Along with the
Romanian Fourth Army, the Third Army bore the brunt of the
Soviet Operation Uranus, which saw the
German Sixth Army encircled and destroyed during the
Battle of Stalingrad. The Romanian Third Army, commanded by General
Petre Dumitrescu, was transferred from the
Caucasus and replaced five Italian and two German divisions between Blij Perekopa and Bokovkaya, with the task of defending a front long, far beyond its capabilities. To make things worse, the Soviets had two
bridgeheads over the
Don River, at
Serafimovich and Kletskaya, which the German High Command ignored, despite repeated requests by General Dumitrescu for permission to eliminate them. At the start of the Soviet offensive in November 1942, the Third Army had a nominal strength of 152,492 Romanian troops and 11,211 German troops, being made up from
1st,
2nd,
4th, and 5th Corps in a single echelon (1st
Cavalry, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, and 14th Infantry Divisions) from West to East, with 7th Cavalry and 15th Infantry Divisions in reserve. The Long Range Recon (DO-17M) and the 112th Liaison Squadrons (Fleet 10G) were also at its disposal. In November came the German
XLVIII Panzer Corps, composed of the 22nd German
Panzer Division and the 1st Romanian Armored Division, which also was put in reserve. It also had the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th Motorized Heavy
Artillery Regiments and the 41st Independent Motorized Heavy Artillery Battalion. Opposite the 3rd Army was the
Southwestern Front, comprising the Soviet
1st Guards Army,
5th Tank Army, and
21st Army, with a force of 5,888 artillery pieces, 728 tanks, and 790 planes. On 19 November at 0530, in the sector of the Third Romanian Army, a violent artillery barrage battered the entire front line. The weather conditions were harsh: blizzards, snow, , which made close air support impossible. The Soviets assaulted the positions of the 14th Infantry Division with the 5th Tank Army and the junction between the 13th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division with the 21st Army, with a total of 338,631 men against three weak divisions. The 37mm and 47mm AT guns were useless against Soviet T-34 tanks, so the Romanian troops had to use grenades, anti-tank mines and
Molotov cocktails. In the first hours, they managed to delay the advance and destroy some tanks, but later they had to retreat or face encirclement. The Soviets also attacked west of Sarisa Valley and at Raspopinskaya, but were repulsed. In response to the situation that developed south of Kletskaya, the German 48th Panzer Corps was ordered to move towards the Soviet main thrust and shortly afterwards, the 22nd Panzer Division was redirected to the northwest towards Bolsoy and, reaching Petshany, it engaged Soviet armor. By evening, the 1st Romanian Armored Division reached Sirkovsky, making preparations to attack Bolsoy the next day. In the first day of the offensive, the Soviet forces succeeded in making two large breaches in the defences of the Third Romanian Army: one in the center, wide and deep and one in the right wing, between the Third Romanian Army and the German Sixth Army, 10–12 km wide and 35–40 km deep. On 20 November, the Soviet armored and motorized forces advanced towards
Kalach, with the intention of encircling the 6th Army embroiled in ferocious fighting at Stalingrad. The
22nd Panzer Division, overwhelmed at
Petshany by the large number of Soviet tanks, withdrew north to Bol. Donschynka. The Romanian 1st Armored Division, without any available radio contact, tried to advance to Petshany in order to make the junction with the 22nd Panzer Division, but was forced to stop a few kilometers west of Korotovsky by stiff Soviet resistance and numerous counterattacks by Soviet tanks, flowing between the German 22nd and the Romanian 1st, occupying the Varlamovsky and Peralasovsky villages and making the junction with forces coming from Gromsky, thus encircling the 5th Corps. In the 4th Corps' sector, 40 Soviet tanks attacked the 15th Infantry Division but were repulsed by evening with heavy losses. Meanwhile, the 7th Cavalry Division unsuccessfully tried to block the enemy's advance; the right wing of the division, which had fully received the blow, retreated south while the left wing was reassigned to the 9th Infantry Division. Also, the 1st Cavalry Division had to retreat towards Stalingrad and was subordinated to the 6th Army. At the end of the day, the defensive position of the Third Romanian Army had a 70 km wide gap in the centre. In this pocket were encircled the 1st Armored Division, three infantry divisions (5th, 6th, and 15th), and remains of other two infantry divisions (13th and 14th). The former commander of the 6th Infantry Division, Major General
Mihail Lascăr, took command of the troops from the infantry divisions and formed the "General Lascăr" Group (40,000 men). At this point, the command point of the Third Army began moving to
Morozovskaya. On 21 November, the
22nd Panzer Division tried to advance towards Perelasovsky in order to make the junction with the 1st Armored Division and to relieve the "General Lascăr" Group, but failed and was stopped the next day between Bol. Donschynka and Perelasovky. The 1st Romanian Armored Division advanced towards Bol. Donschynka, where it was hoping to find the German division, but the village was under Soviet control and then headed south and, after grim fighting, crossed the
Chir River on 25 November. On 22 November, the encircled "General Lascăr" Group, which had been ordered to resist at any cost, was attacked and transmitted its last message. They had run out of food and each gun had only 40 rounds left and after refusing the Soviet proposal to surrender they were entirely destroyed. Only the 1st Battalion of the 15 Infantry Regiment (6th infantry Division), commanded by Major
Gheorghe Răscănescu, succeeded in getting to the Chir River with all its soldiers and equipment. His battalion had managed to prevent the Soviet
8th Cavalry Division from capturing the vital German airfield at
Oblivskaya from 26 November to 3 December. On 23 November, the Soviet troops of the South-Western Front and of the Stalingrad Front met at
Kalach-na-Donu, completing the encirclement of the German 6th Army, parts of the Romanian 4th Army, and six other Romanian infantry divisions as well as one cavalry division.
World War II Commanders ==Later in the war and postwar==