The Charge of Prunaru

Following Mackensen's crossing of the Danube at Zimnicea, on 26 November 1916, forward elements of the German 217th Division occupied the village Prunaru on the road between Alexandria and Bucharest, thus cutting the retreat route of the Romanian Zimnicea Detachment, which was in Alexandria and Draganesti-Vlasca.

The Detachment consisted of the 43rd Mixed Brigade (a collection of the remains of four militia battalions and of the 20th Infantry Regiment and three artillery battalions equipped with 87mm pieces from the 1880s) of the 18th Infantry Division and the 2nd RosioriRegiment.

General Referendaru, the CO of the 18th Infantry Division, decided to retake Prunaru. The attack was to be carried out in the morning of 28 November by the 43rd Brigade, protected on its left flank by the 2nd Rosiori Regiment (on the right wing there are marshlands/small lakes). It lacked the 4th squadron, which was detached to another sector. The fog was very thick so the troops followed blindly the main road with all its twists and turns, which was as well crowded with refugees. Around 7:00 the 43rd Brigade was already engaged in combat with the Germans in Prunaru, while the cavalry was positioned Northwest of the village, in waiting. The village was taken and lost three times, but the infantry was starting to retreat passing by rosiori. Col. Naumescu held a short council with his officers and then decided to attack in support of the infantry. The three squadrons lined up for the charge, with the 1st Squadron in the center, commanded by col. Naumescu.

It was a text book charge, starting walking, then trotting and finally galloping. The Germans that were following the retreating Romanian infantry were surprised in the open field by the rosiori appearing from the mist and were cut down or trampled. But when the regiment reached the village, the entrenched Germans opened fire from protected positions. The main road was barricaded with tree trunks and stopped the attack cold. Only few horsemen managed to bypass it and crossed the village. Those that survived the onslaught dismounted and continued the fighting on foot besides some elements of the 20th Infantry Regiment that were still in the village.

Around 11:00 the fog lifted and the heavy German artillery was put in position. Its fire was very effective and the Romanian troops started to retreat northward towards Letca Veche at 14:00. The survivors eventually reached Rusii lui Asan from where they were directed to Jilava for recovery.

Out of the 14 officers and 360 soldiers of the 2nd Rosiori Regiment that charged only 2 officers and 50-60 men remained. Colonel Naumescu was gravely wounded and died later in a hospital in Sofia. After the war, the regiment received the honorary name Prunaru.

The monument:

The cemetery nearby the monument (which I already posted in an older topic):

My grandfather, Lt. Munteanu Petru, fought at Prunaru as mobilized cavalry officier. His name is on the memorial stone...
In that morning, on his horse, he fell wounded. The german MGs placed in some attics, "solved" the fight. He stayed in the hospital of Giurgiu as POW, then, till the end of the war, he remained at the germans in the same area, serving in administrative jobs for some farms.
I am still searching his Notebook, but I remember some notes :
... bad decision with Naomescu's charge... a german commander told him latter, that for such a mistake, the punishment had to be the execution (!)... the romanian grain stocks, caught in Muntenia, allowed to Germany to fight for more two years (?) ...

This post has been edited by Petre on January 20, 2011 08:05 pm

These notes usually don't make it in history books...

Gen. Dénes

An heroic charge, but it should have stopped before the village. They should have expected that the germans would have defensive positions. But they're still heroes nonetheless

As a side note, in Western Europe, the end of cavalry charges was the French-Prussian war of 1870. Neither French not Germans used cavalry in charges against static positions in WW1 as the Eastern countries did.

The Soviets used cavalry charges up until world war 2, usually to clear minefields. But then again, manpower was never an issues for the Russians. I also read somewhere, but I cannot confirm this, that Polish cavalry troops used to charge German tanks at the start of world war 2, believing that they were made from cardboard . Again, I cannot confirm the source, so it may be just fake stories made by propaganda so...

Both are myths. Soviets did not use cavalry charges to clear minefields and Polish cavalry did not charge German tanks.

Both are myths. Soviets did not use cavalry charges to clear minefields and Polish cavalry did not charge German tanks.

I suspected as much. There are a lot of stories about world war 2 and a lot of them are made up, so it's hard to keep tabs on what's true or not. Thanks for the info though .

OFF-TOPIC:

The myths of the Polish campaign and the explanations behind them are briefly but comprehensively summarized on Wikipedia, using competent sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Campaign#Misconceptions

The particular myth of the Polish cavalry charging advancing German tanks was the result of a combination between the German war propaganda and an ill-fated account of some Italian war correspondent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_at_Krojanty

Actually (and perhaps paradoxically), most of the Polish cavalry charges, when they happened in 1939 (and they did happen, not against tanks but against German non-armoured units on the move) represented rather successful counterattacks and/or delaying actions.

This post has been edited by Agarici on January 24, 2011 12:05 am

http://www.galeriafoto.com/photos/showphot...646/si/Ferestre

From a book of Gen.Lt.Emilian Ionescu – “Pe Neajlov, intr-o toamna rece”

From an other book of Gen.Lt.Emilian Ionescu – “In uniforma, pentru totdeauna”, A story for the young King Mihai I, on road to Oltenia, when they left Bucuresti, Aug.23-rd.

And some memories from one notebook (1950) of my grandfather :

This post has been edited by Petre on January 31, 2011 01:37 pm

Thank you Petre for posting your grandfather's recollections.

This could be interesting. The former Defense Minister Ion Coman (1976-1980) is from Prunaru. He told me once that his father's parents died that day.