Leonard Mociulschi

Leonard Mociulschi

Leonard Mociulschi (Leonard Moczulski) (born March 27, 1889 in Siminicea ; † April 15, 1979 in Brașov , Romania ) was a Romanian lieutenant general who distinguished himself as commander of the Romanian 3rd Mountain Division on the southern eastern front during World War II .

Life

Early military career

Leonard Mociulschi was born in 1889 in the village of Simincea in the Botosani district. He was of Polish descent. In 1910 he entered the Bucharest Infantry School as a cadet . He studied there for two years and in 1913 experienced his first combat mission as a lieutenant in the Second Balkan War . At the beginning of the First World War in 1914 he was assigned to the 10th Company of the 29th Infantry Regiment, rose to lieutenant in autumn , captain in 1917 and major in 1920 .

In 1932 he was assigned to the Sighetu Marmației Mountain Battalion and received the rank of Lieutenant Colonel . He remained in this position until 1937 when he achieved the rank of colonel . On February 10, 1941, he became deputy commander of the 1st Mountain Brigade, which was then under the command of Brigadier General Mihail Lascăr . After the start of Operation Barbarossa (July 1941), the advance of the Romanian 3rd Army took place over the Prut and into northern Bukovina . Assigned to the 4th Mountain Brigade, he took part in the occupation of Chernivtsi . In August 1941 the Dniester was crossed, which before 1940 formed the border with the Soviet Union . On the eastern bank of the river, the fortified Stalin line was breached on July 17th and 18th after heavy hand-to-hand fighting. Colonel Mociulschi was awarded the Mihai Viteazul III for his services. Class excellent. The 1st Mountain Brigade advanced through the Nogai Steppe and at the end of September took part in the Battle of the Sea of ​​Azov , where large parts of the 9th and 18th Soviet Armies were encircled. The 1st Mountain Brigade was selected to support the attack of the German 11th Army under General von Manstein on the Crimean peninsula . Colonel Mociulschi commanded one of the three brigades of the 1st Mountain Division during the breakthrough on the Isthmus of Perekop and took 1,360 prisoners, including an entire Soviet cavalry regiment. The next place of deployment of the Romanian mountain troops was Sevastopol , the fortress was more closely enclosed by the Wehrmacht in the winter of 1941 . Colonel Mociulschi was the commander of a brigade named after him of four battalions, two of which had to be given up for coastal protection. On December 23, 1941, the Romanian 1st Mountain Brigade succeeded in taking the Chorgun Karlowka. His achievements earned him the promotion to brigadier general. In April 1942 Mociulschi was assigned to the Romanian 4th Mountain Division (under General Gheorghe Manoliu) as deputy commander. In June and July 1942, his units took part in the second attack on Sevastopol and played an important role in the attack by the German LIV. Army Corps . After the fall of Sevastopol he was awarded the German Cross in Gold .

Leader of the 3rd Mountain Division

After the 3rd Mountain Division failed in its approach in the Caucasus , its commander, Radu Falfanescu, was replaced by Brigadier General Mociulschi in October 1942. The already ongoing Soviet counter-offensive hit the Romanian division in defensive positions. Standing under the command of the German 9th Infantry Division , Mociulschi was briefly subordinated to the German 57th Infantry Regiment in addition to the command of the 3rd Mountain Division. In January 1943, his troops were confronted again with Soviet attacks, which increased from January 12 to 14 and from January 26 to February 18 to a major battle. The 3rd Mountain Division was taken back to the Kuban bridgehead , where it was used alongside the German 97th and 101st Jäger Divisions . Mociulschi's battalions have now been torn apart and assigned to various German units. During the third Soviet attack on the Kuban bridgehead (May 1943) the Romanian mountain troops proved their worth again. In September 1943 the Taman Peninsula was evacuated, during the night of October 31/1. November the Soviets began the Kerch-Eltigen operation . First the Romanian 6th Cavalry Division was deployed against the bridgeheads, which was reinforced by two battalions of the 3rd Mountain Division. About 800 Soviet soldiers of the 318th Rifle Division managed to break out of the Eltigen bridgehead and on the night of 6/7. To occupy Mithridates Hill south of Kerch December . Brigadier General Mociulschi was tasked with attacking this base on December 11, 1943. For his achievements he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 19, 1943 as commander of the 3rd Mountain Division . In addition, he received the order Mihai Viteazul II class for his recent successes and was promoted to major general. Between December 29, 1943 and January 4, 1944, together with Major General Dumitrache's group , he commanded a combat group that captured more than 3,700 partisans in the Jaila Mountains.

Following the collapse of the Soviet 51st Army in the Crimea (April 1944), the 3rd Mountain Division moved with the German troops to Bulgaria, where they on the right wing of the 17th Army in the section of the German V Corps in was used to defend the fortress. In the night of May 9th to 10th, the remnants of the 3rd Mountain Division (remnants of the 5th, 12th and 21st Battalion) were locked in the Kherson position. The remnants of his evacuated division were assigned to the Romanian 1st Army and used on the border with Hungary in the southwest of Transylvania . On August 23, 1944, when Marshal Antonescu was overthrown, King Mihai I terminated the alliance with the German Empire . By changing front, Mociulschi found himself fighting the 9th and 12th Hungarian infantry divisions, and from September 12th fighting began in the valley of the Crisul Negru. The 3rd Mountain Division was attacked west of Oradea , was able to avoid being surrounded and advanced on Debrecen with the help of the Red Army . His units reached Miskolc at the beginning of November and were re-equipped and fully manned during this time.

In February 1945 the advance in the Javorina Mountains took place, at that time he received the Mihai Viteazul Order with Swords III. Class.

post war period

When the Romanian 3rd Mountain Division reached the river Hron on April 8, 1945 , Mociulschi was replaced and appointed commander of the Romanian Mountain Corps. After the war he was dismissed from the army in 1947 and arrested on August 12, 1948 and imprisoned without trial in Jilava Prison . He was only released from prison on October 10, 1955 and was forced to live on the streets. In poor health and without pension entitlement, he had to look for a job. He got a job as a railroad worker and received a small pension from August 1956. His pension was increased from 1959, in August 1960 he moved to the village of Purcareni and from December 1964 back to Brasow, where he lived until his death. His body was cremated according to his will, his ashes were scattered by troops of the 21st Mountain Battalion over the highest peaks of the Carpathians : Moldoveanu (2544 m), Omu (2507 m) and Postavarul (1799 m).

literature

• Mirko Harjula: Saksan liittolaiset toisessa maailmansodassa 1939 - 1945 , ISBN 978-952-498-2009 , Demand Norderstedt 2009

Web links

• Biography Leonard Mociulschi (1889–1979) (English)
• Homepage General Leonard Mociulschi (1889–1979) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sławni Polacy i wyjątkowe osobowości wśród rumuńskiej Polonii - bukareszt.msz.gov.pl
2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 546.