Reinhardt found allies, in addition to Spain's Franco and Italy's Rossi, more direct allies include Romania's Antonescu and Finland's Mannerheim.
Compared to Mannerheim, who finally decided to join the counterattack, Romania's senior leaders, who had been close to Germany because the two northern provinces were unreasonably occupied by the Soviet Union, naturally want to be closer to Germany.
In Romania, their leader is no longer the king, but the original General Antonescu.
In fact, Reinhard had long paid attention to Antonescu, the general destined to become the dictator of Romania.
The other party had already served as Romania's Minister of War in 1938. Before that, although Antonescu had always been considered a pro-British faction within Romania, he had a very good personal relationship with Reinhardt.
And with the subsequent defeat of France, Antonescu's thinking also underwent tremendous changes.
In his view, Germany will definitely win the war, and only by standing with Germany can Romania be protected.
Under the pressure of the Soviet Union, a series of Romanian territories were occupied, which not only did not shake Antonescu's concept of unity, but deepened his views.
And Reinhardt, who had always had a good personal relationship with Antonescu, obviously also took a fancy to his "excellent" old friend.
In public, Reinhardt praised more than once: "General Antonescu has a high influence in the army. He is also personally evaluated by the Romanian military circles as having a 'strong will and decisive decision-making'."
Waiting quality.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Antonescu, the Romanian general, is very favored by the German head of state.
With the explicit or covert support of Reinhardt, Antonescu became prime minister without any doubt on September 4, 1940. On September 5, 1940, he forced King Carol to abdicate, dissolved the Romanian Parliament, and took control of him.
The Iron Guard under its leadership accepted its destiny as the only legal political party in Romania.
This is similar to what happened in Germany when Ebert dissolved and reorganized the parliament, and the National Socialist Party led by Reinhardt became the largest legal political party in Germany.
It is no exaggeration to say that Antonescu's actions were influenced to some extent by Germany.
Subsequently, with Antonescu's nod, Reinhard ordered the German troops to quickly enter the country on the grounds of assisting Romania in training its army, and tied Romania tightly to the Allies and to German tanks.
This isn't the end yet.
The Romanian army was quickly restructured in accordance with the organization and standards of the German army. Antonescu soon lost patience with the Iron Guard's actions in the country.
On the other hand, Antonescu had no intention of establishing a "pure" Romania as the Iron Guard demanded, because this would not only mean massacre, but it might also mean economic collapse and the loss of support from party leaders and the army.
This is simply the same as when Reinhard deposed the SA under the control of the National Socialist Party, and had no intention of establishing a "pure" Germany like the SA. In order to gain the support of the army and oppose the massacre of Jews, Reinhard used thunderous means
Destroyed the stormtroopers in Germany.
Antonescu, who had long admired Reinhardt's methods, held his first bilateral meeting with Reinhardt as a national leader on November 22, 1940.
Antonescu showed the world public without any suspense that he had won the favor and recognition of Reinhardt, the mighty German head of state.
In order to express goodwill and win over the Romanian dictator, Reinhardt did what Antonescu wanted, claiming that the Third Reich attached great importance to Romania's oil, and the leader of the Iron Guard was considered by him
They are a bunch of incompetent people.
Reinhard did this partly because he decided to rely on Antonescu to consolidate German rule over Romania.
On the other hand, Reinhard also knew how reliable Antonescu, a historically tested ally, was. In Reinhard's eyes, the Iron Guard was extremely incompetent and not worth supporting.
Later, in April 1941, when the Great War between Britain and Germany was at its climax, the Romanian Iron Guard decided to go to war with the dictatorial general who had "betrayed" their beliefs in order to realize their illusory "ideal".
Because of the war with Britain and its defense against the Soviet Union, Germany had no energy to deal with the civil war in Romania.
Antonescu did not resort to any external force and used his loyal Romanian Army to severely attack these Iron Guard troublemakers.
Although the Iron Guard has a domineering name, they are essentially a civilian terrorist organization, and their combat effectiveness is far inferior to that of the Romanian regular army.
What's more, it was a new type of army trained with the help of the Germans!
As a result, the Iron Guard was beaten to pieces within a few days. Their leader Horia Sima abandoned his "ideal" and ran to Germany to seek refuge in despair.
Meanwhile Antonescu continued to establish his order: on April 15, 1941, all political parties in Romania were banned. The self-proclaimed "chief" soldier was finally able to assume power with little hindrance.
However, for the old Romanian politicians in the past, he followed Reinhardt's advice and was ruthless in carrying out large-scale arrests that he had not carried out in history.
In this way, although Antonescu's reputation was slightly ruined, future troubles were completely eliminated.
May 27, 1941 was a big day for the Romanians. On this day they went to war with the Soviet Union, but they had a powerful ally - the German Third Reich!
On June 1, Antonescu met and signed an agreement with Reinhardt. Reinhardt magnanimously stated that in addition to assisting Romania in recovering the areas occupied by the Soviet Union, the Allied forces could also conduct military operations in Transnistria and beyond.
The East helped Romania seek compensation from the Soviets.
Hearing that he could gain a larger territory than before, Antonescu, the Romanian "leader", immediately shouted to Reinhardt happily in the conference room: "Of course I will support you from the first day.
If you want to fight the Slavs, you can always rely on Romania."
On the afternoon of June 1, more than 40 Romanian divisions and the German army launched a counterattack on the southern front, fighting fiercely with the two most elite armies in Zhukov's "Operation Mars".
And at the same time that the Romanian army was going all out and fighting side by side with Germany at full speed.
In return for Antonescu supporting the Allied camp and wholeheartedly assisting Germany in the war against the Soviet Union, Reinhard prepared a separate gift for Antonescu himself in Berlin...
