Liberation of Romania

Discussion in 'The Eastern Front' started by Gerard, Nov 29, 2007.

  1. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    http://english.mapn.ro/eveniment/2006/200610/20061020/documentul.doc

    The above link is the reference for the paragraph below which describes the events of the liberation of Romania:

    On August 23rd, 1944, Romania joined the United Nations and began to participate in war efforts of the allies. The Romanian army fought away the German troops. In the battle, 5,048 enemies were killed and 56,455 prisoners were taken. The strategic defence of the borders and of the temporary Romanian-Hungarian separation line in Crisana and the Transylvanian Plateau, imposed by the Vienna Diktat of August 30th, 1940, which provided that the northern part of this province belonged to Hungary had also been achieved. The Soviet troops rapidly marched about 1,000 kilometers under Romanian strategic cover. Without facing any resistance, they passed through the Southern and Western Carpathian gorges (in Banat region). According to article one of the Truce Convention (signed on September 12/13, 1944), Romania was supposed to contribute to the Allies’ war effort with more than 12 infantry divisions, despite the serious difficulties encountered in the Romanian-Soviet military cooperation.
    After pushing the German troops out of the Romanian territory, the 1st and 4th Armies engaged in battles on the large front north of the Western Carpathians and west of the Southern Carpathians, reaching 350 kilometers deep into the German-Hungarian combat alignment. Containing and hunting down the enemy within the Carpathian Mountains arch, facilitated the Soviet army’s offensive in the Eastern Carpathians towards Targu Mures, Dej and Satu Mare.
    The offensive for liberating the north-eastern part of Romania started on October 9th, 1944, as part of the “Debrecen” offensive operation, which was also meant to free the eastern parts of Hungary (up to the Tisza River). The operation was planned and carried out by the Soviet High Command. The offensive actions extended over three stages.
    During the first stage, from 9 to 13 October 1944, the Romanian troops broke through the enemy defence, advanced, and finally, together with the Soviet 104th Army Corps, liberated the town of Cluj.
    During the second stage, from October 14 to 20, the enemy resistance in the mountains was crushed. The offensive goal was reached in the third stage, from 21st to 25th October, when the enemy forces were fought out of the towns of Carei and Satu Mare, and then across the Romanian-Hungarian border, on October 25th, 1944. During the third stage, the 4th Army Commander, General Gheorghe Avramescu chose to focus on the liberation of the towns of Carei and Satu Mare.
    In order to free the town of Carei, a wide twofold-outflanking maneuver was designed to be carried out by four divisions of the 6th Army Corps, which destroyed the enemy in the area, while the 2nd Army Corps and the 11th Infantry Division operated from the south against the enemy in the town of Satu Mare. The assault began on the night of October 24th when the forces of the 9th Infantry Division broke into Carei and got engaged in street combat. On October 25th, at dawn, after heavy battles, the last and most important town at the western border was liberated.
    On that very morning, the Romanian troops advanced towards the border, crossed it and went on with their fight deep into the Hungarian territory.
    The victory over the German and Hungarian forces was obtained by the fight of 525,702 Romanian troops starting August 23rd, 1944. Out of this number, 58,330 were officially dead, wounded or missing in action. The enemy loss amounted to over 72,000 troops.


    One other thing: In Panzer Leader Guderian makes reference to a number of German divisions that were cut off when Romania joined the Allies. Anyone have any details on this. Contrast that with Finland in which the germans were able to get out of the country with most of its forces intact.
     
  2. smc

    smc Member

    They were elements of the German Army Group South Ukraine which prior to the Soviet attack consisted of the Romanian III and IV Armies and the German VI and VIII army. Added to this were troops stationed around Bucherest and a Flak Division in Ploesti both disarmed when the Romanians switched sides and declared war. From what I can see the German VIII army were able to link with the neighbouring Hungarian I army and escape whereas the VI Army found itself surrounded and cut off between Iasi (Jassy) and Tiraspol as both neighbouring Romanian armies disintegrated after the initial attack on 20 Aug and became openly hostile when Romania switched sides on 25 Aug.

    In the greater scheme of things the Romanian switch, followed by the Bulgarian switch on 5 September 1944 cut off German Army Group F in Greece. Most of the Balkans had been occuppied by Italians, Romanians, Bulgarians and local quisling regimes in Croatia and Serbia. The Wehrmacht only moved in after Italian surrender and even then had a limited amount of troops in the area. Once the German allies began switching sides it caused a huge amount of problems for the Wehrmacht units stationed there.
     
  3. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Thanks for the info on that SMC, I'm going to look up some unit histories tonight on this.
     
  4. Christos

    Christos Discharged

    Nice article....thanks for that...the Southern front really is a forgotten elemnet of the War in Russia..might be due to the partisan wasr in Jugoslavia.....not the easiest subject matter either to research or to talk about, the war was such a terror for such a lot of people in the Balkans......
     
  5. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    The Balkans in 1944-45 was not a nice place to be wearing a Wehrmacht or SS uniform.
     
  6. taz1

    taz1 New Member

    This is a legend regarding how efficient the partisans were in former Yugoslavia. Every time the germans concentrate in pushing back the partisans they succeded it with great losses for Tito.
    Regarding of the ,, liberation " of Romania, liberation from how ? Romania was a free country prior to the 23 .08.1944 after that was ocupied by the soviets. Only a part of Transylvania was unde ocupatiion in 1944, hungarian ocupation.
     

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