Romania's Holy War by Grant T. Harward

Author:Grant T. Harward [Harward, Grant T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II, Holocaust, Europe, General
ISBN: 9781501759970
Google: HTEYEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2021-11-15T02:46:10+00:00

Stalingrad

The Stavka’s winter counteroffensive began with Operation Uranus, a double envelopment of the German Sixth Army that targeted the outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed Romanian forces holding its flanks. On 19 November, at 5:30 a.m., an eighty-minute barrage began on the Don against the Third Army, blasting apart trenches and barbed wire, collapsing shelters with soldiers inside, and cutting communications. First Lieutenant Tănăsescu wrote, “Russian hits fell in all parts…. They also broke our telephone wire in many places and 1 1/2 hours we fired without guidance…. Since morning, there was a mist so one didn’t see more than 150 m, which the Russians used to start the attack, especially to [the] left, where an intense bombardment of Katyusha [rocket artillery] lasted around 1/2 hour.”2 Tănăsescu was describing a Soviet tank army advancing out of the Serafimovich bridgehead, breaking through the II Corps, and creating a gaping hole near Bolshoy in the Third Army’s center. Simultaneously, a Soviet army attacking from the Kletskaya bridgehead smashed through the IV Corps at Gromky on the Third Army’s right flank.3 Romanian artillery could not stop the enemy, concealed by fog, and by 9:30 a.m. Soviet tanks, with infantry leaping off, were among the Romanian guns. Artillerymen desperately tried to use their field pieces as antitank guns and fired over open sights trying to knock out tanks before retreating around noon because shells ran out; their ammunition dumps had been hit, and resupply trains were ambushed.4 In between the Soviet breakthroughs, the V Corps repelled Soviet attacks. Tănăsescu’s battery fired 281 shells. “Evening, when it quieted a little, I found that in our front [the Soviets] had great losses. To [the] left however, the situation is bad: our boys were forced to retreat…. Night we slept worried.”5 The German XXXXVIII Panzer Corps tried to ride to the rescue, first heading northeast toward Gromky, but then German Army Group B redirected it northwest to Bolshoy. By nightfall, after march and countermarch, the German 22nd Panzer and 1st Armored Divisions’ motley collection of tanks had become separated and, low on fuel, came under attack from all directions. Soviet forces overran the 1st Armored Division’s German liaison unit, wounding its officer and destroying its radio, hindering coordination with the German 22nd Panzer Division.6 Soviet troops widened the breaches in the line and drove farther into the Third Army’s rear through the night. sowing panic among Romanian support units.

With the German Sixth Army’s left flank collapsing, the Stavka now ordered a second attack on its right flank on the Kalmyk Steppe. On 20 November, three Soviet armies slammed into the German Fourth Panzer Army after a forty-five-minute barrage beginning at 10 a.m. Second Lieutenant Virgil Dobrin recalled, “It was an apocalyptic sight. The response of our artillery was prompt, but feeble compared to the Soviet fire’s massiveness. This had a powerful morale effect in the command post. And not without reason. The weak points of our defensive layout were well known.”7 A Soviet army steamrolled over the VI Corps.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.