| Battle of Carei | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofBattle of Romania,World War II | |||||||
 Monument of the Romanian Soldier in Carei | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Romania Soviet Union |  Hungary Germany | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Gheorghe Avramescu | Jenő Major | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| 4th Army40th ArmyGendarmerie | 2nd Army | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheBattle of Carei was the last stage of recoveringRomania's former territory ofNorthern Transylvania, ceded in 1940 toHungary as a result of theSecond Vienna Award.[1][2] The battle occurred towards the end ofWorld War II, in the wider context of theBattle of Romania and theBattle of Debrecen. On October 25, 1944, the cities ofCarei andSatu Mare were freed fromHungarian andGerman control. By a decree from 1959, this day was established as theRomanian Armed Forces Day.[1][3]
On August 30, 1940, a territorial dispute between theKingdom of Romania and theKingdom of Hungary was arbitrated byNazi Germany andFascist Italy through the Second Vienna Award, which assigned the territory ofNorthern Transylvania, including all ofMaramureș and part ofCrișana, from Romania to Hungary. On June 22, 1941, Romania joinedOperation Barbarossa in order to reclaim the lost territories ofBessarabia andBukovina, which had beenannexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940. As a result of theroyal coup d'état of August 23, 1944, Romania switched sides and joined theAllies.
From September 5 to October 8, fierce fighting occurred at theBattle of Turda, where troops from theHungarian 2nd Army under the command of GeneralLajos Veress and theGerman 8th Army under the command of GeneralMortimer von Kessel fought a defensive action againstRomanian andSoviet forces. By mid-October,Brașov,Sfântu Gheorghe,Târgu Mureș,Gherla,Cluj, andDej had been taken by the Allied forces.
The offensive to retake the remaining corner of Northern Transylvania started on October 9, 1944, and was carried out by theFourth Army, under the command of GeneralGheorghe Avramescu. In the first phase, which lasted until October 13, the Romanian troops entered theSomeș Valley. In the second phase (October 14–20), they managed to cross theMeseș and Făget Mountains. The final phase of the offensive commenced on the morning of October 21.[1] On October 22, the 2nd Army Corps advanced, with the 1st Cavalry Division enteringViile Satu Mare.[4] Opposing them were troops of the Hungarian Second Army, led by GeneralJenő Major.
On the evening of October 24, the Romanian 6th Army Corps attacked in the direction ofCarei with a force comprising 4 divisions. As highlighted by the Corps commander, GeneralEmanoil Leoveanu [ro], in his after-action report, the Romanian soldiers had to brave "the rains, the muddy ground, the very low and bad roads, the destroyed bridges, the mined roads".[2] At the same time, the 2nd Infantry Division of 2nd Army Corps attacked in the direction ofSatu Mare, in apincer movement. By nightfall, the soldiers of the 9th Infantry Division entered in the city, where they engaged in street fighting; by the next morning, the Romanian Army was in control of it.[5]
Units of theRomanian Gendarmerie participated in the fight.[6] In the morning of October 25, a detachment of 5 gendarmes, led by second lieutenant Ioniță Borșan, hoisted the national flag on the obelisk in the centre of Carei, next to the cathedral.[7] Soldiers of the 34th and 40th Regiments of the 9th "Mărășești" Infantry Division also participated in the raising of the flag.[8]
The victory in the battle was dedicated toKingMichael I of Romania, whose birthday was on October 25.[9] For the duration of this campaign, which began on October 9 and lasted until October 25, the Romanian Army lost over 58,000 soldiers, dead, wounded, or missing.[10]
The Romanian Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the Battle of Carei, was established by Decree nr. 381 of 1 October 1959, only after the end of theSoviet occupation of Romania in August 1958, and the process ofde-Stalinization started byGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej earlier in 1959.[1]
In memory of this battle, the "Monument of the Romanian Soldier" was erected in the center of Carei. Inaugurated in 1964, the monumental complex is the work of the sculptorGheza Vida and the architect Anton Dâmboianu. Made of white stone, the monument is 18 m wide, 5 m deep, and 12 m high; it bears the inscription, "Glory to the soldiers of the Romanian Army, fallen in the struggles for the liberation of the homeland."[11][12]
On January 15, 1945, a 20lei jubilee medal, weighing 6.55 grams (0.231 oz) of 900 fine gold and bearing the inscription "Ardealul Nostru – 1601·1918·1944" was issued to commemorate the event. In October 2019, on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Carei and the liberation of Northern Transylvania, theNational Bank of Romania issued a commemorative 10 lei silver coin. The obverse of the coin shows the two sides of the gold jubilee medal, while the reverse shows the image of the Monument of the Romanian Soldier from Carei, with the inscription "Eliberarea Ardealului de Nord" in a circular arc, and the date on which the last piece of occupied Transylvanian territory was liberated, "October 25, 1944".[13]