The history of the present Rumanian army dates from the accession of Prince Charles to the throne, and to the culmination in 1891 of the drastic reforms which he instituted. The Rumanian army subsequently participated in several of the Balkan wars and finally, on the side of the allies, in the last two and a half years of the World War. From the effect of initial disasters Rumania was saved, with a large gain in territory, by the defeat of the central powers.
Universal service is in force for all Rumanians, without distinction of race, language, or religion, for 29 years between the ages of 21 and 50. Certain exemptions are allowed for reasons of family, education or physical disa bilities. The first two years of service are spent in the Regular army, 18 years in the reserve, and 9 years in the militia. Officers are recruited from the secondary schools, supplemented by a few army non-commissioned officers who can pass into the military schools, where the preparatory classes for all arms last for 2 years. The compulsory system is supplemented by youths volun teering between the ages of 18 and 21 for three years service.
The budget effectives in 1927 numbered 153,145. In this total were included 13,436 officers and 3,376 civilian officials in army employment. There is also a corps of 2 brigades of frontier guards raised by the ministry of war but controlled by the finance minister, and a gendarmerie corps of 4 brigades under the minister of the interior but re sponsible to the war ministry in areas containing no troops. The organization of the army is in 7 army corps each of 3 infantry divisions and corps troops, 1 corps (2 divisions) of light infantry and 3 cavalry divisions. Each infantry division con tains 3 infantry regiments, a regiment of field artillery and one of howitzers. Light divisions have these light infantry "groups," with 3 groups of mountain artillery and a regiment of mountain howitzers. Each cavalry division contains 4 regiments of Red and one of Black Hussars, and a group of horse artillery. In fantry regiments contain 2 or 3 battalions. Battalions contain 3 companies and a machine-gun company. Cavalry regiments con tam 2 or 3 groups, each of 2 squadrons, and a machine-gun squadron. Field artillery regiments each contain 3 groups of 2 or 3 batteries and a specialist battery.
The head of the army is the King. He can depute the command to a general officer in time of war. There is a supreme council responsible for organizing national defence, and a war office under a minister of war, with the usual departments including a general staff under a chief with his own secretariat and departments. There are seven army corps
areas, each under its own commander, and, under them, divisional command areas. There are also inspectors general to supervise preparation for war in groups of 2 or 3 army corps. The various formations and units are distributed territorially in the 7 army corps areas. For recruiting, each of these is divided into districts of which there are 72 in all.
There are 2 training schools for both regular and reserve officers, and 2 for reserve officers, 2 schools for infantry non-commissioned officers, a special infantry school, training centres for infantry and for light infantry, mili tary colleges; an army cavalry school and special cavalry school; a training school for regular and reserve artillery officers, one for artillery officers and non-commissioned officers, a special artillery school and an artillery training centre. Also an army engineer school, technical engineer school, and field engineering school. There is a staff college under the chief of the general staff.
There is a tank regiment of one battalion of 2 companies, an artificers company and a depot company. Automatic rifles are in use in some of the infantry and cavalry units. An elaborate sys tem of fortification, designed to form the keystone of national defence, was designed by the Belgian expert General Brialmont in 1882 and constructed at a cost exceeding £4,000,000. Since the World War, less reliance is placed in forts, and more in mobile field troops.
This contains aeroplane and balloon units, schools, anti-aircraft artillery, and various arsenals and depots. There are 3 groups of scouting planes, each group containing 4-5 scouting flights, besides a depot flight, a flight of specialists, a photography and meteorology section, machine-gun section, de tails and workshops. There is one "fighting squadron" containing one group of 2 flights of bombing planes and 2 groups of 3 or 4 flights of fighters, together with specialist flight, workshops and details; a naval flying group; a balloon group of 6 balloon com panies, workshops and factory. There is a training centre for flying, and aviation schools for courses in flying, gunnery, bomb ing and mechanics work; also arsenals, depots and 6 aerodromes under a service flying group. About 15 flights of machines are maintained at the various training centres and schools.