Clandestine British Operations in Romania, 1942–1943

Abstract

Until 3 August 1941, when the Romanian army began crossing the River Dniester into the pre-1940 Soviet Union as a partner in Nazi Germany’s Operation Barbarossa, launched on 22 June, Romania had been re-conquering its own territory annexed by Stalin under threat of war. Indeed, the British government had not protested when Romanian forces crossed the River Prut into Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina at the end of June 1941. However, after August, Romania started to conduct hostilities on pre-1940 Soviet soil. Following the fall of Odessa in mid-October, Moscow began to apply increasing pressure on Britain to declare war on Romania — Stalin urged Churchill to act because Romania, alongside Finland and Hungary, was effectively at war with the Soviet Union. Churchill was reluctant to do this and set out his reasons in a letter to Stalin dated 4 November: These countries [Finland, Hungary and Romania] are full of our friends: they have been overpowered by Hitler and used as a cat’s paw. But if fortune turns against that ruffian they might easily come back to our side.1