Ioan Dragalina (16 December 1860 – 9 November 1916) was a Romanian general, who died during World War I in the First Battle of the Jiu Valley.
Education and early life
Dragalina was born in the city of Karansebesch (now Caransebeș, Romania), which at the time was part of the Austrian Empire. He was a descendant of a military family. His father, Alexandru Dragalina, served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army until his resignation in 1859. His parents moved to Romania, where his father was appointed administrator of the border region. However, Marta Lazaroni, his mother, wanted to give birth in her ancestral home and thus the family returned to Karansebesch, where in 1860 Ion, the first of their four sons, was born.
Dragalina went to primary school in his native city and then to military school in Temesvár (Timișoara). He continued his studies at the Military Academy in Vienna (1884) and joined the Austro-Hungarian Army. While at the Military Academy, he enrolled and graduated from the School of Geodetic Engineering. In 1886, he married Elena Giurginca. They had six children: two sons (Corneliu – born in 1887, and Virgiliu – born in 1890) and four daughters (Aurora, Elena, Cornelia, and Viorica).
Like his father, Dragalina graduated from the Wiener Neustadt Military Academy, where he specialized in geodetic engineering. Dragalina served as a lieutenant in the Line Regiment No. 43, which was headquartered in Karánsebes. During the Hungarian parliamentary elections of 1884, two candidates were competing in Boksánbánya (Bocșa): the would-be Hungarian Prime Minister István Tisza and the lawyer Coriolan Brediceanu of the Romanian National Party. Lieutenant Dragalina was in command of the troops assigned with maintaining order during the elections. Dragalina refused the instructions of the local civil authorities: to allow only the voters supporting the Hungarian candidate to pass. In response, Dragalina was publicly humiliated to the point of demanding satisfaction. Dragalina officially reported this to his superiors, and on 1 December 1887 he resigned from the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Career in the Romanian Army
On 1 December 1887, Dragalina resigned from the Austro-Hungarian Army and moved to Romania where he joined the Romanian Army ten days later, retaining his rank of Lieutenant. Thanks to the skills and qualifications he had acquired in Austria-Hungary, Dragalina embarked upon a successful military career in Romania. As Captain Dragalina, he served under then-Colonel Constantin Prezan, a Romanian General during the First World War who eulogized him in 1936: "to his teachings I owe the tactics and strategy and all I knew and applied during the war and as Chief of the General Staff".
He advanced through the ranks becoming captain in 1892, major in 1899, and lieutenant-colonel in 1908. Between 1908 and 1911, lieutenant-colonel Dragalina was the commander of the Military Infantry School in Bucharest. For his work in developing the scientific curriculum and for the order and discipline instilled in the military education system, Ioan Dragalina was made a member of the Order of the Star of Romania, First class.
In April 1911, colonel Dragalina took over the command of the 34th Regiment in Constanța. During this time, he was made a member of the Order of the Crown, Fourth Class. In 1915 he was promoted to Brigadier General and had under his command the Third Territorial Commandment.
During the years of Romania's neutrality, Dragalina worked on fortifications in the Prahova Valley.
World War I
In 1916, prior to Romania entering the First World War on the side of the Allied Forces, Dragalina was named commander of the First Infantry Division, stationed at Turnu Severin. His troops patrolled a very large area on the western border, extending from the sources of the Argeș River to the city of Calafat.