Fourth Army (Romania)

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The Romanian Fourth Army is a field army in the Romanian Army, with his headquarters in Cluj-Napoca.

1 History
2 Current structure
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] History

The Fourth Army has fought on the Axis side as part of the German Army Group B and later it fought on the Allies's side as part of the Soviet First Ukrainian Front during World War II.

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 Ploieşti area, and the Romanian Army was used to fight German forces on the Eastern Front.

The Fourth 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. The Fourth Army took part in Soviet offensives, notably at Prague in May 1945, which happened to be the last offensive it took part in World War II.

In the Prague Offensive, the Fourth Army, together with the Romanian First Army, Polish Second Army, and Soviet First, Second, and Fourth Ukrainian Fronts. Marshal Ivan Koniev, the commander of the First Ukrainian Front, was the main Soviet commander in the area. Together with Marshal Georgy Zhukov's First Byelorussian Front, Koniev had launched the great attack on April 16 that resulted in the fall of Berlin and Soviet victory on the Eastern 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. The remnants of Army Group Center held the remaining German-controlled areas in the east. In the attack on Prague, German resistance was defeated in the city, and the Soviet, Romanian, and Polish forces entered the city on May 9. Czech partisans had been fighting the Germans there for a few days.

By May 11 and 12, all remaining German pockets of resistance in the east were defeated.

[edit] Current structure

4th Territorial Army Corps - HQ Cluj-Napoca
- 81st Mechanized Operational Brigade - Bistriţa
- 15th Mechanized Territorial Brigade "Podu Înalt" - Iaşi
- 61st Mountain Troops Territorial Brigade - Miercurea Ciuc
- 69th Mixed Artillery Territorial Brigade - Şimleul Silvaniei
- 4th Engineer Territorial Brigade - Deva
- one NBC battalion, one paratrooper battalion and other supporting units