The Fascist Husks
The outbreak of the War in 1940 cut off the speedy campaign (being launched by the Communists and Democrats) to destroy the Fascist ideology forever. Through the 1930s and into 1940 Fascist Governments in Italy, Austria, Poland and the Baltic States had all been defeated. Only a battered Czechoslovakia (in turmoil ever since the Sudetenland was lost in 1938) and Romania remained in Europe.
The Romanian Government, ruled by Fascists since the losses of Bessarabia and Constanta in 1940, received large amounts of aid from the US who purchased 80% of Romanian oil exports since the German embargo began in 1940. Whilst Romania remained relatively wealthy its neighbour Czechoslovakia was amongst the poorest in Europe, hardly helped by their leaders’ insistence on retaining a large and powerful army (the 3rd largest tank power in Europe since the fall of Spain), the Romanians did what they could to assist the ailing state but it seemed destined to remain in recession.
The very large armies maintained by the two states had made a German intervention impossible whilst the Soviets still stood as a large portion of the Reichswehr would be required to assure a victory. This allowed the two states to stand defiantly strong right in the centre of Europe with every major German city within bombing range from Prague there was a great fear that the Czechs and Romanians would pour over the border into German occupied Europe. The Czechoslovakian leadership were desperate to do so, as were their Romanian counterparts but Roosevelt would end their hopes of launching into the war they craved as he threatened to cut off aid should they go ahead. Without US backing any attack would be fruitless. Instead the two states began to construct fortifications. Whilst the Czechs would create a large system of Forts and bunkers all that Romania would construct was a small series of hastily dug trenches along the border whilst the majority of the army based itself in Bucharest.
After the Fascist seizure of power in 1940 Romania had been thrown into a bloody internal conflict. Communist and Democratic guerrillas and street gangs clashed across the nation, from the streets of Bucharest to the Transylvanian countryside. After months of Anarchy the Government launched a massive ‘crack down’ as almost one hundred thousand soldiers were deployed on a massive campaign against these groups. Between March 1941 and May 1942 about 1.5 million Romanians were killed in the violence, many thousands of those in state jails. Government and rebel groups alike torched villages and committed revenge killings but by the summer of 1942 the rebels were spent, the last Communist forces surrendered on May 16th whilst the Democrats fled across the border into German controlled Europe with hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The two states were a great irritation to Meissner who referred to them as ‘’the dark husks of the Fascist movement’’. He had always condemned the actions of the Romanian Government but had been wholly incapable of doing anything to intervene. But now the two million strong Reichswehr was available, now the public begged him to attack, now he had a chance to eliminate the movement that had threatened him at every turn since 1933.
The outbreak of the War in 1940 cut off the speedy campaign (being launched by the Communists and Democrats) to destroy the Fascist ideology forever. Through the 1930s and into 1940 Fascist Governments in Italy, Austria, Poland and the Baltic States had all been defeated. Only a battered Czechoslovakia (in turmoil ever since the Sudetenland was lost in 1938) and Romania remained in Europe.
The Romanian Government, ruled by Fascists since the losses of Bessarabia and Constanta in 1940, received large amounts of aid from the US who purchased 80% of Romanian oil exports since the German embargo began in 1940. Whilst Romania remained relatively wealthy its neighbour Czechoslovakia was amongst the poorest in Europe, hardly helped by their leaders’ insistence on retaining a large and powerful army (the 3rd largest tank power in Europe since the fall of Spain), the Romanians did what they could to assist the ailing state but it seemed destined to remain in recession.
The very large armies maintained by the two states had made a German intervention impossible whilst the Soviets still stood as a large portion of the Reichswehr would be required to assure a victory. This allowed the two states to stand defiantly strong right in the centre of Europe with every major German city within bombing range from Prague there was a great fear that the Czechs and Romanians would pour over the border into German occupied Europe. The Czechoslovakian leadership were desperate to do so, as were their Romanian counterparts but Roosevelt would end their hopes of launching into the war they craved as he threatened to cut off aid should they go ahead. Without US backing any attack would be fruitless. Instead the two states began to construct fortifications. Whilst the Czechs would create a large system of Forts and bunkers all that Romania would construct was a small series of hastily dug trenches along the border whilst the majority of the army based itself in Bucharest.
After the Fascist seizure of power in 1940 Romania had been thrown into a bloody internal conflict. Communist and Democratic guerrillas and street gangs clashed across the nation, from the streets of Bucharest to the Transylvanian countryside. After months of Anarchy the Government launched a massive ‘crack down’ as almost one hundred thousand soldiers were deployed on a massive campaign against these groups. Between March 1941 and May 1942 about 1.5 million Romanians were killed in the violence, many thousands of those in state jails. Government and rebel groups alike torched villages and committed revenge killings but by the summer of 1942 the rebels were spent, the last Communist forces surrendered on May 16th whilst the Democrats fled across the border into German controlled Europe with hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The two states were a great irritation to Meissner who referred to them as ‘’the dark husks of the Fascist movement’’. He had always condemned the actions of the Romanian Government but had been wholly incapable of doing anything to intervene. But now the two million strong Reichswehr was available, now the public begged him to attack, now he had a chance to eliminate the movement that had threatened him at every turn since 1933.
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