In June 1941, Germany officially launched an offensive against the Soviet Union, the Soviet-German War broke out, and as a german vassal state, Romania, Finland and many other countries began to fight. It must be mentioned here that Romania, which has sent 20 divisions into battle, has a strong desire to fight, and after retaking the land it has lost, it is ready to continue the attack on the Soviet port city of Odessa without waiting for the orders of the German army.
The War of Odessa, which began on August 5, 1941 and ended on October 16, 1941, lasted 73 days, with a total loss of 122,000 people. In this issue, I will take you to see why the Romanian army hated the Soviet Union so much, and in the siege of Odessa, the Soviet Red Army resisted so bravely. New audience friends remember to like and support it!
During the Second World War, many wars broke out with Germany, Italy and Japan as the axis, of course, because the forces of these three countries were relatively strong, so there were always many "little brothers" following behind them, and when Germany and the Soviet Union were about to go to war, there were even many "little brothers" who simply stood on the side of Germany and tried to aid and abett the abuse.
German-Italian Day
Are you saying that they were really loyal to Germany from the start? It's really not, unveiling the mask of history, let's take a look, this is only because the Russians have been too fierce for hundreds of years, offending countless neighbors, so they will take the opportunity to be "eye drops" together.
Romania was actually like that, because in 1940 it occupied part of the land by the Soviet Union, so it stayed
After Antoniscu staged a coup d'état and established a dictatorship, it was done
At the beginning of the Second World War, he joined the German, Italian and Japanese alliances without hesitation, and then in 1941, he officially joined the Soviet-German War, only to avenge the bloody revenge of the land that had been occupied.
Odessa
Having said that, we must mention Odessa, which is a very important port city in the Ukrainian region of the Soviet Union, or an important base of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, through which it can be well transported to Ukraine, so after the Romanian army has recovered its own land that has been occupied, it is ready to attack it. Once captured, it was more convenient for the Germans to further invade the Soviet hinterland, so Hitler issued the highest orders,
Antoniscu was awarded the rank of Field Marshal and required to arrange for operations within the German Army Group South
The Romanian 4th Army must capture it to prepare for a later war with the Soviet Union.
From the beginning of Odessa, there was a Soviet naval force, after all, on February 14, 1940, the Odessa Naval Base was already in the process of being formed, and then, less than a year later, an independent Coastal Army Group was formed. After all, these are all good defensive forces in Odessa, and it is precisely because these base troops and militia units have formed three lines of defense in the urban area of Odessa that it is not so easy for foreign enemies to invade.
On August 3, 1941, the Romanian Army took the lead
Crossing the Transnistrian River, it was then planned to divide the troops into two directions, attacking Odessa from the front and south, with the 3rd group on the left wing responsible for the frontal assault and the 5th group on the right wing responsible for the flanking attack.
On August 5, 1941, the Siege of Odessa was completely launched, and the Romanian army began to launch a gradual offensive from the area of Grigo riopol, and at first the Romanian army gained momentum, even forcing the Soviet army to withdraw to the defensive area in only 5 days, and then on the 13th, with a five-fold superiority of the army, launched a full-line attack, entering the Black Sea from the east at Lake Tiligur, cutting off the land connection between Odessa.
Later, the momentum was still weak, and on August 14, when the First Cavalry Brigade of the Romanian Army broke through the outer defense line and penetrated deep into the town of Alexandrovka, although it was defending according to the original plan, it was only waiting for the follow-up First Armored Division of the Romanian Army to join it and prepare to launch a counterattack, but in the end it did not wait, but it was very embarrassed to be beaten by the Soviet army's I-2 strong strike machine.
At that time, there was the sound of rumbling propellers in the distance, they seemed to be the "Black Death", mainly to take the life of the Romanian army, every time after they sprayed, the Romanian army was bombarded by the bombers on their backs, and at this time the Soviet Red Army came out and began to fight, they shouted "Ulla", so they rushed forward step by step, and the two sides began to fight like a century, as if they did not fight to the death, they would never give up. For a time, only fighting and fighting could be heard in the town, and then later, the Luo army was defeated and retreated, but when the First Armored Division of the Luo Army arrived in the afternoon, everything changed again.
After the Romanian army temporarily stabilized its foothold, it began to launch a continuous attack, and after gradually capturing the reservoir outside Odessa, it directly cut off the water source in the city, so that the Soviet army and residents could only rely on the fresh water shipped to maintain their lives, that is, at this moment of survival crisis, there were still many residents who chose to coexist and die with Odessa, and their sincere heart for the motherland was really very touching.
On the 18th, at dawn, the Romanian army with its own two infantry regiments, a tank regiment and once again launched an attack on the town of Mikhailovka, the outer defense line of Odessa, and soon after, the Soviet army's dense tank artillery continued to attack, and in the blink of an eye, the light tanks of the Romanian army were hit one after another, and even the commander of the tank regiment was killed on the spot. The Infantry Regiment of the Romanian Army, which had lost its tank support, began to go completely crazy, and it was as if it would not stop fighting without taking the town, desperately charging, the battle was as fierce as ever, and finally both sides suffered heavy deaths, and that night the Romanian army completely controlled the town, and then on the 24th, it completely broke through the Soviet outlying defense line, so that Odessa completely fell into the range of the Heavy Artillery of the Romanian Army.
On August 28, the Luo army began to attack the Soviet army's middle-level defense line, at this time the Soviet army has actually been stubbornly resisting, whether it is the generals or the townspeople, everyone's hope is to coexist with Odessa, and even on the battlefield, the Soviet army will not make the slightest concession to the incoming Romanian tanks, and it is true that they will not leave the gun position. However, when the Luo army launched another fierce attack, it was suddenly caught off guard by the Soviet army, and even advanced only 300 meters throughout the day. This was the result of the Soviets mobilizing nearly 12,600 men to protect the Odessa Line, and because of this, the battle was pulled to a new point.
In the later period, in order to prevent the Soviet army from receiving supplies or reinforcements again, the Romanian army launched a large-scale air raid on Odessa, and the bombers caused the Soviet Navy to transport the supply fleet to be fatally damaged, which caused the Soviet support in the Odessa Sea to be interrupted for a while, and the Attack of the Romanian Army shifted from the periphery to the city. On 21 September, the Soviet mid-level defense line was completely breached, and the 7th Cavalry Brigade of the Romanian Army entered the eastern city of Odessa and blocked the port of Odessa, and then the Supply Ships of the Soviet Fleet could no longer easily enter and exit the port.
The Soviets fought the enemy's 17 divisions and 2 brigades with 4 divisions, which can be said to have not been absolutely dominant from the beginning, not to mention that now there are only 303 guns, two tanks that can operate on their own, and 19 aircraft in relatively good condition, even if only considering the situation of the war, they have to start using temporary tanks. These makeshift tanks were all modified from tracked tractors and armor, and because they were also equipped with two 7.62 mm DT tank machine guns, they were called "Deterrent 1" to address the threat of the previous blockade of the port. So the next day the Soviets prepared to counterattack.
After receiving instructions from the capital, the Coastal Army Group made more fortifications in preparation for the winter battle, which stated:
"In order to defend the city, the heroic officers and soldiers should withdraw the main force of the Odessa Line to the Crimean Peninsula in the shortest possible time, and the situation in Crimea requires that you have to do this."
Therefore, forced by this situation, the war situation is becoming more and more difficult.
On September 22, the Soviet army launched the largest counterattack, because a small detachment of airborne troops attacked the command regiment of the Luo army, so the illusion of a large airborne force was easily created, and the Luo army panicked for a while and retreated 6 kilometers on its own. However, the Victory of the Soviet Army only brought ten days of calm, after which the Romanian army once again made a rally of troops, the left and right wings formed a circle of encirclement, day and night to carry out new bombardments on the Odessa area, determined to die to take Odessa.
By this time, the Germans had broken through the Isthmus of Perekop and posed a threat to the Crimean Peninsula, so the Soviet top brass had no choice but to transfer Odessa's Coastal Army group and the Black Sea Fleet elsewhere to support.
On 5 October, the Black Sea Fleet received an order from the Supreme Commander to "withdraw from Odessa in its entirety", and the Romanian army took advantage of this to gather all its forces to launch a final general offensive against Odessa, and the heroic Soviet Red Army put up stubborn resistance to it, but still outnumbered, and these defenders fulfilled their final duty for their country, and then, with the withdrawal of the large army, on October 16, Odessa was completely lost, and the Romanian army captured the city.
The Defensive Campaign of Odessa, which began on August 5, 1941 AD, and ended on October 16, 1941 AD, mainly took place during the Soviet-German War, and it is no exaggeration to say that this war was indeed very tragic, although the Romanian army won the victory, but the price paid was also extremely heavy. According to statistics, in this war, the Luo army suffered a total of 81,000 casualties, of which 17,729 were killed, 11,471 were missing, and the rest were captured, while the Soviet army suffered a total of 41,000 casualties, of which about 16,578 were killed.
Romania itself is a small country, and the battle was fought with great pains and heavy losses, and it is understandable that the people in the country complained, after all, it is strange that no one opposed Antoni Scu's dictatorship. How to say it, although in the Siege of Odessa, the Soviet Red Army did not achieve the final victory, but with the strength of the depth of the echelon configuration, good army and navy coordination, annihilated a large number of enemy troops, really in a sense although defeated. With only the slightest bit of patriotic strength, as a soldier's enthusiasm, they lasted the whole battle for a full 73 days, and never flinched in the process, which is undoubtedly very great.
Germany, that is the source of the crisis of World War II, behind its transfer crisis has been the insidious encroachment of the occupation, such as the Siege of Odessa, although nominally the Romanian army is fighting against the Soviet army, but in fact, we all know that the Romanian army is actually controlled by the German army, and from the beginning, Germany wants more than Odessa, and even the "Soviet Union" It wants to go together, unfortunately, there is not so much force, can not eat, otherwise who knows what kind of ending it is now?
The war is very merciless, the determination and confidence of the soldiers to defend the territory deserve our praise, the Soviet Red Army can still defend the motherland desperately in the case of romania's 200,000 troops besieging the city, it is really very bloody, very faith, the siege of Odessa, in a certain sense, is really very tragic, but at the same time its impact is quite far-reaching, so it should be remembered by people all the time!