Ah...the “Pledge to Romania.” Unilaterally offered with nothing expected in return from Romania, except that they resist Nazi aggression.
Unlike Poland, the Germans wanted economic interests in Romania (oil & wheat). But there were no direct designs on Romanian territory, or so the Romanians were led to believe. It behooved the Romanians to play along with both sides through 1939, but the equation changed rapidly after September 1939. The Anglo-French guarantee to Poland having proved worthless, the Romanians rightly calculated their guarantee to have similar value.
The Germans really quadruple crossed Romania during this time. While courting and then participating in a Romanian alliance, Germany:
1. Promised the Romanian province of Moldavia to the USSR in the secret protocol to the Soviet-German Non Aggression Pact, without telling the Romanians;
2. Forced Romania to give up Transylvania to Hungary in the later “Vienna Award.”
3. Dragged Romania into war with the USSR, dangling the recovery of Moldavia as bait (getting someone to join you by promising to give back what you took away; if that isn’t slimy I don’t know what is).
4. Goading the Romanian army to take responsibility for a long sector of the Eastern Front deep inside the USSR with an army that was way too poorly trained and equipped to fight the Soviets. The Romanians got whipped, and the German 6th Army was lost at Stalingrad as a result. The Germans knew the Romanians had no business trying to fight the USSR, but unlike the USA, the Germans were unwilling or unable to provide suitable equipment to their allies.
In this article, we start to see how this nightmare begins for Romania. Everyone wants to use her as a puppet, and in the end she pays heavily and gets Ceaucescu in return.
Interesting post. So many countries, each with its own tragic story... Thanks!