully respects its security commitments as its strategic partner. The United States also noted Romania’s contribution within the Alliance, its efforts to modernise its army and the sacrifice of the Romanian military in the theatres of operation.
