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WorldWar2.ro Forum > Western Front (1944-1945) > romanian in battle of Budapest


Posted by: nino March 19, 2004 02:55 am
Hi,

I would like to know about the action of Roumanian troops that serving in the Red Army during Battle of Budapest, especially about their performance.
I also would like to know about the feeling of Roumanians against theirs enemies which before were allies (Germans and Hungarians). I know that during the time there was no love left between Roumanians and Hungarians because Transylvania problems.
Is there anybody who could help me about this subject?

Thanks a lot
Nino

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http://oktorino.tripod.com

Posted by: C-2 March 19, 2004 03:21 am
Like you said ,Romanians and Hungarians were no allies..
Exept of the Tudor Vladimirescu and Horia ,Closca si Crisan div.(that were made from Rom pow)and saw some action in Transilvania ,there were no Romanians in the Red army.
The regular army is the one who fought in Hungary.
So about the fighting against the former allies,let's not forget that the Germans were no traditional allies of ROmania.They came for the oil..
They were respected but there was no love story.
Anyway from what I heard from veterans,after 23 August there were not many actions.The Germans were on the edge and the Romanian forces,after entering Transilvania lost interest.And avoided hight scale fights.

Posted by: dragos March 19, 2004 06:51 am
nino, pay attention when you open a new thread. This one's place was the Western Front forum.

Moved.

Posted by: Victor March 19, 2004 07:36 am
QUOTE
Like you said ,Romanians and Hungarians were no allies..
Exept of the Tudor Vladimirescu and Horia ,Closca si Crisan div.(that were made from Rom pow)and saw some action in Transilvania ,there were no Romanians in the Red army.


The Horia, Closca si Crisan Division never saw action. It arrived in Romania in 1945.

As for the Romanians in Budapest, you can start by checking out the biography of Lt. general Sova on the website. He was the CO of ther 7th Corps that took part in the Operation Budapest.

QUOTE
Anyway from what I heard from veterans,after 23 August there were not many actions.The Germans were on the edge and the Romanian forces,after entering Transilvania lost interest.And avoided hight scale fights.


You understood wrong. The fights were equally ferocious from September 1944 on.

Posted by: C-2 March 19, 2004 10:48 pm
Vets say that fights against Germany were a joy ride comparing the ones against the Soviets.I agree with that.I don't care what some guys write i books....

Posted by: johnny_bi March 20, 2004 03:25 am
C-2, my grandma's brother wouldn't agree with you... BTW, he died in Tatra Mountains, being cut to pieces by the fire of MG42.

Posted by: Victor March 20, 2004 10:59 am
QUOTE
Vets say that fights against Germany were a joy ride comparing the ones against the Soviets.I agree with that.I don't care what some guys write i books....


What vets? You talked mostly with pilots, who did not encounter the Luftwaffe that much after September 1944. The soldiers on the ground that had to fight through dense woods, hills, mountains (which by the way you would be unable to climb, not to mention fight your way up) or horrible street-to-street actions, without clothing or food, with an "ally" that treats you as an enemy, would say otherwise. It was no joy ride.

Ever considered that the vets are also humans and that humans can be biased? Greceanu told stories about him flying a Me-262 and Carol Anastasescu about crashing into a B-24. But their stories are not necessarily true.

Posted by: mietek March 20, 2004 06:20 pm
johnny_bi -could you write more about your family member who died in Tatra Mountains? Where it was? Present Poland or Slovakia? What unit it was?

Posted by: johnny_bi March 20, 2004 08:59 pm
QUOTE
johnny_bi -could you write more about your family member who died in Tatra Mountains? Where it was? Present Poland or Slovakia? What unit it was?


Unfortunately, this is all I know from my grandmother. The relatives of my grandma's brother had no idea what happened to him until the '50s when they were visited my an ex-collegue of arms of the missing brother. The collegue told to the family that it is no use to wait him because he died in the fightings form Tatra. He was cut to pieces by a machinegun... The collegue had also bed news for other families from the same village. Aparently, 5,6 guys died in the fighting in Tatra from the same village.

Posted by: Dénes March 20, 2004 09:17 pm
QUOTE
johnny_bi -could you write more about your family member who died in Tatra Mountains? Where it was? Present Poland or Slovakia?

It must had been in Slovakia, as the Rumanian Army did not fight in Poland.

Posted by: Victor March 20, 2004 09:18 pm
OK, we are wandering off-topic here. :offtopic:

nino, read here http://www.worldwar2.ro/portrete/?article=8&language=en

Posted by: C-2 March 20, 2004 09:32 pm
Victor,vets pilots I see with you. But I talk with veterans before you were born.
If you want names,one of them is Alex Sitaru,a great guy,who fought from 43 till the end.He said(and he'll be happy to talk to you too) that his comandin officer tried to fight as little as posible in order to spare lives.the action he saw was nothing comparing to the East.
Another guy,(I can't tell you his name on the forum),was a few years ago ,a carpenter at hotel Helvetia.The told me similar stories.
He was slightly wonnded(only a schratch) and was told by his comaner ,to play as serios wonded .He was sent back home.
And by the way I never met C.Anastasescu...
Johny_bi,sorry about your relative,but I didn't ment there were no casualies.Only that it's imposible to comper the fights in Stalingrad Odessa Krimea and so on,with the ones in the west.Think about the weather...

Posted by: Victor March 20, 2004 09:42 pm
QUOTE
If you want names,one of them is Alex Sitaru,a great guy,who fought from 43 till the end.He said(and he'll be happy to talk to you too) that his comandin officer tried to fight as little as posible in order to spare lives.the action he saw was nothing comparing to the East.
Another guy,(I can't tell you his name on the forum),was a few years ago ,a carpenter at hotel Helvetia.The told me similar stories.
He was slightly wonnded(only a schratch) and was told by his comaner ,to play as serios wonded .He was sent back home.


Two people are not enough to generalize.

QUOTE

And by the way I never met C.Anastasescu...


You did not meet Greceanu also, but that does not have any importance. I was refering to the fact that not all the veterans say is true.

QUOTE

Only that it's imposible to comper the fights in Stalingrad Odessa Krimea and so on,with the ones in the west.Think about the weather...


And why is that?
Btw, you were the first one doing the comparing. Reread your post from 20 March 12:48 am

Posted by: C-2 March 20, 2004 10:06 pm
I belive that evan if I'll gine you 1000 examples you won't be satisfied. :wink: :loool: :rollroll:
Those veterans didn't told brevary stories about themselfs.They didn't said they flew a F-117 in 45 or rammed a B 24.They just said that they hadn't had a very hard campain in the west comparing to the one in the East.

Posted by: johnny_bi March 22, 2004 12:01 am
QUOTE
Johny_bi,sorry about your relative,but I didn't ment there were no casualies.Only that it's imposible to comper the fights in Stalingrad Odessa Krimea and so on,with the ones in the west.Think about the weather...


It's ok... I agree that the scale in general, was maybe smaller in the west.

Posted by: nino March 23, 2004 06:27 am
Hi,

Victor, thanks for the info. And for other guys, thanks to share your view

Regards,
Nino

Posted by: Victor March 24, 2004 05:25 pm
In Budapest, the Romanian 7th Corps attacked on the Kerepes-Rackoczy boulevards. The 2nd Infantry Division attacked north of the Kerepes street. On 7 January it had captured the Central Post and continued to advance and on 13 or 14 January it had taken hold of the theatre on Arena street. In the center was the 19th Infantry Division which attacked along the Kerepes boulevard. By 10 January it managed to take the factories north of the Hipodrome and on 14 January it captured the Eastern Railway station. Finally, south of Kerepes street was the 9th Cavalry Division. It fought some of the most terrible fights inside the Hipodrome (taken by 7 January), the Franz Josef barracks (taken on 10-11 January), the Kerepes Cemetery and the Horse Market.

Posted by: Korne May 02, 2004 09:58 am
Are there now any documents available from the Soviet archives regarding the reasons for pulling the Romanian 7th Corps out of Budapest and redeploying it in Slovakia?

Posted by: Carol I May 05, 2004 11:26 pm
I have seen one article mentioning that the official reason for pulling the Romanian troops out of Budapest one month before its fall was the fact that they sparked fiercer resistance from the Hungarian troops they encountered. Given the Hungarian-Romanian animosity, the reason seems plausible.

Posted by: Matt820 September 12, 2004 04:39 am
The Romanians never got along with the Germans and Hungarians. At the Battle of Stalingrad there were accounts of Romanians fist-fighting with Germans. A Romanian actually killed a German high-ranking officer after he shot two of his comrades.

The Romanian/Hungarian hatred of each other started a long time before WWII. The Romanian and Hungarians had been fighting over Transylvania for centuries. The piece of land changed hands throughout history. The fight for Transylvania continues to this day (politically not militarily or course).

By the end of the war the Romanians and Germans were in the same predicamend as the Prussians and Saxons in WWI. Their leaders forced them to be allies, but they ratther fight each other than the enemy.

Posted by: Carol I June 19, 2005 05:47 pm
QUOTE
By January 14, Hungarian infantry and assault guns were locked in mortal combat for the Eastern Railway Station with most of General Nicholae Sova's Seventh Romanian Rifle Corps. Whereas in most instances Hungarian units had fought halfheartedly during the Battle of Budapest, here -- faced with their Romanian arch-nemesis -- they fought savagely.

The fighting traveled from track to track, through the rolling stock, and into the station. By January 16, the outnumbered defenders were bludgeoned in close-quarter fighting amid the rubble of the shattered station, and the exhausted attackers stood close to the Elizabeth Ring Road, a short distance from the Danube. Sova's corps, already having suffered eleven thousand casualties out of its thirty-six-thousand-man force, was pulled out by Malinovsky, who was incensed by the Romanian tendency to whip up frenzied resistance among previously demoralized Hungarian troops.

Source: http://www.thehistorynet.com/mhq/blbudapest/index.html

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