Defeat of a Romanian unit on front 1941-1945, Defeat of a Battalion,Regiment,Division

Excluding Stalingrad battle , in what fight do you know a defeat of a Romanian unit ?!

I mention first defeat of 3rd Dorobanti Regiment and 1st Tank Regiment in 18 August 1941 at Karpova .

Second ,is surrender of 4th Infantry Division (!) at Szolnok .

Well, I've read in Liddell Hart's book about ww2, that a Romanian mountain division has "failed" in Caucasus in autumn 1942. Does anybody know what was that about?

This post has been edited by MMM on May 14, 2009 08:59 am

What kind of question is that?

If you want a list down to battalion level, then there would be dozens of cases. Why should someone spend his time for this?

Perhaps 3rd Mountain Division?

Yes, that division was there, but where did it fail?

29 September. General Radu Falfanescu was dismissed due to the failure of the 3rd Mountain Division, in his place being appointed general Leonard Mociulski. The battalion remains in close contact with the enemy, in the following disposal: the 2nd Company (captain Cristea) in the right, the 1st Company (lieutenant Lucian Ionescu) in the center, the Reconnaissance Company (2nd lieutenant Constantin Nicolescu) in the left, in contact with the German 116th Infantry Regiment, and the 3rd Company, less one platoon, in the reserve. One platoon is deployed between the 1st and the 2nd companies.

From here: http://www.worldwar2.ro/memorii/?article=104

I'll search in Piteşti (Military Archives) this summer for more details - if the division's own report mentions what the failure was...

This post has been edited by MMM on May 14, 2009 03:04 pm

Well, the failure was obviously the inability to achieve the objectives during the offensive stage. However, in the defensive stage afterward the unit performed admirably.

As Dragos said, the 3rd Mountain Division was assigned the task to attack the flank of the Soviet 47th Army and capture the port of Gelendzhik. The offensive took place between 19-22 September and the 3rd Mountain Division advanced 6 km in the positions of the 216th Rifle Division. Several days later, the Soviets counterattacked with the 77th Rifle Division and two marine brigades that recaptured the lost ground.

I think the first defeat of a Romanian unit on front was in July 1941, at Tiganca bridgehead, where a division was defeated near Cania, I don't remeber which one division. This defeat obliged the nearby units to make biggest efforts, with important costs, to restore the front line.

I think it was Div 35 Inf.

A relatively small scale but sounding defeat took place on June 26 when the Soviet forces attacked Pardina and Chilia Veche, defended by Romanian 15th Marine Infantry Battalion. The Romanian unit retreated, losing in the process 11 officers, 13 NCOs and 334 soldiers (mainly prisoners) and most of the armament (12 artillery pieces, 12 machine-guns, 36 light machine-guns, 475 rifles, 119 side arms). The following days, from the remains of the battalion it could hardly be raised up a company of 100 men.

I think it was Div 35 Inf.

The 35th Reserve infantry Division was indeed defeated in July, but it had no connection with the fighting at Tiganca.
For more details,see here: http://www.worldwar2.ro/operatii/?article=5

@Dragos: given the disproportion between the attacking forces and the Romanian defenders, it was more of a retreat than a sound defeat...
@victor: it is unfair to blame the whole 35-th Division for what many authors consider an unfortunate and incompetent decision - if we're discussing the "Varzaresti" episode in early july.

Hallo,
The defeat of the the 2nd and 4th Romanian Mountain Brigades of the 3rd Romanian Army in the Nogai Steppe battle, on the northern coast of Azov (September 25 to October 3, 1941), could be another exemple. The soviet offensive was finally crushed after the intervention of the 49th Mountain Corps from the German 11th Army, from the south and the German 1st Panzer Group from the north. It is however true that the soviets had a categorical numerical and technical superiority over the romanian-german forces in the area.