? 7th Cav Div, Nov 1942

Gentlemen,

One more question. Could anyone please provide details on third cavalry regiment (other than pair of 11's) available to Divizia 7 Cavalerie during actions of November 19th at Blinovskiy? There are sources suggesting it was Regimentul 5 Rosiori Moto, formerly integral to Divizia 9 Cavalerie. If so, was it a permanent subordination or this regiment got temporarily under 7th Cav? After all, how it happened to be there? And BTW does Moto means it was motorised rather than cavalry?

Best regards

Hi Pavel,

If I remember rightly, 7th Cavalry Division was entirely on foot at this time.

Cheers,

Sid.

Here, again, it is a problem of conflicting sources. One source gives what is written on the site in the OoB section (only two regiments: 11th Rosiori and 11th Calarasi). Another one, which lately I am beginning to consider as more reliable, gives the following OoB for the 7th Cavalry Division in 1942:
- 9th Calarasi Regiment
- 11th Motorized Rosirori Regiment
- 12th Motorized Rosirori Regiment
- 5th Horse Artillery Regiment

The 5th Motorized Rosiori Regiment was assigned to it on 19 November 1942 as reinforcement. I also have no idea what it was doing that far from his unit in the Caucasus.

Moto or Purtat means motorized.

Sid, the 7th Cavalry Division had 2,748 horses. Given the fact that it had only 436 carts and 2 regiments designated as motorized, I think we can safely assume it wasn't on foot.

Thanks! BTW, there are documents indicating it was Regimentul 15 Rosiori rather than 5... But AFAIR there were no 15 Rosiori ever created, but only the 15th Calarasi, so this version is somewhat confusing... or am wrong regarding 15 Rosiori?
Frankly, I think the theme of 3rd Army (including nearby German units) in November-January is quite inadequately portrayed in modern sources. F.ex. I have Axworthy, but despite posessing few interesting details, this source is extremely poor on documents and other primary sources. In other words I'm never sure if it's author's verbiage, or some real documented stuff I'm currently reading. So far we could never compare it with other sources (Soviet documents in particular), while we're unsure about his particular data origins...
Perhaps you could recommend any good Romanian (or Western) book for the subject, which is based on documents, and quotes documents?
And sorry for asking for too much over here

Best regards

It seems that the 7th Cavalry Division was literally on foot. The horses were taken away in January 1942 in the view of motorization, but the motorization was canceled and in November the division had neither horses nor trucks. The men of the 5th Rosiori Regiment had a joke: Regimentul 5 rosiori purtat... "cu vorbe" (the regiment is carryed ... on promises).

So I see it's again a matter of sources. Armata Romana in al doilea razboi mondial (1941-1945) - Dictionar Enciclopedic by Alesandru Dutu, Florica Dobre, Leonida Loghin, Editura Enciclopedica, 1999 mentions the number of horses I posted earlier after March 1942. Where did you get the info?

The source is Veteranii pe drumul onoarei şi jertfei - De la Stalingrad la bătălia Moldovei, ANVR, Bucureşti, Editura "Vasile Cârlova" 1997.

It is in the testimony of Colonel r. Alexandru Niculescu, on the front captain in the general staff of 5th Rosiori Regiment, 7th Cavalry Division.

Also on p.33 it is mentioned that the 7th Cavalry Division (on foot) was deployed in the reserve of the (3rd) Army at Blinovski, Pronin.

Thank you very much!!

Best regards

Hi Guys,

My impression was that all three motorised cavalry regiments served in 4th Army and/or the Caucasus during the second half of 1942 and 3rd Army had none of them. Is this correct?

Cheers,

Sid.