Romanian involvement in the Battle of Kursk

Hi,

Did any units belonging to the Romanian Army (ground troops) or to the Romanian Royal Air Force took part in the Battle of Kursk (July 1943) ?
If not the Romanians, did any units of the other "Allierte" involved themselves alongside the Germans during the Kursk battle?

Florin

Hitler said: "Zitadelle will be only an german enterprise"

No.
PS: As a matter of fact Hungarian Bf-109Gs from the Puma took part in the fighting.

QUOTE

No. PS: As a matter of fact Hungarian Bf-109Gs from the Puma took part in the fighting.

Should I understand that Puma was the name of a Hungarian aerial squadron?

The only other "Puma" I know to be related to World War II was the nickname of a four wheeled light German vehicle.

Florin

It was the name of a fighter group (5/I.). Denes can probably tell you more.

I never heared about any romanian unit involved in Kursk Battle.

Only some romanians wich was students in german military schools - as isolated cases - participated at that battle.

For datails see "Pumnul de fier" by Dan Giju, ed. Phobos, Bucuresti 2003.

This book - a good one - is a kind of biografy of a romanian tank officer who was graduate of Tank officer s School from Neiruppin in 1944.

NO, romanians did not fight at Kursk. The romanian tanks where the ones used in WW1. only some (a few) bought from the germans, where PzKw II. The romanians simply did not have the resources to fight the biggest tank battle in history.

QUOTE

NO, romanians did not fight at Kursk. The romanian tanks where the ones used in WW1. only some (a few) bought from the germans, where PzKw II. The romanians simply did not have the resources to fight the biggest tank battle in history.

As far as I know, no Panzer II was ever bought by Romania. If you want to learn more about the Romanian armour, visit the armour page of the site:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/arme/?category=arm...mor&language=ro

"Pe 17 octombrie 1942, datorita situatiei materiale proaste a trupelor romane si imbunatatirea tehnicii de lupta blindate a Uniunii Sovietice, Germania a cedat armatei romane 22 de tancuri medii. Acestea cuprindeau 11 Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf N, varianta finala a seriei de tancuri Panzerkampfwagen III, produsa de Daimler-Benz in perioada 1942-43. Principalul tanc al armatei germane in primii ani de razboi, Panzerkampfwagen III a cunoscut o continua evolutie, dictata de prezenta unor oponenti mai puternici pe campul de lupta. "

I made a mistake..... :cry: Thy where Pzkw III. (11 of them)

As I said, the romanians were there as individuals (military students during the front-practical stage), as a members in german units.

Although Romania did not participate at Kursk (nor were they properly equipped to do so), the Romanian Army received several shipments of Pz III's and Pz. IV's(labeled T-4).

It is misleading to limit the army's armored equipment to WWI tanks and a few (11) Pz III's, as you mentioned. Its armored capability was significantly larger and more powerful, though still inadequate by Germany's standards.

What Germany needed to win Kursk was to attack somewhere else

Romanian tanks were not just antiques that dated back to WW1 (the Renault FT17), there was also the czechoslovak R1 and R2 and the french R35 that were modern for the early stages of WW2. Then there were the german tanks.

The Weapons -> Armor section of the site describes all the tanks used by Romanian Army during WW2

In the last years this story, with the titanic / apocalyptic tank versus tank battle, came under some attack, even from Russia. According to these critics, the Soviet historians and propagandists invented the scenario of the huge tank versus tank battle to cover the "shame" of the huge losses in Soviet tanks. Actually not the losses themselves were the "shame", but the ratio between how many Russian tanks were lost versus how many German tanks were lost.
These points of view claim that during the battle of Kursk many tanks destroyed by the Russian infantry or artillery were counted by the Soviet historians as destroyed by the Russian tanks.