When Romania entered World War I in August 1916 on the side of the Allied powers, Dragalina fought with the Dobruja Army under the command of Russian General Andrei Zayonchkovski, and saw action against the Bulgarian forces.

In the aftermath of the Second Vienna Award (signed on 30 August 1940), Dragalina took a leading role in the evacuation of the Romanian troops from Northern Transylvania, and moved his headquarters to Brașov.

During the Legionnaires' rebellion of January 1941, Dragalina with his troops restored order inside the city and secured the radio broadcast station at Bod.

At the beginning of September, the 6th Corps (consisting by then of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 18th Infantry Divisions) was assigned to the Romanian Fourth Army, commanded by General Constantin Constantinescu-Claps.

Overpowered and poorly equipped, Dragalina's 6th Corps troops received the brunt of the Soviet offensive (Operation Uranus) south of Stalingrad.

The remnants of the 6th Corps tried to defend a line of villages backed up by Radu Korne's detachment, but the Soviets had an almost free hand as the Romanian forces disintegrated.

He returned as General Inspector of the Mechanized Troops between November 1944 and March 1945, when he was definitively retired by order of the Petru Groza government.

Dragalina later lost his house in Timișoara[5] and was harassed by the Securitate, but, unlike many other military commanders who had fought on the Eastern Front, he was not arrested.