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Two Romanian armies, the Third and the Fourth, were involved in the Battle of Stalingrad, helping to protect the
northern and southern anks respectively of the German
6th Army as it tried to conquer the city of Stalingrad,
defended by the Soviet Red Army in mid to late 1942.
Overpowered and poorly equipped, these forces were
unable to stop the Soviet November oensive which
punched through both anks and left the 6th Army encircled in Stalingrad. The Romanians suered enormous
losses, which eectively ended their oensive capability
on the Eastern Front for the remainder of the war.
Background
German advance on the Eastern Front from 7 May to 18 November 1942
THE BATTLE
3
Division had to retreat towards Stalingrad and was subordinated to the 6th Army. At the end of the day, the
defence position of the Third Romanian Army had a 70
km wide gap in the centre. In this pocket were encircled
the 1st Armored Division, three infantry divisions (5th,
6th and 15th) and remains of other two infantry divisions
(13th and 14th). The former commander of the 6th Infantry Division, Major General Mihail Lascr, took command of the troops from the infantry divisions and formed
the General Lascr Group (40,000 men). At this point,
the command point of the Third Army began moving to
Morozovskaya.
danger of encirclement. Also, the link with the 20th Infantry Division was broken. Despite the stubborn resistance put up by the 91st Infantry Regiment and the 20th
Pioneer Battalion, the Soviets broke through Tundutovo
and Ivanovka, getting behind the division and, within an
hour, most of the Romanian soldiers were either dead or
captured.
On 21 November, the 57th Army advanced towards
Sovetsky (17 km southeast of Kalach) to meet the forces
of the South Western Front and encircle the German
forces at Stalingrad, while the 51st Army advanced
towards Kotelnikovo, along the Kotelnikovo-Stalingrad
railroad. The 6th Corps tried to resist, while the "Korne"
Detachment (3rd, 4th Cavalry Regiments, 2nd Artillery
Battalion and the 7th Heavy Artillery Regiment), backed
by German armored units, launched a counterattack towards Abganerovo, with the 29th German Motorized Infantry Division attacking from the northwest. The action
failed due to lack of eective anti-tank weapons.
On 21 November, the 22nd Panzer Division tried to advance towards Perelasovsky in order to make the junction
with the 1st Armored Division and to relieve the General Lascr Group, but failed and was stopped the next
day between Bol. Donschynka and Perelasovsky. The
1st Romanian Armored Division advanced towards Bol.
Donschynka, where it was hoping to nd the German division, but the village was under Soviet control and then On 22 November, the Soviets took hold of Mal. Derheaded south and, after grim ghting, crossed the Chir bety and Tundutovo and the Korne Detachment was atriver on the 25 November.
tacked in the Krasnay-Geroy area, suering heavy losses.
On 22 November, the encircled General Lascr Group, The proposal by the Romanian command to fall back to
which had been ordered to resist at any cost, was attacked better positions on the Aksay River clashed with the Gerand transmitted its last message. They had run out of food man decision to hold rmly.
and each gun had only 40 rounds left. After refusing the
On 23 November, the Deputy Chief of Sta of the Fourth
Soviet proposal to surrender they were entirely destroyed. Army demanded and received from the Romanian GenOnly the 1st Battalion of the 15 Infantry Regiment (6th
eral Headquarters the authorization to make decisions ininfantry Division), commanded by Major Gheorghe Ras- dependently from the 4th Panzer Army. Subsequently,
conescu, succeeded in getting to the river Chir with all the 6th Corps fell back to the Aksay River, but to no avail,
its soldiers and equipment. His battalion had managed to as the Soviets were already in control of the communicaprevent the Soviet 8th Cavalry Division from capturing tion center of Aksay. The Korne Detachment fell back,
the vital German aireld at Oblivskaya from 26 Novem- leaving the ank of the 7th Corps uncovered. At the same
ber to 3 December.
time, the 5th Cavalry and the 4th Infantry Divisions were
On 23 November, the Soviet troops of the South-Western
Front and of the Stalingrad Front met at Kalach-na-Donu,
completing the encirclement of the German 6th Army,
parts of the Fourth Army and six other Romanian infantry
divisions and one cavalry division.
3.2
In the south
On 20 November, the Fourth Romanian Army was attacked by the Soviet 57th Army and 51st Armies, with
the main blow in the sector of the 20th, 2nd, 18th and
1st Infantry Divisions. The 57th Army attacked towards
Sovetsky in the northeast and the 51st Army towards
Kotelnikovo in the south. The front was broken at the
junction of the 2nd and 20th Infantry Divisions and at
the junction ot the 1st and 18th Infantry Divisions. The
Soviets advanced fast into the breaches created by the
rst wave, pushing the 13th Tank Corps towards Saty,
the Soviet 4th Mechanized Corps towards Plodovitoye
and, later, the 4th Cavalry Corps towards Abganerovo.
By evening, the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions were virtually destroyed and the 18th Infantry Division was in
attacked from the east. In order to prevent the Soviet advance between the railroad and the river Don, a new defence line, with its center at Kotelnikovo, was established.
In the afternoon, the Soviet troops of the Stalingrad Front
met the South-Western Front troops in Sovetsky area, encircling the German forces at Stalingrad. Receiving information about the arrival of a German detachment, the
Fourth Romanian Armys commander decided to hold its
position. The 6th Corps was on the southern bank of the
Aksay River, the 4th Infantry Division from Umansevo
to Kotsubayev and the 5th Cavalry Division further to
Perednaya Elista with the link between the two corps being provided by the Korne Detachment.
4 The end
On 24 November, Soviet activity abated, but the next day,
the Russian troops attacked towards Kotelnikovo between
the Don and the railroad, pushing the 4th Infantry Division southwards from the left bank of the 7th Corps.
On 26 November, the Korne and "Pannwitz" Detach-
REFERENCES
5 Aftermath
On 2 February 1943, the resistance of Axis troops in Stalingrad ceased. Out of the 91,000 prisoners taken by the
Soviets, 3,000 were Romanian. These were the survivors
of the 20th Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division and
Colonel Voicu Detachment. The Romanian Army lost
158,854 men (dead, wounded and missing) between 19
November 1942 and 7 January 1943. This represented
16 of the 18 divisions engaged at Stalingrad and half of
the active troops (31 divisions). The Romanian Air Corps
lost 73 airplanes (26 in battle and the rest on the ground).
The Romanian armed forces were not capable of recovering after such catastrophic losses, and from this point
onward, they would only ght desperate defensive battles
On 16 December, the Soviet Third Guards Army started on their way back to Romania.
Operation Little Saturn and attacked Army Group Hollidt
to which was subordinated the Third Romanian Army,
along the river Chir. On 18 December, the Soviet Sixth 6 See also
Army broke through the defence of the Italian 8th Army
and the 18th, 24th and 25th Tank Corps penetrated deep
Operation Uranus
behind Axis lines, threatening the rear of the front on the
Chir.
Romania during World War II
On 22 December, the banks of the river Chir were aban Battle of Stalingrad German Order of Battle
doned by the left wing of Army Group Hollidt as they
retreated towards Morozovskaya. On 27 December, the
7th Cavalry Division started to retreat towards Bisry after 40 days of continuous ghting, but the following day,
7 References
General Karl-Adolf Hollidt assigned the 11th Roiori and
11th Clrai Regiments and the 61st Recon Group the
task of defending the German depots at Chernigof. The [1] Mark Axworthy, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian
Armed Forces in the European War, 1941-1945, Arms &
Romanian cavalrymen held the town against Soviet atArmour Press, ISBN 1-85409-267-7, p. 91
tacks until 2 January 1943, when they eventually retreated. They were the last Axis troops to leave the Chir [2] Axworthy, p. 107
line.
ments managed to push back the Soviet troops which
had inltrated between the two Romanian corps. On the
27th, the Soviets approaching Kotelnikovo were also repelled by counterattack of the Pannwitz Detachment
and units of the 6th Panzer Division, which had recently
arrived in preparation for the counter strike to relieve the
Axis forces in Stalingrad. The Soviets managed to break
through the line of the 6th Corps at the 18th Infantry Division, thus forcing it to retreat 2530 km south of the
river. The losses of the Fourth Romanian Army in this
operation were catastrophic: up to 80% in personnel at
the 1st, 2nd and 18th Infantry divisions.
[5] (French) Pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop, at the French embassy in Romania, June 25, 2005, quoting a declaration by
Romanian President Traian Bsescu, as rmly condemning the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that led to the annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina by the USSR
[6] Istvn Dek, Essays on Hitlers Europe, University of Nebraska Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8032-6630-8, p. 131. The
text says: the Fhrer...now allowed his allies to seize Romanian territory. On June 27, following Stalins ultimatum, Romania ceded Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
to the Soviet Union.
[7] Moshe Y. Sachs, Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations,
John Wiley & Sons, 1988, ISBN 0-471-62406-3, p. 231
[8] William Julian Lewis, The Warsaw Pact: Arms, Doctrine,
and Strategy, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, 1982,
p. 209
[9] Karel C Wellens, Eric Suy, International Law: Essays in
Honour of Eric Suy, Martinus Nijho Publishers, 1998,
ISBN 90-411-0582-4, p. 79. The text says: This secret
diplomacy was followed by a series of brutal violations
of the standards of international law by the Soviet Union
for purposes of expanding its territory: on 27 July having
yielded to the ultimatum of the USSR, Romania ceded
Bessarabia and Northern Bucovina to the Soviet Union.
[10] Hans Wijers, ED, Eastern Front Combat, Stackpole
Books, 20088, ISBN 978-0-8117-3442-4, p. 79
External links
Map, by Geert Rottiers
Website dedicated to the Romanian Army in WW
II
The Romanian Army in World War II, by Jonathan
Forsey
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