can someone please provide more info on this book, ie author, where to find, etc?`m reading stalins kriegsgefangene.
it`s called stalins pow`s translated in english
thanks.
Moderator: George Lepre
Thanks for the information. I'm sorry I did not notice before.sid guttridge wrote:Hi Pzrmeyer,
Correction. You need the on-line search facility of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Try:
http://dispatch.opac.ddb.de/CHARSET=ISO ... SHW?FRST=1
Cheers,
Sid.
Hitler have promised Antonescu romanian soldiers will receive military equipment when they take the fighting positions nord of Stalingrad (the Don Bend) and south of Stalingrad (Kalmuk steppe). They received nothing: not anti-tank artilery, no wire barbed web constructed, no mined fields, no antitank and antipersonnel mines, no heavy artilery, no vehicles for troops transportation from Rostov to front line, no reserves. These are similar to italians and hungarians! Romanians tank hunters have used the antitank rockets launchers from 70m and 100m short distances. At he Don Bend the soviets have already creadted three bridgeheads: Serafimovich, Kletskaia and Deviatkin. Antonescu ask Hitler to destroy these bridge heads but Hitler refused. He considered the Antonescu demand is exagerated. The soviets lounch a huge artilery preparation and then 700 tanks supported by infantry pass over the romanian lines. Only about 70-80 tanks have been destroied by romanian tank hunters. Some romanian units remain encircled in three areas on the Don Bend Sector. In three days (november 19-22) romanian losses were 80 000 soldiers. The soviets reported 37 000 pows. They can be see in ww2 footage because have fur hats instead of helmets.k98_man wrote:The Romanian units seemed to be not well enough equiped. Out-dated equipment and all created some problems and overall I think in some ways the Romanians caused some of the downfalls in some battles.
In general I agree. It fits to my researches from today. But You must not forget the weeks of fighting of the german troops in "Fall Blau" since Charkov in may. The troops blooded out especially since the midth of september. No relief troops und the ammunition was low. As the romanian troops came in, they were classified "ready for all types of attacks". And they fought brave and with the respect of the german soldiers. And my granduncle Friedrich Mott died with them. He is missing in action in centre of Stalingrad since Dec., 1st 1942.Athanaric wrote:Hitler have promised Antonescu romanian soldiers will receive military equipment when they take the fighting positions nord of Stalingrad (the Don Bend) and south of Stalingrad (Kalmuk steppe). They received nothing: not anti-tank artilery, no wire barbed web constructed, no mined fields, no antitank and antipersonnel mines, no heavy artilery, no vehicles for troops transportation from Rostov to front line, no reserves.k98_man wrote:The Romanian units seemed to be not well enough equiped. Out-dated equipment and all created some problems and overall I think in some ways the Romanians caused some of the downfalls in some battles.
A ww2 veteran from my village escaped from Stalingrad encirclement. He took the fighting position in the Don Bend area in november 1942, before the Uranus Operation. In fact on the Don Bend front it was not a continous front ditch/tranchee line. There were advanced isolated fighting position ocupied by romanians soldiers. Their mission was to keep the position against russion infantry atacks. Behind them, 400-500 meters distance were german artilery positions. Some russian atacks were performed during the nights, in silent. They used to use bayonnets against romanians. Some times the romanians were surprised. At first shootings sound, the germans wake up and open fire using heavy machine-guns. They launched illuminating rockets and cleared the area in less than one hour. Rarelly more! He survive the 21 nov atack, because he was not on the main stream of the soviet atack. They (romanian and germans) retreat to south-east in Stalingrad direction. When they arrived in Stalingrad, they haven't know the Stalingrad is in an encirclement. They realise this in December '42. During a night after that, with 4-5 romanians soldiers they begun the adventure to get out there. During the followings nights they were walking westward and during the day they stayed on the graound, partially covered with snow to simulate they are dead. The entire field west of Stalingrad was covered with dead soldiers bodies. He never seen so many dead bodies untill the horizont line. A lot of ravens eat from dead bodies. The secret of the succes escaping was "during the day don't move under any circumstances". One of them was shooted despite the fact he was warned:"don't move, any moving is discovered by russian! they will kill all of us!". Indeed a russian soldiers observed and shooted him. Also other russians open fire against dead bodies covered the area around romanian soldier shooted. After five nights they arrived on the romanian front line positions. In that winter, the narator of this facts was taken prisoneer and sent in Siberia. In 1946 he was freeed. In 2002 when he died he was still convinced in Russia is only one season: winter.HeinrichFrey wrote:In general I agree. It fits to my researches from today. But You must not forget the weeks of fighting of the german troops in "Fall Blau" since Charkov in may. The troops blooded out especially since the midth of september. No relief troops und the ammunition was low. As the romanian troops came in, they were classified "ready for all types of attacks". And they fought brave and with the respect of the german soldiers. And my granduncle Friedrich Mott died with them. He is missing in action in centre of Stalingrad since Dec., 1st 1942.Athanaric wrote:Hitler have promised Antonescu romanian soldiers will receive military equipment when they take the fighting positions nord of Stalingrad (the Don Bend) and south of Stalingrad (Kalmuk steppe). They received nothing: not anti-tank artilery, no wire barbed web constructed, no mined fields, no antitank and antipersonnel mines, no heavy artilery, no vehicles for troops transportation from Rostov to front line, no reserves.k98_man wrote:The Romanian units seemed to be not well enough equiped. Out-dated equipment and all created some problems and overall I think in some ways the Romanians caused some of the downfalls in some battles.
Regards
Matthias
This is a a part of the translation:George Lepre wrote:Hi Athanarthic -
If you could provide a translation for this letter it would be most appreciated. I'm sure there are a number of forum members who would like to read it.
Best regards,
George
A steel helmet won't do you anygood at that temepratures. You would be frozen stiff before any action takes place. The turcana hat wasn't too practical though and from 1943 onwards it was replaced with a Russian style fur hat, with protective bands for the ears.Athanaric wrote: Hitler have promised Antonescu romanian soldiers will receive military equipment when they take the fighting positions nord of Stalingrad (the Don Bend) and south of Stalingrad (Kalmuk steppe). They received nothing: not anti-tank artilery, no wire barbed web constructed, no mined fields, no antitank and antipersonnel mines, no heavy artilery, no vehicles for troops transportation from Rostov to front line, no reserves. These are similar to italians and hungarians! Romanians tank hunters have used the antitank rockets launchers from 70m and 100m short distances. At he Don Bend the soviets have already creadted three bridgeheads: Serafimovich, Kletskaia and Deviatkin. Antonescu ask Hitler to destroy these bridge heads but Hitler refused. He considered the Antonescu demand is exagerated. The soviets lounch a huge artilery preparation and then 700 tanks supported by infantry pass over the romanian lines. Only about 70-80 tanks have been destroied by romanian tank hunters. Some romanian units remain encircled in three areas on the Don Bend Sector. In three days (november 19-22) romanian losses were 80 000 soldiers. The soviets reported 37 000 pows. They can be see in ww2 footage because have fur hats instead of helmets.
I tried to find out the name of the regiments they fought. I was not able because they are passed over. However some search I could tray in military archives, if it is possible. For Don Bend and Kalmuk steppe, new recruits from Romania were sent on the front in autumn 1942. Also from Crimeea romanian troops were sent in Stalingrad area. In that winter romanian soldiers fought in german units, under german command. Of course there were romanian officiers gave direct orders to romanian troops. In his response to Antonescu, Erick von Manstain mentioned this as temporary acts of command. Many western historians (english and americans) consider after Stalingrad encirclement, the romanian troops in that area ceased to exists. Romanian troops who escaped from local encirclement, from Don Bend and the Kalmuk Steppe have been incorporeted in the german units have tried to broke the siege of Stalingrad (Gen. Hoth). Gruparea Aeriana de Lupta (in an ad-hoc translation: Aircraft Fighting Group - AFG) was involve in actions together with Luftwaffe against soviets. In entire war against soviets AFG launched 1.927.700 tons of bombs [source: Alesandru Dutu, Florica Dobre, Leonida Loghin, Armata Romana in cel de al doilea razboi mondial. 1941-1945, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, Bucuresti, 2001, pag. 40].Victor Nitu wrote:A steel helmet won't do you anygood at that temepratures. You would be frozen stiff before any action takes place. The turcana hat wasn't too practical though and from 1943 onwards it was replaced with a Russian style fur hat, with protective bands for the ears.Athanaric wrote: Hitler have promised Antonescu romanian soldiers will receive military equipment when they take the fighting positions nord of Stalingrad (the Don Bend) and south of Stalingrad (Kalmuk steppe). They received nothing: not anti-tank artilery, no wire barbed web constructed, no mined fields, no antitank and antipersonnel mines, no heavy artilery, no vehicles for troops transportation from Rostov to front line, no reserves. These are similar to italians and hungarians! Romanians tank hunters have used the antitank rockets launchers from 70m and 100m short distances. At he Don Bend the soviets have already creadted three bridgeheads: Serafimovich, Kletskaia and Deviatkin. Antonescu ask Hitler to destroy these bridge heads but Hitler refused. He considered the Antonescu demand is exagerated. The soviets lounch a huge artilery preparation and then 700 tanks supported by infantry pass over the romanian lines. Only about 70-80 tanks have been destroied by romanian tank hunters. Some romanian units remain encircled in three areas on the Don Bend Sector. In three days (november 19-22) romanian losses were 80 000 soldiers. The soviets reported 37 000 pows. They can be see in ww2 footage because have fur hats instead of helmets.
Getting back to the topic, there were no "rocket launchers" in the Romanian arsenal at that time. The main anti-tank weapons for the Romanian pioneers were the Molotov cocktail, grenades and AT mines. The 75 mm Pak battery assigned to each division of the 3rd Army were also effective when facing Soviet armor. However, they were too few and too dispersed.
Antonescu knew well how ill-equipped were the troops he sent to the front and even entered into conflict with general Iacobici, the chief of the General Staff, who did not want to send as soldiers as he could properly equip. The conflict ended when Iacobici was fired and replaced with the more docile Steflea, who had commanded "Antonescu's division" (the 3rd).
The main problems the 3rd Army faced at the Don's Bend were:
- lack of proper reserves, both in numbers and mobility
- poor logistics and as a result small stocks of ammo
- lack of in depth prepared defensive positions
Despite this and their vast superiority in numbers, the Soviets struggled harder than expected to brake through the front of the 13th and 14th Infantry Divisions. In fact, the actual breakthrough occured when the Soviet tank, mechanized and cavalry corps bypassed the Romanian resistance points and left the rifle divisions to deal with them. Under these circumstances, more reserves, especially mobile forces that could be quickly deployed to meet the advancing Soviet mechanized troops would have been of much more important than any number of 75 mm AT guns Germany could have spared. The same goes for larger stocks of ammo and proper supply lines, which would have helped the Romanian infantry keep the Soviet rifle divisions at bay much longer.
Regarding the veteran from your village, I am curious in what unit he served. The 23rd Regiment Ialomita was with the 10th Division, which at that time was in the Caucasus.
We have a number of interviews with veterans on our webpage (http://www.worldwar2.ro) and, if you want to take him an extended interview, we would more than gladly publish it.