I have read that Romania bought some ADGZ armored cars from Austria before WW2. Is that true? Where were these armored cars used?
Best Regards,
Mait.
ADGZ in Romanian service?
The few armoured cars that Romanian had were allocated to the cavalry for recce. At the start of WW2 they had 2 Peugeot and 4 Austin-Putilov armoured cars of WW1 era. When Hungary occupied Ruthenia some 13 Czech armoured cars escaped across the border and into Romania. They inc 2 Tatra's ( Type unknown), 8 Tatra M27's and 3 Skoda M26's. By October'41 some 103 Russian armoured cars had been captured but proved useless due to the lack of spares.
Andy from the Shire
Andy from the ShireYour type listing is incompleteCheshire Yeomanry wrote:The few armoured cars that Romanian had were allocated to the cavalry for recce. At the start of WW2 they had 2 Peugeot and 4 Austin-Putilov armoured cars of WW1 era. When Hungary occupied Ruthenia some 13 Czech armoured cars escaped across the border and into Romania. They inc 2 Tatra's ( Type unknown), 8 Tatra M27's and 3 Skoda M26's. By October'41 some 103 Russian armoured cars had been captured but proved useless due to the lack of spares.
Take a look here:
http://members.tripod.com/~Sturmvogel/romafv.html
ADGZ ARMOURED CAR
weight 12 tons ; armour 11mm ; crew of 6 ; speed 70 km/hr ; armament one 20mm cannon and two or three 7.92mm machineguns
An eight-wheeled armoured car produced by Steyr-Daimler Puch AG of Austria during the latter half of the 1930's, a few ADGZ's were reported purchased by Romania early in 1938. Details on subsequent service are lacking, although their design and armament would suggest a role with the Army as opposed to any paramilitary or internal security formations.
AUSTIN-PUTILOV ARMOURED CAR
weight 5.2 tons ; crew 4 ; armour 8mm ; speed 50 km/hr; armament two 7.62mm machine guns
A number of these vehicles passed into Romanian hands following thecollapse of local Tsarist Russian forces at the close of World War One, four still in serving with cavalry units in 1939. Details on subsequent service are lacking, but in light of their age any wartime service was probably limited and, um, undistinguished.
AUTOBLINDA AB41 ARMOURED CAR
weight 7.4 tons ; crew 4 ; armour 9mm ; speed 78 km/hr ; armament one20mm cannon and two 8mm machineguns.
Eight Italian armoured cars were included among arms shipments promisedfrom Germany to Romania beginning in September 1943; according to Axworthy they were probably received, although he does not such details as specific models or their subsequent service. Zaloga's article on Romanian armour identifies these as Autoblinda AB41s, a model used by the Italian Expeditionary Force in Russia during the war, some of which may have been left behind in German hands when that formation was withdrawn from the front in March 1943. On the other hand, since the deliveries post-date the Italian Armistice, following which the Germans confiscated vast amounts of arms from the Italian Army, these vehicles might have been part of this loot. Zaloga says these armoured cars were assigned to the Romanian 1st Armoured Division's reconnaissance company, but additional details regarding their ultimate fate are not known.
BA SERIES OF ARMOURED CARS
BA-6
weight 5.1 tons ; armour 10mm ; crew 4 ; speed 55 km/hr ; armament one45mm cannon and two 7.62mm machineguns.
BA-10
weight 5.1 tons ; armour 6 to 15mm ; crew 4 ; speed 55 km/hr ; armament one 45mm cannon and two 7.62mm machineguns.
BA-20
weight 2.5 tons ; armour 10mm ; crew 3 ; speed 85 km/hr ; armament one7.62mm machinegun.
BA-27
weight 4.4 tons ; armour 4 to 7mm ; crew 4 ; speed 48 km/hr ; armament one 37mm cannon and one 7.62mm machinegun.
By October 1941 no fewer than 103 Soviet armoured cars had been captured by the Romanian Army during its initial advance thru Bessarabia and southern Russia. Axworthy does not identify any specific models, so those listed above are provisional based on availability and semi-educated guesswork and hardly inclusive. Common models such as the BA-20 and BA-10, the Soviet Army's standard light and medium armoured cars in 1941, are likely candidates, as would be older cars such as the FAI and BA-6. Even the elderly BA-27 of the 1920's, while only produced in modest numbers of a few hundred (Soviet armoured cars trength in 1941 being 4,819) was still serving in the frontier districts-- one being captured by the Finns in early 1940 -- and may have been encountered. Examples of other Soviet armoured cars such as variants (BA-6M), short production runs (BA-1) or older vehicles (BA-3) are lesslikely to have been encountered, but one never knows.
Details on subsequent Romanian service are lacking; as with many othercaptured vehicles, shortages of spares may have forced their withdrawal from service within a year or even sooner, although their more simplistic design may have allowed the Romanians to keep them in operation longer. Still, their overall limited military value suggest an undistinguished career.
CKD TNSPE ANTI-RIOT ARMOURED CAR
weight 12 tons ; crew 3 ; armour 4 to 8mm ; speed 50 km/hr ; armament one 7.92mm machine gun and one water cannon
With a main armament consisting of a high-pressure water cannon attached to a five-thousand litre water tank, seven of these Czechoslovakian-built armoured cars were supplied to Romania in 1936-1937, providing crowd control duties while in service with the Royal Romanian Gendarmerie (Jandarmi).
Accounts of their deployment appear in Rosie Waldeck's ATHENE PALACE (R.M. McBride, 1942). Waldeck, a Western press correspondent assigned toBucharest during the early war years, witnessed their use against crowds protesting King Carol's regime following Romania's loss of Transylvaniavia the German-imposed Second Vienna Award in the fall of 1940; she calls them "tanks" (an understandable misnomer) while describing them as being sky-blue in colour, an unusual camouflage pattern indeed.
Details on the TNSPE's subsequent wartime service are lacking, though in light of their modest armament their use may have been limited to the Bucharest jandarmi. Of course, vehicles equipped with water cannon mayhave been conscripted by the Corps of Military Firemen (Pompieri) for firefighting duties, but this is mere speculation.
EHRHARDT E-V/4 ARMOURED CAR
(also known as the Daimler M1915 Armoured Car) weight 10.4 tons ; crew 8 ; armour 6 to 9mm ; speed 60 km/hr ; armament three 7.92mm machine guns
Developed in 1915 for the Imperial German Army, Ehrhardts saw service in the Ukraine in 1918, making it very likely that examples of this model were among the assorted armoured cars recovered by the Romanian Army at the end of World War One. However, any that may have been so recovered had passed out of service by the 1930's, making their inclusion with this report on Romanian armour of World War Two seem, if not moot, certainly superfluous (hence their mention here by ol' obtuse me...).
FAI ARMOURED CAR
weight 2 tons ; crew of 2 ; armour 8mm ; speed 80 km/hr ; armament one 7.62mm machinegun
Some of these older light armoured cars were still serving with Soviet units in 1941, so it's possible a few may have been captured by the Romanian Army,though in light of their limited combat value and likely mechanical unreliability any subsequent service would have been brief.
PEUGEOT ARMOURED CAR
weight ... tons ; armour ... mm ; crew ... ; speed ... km/hr ; armament one 37mm cannon or one Hotchkiss machinegun.
A couple French Peugeot armoured cars dating from World War One were still inservice with the reconnaissance units of the Romanian Army's cavalry regimentsat the beginning of World War Two but probably withdrawn shortly afterwards.The design of the elderly Peugeot was described as having a fully armouredopen-top box hull, with armament protected by a shielded mounting.
SD.KFZ 222 ARMOURED CAR
weight 4.8 tons ; crew 3 ; armour 8mm ; speed 85 km/hr ; armament one 2cm cannon and one 7.92mm machinegun.
Most of these ten four-wheeled scout cars supplied by Germany to the Romanian1st Armoured Division were lost during the disastrous fighting at Stalingrad inlate 1942, but as many as forty others were received with German arms shipmentsin 1943 and 1944. Subsequent service included fighting around Bucharest duringthe August 1944 "liberation" and later campaigns in Transylvania, Hungary, andCzechoslovakia.
SKODA OA VZ 27 ARMOURED CAR
weight 6.5 tons ; crew 5 ; armour 5-8mm ; speed 35 km/hr ; armament two7.92mm machineguns.
Three Czech armoured cars described as Skoda M26's were interned by Romaniafollowing the Hungarian annexation and occupation of Ruthenia in early 1939;from the description they may have been OA vz 27's as M26 does not appear inavailable Czech armour lists. Added to Romania's modest inventory of armouredcars, they served with cavalry mechanised squadrons until lack of spares forced their withdrawal.
TATRA OA VZ 30 ARMOURED CAR
weight 3.6 tons ; crew 3 ; armour 3-6mm ; speed 60 km/hr ; armament two7.92mm machineguns.
When Hungary annexed the former Czechoslovak province of Ruthenia in early1939, a number of Czech military units chose internment in neighboring Romania over Hungarian capture. Eight armoured cars described as Tatra M27's, plus two others simply described as Tatra's, passed into Romanian Army service as aresult of this action. As Tatra M27's do not appear on available lists ofCzech armoured cars, it is possible these vehicles were actually Tatra OA vz30's which bear the manufacturer's code of "72" (possible inversion?). Detailson subsequent service beyond being assigned to mechanised squadrons of theRomanian cavalry are lacking.
See also:Wz.34 "URSUS" ARMOURED CAR
weight 2.4 tons ; crew 2 ; armour 6-8mm ; speed .. km/hr ; armament one37mm cannon or one 7.92mm machinegun.
One source reports that a few of these Polish armoured cars were among theforces interned by Romania at the end of the 1939 Polish campaign, but detailsas to their possible employment are lacking.
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/romania/romania.html
~Regards,
Ovidius