Page 456 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

456 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

South Ukraine consisted of two subgroups, one led by General Petre Dumitrescu, the
commander of the Romanian 3 Army, the other by General Otto Wöhler, the commander
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of the German 8 Army, the large Romanian and German units being intertwined .
During the period of relative calm of May-August 1944, under Hitler’s direct order,
the Supreme High Command of the German Army (OKH) pulled out from the front
eleven divisions (five armored divisions and six infantry divisions), thus weakening the
defensive capabilities in Moldova.
The fighting broke out on August 19, but the Soviet general offensive launched, as
previously mentioned, the next day. The German-Romanian defensive disposition was
penetrated in the first day, the large soviet units focusing their offensive to the south
and east in the attempt of encircling the German 6 Army, the main group of forces,
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from two directions. The advancing Soviet units could not be stopped, so that, in the
evening of August 23, they were at 50-60 kilometers from the fortified line of Focşani-
Nămoloasa-Brăila (F.N.B), which was meant to block their access inside Romania .
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Under these circumstances, King Michaeli I, the head of the Romanian state and
the supreme commander of the armed forces, supported by the main political forces,
grouped in the National Democratic Bloc (National Peasants’ Party, National Liberal
Party, Social Democrat Party, Communist Party of Romania), which was constituted
on June 20, 1944, and also by a number of high ranking officers, decided to break
the alliance with Germany and to join the Coalition of the United Nations. Marshal
Ion Antonescu, the “conducător” (“the leader”) of the Romanian state, and his close
collaborators were arrested at the royal palace, the king appointing a new government
during the same evening, headed by General Constantin Sănătescu, until then Marshal
of the Royal Palace .
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The decision was communicated to the local and international audience through the
Royal Proclamation broadcasted on radio in the evening of August 23, 1944, at 10:25
PM, and printed in large numbers in order to be distributed on the entire national territory.
The royal document stated that: “in the most difficult moment of our history, I
concluded, in complete agreement with my people, that there is only one way to save
our country from a total catastrophe: to break the alliance with the powers of the Axis
and to immediately end the war with the United Nations”.
Romanians were also informed about the creation of a new government of national
unity, which had the task “to bring to fruition the country’s firm decision to make peace

4 Klaus Schönherr, Luptele Werchmactului în România 1944, translated by Elena Matei, Editura Militară,
Bucureşti, 2004, p.60-73. For example, in order to keep the 17 Romanian divisions under control, general
Wöhler constituted groups of army corps led by German generals.
5 The fortified line of of Focşani-Nămoloasa-Brăila (F.N.B) barred the area between the elbow of the Romanian
Carpathians and the Danube, extending over a distance of 160 km and comprising 1600 concrete pillboxes
(10 for each kilometer of the front). On the most important directions, over 60 km of antitank trenches over
built, the system being completed with 1800 machine gun nests made of concrete and wood. By August 23,
1944, the line was not ready for defense, the forces deployed here comprising about 15 000 soldiers (the
fortification detachments 106, 115 and 121 with 9 battalions).
6 Details in Jurnalul generalului Sănătescu, foreward by Simona Ghiţescu, second edition, Humanitas,
Bucureşti, 2006.