Two romanian sleeves. Chisinau, 1941
My city of Chisinau, with the beginning of the Second World War, did not fall into the well-known chronicles of fierce battles, the month of defensive operations in Moldova for the Red Army was not fraught with serious losses.
Nevertheless, on July 16, 1941, Chisinau was surrendered, the troops moved to a new frontier.
One of the famous clashes was on city streets - an unexpected manifestation of the fog of war for the parties.
This episode of war has been remarkably explored in an article. "Fight on Kolumna Street July 16, 1941".
What led me to such little-known pages stories? Why am I trying to understand how it happened that the city was left without cover?
These questions arose after an accidental find in early March 2020 in the private sector in the Malaya Malina district of Chisinau. The land on the site sometimes makes pennies and other artifacts .. This time was a little more interesting.
Conventional shells of times of war, rifle Uzinale Metalwrgica di Corsa Mica SI, Cugir, Romania, 9 * 19 with an unknown marking D 1937 (2?)
And suddenly the mosaic began to take shape. It was recalled that in the year 1975, just above the “Bird” on the top of the hill, there was an overgrown comfrey in which we boys found a dozen Soviet rifle shells. For fifty years, everything has been built up ...
Found aerial view. From that place, a good view and a shooting sector opened up. The asterisk indicates the location of the find:
Further - according to the published documents of the Ministry of Defense: link. There is a reporting map of the combat operations of POG and 9 A for the period of July 14-17
After that, you can go to the database magazine, which took place at the front on the eve of the surrender of Chisinau.
Link shows the period from 22.06.1941/30.11.1941/95 to XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX (magazine of operations XNUMX sd).
The denouement came quickly. The 321st regiment left its position.
The next day, the regiment was 20 km from the abandoned line.
It is noticeable that the name of the regiment is underlined in the original documents, which means that organizational conclusions were made.
Excerpts from General Belov's diarywho outlined the picture he saw a week before the events in Chisinau:
July 10 1941 year.
Nothing came of the offensive of the 9th Army. 48 sk, located on the right flank of the army, for some reason departs. 2 microns did not even come. My 9 cd has almost no enemy and is successfully advancing to the flank and rear of the enemy. 5 cd has a strong adversary and leads a heavy battle. Babak's motorcycle regiment is one grief. The offensive is canceled. The corps received a new task - to cover the gap between 48 and 35 sk. A gap of about 100 km. My divisions are fragmented, having received tasks directly from the commander, 5 cd went to the aid of 48 sk, and 9 cd closer to 35 sk, apparently to cover the right flank of this unfortunate corps. I went to the 5 cd combat area. 321 MSP Colonel Babak I found in complete disarray. Entire crowds of Red Army men and officers arbitrarily left their positions and went to the rear. Among them there are a lot of suspiciously wounded in the left hand. I took very decisive measures, up to the execution of the runners. However, he decided to withdraw the regiment to the reserve and put it in order. Colonel Babak gives the impression of a limp and inexperienced commander, although he personally is experiencing a bad setback. He walks along the forward chain under enemy fire and persuades subordinates to hold positions, up to the point that individual running fighters grab hands. On the contrary, 5 cd fights steadfastly and contemptuously for cowards of a motor-regiment.
Nothing came of the offensive of the 9th Army. 48 sk, located on the right flank of the army, for some reason departs. 2 microns did not even come. My 9 cd has almost no enemy and is successfully advancing to the flank and rear of the enemy. 5 cd has a strong adversary and leads a heavy battle. Babak's motorcycle regiment is one grief. The offensive is canceled. The corps received a new task - to cover the gap between 48 and 35 sk. A gap of about 100 km. My divisions are fragmented, having received tasks directly from the commander, 5 cd went to the aid of 48 sk, and 9 cd closer to 35 sk, apparently to cover the right flank of this unfortunate corps. I went to the 5 cd combat area. 321 MSP Colonel Babak I found in complete disarray. Entire crowds of Red Army men and officers arbitrarily left their positions and went to the rear. Among them there are a lot of suspiciously wounded in the left hand. I took very decisive measures, up to the execution of the runners. However, he decided to withdraw the regiment to the reserve and put it in order. Colonel Babak gives the impression of a limp and inexperienced commander, although he personally is experiencing a bad setback. He walks along the forward chain under enemy fire and persuades subordinates to hold positions, up to the point that individual running fighters grab hands. On the contrary, 5 cd fights steadfastly and contemptuously for cowards of a motor-regiment.
321 regiment, having only taken the line of defense on the outskirts of Chisinau, dropped enemy positions when the enemy approached.
A shallow trench with a dozen shells suggests that the machine gunner started firing when he saw the attackers, but, panicked along with the unit, fled with everyone ... The Romanians fired for a wake towards the firing point and went on to the center of the city, where they encountered st. Kolumna with artillerymen of the 134th howitzer regiment, who walked through the city in a marching order.
Any feat is a manifestation of someone’s negligence.
To those who did not follow the link at the beginning of the article, I report on this battle:
Not even having time to deploy the guns, the gunners began to fight off grenades, took up their rifles. Then they had to take a circular defense on one of the streets. A few hours later, Senior Lieutenant N.N. Romodin made his way to the battery with a rifle company. But to save the guns was already impossible, especially since all the tractors were damaged. Having blown up four howitzers, the gunners, mostly wounded, left the city with the infantrymen who rescued them. ”
(Sakharov V.P. We walked from the Prut. Raised by alarm.)
What is the result? Two Romanian sleeves, a scattering of brass sleeves from childhood, documents and a little thought.
Perhaps the fog of war has vanished a little.
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