REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

THE OPERATIONS OF THE ROMANIAN
RIVER FORCES DURING THE EVACUATION
OF BESSARABIA (28-30 JUNE 1940) AND ITS
LIBERATION (22 JUNE - JULY 1941)
Olimpiu Manuel GLODARENCO 1 , Florin STAN 2 ,
Dan Ionel CIOCOIU 3
Abstract: With the Soviet ultimatum of June 26, 1940, under which Romania was forced to cede
Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, the Romanian Royal Navy conducted evacuation operations of
military units and refugees. In the following period the Romanian river naval forces discouraged
Bolshevik troop’s incursions, breach of national territorial waters and their provocative actions.
With the onset of Plan "Barbarosa", the Romanian Navy intervened with all forces to release the
occupied territories a year ago, acting on the Danube, in southern Bessarabia, to annihilate the
enemy and moving the front outside its operation area.
1. Brief history of the Romanian river forces
To address the action of the Romanian river forces is necessary to make a brief
overview of the history of this category of force, to highlight the importance that our
country has given to the river border, trough adequate facilities.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the military shipbuilding have made several
improvements, among them there are a new type of warship, a small battleship to operate
on river, but sometimes used even for maritime coast guard. The first vessel of this type,
being called MONITOR, built by American engineer Erickson, was designed for the
fulfillment of combat missions on the river during the War of Secession (1861-1865).
Owned by the North American States fleet, the ship was sent to act against Confederate
frigate MERRIMAC (first armored ship) who ruled the mouth of a river. Through the
operations performed, MONITOR properly fulfilled its mission, forcing the enemy to
withdraw MERRIMAC. Excited by this success, the Yankees continued to build many
and named that class of ships after the prototype name i .
At the same time, the new type of American ship found followers among river navies of
other countries, among them enrolling also Romania ii . Since the late nineteenth century, the
idea of construction of armored warships for the Danube Flotilla emerged, whereas in 1898
the Parliament passed a law that opened, at the expense of the War Department, a credit of
20 million lei, of which 4 million were awarded to the Navy for construction of two river
monitors, three torpedo ships and to purchase necessary weapons for those ships iii .
1 Romanian Naval Museum, ConstanŃa, Romania.
2 Romanian Naval Museum, ConstanŃa, Romania.
3 Major Staff of the Romanian Navy, ConstanŃa, Romania.