There was loud gunfire, and the Soviet troops rushed into the Romanian army like tigers rushing into a flock of sheep, killing them indiscriminately.
The Romanian army collapsed the moment the Soviet army launched the charge... Although some of them escaped before this, a considerable number of them still stayed on the spot to fight with the German engineers.
However, when they saw the Soviet troops crossing the tanks and coming like a tide, they could no longer suppress the fear in their hearts and turned around and ran away.
In this way, the battle becomes simple. All the Soviet army has to do is follow them and stab their backs with bayonets again and again.
A smart Romanian soldier would kneel on the ground early and raise his hands.
The problem of the Romanian army is that on the one hand it has poor equipment and on the other hand it does not have much will to fight.
The poor equipment is mainly caused by the lack of its own military industry.
Not having your own military industry first means that weapons and equipment are not tailor-made for your own army, so problems of one kind or another will always arise.
For example, the tanks equipped by Romania come from the Czech Republic and France.
For example, there are two rifle calibers: vz24 rifle and Mannlicher 1895 rifle. The former has a caliber of 7.92mm and the latter has a caliber of 8mm.
For another example, there are Czech, French, German howitzers...
The result of being equipped with weapons made by all nations is that the equipment is chaotic and difficult to supply. It is common for ammunition to be incorrectly distributed during frontline operations.
There are also shortcomings in anti-tank equipment. When Germany and the Soviet Union eliminated 37mm anti-tank guns, the Romanian army was still using 25mm anti-tank guns.
More importantly... the Romanian army does not seem to have a big reason to fight.
Romania was not invaded, and its people were not massacred. They attacked the Soviet Union with Germany only because Hitler promised to hand over to them the land west of the Dnieper River, which is the land they are currently attacking.
Upon hearing this promise, Prime Minister Antonescu jumped up from his seat happily and swore to Hitler: "I will support you from the first day. If you want to fight the Slavs, you can always rely on Romania!"
"
It seemed normal that Antonescu would make this choice at the time, because the German army had swept across the entire European continent, and even France, which was known to have the strongest army in the world, could only resist the attack of its tanks for more than a month.
Therefore, this is a battle of siding with the stronger and taking a share of the pie. Naturally, they are unwilling to pay too many casualties.
Historically, after the 4th Army suffered heavy casualties in its attack on Odessa, domestic demands for the withdrawal of troops have never ceased. They just suffered from being tied to a tank by Germany and unable to get off.
(Note: The battle in Odessa is usually seen on the Internet as proof that the Romanian army is not a weak force. However, after a deeper understanding of this battle, you will find that the Romanian army fought with a group army several times the strength of the Soviet army, resulting in 8 casualties.
More than 10,000 people. This was despite the fact that the Soviet Air Force was basically crippled. The Romanian 4th Army was even pushed back several kilometers by the Soviet counterattack)
The battle lasted for more than five hours.
Or it shouldn't be called a battle, because the Soviet army was taking advantage of the Romanian army's retreat to accelerate their march.
"This is a good opportunity!" Shulka reported to Major Gavrilov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, the Romanians are escaping along this road. If we chase after them..."
"It means they can't lay mines!"
"Yes!" Shulka said: "This will save us a lot of trouble!"
"That's right!" Major Gavrilov replied, and then gave the order to pursue without hesitation.
What is surprising is that there are even many Romanian troops on the road who are completely unprepared for the Soviet army's invasion... They are Romanian troops who have entered the retreat process before. Due to reasons such as backward communication and the radio was not turned on during the march, they have been unable to do so. No message was received.
In other words, the rear minefield had been breached and the Soviet troops were pressing forward, but they were still marching unhurriedly on the road, occasionally complaining about the damn weather and the bad roads.
It wasn't until bursts of gunfire came from behind that they realized something was wrong...but by then it was already too late.
What the Soviet 9th Army received were swarms of prisoners and equipment on the road.
However, these did not mean much to the Soviet army. What they cared more about was the bread and cans carried by the Romanian logistics troops.
Romania is an agricultural country, and its economy is relatively prosperous thanks to its oil economy. Their bread is not comparable to the black bread of the Soviet Union, especially canned beef... This is also the reason why the Soviet army's pursuit finally stopped.
The pursuit lasted for more than five hours into the night. The Soviet army was still chasing after the Romanian army, with several light tanks in front...the unmodified ones. At this time, there was no need to modify the tanks for demining.
Then a row of cars and carriages appeared under the tank's headlights.
The Soviet army knew how to deal with this situation.
The infantry will go up and take away the carriage, and the car will drive away. If it can't be pulled, it won't drive away... This situation is very common, they get stuck in the mud and cannot move.
At this time, the tanks will drive up and push them to the side of the road, so that the troops can pursue them as quickly as possible.
This push caused a problem: as soon as the carriage overturned, cylindrical iron boxes rolled out from the covering canvas.
"What is this?" Long Legs curiously picked up an iron box and asked.
"Be careful, it might be a landmine!" the actor said.
This guess was reasonable, because the Germans had been laying mines, and it looked a bit like a mine, so Long Legs quickly put it back.
The veteran walked up calmly, picked one up, inserted it with a military thorn, and then lifted the lid... The juicy red and black beef can appeared under the light.
"It's canned!"
"Canned beef!"
…
It was chaos at this point, and the soldiers at the rear rushed up to fight for it. Then they quickly discovered that the supplies in the dozens of carts in front were all bread and cans, as well as honey, jam and the like.
I thought that this should be the German logistics force transporting supplies. When they learned that the Soviet army was catching up, they abandoned the supplies and ran away.
They certainly didn't think about how wise their approach was, because Soviet soldiers fighting for these supplies blocked the road, and finally Major Gavrilov even fired a gun into the air to stop the chaos.
From this point of view, the Soviet 9th Army cannot be called an elite soldier.
But...how could the hungry soldiers resist the temptation of these foods? Especially those high-quality beef.
If the Germans knew this, they should not have used mines to block the Soviet advance, but should have used Vodka.