Romanian 1st Guard division 1941

[oquaig]

Hi everyone,
Was the Romanian 1st Guard division (Divizia 1 Grăniceri) motorized in 1941 ? Were any Romanian infantry formations motorized in 1941 beside the armored Division ?

Thanks in advance
oquaig

[CNE503]

Grăniceri weren't Guardsmen, but Borderguards.
Divizia 1 Gardă was the 1st Guard Division.

They were not motorized in 1941.
The only mechanized unit in the whole Romanian army was the 1st Armored Division (Divizia 1 Blindată).

CNE503

[steppewolf]

There were 2 guards division in Romanian Army during WW2.

First was Guards Division, constituted from:

6th Guard Infantry Regiment Mihai Viteazul
1/2nd Guard Vanatori Regiment Queen Elisabeth of Greece - "vanatori" stands for jaeger/chasseurs
2/9th Guard Vanatori Regiment King Alexander I of Yugoslavia
1st Guard Artillery Regiment
2nd Guard Artillery Regiment

This unit was involved Operation Munchen and Odessa siege. After these campaigns it was moved to its peace garrison. More here:
http://www.geocities.ws/dangrecu/D1G.html

There was a 2nd Guards Division formed in 1942 from Graniceri (Border Guards regiments) which never saw combat but was used to fill the ranks of the divisions decimated/destroyed at Stalingrad.

More to read about Border Guards here:
http://worldwar2.ro/organizare/?article=33

There was also a Border Guards division in 1941 which participated in campaigns from Bessarabia and Odessa. It was disbanded in 1942. You can learn more here about this unit:
http://www.geocities.ws/dangrecu/D1Gr.html

To note that its Artillery rgt. was not dispanded in 1942 but one of its battalions were used as training battalion (75 mm old guns upgraded at Resita plants in Interwar) in Brasov area while the other was equipped in early 1944 with AT Resita 75 mm guns and took part to the fights in Moldova in 1944.

Generally the Graniceri (border guards) were considered of a higher quality compared with regular infantry because of longer military mandatory stage and the quality of the recruitment; Also King Carol II in Interwar was fond of this branch and gave them some attention and some of other branches regiments, received guards name (like 6th Pionieri regiments, some Graniceri battalions).

They were not motorized in 1941.
The only mechanized unit in the whole Romanian army was the 1st Armored Division (Divizia 1 Blindată).

Not really. The process of motorization started in 1941 with Cavalry units. Until the start of war 3 of the Cavalry Brigades had one regiment from three motorized. These were the 5th, 6th and 8th Cavalry Brigades, which formed the Cavalry Corps that was subordinated to the 3rd Army during the 1941 campaign.

More here:
http://worldwar2.ro/organizare/?article=35

Also infantry units had sometimes allocated trucks (transport only) units where was possible for limited period of times. Also captured Soviet material was put at work with various infantry units, especially after Odessa. But only toward the end of the war the number of trucks raised albeit most of the units were still foot infantry/horsed arty/auto ammo trained and heavier howitzers.