WWII Romanian Platoon Organization
Dated: December 9, 2006.
By Mr. Clifford Frederick.
USA
Introduction
As anyone who has ever tried to find Tables of Organization and Equipment (TOE) at platoon level knows there is almost no information available on even well documented armies let alone minor powers. Just for comparison, it is difficult for me (an American) to get information on a WWII US Infantry Platoon, since there seems that every division had it's own squad and platoon TOE. So this task seemed daunting, but surprisingly the Romanian web site www.worldwar2.ro was very detailed in this respect and provided this information and as an added bonus it was in English. It is an excellent web site for everything concerning the Romanian Army of WWII, fantastic in fact.
History
The history of Romania's involvement in WWII is not the topic for this article but a brief overview of the common Romanian soldier that made up the manpower of the platoon is. For the most part the army was composed of poorly trained conscripts, as odds would have it, there was a better than 50% chance that he was a reservist recalled to the colors. They were mostly peasant farmers with limited literacy. Early in WWII, the public opinion on becoming a German Ally was positive. Romania had lost a large section of its pre-war sovereign territory to the USSR and a German alliance promised its return. So initially the army was well motivated for the “Crusade Against Bolshevism”. There were some excellent units; the mountain and cavalry brigades had well trained professional soldiers and NCO's. The Guards and Frontier Divisions were used as spearhead units during the attack, suffered appalling casualties, but still fought on. Many regular divisions had German training cadres and were very competent. Excluding the second line divisions, the first line divisions used modern, up to date equipment. The rifle was the Czech ZB M-1924, which was identical to the German 98K rifle. The squad light machinegun was the Czech ZB M-1930, which was the father of the famous British BREN gun. NCO's and Tank hunter teams used the excellent Italian Beretta M-1938a submachine gun. At the battalion level was the heavy weapons company with 16 Czech ZB53/54 heavy machineguns. It was at division level that the Romanian army was lacking with it's few and obsolete artillery pieces and anti-tank weapons. A telling feature of the Romanian army's performance was its capture of the fortified city of Odessa without German assistance.
1941 Platoon Organization
In 1941 the Romanian Infantry Platoon had a unique structure not found in other armies. It was divided into three squads with a small headquarters section as most armies at the time possessed. It was the division of the squad into three sections (fire teams in US Military terminology) that made it different than the norm of two.
The Squad was led by a sergeant (SGT) who might of been armed with a Beretta M-1938a SMG depending of supply. His squad was split into three sections (fire teams): one LMG section and two rifle sections. The LMG section (labeled #1 in the diagram) contained one corporal armed with a rifle, one senior private armed with a ZB30 LMG, one private (assistant gunner) with a rifle and usually a backpack with spare barrels for the LMG and ammunition. This section was rounded out with three more privates armed with rifles and also carrying spare ammunition for the LMG. The squads two rifle sections (labeled #2 in the diagram) each contained one corporal and four privates, all armed with rifles. Either a 1st or 2nd Lieutenant armed with a Beretta M-1938a SMG or pistol (of various makes) depending on availability led the platoon. The headquarters section contained a senior sergeant (SSG) and three runners all armed with rifles. One of the runners was more commonly tasked to act as the officer's orderly. Another runner might also be tasked and trained as the platoon sniper using a scoped rifle. Thus a 1941 platoon would officially contain; 1-LT, 1-SSG, 3-SGTs, 9-CPLs, and 42-PVTs, for a total of one officer and 55 enlisted men. Equipment included 3-ZB30 LMG's, 4- M38a SMG's (at most), and 49- ZB24 rifles. Although this was the official organization, platoons in the field would seldom field a full compliment of men. This was especially true after the casualties incurred in the initial fighting on the eastern front.
1942-1945 Platoon Organization
After the massive losses in the first year of the war, in 1942 the Romanian Infantry Platoon was reorganized to relay more on fire power than man power, and it structure was changed to conform more with their German allies. Like the Germans, the squad was subdivided into two sections (fire teams). The platoon differed from the Germans with the addition of a 60mm mortar instead of the normal German addition of a MG34/42 mounted on a tripod. This mortar was used to make up for the lack of rifle grenade launchers in the squad. An interesting note is that the 1939 German platoon had included a 50mm mortar at the platoon level as an indirect fire weapon, but replaced it with the tripod mounted MG in 1941, since each squad contained a 98K rifle with a grenade launcher. An additional squad was also added to the Romanian platoon, giving it an additional LMG and total of four rifle squads and one mortar squad.
The Squad was led by a sergeant (SGT) who now commonly carried a Beretta M-1938a SMG or after 1943 carried the Romanian produced Orita M41 SMG. His squad was now split into two sections (fire teams): one LMG section and one rifle section. The LMG section (labeled #1 in the diagram) contained one rifle armed corporal, one senior private ZB30 LMG gunner, one rifle armed assistant gunner still carrying a backpack with spare barrels for the LMG, and two rifle armed privates. The squad's rifle section (labeled #2 in the diagram) each contained one corporal and four privates, all armed with rifles. The mortar squad also contained two sections and was lead by a rifle armed SGT. The mortar section (labeled #4 in the diagram) contained one corporal who acted as the mortar gunner and two privates who carried the mortar and base plate, all of whom were armed with pistols and carried ammunition for the weapon. The ammunition/security section (labeled #5 in the diagram) also contained one corporal and two privates that were armed with rifles and carried ammunition for the mortar. A Lieutenant or more commonly the senior NCO armed with a Beretta M38a or M41 Orita SMG led the platoon. The headquarters section still consisted of a senior sergeant (SSG) and three runners all armed with rifles. The message runners were now runners in title only. One may be a sniper and the other two more commonly formed a tank hunter team. The tank hunter team leader was equipped with a pistol, an anti-tank weapon (satchel charge, AT-mine, multi-head German “potato masher” grenade charge, or hollow charge mine), and smoke sticks. The second man was armed with an SMG and smoke sticks. German instructors taught the men to blind the tank with the smoke sticks. Then the team leader would approach the tank with the AT weapon to place it at a critical point on the tank. The second man would clear away any supporting infantry with the SMG. These men usually hid in camouflaged slit trenches and would allow the tank to pass their position and attack from the rear. The 1942 platoon would officially contain; 1-LT, 1-SSG, 5-SGTs, 10-CPLs, and 35-PVTs, for a total of one officer and 50 enlisted men. Equipment included 4- LMG's, 7- SMG's, 1-60mm Mortar, and 37- ZB24 rifles if my math serves me well. Once again these were the official numbers, platoon's that could muster even half these numbers would be rare. After the switch to the allied side in 1944 this structure seems to remain unchanged with maybe the addition of some weapons of Soviet manufacture. Interestingly, after the switch to the allies, the Russians confiscated almost all former soviet weapons that had been being by the Romanians. This left the Romanians having to use captured German and Hungarian weapons to make up for their lack of manufacturing capacity.
The Infantry Company
For those of you that war game using larger formations, I will briefly describe the infantry company. The three of aforementioned platoons belonged to an infantry company and this remained unchanged throughout the war. The company command squad included chemical, medical, signals, and observation teams. The chemical team consisted of a corporal and two privates trained for chemical warfare. The medical team consisted of a sergeant acting as a chief medic and four medics. The signals team had a corporal and three privates who were responsible for the one or two company radios. The observation team had a corporal and three privates and was tasked with coordinating supporting artillery fire. In-charge of the company was a captain or senior lieutenant, with a senior NCO commanding the various attached teams. There was also a company bugler.
The Machinegun Company
For those of you that want to use your ZB54 machineguns it would help to know the organization of the machinegun company that was located at battalion level. It consisted of three machinegun platoons, each with four squads. Each squad led by a sergeant contained a ZB54 medium machinegun. The squad itself was divided into two sections each under a corporal. The first section consisted of the machinegun team and the second consisted of the ammunition supply team. The machinegun team was equipped with pistols and carried the machinegun, tripod, spare barrels, and tools. The team could also employ a mule to carry this equipment. The ammunition/security team was armed with rifles and carried the large volume of ammunition associated with these weapons. They also provided security for the weapon when it was employed.
Many thanks to Mr. Frederick.