Gheorghe Avramescu

Gheorghe Avramescu (1931-1935)

Gheorghe Avramescu (born January 26, 1888 in Botoşani ; † March 3, 1945 ) was a Romanian officer, most recently lieutenant general and army leader in World War II .

Life

Avramescu comes from a simple farming family. In 1906 he was admitted to the Bucharest Infantry Officer School, which he graduated in July 1908, the 11th of 60 students. He was promoted to lieutenant and platoon leader in the 16th Dorobanti Regiment in Suceava . He stayed there until September 23, 1910, when he was sent to the infantry special school. He graduated a year later, was promoted to lieutenant and joined the ranks of the 38th Neagoe Basarab Infantry Regiment, which had its garrison in Braila . There he married Adela Gologan in February 1913. After the end of the Bulgarian campaign during the Balkan Wars in October 1913, he went to study at the military academy. After only a year he had to leave school and returned to the 38th Regiment to command a company. When Romania entered the First World War , he was promoted to captain and commander of the 9th Company of the 78th Infantry Regiment. The 40th Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division, to which the regiment was subordinated, was deployed in the Dobruja . Shortly after the hostilities with the Bulgarian and German forces began, Avramescu took over the third battalion. He fought in various battles, where he was wounded in the right arm in October 1916. In September 1917 he was promoted to the rank of major . He received several medals for his service in the First World War. In February 1918, Avramescu was transferred to the staff of the 1st Vanatori Division as head of the mobilization and organization office, although he had only studied at the military academy for a year. He remained in that position until October 14, 1918, when he was sent to the academy to continue his education, but the remobilization four weeks later interrupted his studies again. Major Avramescu was appointed head of the 3rd Corps Intelligence Bureau. After the fighting with the Communist Republic of Hungary was over, he returned to the War Academy in 1919 and completed the following year as the 2nd of his class. He then returned to command a battalion of the 78th Regiment. After this unit was disbanded in 1923, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed chief of staff of the 10th Infantry Division. He held this position until March 31, 1929, when he was promoted again and received command of the 38th Infantry Regiment in Braila, his old unit. Avramescu was then transferred to the General Staff in October 1932, where he was head of the 6th Transport Bureau. From March 1934 he was assigned to the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie .

In June 1935 he was given command of the 12th Infantry Brigade. In the following year 1936 he rose to brigadier general and in November 1937 took over the leadership of the 10th Infantry Brigade. At the beginning of the Second World War he was appointed commander of the 10th Infantry Division in September 1939, and on June 8, 1940 he was promoted to major general . After the start of Operation Barbarossa , Romania took part in the attack against the Soviet Union on the side of the German Wehrmacht . At the beginning of July 1941 General Avramescu accompanied the 3rd Army (General Dumitrescu ) as commanding general of the Romanian Mountain Corps during the attack of the German 11th Army in northern Bukovina . His corps advanced over the Stalin Line and the Bug into the area north of the Crimea and took part in the battle of the Sea of ​​Azov . After the Soviet 9th and 18th Armies had been encircled, the road through the Isthmus of Perekop to the Crimea was clear. The Mountain Corps was subordinate to the 11th Army at this time and was completely split up. Through Avramescu's intervention with Antonescu , he was able to achieve with General von Manstein to regain his independent command.

In June 1942, during the Störfang operation , he was assigned a separate 17-kilometer-wide attack section for the attack on the Sevastopol fortress . The Romanian 18th Infantry Division was protecting the LVI's left flank . Army Corps , the 1st Mountain Division to cover the right flank of the XXX. Army Corps determined. For the successful mission that led to the conquest of the fortress, Avramescu was promoted to lieutenant general and was awarded the German cross in gold on October 25, 1942 . As a result, the mountain corps remained in the Crimea as an occupying force, parts of the mountain troops were fighting at the turn of the year in the section of the German 17th Army in the Caucasus and the Kuban area .

In December 1943 Avramescu became the commanding general of the Romanian 3rd Corps on the Dniester . After retreating on the Vltava, he took over the 6th Corps. In August 1944 he was in the 4th Army during the battle between Jassy and Kishinew and represented the Commander-in-Chief General Racoviță , who was absent due to leave . After the start of the major offensive of the 2nd Ukrainian Front , he tried in vain on August 20 to get permission from Marshal Antonescu to retreat to the easier to defend line Focşani -Namoloasa-Galatz. General Ilie Steflea , Marshal Antonescu's right-hand man, received the supreme command of the 4th Army, Avramescu returned to the 6th Corps. During this time Romania changed front and sided with the Soviet Union. On August 31, 1944, after the fall of Antonescu, he again took over the leadership of the Romanian 4th Army and marched into Transylvania at the side of Marshal Malinowski . In September 1944, his troops stopped a German-Hungarian counter-offensive and took part in the Soviet counter-attack on the Mures River . In October 1944 the Soviet-Romanian offensive began in northwestern Transylvania. On October 26, 1944, Romanian units captured Carei . The further advance across the Tisza and the Hernad Valley led the Romanian 4th Army to the Slovakian border . For his services to the reconquest of northwestern Transylvania, General Avramescu was awarded the Order of Michael the Brave with Third Class Swords.

Monument to Gheorghe Avramescu in Cluj-Napoca

Before the end of the war, Avramescu was arrested and executed by the NKVD in March 1945 . According to the NKVD, Avramescu was killed on March 3, 1945 in a German air raid on the car that was transporting him. His body was buried in the Soshalom cemetery in Budapest. The general was the only occupant of the car who was killed. According to the official report by NKVD chairman Lavrentiy Beria on March 23, 1945, Avramescu was hit by a bullet through the windshield of the car.

Also on March 3, 1945, Adela, Avramescu's wife, and Felicia Avramescu-Sturdza, his daughter, were arrested and sent to Siberia. His daughter took her own life; According to Soviet sources, this happened on March 6, 1945. In 1956 Adela returned to Romania.

On October 23, 2000, Avramescu's remains were returned to Romania and buried with military honors in the Hajongard cemetery in Cluj- Napoca. A bust of Avramescu was placed in Ștefan cel Mare town square .

Awards

• Romanian military order Michael the Brave III. to II class
• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd class
• Iron Cross (1939) 1st class
• German cross in gold on October 25, 1942

Web links

• Biography Gheorghe Avramescu (1888–1945)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Robert Forczyk : Sevastopol 1942 "from Manstein's triumph" , Osprey Publishing 2008, ISBN 978-1-84603-221-9 , page 24, ( online at Google Book Search ).