King's Coup

To the A.P.'s Joseph Morton, King Mihai last week told the story of his dramatic palace coup which flip-flopped Rumania from the Axis to the Allied camp (TIME, Sept. 4).

Seven times since early 1942 the young King and his young aides had planned to overthrow old hatchet-faced Marshal Ion Antonescu, the Nazi-loving dictator. Seven times they had to call off the plot.

On Aug. 23, after a late lunch, Mihai sent for Antonescu. The dictator, following his practice of keeping the King waiting, arrived an hour late. He left his bullet-proof automobile, with glass an inch thick, a gift from Hitler, in the courtyard. Several other automobiles loaded with armed bodyguards parked behind it.

The King waited in his palace study.

Beside him was his aide-de-camp, now Premier, General Constantin Sanatescu.

In an adjoining room sat his Marshal of the Court, Baron Ion Mocsonyi-Styrcea, his good friend, now Foreign Minister, Grigore Niculescu-Buzesti, and his secretary Mirce Ionnitiu. In a third room, an officer and three members of the King's Palace Guard waited his signal.

When Antonescu came in, he and the King shook hands. Then --

Mihai: I have a wire from the front and the situation looks disastrous. What are you going to do about it? Are you or are you not going through with the armistice?

Antonescu: I am going through with it but there are some conditions to be met. I want a guaranty from the Allies that they will land in Rumania and guarantee it for us against the Russians.

Mihai: That is so absurd it is not worth discussing. How do you expect the Allies to guarantee us against their own Allies?

Antonescu: I will not move. If necessary I will retire to Transylvania and fight there.

Mihai: You will have to make an armistice or resign. This time you have gone too far.

Styrcea and lonnitiu, both excellent shots, took pistols from their pockets and stepped in at the main doorway. Then --

Mihai: I am very sorry, but I have explained the situation to you and you must make a choice.

Antonescu: I will not resign and will not leave this country in the hands of people that I am not sure about.

The King reached with his foot for a pushbutton hidden under the carpet to summon the soldiers. Before he could reach it, however, they tramped in.

The soldiers silently forced Antonescu up the stairs to a small fireproof vault King Carol had built to safeguard his stamp collection. There they locked him in.

Antonescu's bodyguards were invited to come inside for coffee. As they lifted their cups, servants slipped the pistols from their holsters, took them prisoner.

Meanwhile, the King's fellow plotters set a trap for Antonescu's leading collaborators, summoning the first by telephone and forcing him on arrival to call up another. Four or five arrived and made calls, among them the War Minister and the Prefect of Police. All were imprisoned within the palace grounds. That night Mihai proclaimed Rumania's surrender to the Allies and the overthrow of Antonescu. . . .

Meanwhile, the King's mother, Queen Helen, notified of events by telephone, sped from the royal family's summer home at Sinaia (northwest of Ploesti) to a rendezvous with her son. All through German-held country she clutched a small pistol, determined to shoot the first enemy soldier attempting to halt her.

The King motored from Bucharest to the meeting, with his mother. After two hours he turned his car off the road at a gasoline dump. A German motorized column came into sight. The royal party jumped into their car and hurried off just as the Germans opened fire. Bullets flew back & forth for a few minutes before the King raced out of the danger zone.

Both the King and the Queen Mother arrived safely at a secluded villa.

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