Number of the Romanian tanks in Crimea in November

[Yeliseenko]

Number of the Romanian tanks in Crimea in November, 1941? To what part concerned?

Participation of the Romanian armor in battle in Crimea in 1942?

This question is very actual at Russian military forums. Help colleagues from Russia.

Alex

Best regard from Ice Krasnoyarsk!

[mabadesc]

Yeliseenko,

I'm not sure there were any Romanian tanks in Crimea in 1941/1942. There was a mechanized group made of 2 cavalry regiments and led by Colonel Radu Korne. I'm sure it had armored elements, but don't know if it had any actual tanks.

Maybe someone else knows exactly what the Korne group was made up of.

[dragos03]

I think it had some "tanks": some of the R-1 tankettes used by the cavalry. However, these were armed only with a MG and were useless against other tanks.

[Iamandi]

R-1 and AH-IV were not intended to fight against tanks or armoured vechicles, tehy were "tankettes" used for reccon missions. And they have one MG and one LMG ("pusca mitraliera") Z.B. both.

Iama

[Victor]

Trupele de tancuri din armata romana 1919-1947 gives a total of 9 R-1s for the Korne Detachment and 8th Cavalry Division at Stalingrad. Those two units also served in the Crimea during 1941-42 so I presume that was the total "armored strength" of the Romanian troops there.

[Iamandi]

Also in the Modelism issue were AH-IV / R1 is presented, are given the nombers of tankettes for every cavalry division, and for "centrul de instructie".

Iama

[horia]

i found this interesting site about romanian officials and captures tanks and blindates:
http://orbat.com/site/sturmvogel/romafv.html#Heading11

[Peter]

As far as I know most of the Romanian armour was destroyed during the Stalingrad campaign. I believe the armoured regiment had 202 R2s, 11 T3s and 11 T4s. In 1943[?] 50 PzKw. 38(t)s were supplied to Romania and might have been in the Crimea.

[Iamandi]

202 R2's? After the "first batch" of 125 Skoda Lt-35 modified for romanian specifications "R-2", Romania bought another light tanks of this type? If so, they were for sure Lt-35, or maybe the correct name was the name used in Wermacht's Panzer units as PzKpfw 35(t) - because, i think are 100 % chances to be buyed from Germany.
So, we bought anohter light tanks of Lt-35 model from Germany ?

Iama

[Victor]

There weren't 202 R-2s with the 1st Armored Division in November 1942, but 112 and not all of them were serviceable.

Anyway the initial topic was about the Romanian tanks in the operations in Crimea in 1941-42.

[Peter]

Sorry, my mistake. I misread my information. The 1st Armoured Regiment had around 109 R2s, 11 T3s, and 11 T4s to start with. They lost 86 tanks according to one source.