Sevastopol, Simferopol, Balaclava, Kerci

Hello,

Regarding the Mountain Corps, I was wondering if someone knew who was the commander of each Mountain Division (brigade or division) during the 1941-1943 period.

I'll start with the hierarchy:

Keeping in mind that the Mountain Corps was subordinated to the 3rd Army we have:

-General Dumitrescu
CO 3rd Army
-General Avramescu
CO Mountain Corps
-General Mociulski
CO 3rd Mountain Division
-General Lascar
CO 4th Mountain Division???
-General XXXX???
CO 1st Mountain Division
-General XXXX???
CO 2nd Mountain Division
-General XXXX?
CO 8th Cavalry Division (part of Mountain Corps initially)

Also, I read that the 8th Cavalry Div. and the 6th Inf. Division were initially subordinated to the Mountain Corps (during the Crimean Campaign). Does anyone know how long this lasted and confirm whether it's true?

Many thanks for your comments.

For information on the exploits of the Romanian units in Crimea in 1941-42, I believe the two articles in the Operations section will get you started.

Here is the list of COs you wanted:
1st Mountain Brigade/Division
10 January 1941-10 February 1942: brig. gen Mihail Lascar
11 February 1942-5 October 1943: brig. gen. Constantin Vasiliu-Rascanu

4th Mountain Brigade/Division
10 January 1941-20 March 1943: maj. gen. Gheorghe Manoliu

8th Cavalry Brigade/Division
12 June-27 October 1941: col. Ion Danescu
28 October 1941-9 May 1942: col. Corneliu Teodorini
10 May 1942-1 January 1943: col. Corneliu Carp

18th Infantry Division
6 January 1942-29 April 1944: brig. gen. Radu Baldescu

Thanks, Victor. Did you hear of the following officers being involved with the Mountain Corps?

General Tristoreanu
General Dumitrache
Colonel Botez
Colonel Vlad

Just wondering if the names sound familiar...

QUOTE

Thanks, Victor.  Did you hear of the following officers being involved with the Mountain Corps? General Tristoreanu General Dumitrache Colonel Botez Colonel Vlad Just wondering if the names sound familiar...

Hi,

General Dumitrache sounds very familiar to me. He commanded the 2nd Mountain Division, which included the 15th Battalion were my grandfather was.

Few stories/tales:

In a certain period general Dumitrache had as his personal driver a Russian POW's. The Russian guy asked at a certain moment a leave to see his family still living in the Soviet controlled territory. The leave was granted. The Russian passed the front lines, then he returned back through the front lines, to take in charge his driver position!

Another time, the vehicle carrying general Dumitrache and his Russian driver arrived by mistake right in between the Russian and Axis trenches, and was caught under fire. A good chance for the Russian to drive towards the Russians. However, he steered toward the Axis lines and returned safely to them.

It's true... It's true...

Florin

The title of this subject ("Sevastopol, Simferopol, Balaclava, Kerci") reminds me of a photo with my grandfather and his two best comrades. The photos is made in Simferopol, in 1943. His two best friends never made back to Romania. Their bones remained somewhere in Crimea, altogether with so many others.

As child, I saw in the photo 3 tough men of our elite Mountain Corps.

As adult, I saw 3 men tired and weared by more than 2 years of war.

Florin

mabadesc, I totally forgot about your question (thank you Florin for bringing it up again)

Maj. gen. Ioan Dumitrache:
CO 2nd Mountain Brigade/Division: 10 October 1940-15 August 1944
CO Mountain Corps: 15 August-15 October 1944

Brig. gen. Constantin Testioreanu
CO 7th Infantry Division: 2 August 1942-20 March 1943
CO 10th Infantry Division: 6 October 1942-22 March 1944 and 27 May-13 November 1944

Lt. col. Constantin Botez
CO 33rd Infantry Regiment Tulcea (from the 10th Infantry Division) in 1941-42

Victor - thanks for the info.

Florin - thank you for posting the short stories...very interesting. I think small anecdotes/stories from the war give everyone an understanding of the war which cannot be learned from history books.
I'd love to hear some more stories if you have others...

Thanks again to both of you...

Source - russian NET (item, the Siege of Sebastopol) :

There is a weird note in The War Diary of 11. German Army :
"The 1. Mountain Div.(rom) was engaged in cleaning the enemy trenches, area 1673-1686-1685."
The indicated items, except for an water tower, exact match that way where the enemy broke through.
Other weirder documents were found in the annexes to an report from the Personnel Office of 11. Army. The first document - a report of Gen. Hansen, comander LIV Corps, with a demand for trial of brig.gen. Gh.Avramescu, comander 4. Mountain Div. (rom.), accused for breaching the order, and thus threatening the course of the assault operation on Sapon-Gora.
It was kept and an explanatory letter signed by Gh.Avramescu 01.07.1942, which states:
"... The 4. Mountain Div, which paid with the lives of 2,672 people in the assault of Sevastopol, was unfairly deprived of the honor to take part in the final assault on the city."
From the gen. Avramescu’s report, at 01 a.m. his division came out between LIV and ХХХ Corps (german), immediately after shifting the artillery fire forward in the depth of the enemy defense, at 02 a.m. began the attack on a narrow front, with one column along the road 1673-1686-1685 and with the other in the area of the "electric station." The result was the conquest of an old fort on the height 75. After employment, the division brought the mountain cannons towed into packets, and began to fire on the enemy bunkers on the crest of the heights.
Rather curious situation, but it seems it took place in reality.

This post has been edited by Petre on June 19, 2015 05:30 pm

In fact it was about general Gh.Manoliu.
His 4.Mt.Division was subordinated to german 54.ArmyCorps, the CO Gen. Hansen often ignored them, and the romanian general that time did not meet his order, as he considered better.
Hansen's arrogant attitude to romanians later results in a conflict... (?)
Von Manstein intervened in conflict, no relieve of command, no trial... and gen. Manoliu was awarded with The Knight's Cross for "using his own strategy." In the final stage of the events, on June 30, the romanian units were put into action on the main direction.

Here and above - Web source : russ. texts of autor Al.V. Nemenko (of Krimea)

This post has been edited by Petre on July 13, 2015 12:23 pm

My grandfather artillery lieutenant Gheorghe Gh Vranceanu in 1943 - 1944 was in Regimentul 104 Artilerie - Divizia 4 / 24 Infanterie, than Divizionul 104 Artilerie - Divizia 4 Munte. The commander of Grupul 4 Artilerie was - colonel Ioan Filimon.

This post has been edited by Daniel Focsa on July 13, 2015 07:16 pm