First Army (Romania)

Last updated

First Army
Active16 August 1916 – 1947; 1980 – 2000
CountryFlag of Romania.svg  Romania
Branch Romanian Land Forces
Garrison/HQ Bucharest
Anniversaries18 August
Engagements World War I

World War II

Commanders
Notable
commanders
General Ioan Culcer
General Eremia Grigorescu
General Petre Dumitrescu
General Nicolae Macici

The First Army was a field army of the Romanian Land Forces, active from 1916 to 2000. The successor of the First Army was the 1st Infantry Division.

Contents

World War I

Eremia Grigorescu Eremia Grigorescu (general) - image from page 456 of "Secrets of the Balkans" (1921) (14594155449).jpg
Eremia Grigorescu

The First Army took part in the Romanian Campaign of World War I. Its commanders during that time were :

World War II

During Operation München, when Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis in June–July 1941, the First Army was in the interior of Romania while the Third and Fourth Armies formed the main Romanian assault force. The First Army comprised at the time the 1st Army Corps (2nd, 11th, 30th, 31st IDs), 6th Army Corps, and 7th Army Corps. (Romanian Artillery p. 117)

In August 1944, the Red Army entered Romania after driving back Army Group South from the region. On August 23, Marshal Ion Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael I, and Romania declared war on Germany and Hungary some days later. The Soviets took control of the oilfields in the Ploiești area, and the Romanian Army was used to fight German forces on the Eastern Front.

The First Army became one of the Romanian armies fighting for the Red Army on the Eastern Front. In its campaign from August 1944 to May 1945, the Romanian Army lost some 64,000 men killed.[ citation needed ] At the Battle of Debrecen in October 1944, where Romanian units played a key part in the overall Soviet offensive, the First Army consisted of the 4th Army Corps with the 2nd Infantry Division and the 4th Infantry Division, and the 7th Army Corps with the 9th Infantry Division and 19th Infantry Division. [1] The 7th Army Corps, with the 2nd and 19th Infantry Divisions and what was reported as the 9th Cavalry Division, then took part in the Siege of Budapest as part of the Red Army's 3rd Ukrainian Front.

The last offensive of World War II in which the First Army took part in was the Prague Offensive in May 1945. During this offensive, the First Army operated together with the Romanian Fourth Army as part of the Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front. The offensive started on May 6, a few days before the end of the war. German resistance in the east was now limited to small pockets scattered across Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. By May 11 and 12, all remaining German pockets of resistance in the east were crushed.

WW II Commanders

Nicolae Macici Nicolae Macici.jpg
Nicolae Macici

After World War II

General Ioan Mihail Racoviță commanded the 1st Army from 20 May 1946 to 30 June 1947. [3] Like the other armies, the First Army was transformed into a "Military Region" in 1947. In 1960, the Military Regions were disbanded and reformed into the 2nd and 3rd Armies. From 1980, the two armies were once again reorganized into four armies. [4]

In 1989, the order of battle of the First Army was as follows: [5]

The First Army was redesignated the 1st Territorial Army Corps in 2000 and the 1st Infantry Division in 2008.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanian Land Forces</span> Army of Romania

The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Army (Romania)</span> Military unit

The 3rd Army was a field army of the Romanian Land Forces active from the 19th century to the 1990s. It fought as part of the German Army Group B during World War II, in Ukraine, the Crimea, and the Caucasus. General Petre Dumitrescu commanded the 3rd Army for much of that time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2nd Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)</span> British Army reserve formation

The 2nd Infantry Brigade was a regional brigade of the British Army, active since before the First World War. It was the regional formation of the Army in the South East of England–the Brigade commanded and administered soldiers throughout Kent, Surrey and Sussex–but also Brunei. In December 2014 the Brigade merged with 145 (South) Brigade to form Headquarters 11th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters South East.

The 10th Infantry Brigade was a Regular Army infantry brigade of the British Army formed during the Second Boer War in 5th Division, and during both World Wars the brigade was part of the 4th Infantry Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">29th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)</span> Military unit

The 29th Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade unit of the British Army. It was originally raised in 1914 and saw service during the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vânători de munte</span> Mountain infantry of the Romanian Army

The Vânători de Munte are the elite mountain troops of the Romanian Land Forces. They were first established as an independent Army Corps in 1916 during World War I, and became operational in 1917 under Corpul de Munte designation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Mărăști</span> First World War battle in Romania

The Battle of Mărăști was one of the main battles to take place on Romanian soil in World War I. It was fought between 22 July and 1 August 1917, and was an offensive operation of the Romanian and Russian armies intended to encircle and destroy the German 9th Army. The operation was planned to occur in tandem with the Nămoloasa offensive; however, this operation was abandoned before it began.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horea, Cloșca și Crișan Division</span> Soviet Romanian military unit (established 1945)

The Horea, Cloșca și Crișan Division was established in April 1945 from Romanian volunteers, mostly prisoners of war, but also Communist activists such as Valter Roman. It was created by the Soviet Union at Kotovsk, and named after the Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan.

The Fourth Army was a field army of the Romanian Land Forces active from the 19th century to the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">81st Mechanized Brigade (Romania)</span> Military unit

The 81st Mechanised Brigade is a mechanised brigade of the Romanian Land Forces, established on 1 March 1995. The unit's headquarters are in Bistrița, and it is subordinated to the 4th Infantry Division "Gemina", with headquarters in Cluj-Napoca. It is named after Grigore Bălan, a brigadier general in World War II, who was killed in action during the liberation of Transylvania in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corneliu Dragalina</span> Romanian general

Corneliu Dragalina was a Romanian lieutenant general during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ioan Dumitrache</span> Romanian general

Ioan Dumitrache was a Romanian major general during World War II, in command of the 2nd Mountain Division. His troops were recognized as the elite troops of the Romanian Army throughout the campaign on the Eastern Front. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany, awarded to him for capturing Nalchik on November 2, 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ioan Mihail Racoviță</span> Romanian general (1889-1954)

Ioan Mihail Racoviță was a Romanian general during World War II, and Minister of Defense in the aftermath of King Michael's Coup of August 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gheorghe Avramescu</span> Romanian general

Gheorghe Avramescu was a Romanian Lieutenant General during World War II. In 1945, he was arrested by the NKVD on the Slovakian front and died in custody the next day.

This is the order of battle for the First Battle of Târgu Frumos, a World War II Soviet offensive against Axis powers in Târgu Frumos, Romania.

The Axis order of battle at Stalingrad is a list of the significant land units that fought in the Battle of Stalingrad on the side of the Axis Powers between September 1942 and February 1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Battle of Cobadin</span>

The Second Battle of Cobadin took place from 19 to 25 October 1916 between the Central Powers, chiefly the Bulgarian Third Army, and the Entente, represented by the Russo–Romanian Dobruja Army. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Central Powers; it resulted in the occupation of the strategic port of Constanța and the capture of the railway between that city and Cernavodă.

Alecu Ioan Sion was a Romanian soldier and a major general in the Land Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Battle of Petrozsény</span>

The First Battle of Petrozsény was a military engagement fought between Romanian forces on one side and German forces on the other side. It was part of the 1916 Battle of Transylvania, itself part of the Romanian Campaign of World War I. This was a German attack which drove off the Romanian forces from the Transylvanian coal mining center of Petrozsény. Although a Romanian counterattack a few days later undid most of their gains, the main strategic objective of the Central Powers had been nevertheless achieved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolae Macici</span> Romanian general

Nicolae Macici was a Romanian lieutenant general during World War II, when he commanded the Romanian First Army, first on the side of the Axis (1941–1944) and then on the side of the Allies (1944–1945). Convicted in 1945 by the Bucharest People's Tribunal as a war criminal for his role in the Odessa massacre, he was sentenced to death, albeit his sentence was later commuted to life prison. Maici died at Aiud Prison five years later.

References

  1. See Battle of Debrecen order of battle
  2. Romanian Army Groups
  3. "Racoviță, Mihail". Generals.dk.
  4. (in Romanian) 165 Years of Existence of Romanian Artillery Archived 26 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine p.202-223
  5. "Romanian Army in the Second World War".