The 48/49th Romanian Reserve Infantry Regiment in the First World War

Descriere

The 48/49th Reserve Infantry Regiment during the First World War, the work of Mr. Ion-Ciprian Stoian, addresses a lesser-known niche of Romanian historiography. The placing under a scholarly lens the battles, the agony, and the resurgence of the units drafted from Buzău and Râmnicu-Sărat during 1916–1918 — surely among the most atrocious in Romania’s modern history — belongs to a category of research that is generally less appealing to historians. […]

In fact, the story of the 48th/49th Regiment reflects the story of the entire Romanian Army, with its qualities and flaws, and with the hardships and emotions experienced by Romanian soldiers during the war years. The author combines scientific rigor — the unit’s marches, its fighting capacity, its commanders, and the key moments of battle — with human details that are, after all, the beating pulse of any engaging narrative, especially in historical writing. Separated from their original units and scattered to the four corners of the front, passed from one commander to another like hot potatoes (some officers holding command for only a few days!), contingents of these regiments ended up fighting simultaneously in Dobrogea, at Turtucaia, and in the Carpathian Mountains. They took part in the tragic Battle of Sibiu, were ordered to carry out impossible missions, fought heroically yet suffered devastating losses, and ultimately withdrew alongside what remained of the Romanian forces.

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