in this campaign, Dumitrescu was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the second Romanian to receive the award after Ion Antonescu. Later on he was even given the Oak Leaves. In October, he was awarded the Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd class. On July 18, 1942 he was made a general, thus becoming Antonescu's second-in-command. Shortly after his promotion, Dumitrescu advanced towards the Taman Peninsula, between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, creating a vital bridge between Axis forces in Europe and those deeper inside the Soviet Union. Retreat The German forces in Stalingrad were in dire need of assistance, and the German High Command transferred many of its troops to the besieged city, which meant the Third Army now had fewer troops to defend an increasingly large front. This was ameliorated, to a certain degree, by the High Command's decision to incorporate all Romanian forces in the southwest of the Soviet Union into the Third Army. The High Command, however, chose to ignore Dumitrescu's reports about a Soviet troop buildup in the southwest, as they did with his repeated suggestions to attack the Soviet bridgehead at Kletskaya. In November 1942 the Red Army launched a devastating attack in the southwest, breaking through the Romanian line and forcing Dumitrescu into retreat. For a brief period, the Third Army dug in near the Chir river, but Soviet troops pushed them back. In December 1942, the decision was made to strategically retreat westwards. Between 26 March and 24 August 1944, he commanded "Army Group Dumitrescu" which was composed of the German 6th Army, under command of Maximilian de Angelis and later Maximilian Fretter-Pico, and his own Romanian 3rd Army. After the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, Dumitrescu's plan was to reach Bucharest and avoid any engagements with the Red Army along the way. However, Red Army troops ambushed Dumitrescu. When what remained of the Third Army arrived in Bucharest, the Soviets had captured more than 130,000 Romanian soldiers. By this time, however, as with the rest of Romania, Dumitrescu turned against Nazi Germany and captured more than 6,000 German prisoners of war. He retired in early September, 1944, as the Red Army advanced into Kingdom of Hungary and Nazi Germany. After the war In 1946, Dumitrescu was put under house arrest and put on trial for war crimes by the new communist government, but was eventually acquitted because of