Armata a 3-a Română
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Armata a 3-a Română |
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| active | |
| Country |
 Romania
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| Armed forces | Armata Română |
| Type | army |
| Insinuation |
Army Group South Army Group A Army Group B Army Group South Ukraine |
| Second World War | German-Soviet War |
| commander | |
| Important commanders |
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The Armata a 3-a Română ( German 3rd Army ) was an army of the armed forces of the Kingdom of Romania that fought on the side of the German Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union during World War II . It was destroyed in the battle of Stalingrad .
First World War
The army was first set up at the end of August 1916 during World War I to fight on the side of the Entente against the Central Powers . It protected the southern border on the Danube against the Bulgarians.
During the Danube crossing of the German-Bulgarian troops under General Field Marshal von Mackensen , the 3rd Army threw itself unsuccessfully against the Bulgarian army in Dobruja . On September 6, 1916, Bulgarian forces managed to capture the Tutrakan fortress surprisingly quickly . Bulgarian troops under General Kiselow threw back the Romanian 17th Division (General Teodorescu) victoriously. The Romanian 9th Division and the Besarabescu group surrendered the Silistra fortress on September 10th . The Romanian 19th Division went back between Kotschmar and Karapelit and had to give up Dobric. The Romanian Dobruja group (General Aslan) had to retreat to Topraisar after the defeat at Cobadinu, while Russian reinforcements landed in the port of Constanza .
The Russian XLVII. Corps and several Romanian divisions tried to start a counter-offensive, at the same time about 5 divisions of the Romanian 3rd Army (General Averescu) were to cross the Danube south of the capital near Flamanda and break into the Bulgarian hinterland. The poorly organized Romanian-Russian offensive, which started on September 15, proved to be a failure: although the Romanians managed to cross the Danube between Rustschuk and Tutrakan and two divisions were able to build a southern bridgehead at Orjachowo, the company had to be unsuccessful at the end of September abort. The Bulgarians were able to quickly push in the bridgehead and remove it completely by October 5th.
The Russian-Romanian Dobruja Army (General Sajontschkowski ) was thrown back more than 100 kilometers in Dobruja by the Bulgarian 3rd Army by the end of October. The cities of Constanza and Cernavodă were lost and Bucharest was now isolated on its left flank.
After the loss of Dobruja, the 3rd Army was disbanded, and the command was transferred to the newly formed Russian Danube Army .
- Commander in chief
- Division General Mihail Aslan, August 27, 1916 - September 7, 1916
- Lieutenant General Alexandru Averescu , September 7, 1916 - October 7, 1916
Second World War
A 3rd Army was re-established in September 1939 after the outbreak of World War II and, together with the 4th Army, guarded the border with the Soviet Union. During the Soviet invasion of Bessarabia in the summer of 1940, she withdrew without a fight after an ultimatum. In March 1941, Lieutenant General Petre Dumitrescu took over the army, which he was to lead during the entire period of the war against the Soviet Union .
1941
After the Barbarossa enterprise began on June 22, 1941, Romania also declared war on the Soviet Union. The German 11th Army was stationed on Romanian soil at this time . The general offensive over the Prut (Operation Munich) was only started on July 2nd, the 3rd Army under General Petre Dumitrescu were subordinate to:
- IV Army Corps, General Sănătescu (13th and 14th Infantry Divisions)
- Mountain Corps, General Avramescu (1st, 2nd and 4th Mountain Brigade and 7th Infantry Division)
- Cavalry Corps, General Mihail Racovita (6th Infantry Division, 5th, 6th and 8th Cavalry Brigade)
- Reserve: 1st Armored Division
In the northern section of the Sereth , the advance of the Romanian 7th Infantry Division was stopped by counter attacks by the Soviet 60th Mountain Division. While the 4th Army was advancing into Bessarabia , the 3rd Army, which at that time was only subordinate to the Mountain Corps under General Gheorghe Avramescu, led the attack on northern Bukovina in the direction of Chernivtsi . After reaching the Dniester at Chotyn , the mountain corps turned to the east to support the attack of the 11th Army cavalry corps. After Antonescu's decision to continue the company alongside the Germans, the army was subordinated to the German 11th Army. After crossing the Dniester, the army took part in clearing the Uman pocket . It then crossed the Bug near Voznesensk in mid-August and continued its advance towards Krivoy Rog . In early September, it covered the flank of the Dnieper crossing by the 11th Army. She was severely attacked by the Soviet 18th Army .
After crossing the Djnepr, the 3rd Army took part in the Battle of the Sea of Azov , in which a Soviet counterattack could be repelled by two armies. Then she occupied defensive positions on the Sea of Azov until the end of October . By October 10, the 3rd Army had covered more than 700 kilometers and was involved in four major battles and 42 smaller skirmishes. At that time it had 149 tanks, 128 artillery pieces and more than 700 machine guns, but had already 10,541 failures, of which 2,555 were dead, 6,201 wounded and 1,785 were missing. In contrast, 15,565 Soviet prisoners of war were taken into custody by the army. She was again placed directly under the Romanian High Command. After the German 11th Army broke through to the Crimea , it followed suit and reached the Black Sea in mid-November . She now took over coastal defense tasks, while parts of the siege of Sevastopol took part.
1942
In the winter of 1941/42 a large part of the Romanian 3rd Army was withdrawn to their home quarters. The remaining units in the Ukraine and in the Crimea thus came under the command of the 3rd Army. In May 1942, parts of the army, which had meanwhile been reinforced, took part in the bustard hunt against the Soviet 51st Army, which landed on the Kerch peninsula at the end of 1941 . After this undertaking was completed, preparations for the storming of Sevastopol ( Störfang company ) were intensified. The Mountain Corps of 3rd Army covered the middle section between the two German attack corps. By July 4, 1942, the defending Independent Coastal Army was practically destroyed, and over 90,000 men were taken prisoner. The 3rd Army had lost about 19,000 men during the fighting in the Crimea.
The 3rd Army was subordinated to the German 17th Army ; At the beginning of August it consisted only of the cavalry corps, which attacked the Taman Peninsula and the port cities of Anapa and Novorossiysk from the lower reaches of the Don . The mountain corps that remained in the Crimea took part in the Blücher operation at the beginning of September . After the completion of these operations, the High Command of the 3rd Army was withdrawn to the front near Stalingrad , where numerous Romanian units were already in action with the German 6th Army . The cavalry corps stayed behind to take part in the operations in the Caucasus (→ Operation Edelweiss ). In the Battle of Stalingrad the 3rd Army occupied positions in the Donbogen northwest of Stalingrad, which they defended against the southwest front. However, they had fewer troops available than would have been necessary to defend the 138 km long section of the Don front.
Structure on November 19, 1942
- I. Army Corps, Major General Teodor Ionescu (7th, 9th and 11th Infantry Divisions)
- II Army Corps, Major General Nicolae Dăscălescu (14th and 15th Infantry Divisions)
- IV Army Corps, Major General Constantin Sănătescu (5th and 6th Infantry Divisions)
- 5th Army Corps, Major General Aurelian Sion (13th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Division)
- 1st Armored Division, Lieutenant General Radu
The OKH ignored any warning regarding a Soviet deployment from their bridgehead at Kletskaya . In addition, the lack of heavy anti-tank guns made itself felt when the Soviet Operation Uranus began on November 19. Before the massed Soviet tank attacks, the front of the 3rd Army, like that of the 4th Army south of Stalingrad, literally dissolved in places, more than six divisions were surrounded. The remaining parts of the 3rd Army, about 83,000 men, were now subordinated to the Hollidt group and deployed at Tschir . Here it was attacked again in December in the course of the Middle Don operation and further decimated. A total of 16 of the 18 deployed Romanian divisions were destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad.
1944
In the spring of 1944 a new 3rd Army was set up, but it was no longer used outside of Romania and the occupied territories . In the spring of 1944, the Army Group Dumitrescu was formed from the 3rd and the German 6th Army , which had since withdrawn to the Bug . Opposite the 3rd Ukrainian Front, there were defensive battles in the Cherson and Odessa area and fighting back to the Prut . The Soviet operation Jassy-Kishinev and the coup d'état in Romania at the end of August 1944 finally led to the collapse of the Antonescu dictatorship and the change of sides in Romania. In the period up to the conclusion of the armistice with the Soviet Union (September 12), numerous members of the Romanian army were taken prisoners by the Soviets .
Commander in chief
- Lieutenant General Petre Dumitrescu , March 25, 1941 - March 20, 1943
- Lieutenant General Dumitru Popescu, March 21, 1943 - April 20, 1943
- General Petre Dumitrescu, April 21, 1943 - August 29, 1944
Web links
- Military operations of the Romanian Army in World War II on worldwar2.ro (English)