Tank commanders

Did Romania have tank"aces"? If not, who were some of their individual
tank commanders?
Thanks Everyone,for all your past information!

Ion S. Dumitru was born on 1 March 1921 in Robanesti-Dolj. He went to high school in Craiova and then in the military high school in Timisoara, which he finished among the first in 1941. Two years later, in 1943, he finished the Infantry officer School in Buchreast and on 1 July he was promoted to the rank of sublocotenent (2nd lt.) and assigned, at request, to the 1st Tank Regiment, which was in the process of restructuring after the 1942 Stalingrad campaign at Targoviste.

He specialized in tank warfare in the Tank Training Center at Fallingbostel/Hanover of the 6th Panzer Regiment.

In March 1944, the 1st Armored Division (Greater Romania Division) was transferred to the front in Moldavia. A part of it the Cantemir Detachment had been on the front from early 1944.

They were now kept in the reserve of the 4th Army. In the morning of 20 August, when the Jassy-Kishinev (Iasi-Chisinau) Operation had already started, the tankers were in their machines ready for action.

The 1st Tank Regiment was the spearhead of the counter-attack launched by gen. Korne's 1st Armored Division against the flank of the Soviet tank columns. At about 10 am, the regiment ran into a Soviet tank formation near the Scobalteni village and engaged it. The fighting lasted until 8 pm (10 hours) and the casualties were high: 60 Soviet tanks, 20 Romanian tanks. After several IS tanks were knocked out, the Soviets chose to disengage. It is not known how many tanks did slt. Dumitru destroy that day, but given his performance in other battles the following days, probably at least one.

The Soviets changed their tactic and called in several aircraft which dropped smoke bombs. The regiment was situated on both sides of the highway. During the confusion created a Soviet tank formation rushed in on the road, while the Romanians wee unable to fire, for fear of hitting their comrades. Thus the regiment was encircled.

In the meantime, slt. Dumitru's tank was immobilized and he took over another tank from his platoon. In the evening, when some of the officers gathered to discuss the situation and find a solution. The chief communications officer reported that a BBC communiqué mentioned the fact that the 1st Armored Division was destroyed and that the remains had been captured. :wink:

The decision was to retreat off-road under the cover of darkness. However, during the escape the columns got separated and thus, slt. Ion Dumitru found himself in command of 13 T-4s (Pz IV) and 3 TBs (SPW 250), which made it safely to the village of Stornesti, where there was a company of motorized infantry. The next morning, about 25 German Stugs came rushing over the hill towards the Romanian positions, on the hill top behind them stopped two motorize AT batteries which positioned the guns to fire in the Germans, without seeing the Romanian positions. Slt. Dumitru ordered to open fire with HE shells and the ZIS-3s were blasted away, together with four Ford trucks.

Soon came a motorcycle with a message from gen. Korne who was on a hill further away and had seen the battle. The order was to retreat and to take in his formation the general's personal tank. The formation reached the village of Boghicea where there was another motorized infantry company and a 150 mm howitzer battery. The tank company took a defensive position. Later, Romanian motorized infantry appeared, followed closely by a Soviet column. The tanks and the howitzers opened fire and repulsed the Soviets, causing them heavy casualties.

The infantry and the guns left after that. The tanks followed them after an hour and headed to Bara, where again it engaged Soviet troops. The nightfall caught them on the hill near the village Sagna. On 22 August, the Soviet artillery forced then to retreat. They crossed the river Siret, passed through Roman and stopper in the village of Sabaoani, where there was also an AT ditch, guarded by a pioneer company. The next day, on 23 August, four German towed 75 mm Paks arrived and took positions between the tanks.

A Soviet column, more than 20 tank strong, approached the ditch in the afternoon. As agreed with slt. Dumitru, the pioneers blew up the passageway when the Soviets where 100 m away. The Soviet tanks changed their formation to line abreast and advanced towards the ditch, supported by their infantry. They did not see the T.4s and Paks in the forest 700 m away from the ditch, until it was too late. The tanks and Paks fired. Dumitru had ordered his men to fire only at his command, to save ammo. All was over very quickly. 22 burning carcasses remained on the field. Dumitru probably destroyed another tank on this occasion.

After an hour, the tanks left Sabaoani. On the road they joined 6-7 tanks and 3 Stugs and crossed the river Moldova.
On 24 August, the tanks continued the retreat until it met up with a German column and they found out that Romania had declared the armistice.

In the following days, the Romanian-Soviet "co-operation" began and the remains of the 1st Tank Regiment (like many other Romanian units) were interned in POW camps*. Slt. Dumitru managed to escape from the improvised camp together with his trusted friend, plutonier (staff sergeant) Ion Cojocaru. They were recaptured and interned into another camp, but escaped again. On 8 September they managed to get to Targoviste (in southern Romania and away from the front), on side roads, dressed as peasants.

He was incorporated in the 2nd Tank Regiment, together with other officers from the 1st, which had been disbanded at the Soviet request. This remaining regiment was made up of the Command Company, the Recon Company (8 armored cars and 5xSPW), the 1st Tank Battalion (8xT-4 and 14xTAs) and the 2nd Tank Battalion (28xR-35/45 and R-35, 9xT-38, 2xR-2, 5xTACAM R-2).

They were sent to the front in Slovakia in March 1945 and subordinated to the Soviet 27th Armored Brigade, which ironically the 1st Tank Regiment faced in August 1944. They began operations on 26 March, by crossing the river Hron. Slt. Dumitru's platoon advanced quickly, destroyed 6 AT guns and their towing vehicles and captured a German 150 mm howitzer battery, after destroying one of them. The advance was stopped by a Tiger platoon. However, he maneuvered around their position and forced to retreat.

Slt. Ion S Dumitru met another German armored formation two days later near the village Mal-Chetin, where he and plut. Cojocaru destroyed a Pz IV a StuG, a SPW 250 and two AT guns and their towing vehicles. The remaining Germans retreated and the Soviet infantry occupied the village.

The Soviet infantry continued its advance, supported by the Romanian tanks, the following days. On 31 March, it was again stopped. The Germans had brought a Tiger platoon, a Ferdinand platoon and a Pz IV company (probably Hungarian). The artillery barrage drove off the Ferdinands and a german bomber that crashed near the Tigers (!!!) damaged two of them and forced the others to tow them to safety. Thus, in the confusion, slt. Dumitru lead his platoon against the remaining tanks, firing from the move. They panicked and started to retreat. Two Pz IVs were destroyed and another two damaged.

During the following night, 31March/1 April, took place one of the most unusual actions of the 2nd Tank Regiment: a night assault on a fortified village. Luckily it was the Catholic Easter and most Germans were caught by surprise, but the confusion was high among both sides. An artillery bombardment disrupted the Romanian-Soviet formation, but after slt. Dumitru destroyed the church tower (where there was probably an observer) it stopped. In the following battle, which lasted until morning, slt. Dumitru and his platoon destroyed six SPW 250s, while another platoon destroyed a Pz IV.

The 2nd tank Regiment then took part in the assault on Bratislava, but no armored formations were encountered, only entrenched infantry.

On 5 April he commanded a detachment of 7 T.4s and 3 StuGs in the assault on Devinska. The katiushas statrted to fire, but, just as the attack commenced, the Germans repositioned their tanks and tank hunters to ambush the attackers. Slt. Dumitru however managed to change the direction of the attack and maneuvered around them. The Germans started to retreat and were faced the fire of the entire company. After one hour and half all was over. Inside the village, 9 tanks and StuGs and three SPWs were burning.

On 8 April, the regiment began crossing the river Morava into Austria and on 11 April was engaged in the battle for Vienna. The tank company of the 1st battalion (the T.4 company) attacked towards Hohenruppersdorf, which was occupied without encountering any resistance. They remained on those positions during the rest of the day. The only Germans spotted were the ones in a command vehicle which was captured. The rest of the regiment and the 27th tank Brigade encountered heavy resistance and were even pushed back.

In the morning of 12 April, the Germans counter-attacked and only slt. Dumitru's group (two tanks), a Soviet AT battery and infantry platoon were the only Allied troops in Hohenruppersdorf. The others had been sent to the endangered areas.

At about 4 pm, four German SPWs surprised the Soviet infantry and managed to pass through their position into the village. Dumitru destroyed the first and let the Soviet AT guns finish the others off, because he did not want to waste ammo. The Soviets bagged two, but one got away. One hour later, four Pz IVs and four SPWs entered the village. The Soviet AT guns destroyed one tank, while Dumitru got behind the other three. He fired and destroyed the tank in the middle. The crews of the other two jumped out and surrendered. In the meantime, the other Romanian tank had destroyed two of the SPWs. The rest had fled.

The fighting continued on 13 April, when the Germans were finally pushed back. Both the 27th Tank Brigade and 2nd Tank Regiment suffered heavy losses. The regiment was reorganized and slt. Dumitru was named CO of the 1st Tank Company/ 1st Tank Battalion. He was assigned to lead the assault on Shrick on 14 April. The detachment had six T.4s (Pz IV), 3 StuGs, 5 TACAMs, 2 R-2s and 3 armored cars.
They were attacked by three Panthers from the flank and two T.4s were knocked out and one TACAM destroyed. To make things worse one T.4 broke down. One of the immobilized tanks was the one commanded by slt. Dumitru's, who was wounded. Ironically, this was not his usual tank and crew.

This is how the war ended for lt. Ion S. Dumitru. After recovering he served mainly in administration jobs in the regiment.

He had fought five days against the Soviets and 20 days against the Germans. In the meantime, the formations he lead destroyed 39 tanks and 13 AFVs, of which at least five tanks and 3-4 AFVs belonged to him.

Col. Stan Zatreanu, the CO of the 2nd tank Regiment, wrote in the proposal for decoration that the actions of this officer had a very important role in the success of this regiment (which had received four citations from the Soviet command during its less than two months campaign). As a side note, the personal relations between the colonel and Dumitru were not very good.

He received the highest Romanian wartime award: the Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class with swords.

He also found out that he had been promoted to lieutenant in February, but because he was on the front, under Soviet command, the news got lost in the bureaucracy. After the war he continued to serve in the army as tank instructor, until 1953 when he resigned (still a lieutenant, even though he was the chief of operations of a tank brigade!!)

* over 130,000 Romanian soldiers were taken as POWs by the Soviets in Moldavia after 24 August, even when Romanian troops were fighting side by side with the Soviets in Transylvania. It is estimated that 75,000 died in Soviet camps.

WOW! FANTASTIC info! Thanks SOmuch!
druzhina

Great info, great story! Thanks, Victor.

Do you know if he is still alive?

Romanian language members canbuy his memoirs here:
http://www.nemira.ro ("Tancuri in flacari")

I do not know if he is still alive.

I decided to reactivate this topic because I want to gather more info on Romanian tankers, as, unlike the glamorous pilots and observers of the ARR, there has been little written about them and very few are known. It is true that the tanks weren't employed by the Romanian army in WW2 on a very large scale, due to limited resources, but they are, I believe, an interesting chapter of our history and deserve more attention. So, if you have stories, names etc. related to Romanian tankers in WW2 post it here.

The best source - short of looking in the archives - is Monitorul Oficial or Monitorul Ostirii, which list the decorations awarded to the soldiers, sometimes including the reasons as well.

Col. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on December 11, 2004 03:36 pm

Here is a photo of a Tank commander (unknown) leading a tank column on the move with the German army. It was taken 4-14-1944 by German press photographer Heinrich Hoffman, Berlin.

Unknown tank commander, Lieutenant, somewhere in Russia, Oct. 1941.

Targoviste Armored Tank School staff officers and instructors. The School Commanding Colonel is seated in the center of the first row. He wears the Order of Michael the Brave. Photo taken late 1930's.

It is a BT-7 russian tank?

Iama

Yes, it is probably a captured tank.

Cpt. Radu Balacescu was born on 12 December 1913 in Bucharest. He graduated the Cavalry Officer School in Targoviste in 1933 and, after serving several years in the 5th Rosiori Regiment, he went to the Special Cavalry School in Sibiu, which he finished second out of 46 officers.

He took part in the 1941 campaign on the Eastern front with the 9th Rosiori Regiment Regina Elena from the 6th Cavalry Division, as squadron CO, fighting in Bessarabia, Western Ukraine, all the way to North of the Sea of Azov, where lt. Balacescu distinguished himself during the fights at Adamovich and Oblitovshnaya. He was awarded the Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class for his deeds during that battle. In 1942 the 6th Cavalry Division was involved in the August offensive in the Caucasus. Cpt. Radu Balacescu was wounded by a mortar shell in the battles around Temryuk. He was admitted in the Military Academy. In 1943, when he was again on the front, he was wounded at the liver. He returned to Romania and graduated from the Military Academy in 1944 and was assigned to the Mechanized Troop Command.

After 23 he was sent to the front with the rest of the Mechanized Corps (the former Mechanized Troop Command), at his own request, after growing tired of the desk job he had received since early 1944.

On 7 September he acted as liaison to the General Niculescu Mechanized Group, located at Cornesti (in Transylvania), between the 8th Motorized Cavalry Division and the 9th Infantry Division, facing troops from the Hungarian 2nd Armored Division. Because the less experienced Romanian tankers were hesitating to attack the village, he took personal command of the detachment and, in cooperation with troops from the 34th Infantry Regiment, he entered the village and retook it, destroying two enemy tanks.

During the night, a Hungarian counterattack retook the village. On 8 September cpt. Balacescu received again the command of a detachment that had to take the village. With two tanks, one commanded by him and the other by plut. Trifan Colan, he advanced to the center of the village where the machines were immobilized by several Faustpatrone hits. Cpt. Balacescu and several of the crewmembers that survived continued to fight from the houses nearby, while trying to return to the Romanian positions. He was wounded by machine-gun fire in the left hip and shoulder and in the belly. He managed to crawl into the courtyard of the Eastern Orthodox church, where he reportedly was killed by two locals. He was later awarded the Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class with swords , being among the 19 men who received both the 1941 and the 1944 models during WW2.

How succesfull was CKD LT-38/TNHP P38, or T38 like romanians he named this tank, in romanian service? Tankists whith experience from Skoda LT 35, had some happynes for this advanced tank (comparing to LT35). LT-38 posses a more powerfull gun...
I know this was obsolete when was included in romanian service, but against light tanks like T-60, T-70, Stuart, or light armored vechicles it was enough. In figths were T-34 were not involved...
And another question - when was first time used, or send to front line this tank?

Iama

Cpt. Ioan Cernea was born on 28 January 1900 in Galata, near Iasi/Jassy. In 1943 he was the CO of the 55th Tank Company, equipped with T-38 tanks (Romanian designation for the Skoda LT 38), which was subordinated to the Mountain Corps. On 1 November 1943, the 4th Ukrainian Front started the first offensive in Crimea. It managed to establish a bridgehead south of the Sivash Sea. This bridgehead was contained by the Romanian 23rd and 24th Mountain Battalions, the 2nd Battalion/4th Artillery Regiment and 37th AT Company (from the 1st Mountain Division) and 15th Mountain Battalion and 53rd Tank Company (from the 2nd Mountain Division), which were under command of col. Grigore Balan, the deputy CO of the 2nd Mountain Division. The tank company arrived at Karanky during the night of 3/4 November 1943. The following day, cpt. Cernea led his 12 tanks against the Soviet positions on Hill 19.2 and overran them, advancing 9 km northwards. His tank was hit probably by an AT gun and he was killed. By the end of November 1943, his company had lost 9 out of 12 tanks. Cpt. Cernea was later awarded the Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class posthumously.