Brief historical dictionary - Yassko-Kishinev operation. Iasi-Kishinev operation: how it was

The Iasi-Kishinev operation, brilliant in design and execution, rightly entered the history of the Great Patriotic War as one of the most productive offensive operations of the Red Army. This operation is the largest military event XX century, which happened on the land of Moldova. It rightfully went down in history as one of the strategic blows with which the army of the USSR / Russia knocked the spirit out of the strongest army in the West - the German one. It also remains a remarkable page in the history of Moldova, a victory achieved with the participation of its peoples.

In the historiography and the media of the Republic of Moldova, the Iasi-Chisinau operation is a taboo topic. The reason for this is not only the activation in Eastern Europe of the ideological heirs of the political forces that collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War, but also the unwillingness of the countries of "old Europe", connected by a common victory in the Cold War, to include the events of 1939-1945 in the arsenal of means designed to promote European integration (1). Using the situation, Romanian historians and Moldavian authors, who create in line with the course "History of Romanians", avoid touching on the events of August 20-29, 1944. What happened then on the land of Moldova?

In March 1944, during the Uman-Botosha operation, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of General I.S. Konev liberated the northern and eastern regions of Moldova. On March 26, on the 80-kilometer section from Lipkan to Skulyan, the USSR state border along the Prut was restored, Soviet troops entered the territory of Romania. The protection of the state border was resumed by the 24th border regiment, which took over the 1st strike of the German troops on June 22, 1941.
The offensive in the south was also successful. On the move, units of the front seized a bridgehead on the western bank of the Dniester near the villages of Kitskany, south of the city of Bendery, and north, near the village of Varnitsa. The front line ran along the Dniester from the Black Sea to the city of Dubossary and further northwest to the town of Korneshty and north of the Romanian city of Iasi. To the enemy, its outlines painfully resembled the configuration of the front in the Stalingrad region on the eve of the Soviet counteroffensive. Glancing at the map, General G. Frisner, Commander of Army Group South Ukraine, suggested that Hitler withdraw his troops from the Kishinev ledge, but did not meet understanding (2) .

Such a long prelude

On April 12, 1944, units of the 57th Army crossed the Dniester near the villages of Butory (east bank) and Sherpeny (west bank). They captured a bridgehead up to 12 km wide along the front and 4-6 km deep, necessary for an attack on Chisinau. To the north of Bender, in the village of Varnitsa, another bridgehead was created. But the resources of the advancing troops were exhausted, they needed rest and replenishment. By order Supreme High Command On May 6, the troops of I.S. Konev went on the defensive. The main aviation forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front were transferred to Poland, to cover the Sandomierz bridgehead.

The newly created group of German-Romanian troops "Southern Ukraine" blocked the Red Army's path to the oil sources of Romania. The central part of the German-Romanian front, the Chisinau ledge, was occupied by the "restored" German 6th Army, defeated in Stalingrad. To eliminate the Sherpensky bridgehead, the enemy formed a task force of General Otto von Knobelsdorff, an experienced German participant in the Battle of Staligrad. The group included 3 infantry, 1 airborne and 3 tank divisions, 3 divisional groups, 2 assault gun brigades, a special group of General Schmidt and other units. Their actions were provided by large aviation forces.

On May 7, 1944, the Sherpensky bridgehead began to be occupied by five rifle divisions - a corps under the command of General Morozov, which is part of the 8th Army of General V.I. Chuikov. The troops on the bridgehead lacked ammunition, equipment, anti-tank defense equipment, and air cover. The counter-offensive launched by the German troops on May 10 took them by surprise. During the fighting, Morozov's corps held part of the bridgehead, but suffered heavy losses. May 14 he was replaced by the 34th guards corps 5th shock army under the command of General N.E. Berzarin. The front line was stabilized. On May 18, the enemy, having lost most of the tanks and manpower, stopped the attacks. The German command recognized the Sherpen operation as a failure, Knobelsdorf was not awarded any awards. The Sherpensky bridgehead further chained to itself the large forces of the 6th German Army. Between the bridgehead and Chisinau, German troops equipped four lines of defense. Another defensive line was built in the city itself, along the Byk River. To do this, the Germans dismantled about 500 houses (3). And most importantly, the expectations of an offensive from the Sherpen bridgehead predetermined the deployment of the main forces of the 6th German army.

The South Ukraine Army Group created by the enemy included the 6th and 8th German armies, the 4th and - until July 25 - the 17th armies of Romania. The preparation of a new offensive required the preliminary delivery of 100 thousand wagons of equipment, weapons and equipment to the troops. Meanwhile, in the spring of 1944, the destruction on the Moldovan railway was carried out by the German-Romanian troops under the full program of "scorched earth". The Soviet Service of Military Communications and sappers had to change railway tracks to a wide allied gauge, rebuild bridges blown up by the enemy, technical and service buildings, and restore station facilities (4). In what time frame could this be done?

In July 1941, when Soviet sappers and railroad workers put out of action only a few railway facilities, the Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu ordered "with the assistance of the population" to "normalize" traffic on the Bessarabia railroad within two weeks (5) . However, the population sabotaged the forced labor, and the Romanian military railway workers turned out to be unskilled. Until October 16, while the defense of Odessa continued, not a single echelon passed through Bessarabia. The bridge across the Dniester in Rybnitsa was restored only in December 1941, and the strategically even more important bridge in Bendery was restored on February 21, 1942 (6) .

In the spring of 1944, the destruction was incomparably greater, but the population helped the Red Army with all their might. In the spring, in muddy conditions, thousands of volunteers manually delivered shells to positions and evacuated the wounded. The peasants gave their last to provide Russian soldiers with food. 192 thousand conscripts from Moldova joined the ranks of the Soviet troops. 30 thousand peasants came to the construction of the railway, another 5 thousand were rebuilding the Rybnitsa bridge. The bridge was put into operation on May 24, 1944. The railway units also worked very efficiently. By July 10, 660 km of the main track had been changed to a wide union gauge, 6 water supply points, 50 artificial structures, 200 km of a pole communication line were restored. By the end of July, in the liberated regions of Moldova, 750 km of railway lines were put into working condition and 58 bridges were rebuilt. 300 km of highways were also laid or overhauled. Workers from Balti, Ocnita, Tiraspol have repaired damaged equipment (7) . The supply of the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian was provided. By performing this miracle of restoration, the railway troops of the Red Army and the population of Moldova contributed to the coming victory.

In early May 1944, the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, instead of I.S. Konev, appointed commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, was appointed General R.Ya. Malinovsky, on the 3rd Ukrainian Front he was replaced by General F.I. Tolbukhin. They, as well as the chiefs of staff of the fronts S.S. Biryuzov and M.V. Zakharov began to develop plans for the offensive. The concept of the operation was charmingly simple. The attack on Chisinau from the Sherpen bridgehead made it possible to split the enemy's front, it was from here that the Germans expected to strike. However, the Soviet command preferred to hit on the flanks, where the Romanian troops were defending, less combat-ready than the German ones. It was decided that the 2nd Ukrainian Front would strike northwest of Yass, and the 3rd Ukrainian Front - from the Kitskansky bridgehead. The bridgehead was located at the junction of the positions of the 6th German and 3rd Romanian armies. The Soviet troops were to defeat the opposing Romanian divisions, and then, advancing in directions converging in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe cities of Khushi, Vaslui and Falchiu, encircle and destroy the 6th German army and quickly move deep into Romania. Tasks to support the actions of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were assigned to the Black Sea Fleet.

The idea was to arrange for the enemy not even Cannes, but something on a larger scale - a second Stalingrad. “The idea of ​​the operation, worked out on the basis of the proposals of the command of the fronts,” the researchers note, “was distinguished by exceptional purposefulness and determination. The immediate goal was to encircle and destroy the main forces of the Southern Ukraine Army Group with the expectation of preventing it from retreating to strong defensive lines west of the Prut and Seret rivers. The successful solution of this problem ensured the completion of the liberation of the Moldavian SSR. The withdrawal of Soviet troops to the central regions of Romania deprived her of the opportunity to continue the war on the side of Nazi Germany. Through the territory of Romania, the shortest routes to the borders of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, as well as exits to the Hungarian plain, were opened for our troops ”(8) .

The enemy had to be misled. “It was very important,” General of the Army S.M. Shtemenko later noted, “to force a smart and experienced enemy to wait for our offensive only in the Chisinau area.” Solving this problem, Soviet troops staunchly defended the bridgeheads, and Soviet intelligence conducted dozens of radio games. “And we have achieved this,” the general stated further, “Time has shown: the cunning Frisner believed for a long time that the Soviet command would not strike him in any other place ...” (9) . 5th shock army of General N.E. Berzarina defiantly prepared an offensive from the Sherpen bridgehead. The false concentration of troops was carried out north of Orhei and on the right flank of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. “The results of our aerial reconnaissance,” admitted the German commander, “were generally very insignificant up to last days before the start of the offensive [...] Since the Russians were good at masking such events, our undercover intelligence was able to report necessary information also only with great delay” (10) .

On June 6, the Second Front was finally opened in northern France. The Soviet tank armies were on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front, and the enemy was expecting an attack from the area north of Chisinau (11), so he did not make any attempts to transfer troops from Romania and Moldova to Normandy. But on June 23, the Soviet offensive began in Belarus (Operation Bagration), and on July 13 the Red Army struck at the Northern Ukraine Army Group. Trying to keep Poland under their control, the German command transferred up to 12 divisions to Belarus and Western Ukraine, including 6 tank and 1 motorized. However, in August Army Group South Ukraine still included 47 divisions, including 25 German. In these formations, there were 640 thousand combat personnel, 7600 guns and mortars (caliber 75 mm and above), 400 tanks and assault guns, 810 combat aircraft. In total, the enemy grouping consisted of almost 500 thousand German and 450 thousand Romanian soldiers and officers.

German and Romanian troops had combat experience and relied on a layered system field fortifications. Colonel-General G. Frisner, appointed commander on July 25, after the assassination attempt on Hitler, was known as an experienced and prudent military leader and, as events showed, he was a loyal Nazi. He stepped up the construction of defensive structures. On the 600-kilometer front from the Carpathians to the Black Sea, a powerful echeloned defense was created. Its depth reached 80 or more kilometers (12). In addition, the enemy had considerable reserves, more than 1,100 thousand soldiers and officers were under arms in Romania (13). The command of the German-Romanian troops expected the Russian offensive with confidence in their capabilities (14).

However, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command managed to create superiority in forces in the decisive sectors of the front. The combat strength of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts was brought up to 930 thousand people. They were armed with 16 thousand guns and mortars, 1870 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1760 combat aircraft (15). The superiority of the Soviet side in the number of troops was small, but they outnumbered the enemy in armament. The ratio of forces was as follows: in people 1.2: 1, in field guns of various calibers - 1.3: 1, in tanks and self-propelled guns - 1.4: 1, machine guns - 1: 1, in mortars - 1.9: 1, in aircraft 3:1 in favor of the Soviet troops. Due to the insufficient superiority necessary for the success of the offensive in the direction of the main attack, it was decided to expose secondary sectors of the front. It was a risky move. But on the Kitskansky bridgehead and north of Yass, the following balance of forces was created: in people 6: 1, in field guns of various calibers - 5.5: 1, in tanks and self-propelled guns - 5.4: 1, machine guns - 4.3: 1 , in mortars - 6.7: 1, in aircraft 3: 1 in favor of the Soviet troops. It is worth mentioning that in the rifle units up to 80 percent of the rank and file were recruits from among those called up in the regions of Ukraine, liberated in the spring of 1944; more than 20 thousand conscripts from Moldova also entered the troops. These young people still had to be trained in military affairs. But she survived the occupation and hated the invaders. In the course of exercises and battles of local significance, in communication with old soldiers, the replenishment received proper combat training. The actions of the two fronts were sent to coordinate the marshal Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko.

The Soviet command carried out the concentration of troops and military equipment at the breakthrough sites covertly and, mainly, immediately before the offensive. More than 70% of the forces and means of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts were transferred to the Kitskansky bridgehead and northwest of Yass. The density of artillery in the breakthrough areas reached 240 and even 280 guns and mortars per 1 kilometer of the front. Three days before the start of the offensive, the German command suspected that the strike would be delivered not from the Sherpen and Orhei region, but on the flanks of the 6th German Army (16). At the meeting, without the participation of the Romanians, held at the headquarters of the Army Group "Southern Ukraine" on August 19, it was allegedly "quite clear to all its participants that a major Russian offensive should be expected at the latest on August 20" (17). There was even considered a plan for the withdrawal of Army Group "Southern Ukraine", called the "Medved variant". But even for flight, the Soviet command did not leave time for the enemy.

On August 20, 1944, the troops of both fronts launched an offensive with powerful artillery preparation. Participant in the events, General A.K. Blazhey left an almost poetic description of the offensive from the Kitskansky bridgehead: “The hands on the clock converge at the number eight. - Fire! The roar of guns merged into a mighty symphony. The earth shook and shook. The sky was lined with fire trails of rockets. Gray fountains of smoke, dust, stone shot up like a wall over the enemy's defenses, closed the horizon, eclipsed the sun. With a roar, attack aircraft swept through, ironing enemy fortifications. […] Guards mortars "played". […] Following the volleys of the Katyushas, ​​a thousand-voiced “cheers” rolled over the field covered in smoke. […] An avalanche of people, tanks, vehicles poured into the enemy defense line” (18) . “In the early morning of August 20,” G. Frisner also testified, “the roar of volleys of thousands of guns heralded the beginning of a decisive battle for Romania. After the strongest one and a half hour artillery preparation, the Soviet infantry, supported by tanks, went on the offensive, first in the Yass region, and then on the Dniester sector of the front ”(19) . Aviation carried out bombing and assault strikes against enemy strongholds and firing positions. fire system German and Romanian troops was suppressed, on the first day of the offensive they lost 9 divisions.

Having broken through the German-Romanian front south of Bendery, formations of the 3rd Ukrainian Front defeated the operational reserves of the enemy thrown in front of them and resolutely, without regard to the flanks, continued to advance to the west. Supporting the offensive, the 5th and 17th Air Armies, commanded by Generals S.K. Goryunov and V.L. Sudets, have achieved absolute dominance in the air. On the evening of August 22 soviet tanks and motorized infantry went to Comrat, where the headquarters of the 6th German army was located, the 3rd Romanian army was cut off from the 6th German army. On August 21, units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front occupied the Yassky and Tyrgu-Frumossky fortified areas, and the 6th tank army of Lieutenant General A.G. Kravchenko, other formations of the front entered the operational space and moved south, reaching Vaslui on August 22. The enemy forces of three divisions, including the Romanian Guards Tank Division "Great Romania", organized a counterattack, the Soviet troops were detained for a day. But this did not change the general situation. The breakthrough by the Russian troops of the German front west of Jassy and their advance to the south, G. Frisner admitted, blocked the retreat for the troops of the 6th German Army. The threat of encirclement of the 4th Romanian army was also created. Frisner already on August 21 ordered the troops of the 6th Army to retreat. The next day, the withdrawal of troops from Army Group "Southern Ukraine" was also allowed by the ground forces Germany (20) . But it was too late.

Parts of the 7th mechanized corps from the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were the first to reach the Prut. On August 23 at 13.00, the 63rd mechanized brigade from this corps broke into the village of Leusheny, where it defeated the rear of the 115th, 302nd, 14th, 306th and 307th infantry divisions of the 6th German army, captured a mass prisoners - the tankers had no time to count them - and occupied the Prut line in the Leusheny-Nemtseny area. The 16th mechanized brigade, having destroyed the enemy in the area of ​​the villages of Sarata-Galbena, Karpineny, Lapushna, cut off German troops the path to the west from the forests east of Lapushna (21). On the same day, the 36th Guards Tank Brigade captured the crossing over the Prut north of Leovo. In the offensive zone of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, the 110th and 170th tank brigades of the 18th tank corps under the command of Major General V.I. Polozkov of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. They established contact with the tankers of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and closed the encirclement around 18 German divisions (22). “As a result of four days of the operation,” I.V. Stalin at 11:30 p.m. Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko, - the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts today, August 23, completed the operational encirclement of the Chisinau enemy grouping. The first stage of the strategic operation was completed.

Leaving 34 divisions to eliminate the encircled grouping, the Soviet command sent more than 50 divisions deep into Romania. During the day, the front was pushed back by 80-100 kilometers. The pace of the Soviet offensive was 40-45 km. per day, there was no chance of salvation for those surrounded. The German command understood this. “From August 20, 1944,” the Chief of Staff of the 6th Army, General Walter Helmut, wrote in the Journal of Combat Operations, “a new stage in this great war began. And here, as near Stalingrad, the 6th Army stood at the center of the events of world history ... After the Russian breakthrough south of Tiraspol and at Yass, events developed with such swiftness that no one could have expected before ”(23).

It was not the arrest of Antonescu that ensured the victory of the Red Army during the Iasi-Kishinev operation, but the defeat of the German troops and the Romanian army, the backbone of the pro-Hitler regime, created the conditions for its overthrow. This is also recognized by the right-wing radicals of Romania, who defend the Romanians and King Mihai from accusations that they "betrayed" the Nazis. “The battle of Iasi-Kishinev,” we read in the Romanian synthesis “History of Bessarabia,” opened the way for the Red Army to the Gates of Moldova and further, to the routes that provide access to the Balkans. Under these conditions, the coup took place on August 23, 1944 ... "(24) . “The difficult military situation on the front of Tirgu Neamt – Pascani – Tirgu Frumos – Iasi – Chisinau – Tighina,” the authors of the online reference “70 years of the liberation of Bessarabia” specify, “prompted the democratic forces of Romania to eliminate the Antonescu government and propose a truce with the United Nations represented by Soviet Union" (25).

Defeat is always an orphan. German memoirists and historians like to explain the defeat of the 6th Army by the betrayal of the Romanians. But the fate of the Army Group "Southern Ukraine" was decided even before the coup in Bucharest. As noted, G. Frisner gave the order to retreat to his troops already on August 21. Regarding the withdrawal of Soviet units to Comrat and other events on August 22, he admitted: "Thus, our entire operational plan was upset by the enemy." With a speech about the arrest of the government of I. Antonescu and the cessation of hostilities against the USSR, King Mihai spoke "after 22 hours", on the night of August 23-24, and Romania declared war on Germany only on August 25. Aware of the precariousness of the thesis about the decisive role of the coup in Bucharest in the defeat of his troops, G. Frisner tried to expand the time frame of the Romanian "treason". “Increasingly,” he argued in his memoirs, “there were reports that the Romanian troops were losing their combat capability not only in cases that were fully justified by the current situation, but also far from being in a hopeless situation, allowing the enemy to infiltrate their positions and even flee from the battlefield to the start of the enemy attack. The general cited many facts of the insufficient stamina of the Romanian troops, and the Romanian military leaders, essentially flattering them, even accused them of "sabotaging" the struggle against the Russians (26), but did not give an explanation for these phenomena. On August 22, G. Frisner noted, I. Antonescu still declared his determination to continue the war on the side of Germany and, as he himself put it, “pumped out everything that was possible from the Romanian people, just to keep the front” (27) . In fact, the Romanian dictator assumed that the Germans would hold the front. On the same day, he ordered the Romanian troops to retreat beyond the Prut (28). Leaving the fleeing units, General Petre Dumitrescu, commander of the 3rd Romanian army and army group of troops, immediately carried out this order.

The Germans did not show Teutonic firmness either. Having abandoned the troops, the commander of the 6th German army, General Fretter-Pico, fled to the west. In the offensive zone of the 6th Panzer Army of General Kravchenko, in the ranks of not only the Romanian, but also the German troops, Frisner admitted, "incredible chaos began." “Under the onslaught of the Soviet armies advancing to the west,” the general continued, “scattered units of combat divisions, mixed with supply units, airfield service units of the Air Force, separate small units, etc., roll back through the southwestern spurs of the Carpathians” (29). Oddly enough, the presence in scientific circulation of these and similar facts does not prevent the construction of the German myth about the Romanian stabbing in the back of the valiant Germans as the main factor in the victory of the Red Army.

Finest hour of the Moldavian partisans

Consider the plot of the Iasi-Chisinau operation, which reveals the participation of the population of Moldova in the Patriotic War, but mentioned by historians in passing. In August 1944, more than 20 partisan detachments with a total number of over 1,300 armed fighters fought in the still occupied regions of the republic. They consisted of only two dozen officers. Almost all of them were wartime officers - with minimal theoretical training, but rich combat experience. The detachments were commanded by a sailor captain of the second rank A. Obushinsky, who lost his arm in battle on the Black Sea, captains infantryman G. Posadov and pilot E. Yarmykov, paratroopers lieutenants A. Kostelov, V. Aleksandrov, I. Tyukanko, L. Diryaev, M. Zhemadukov , N. Lyasotsky, I. Nuzhin, A. Shevchenko. The detachment commanders journalist M. Smilevsky, V. Shpak, P. Bardov, I. Anisimov, Ya. Bovin, M. Kuznetsov, a young peasant M. Chernolutsky and a resident of Chisinau P. Popovich were practitioners of guerrilla warfare. the largest partisan detachment Moldavia was commanded by junior lieutenant of the NKVD E. Petrov.

Combat experience was also available among the paratroopers, abandoned in Moldova with parachutes, and among partisans from former prisoners of war. But most of the fighters were peasant youth. Local partisans provided the detachments with food, conducted reconnaissance, but they had to be taught the basics of military affairs. However, almost every detachment had radio communications with the headquarters of the partisan movement under the Military Councils of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, and received air assistance with weapons and medicines. The partisans set up ambushes and sabotage, smashed the occupation administration and successfully fought off the punishers. Summing up the punitive expeditions carried out from June 1 to August 19, 1944, the command of the 6th German Army admitted that “to the west of Chisinau, due to the presence of large forests in this area, a center of partisan activity gradually formed. Bessarabia with its diverse population groups became fertile ground for espionage, as well as for the organization of new partisan detachments, which, despite all the measures of the Romanian authorities, continued to be masters of the situation. The reviewers defined the forests on both sides of the Lapushna-Ganchesti road as an area "exclusively inundated with partisans" (30).

On the morning of August 20, the partisan headquarters informed the detachments by radio about the transition of the troops of the two fronts to the offensive. The partisans were tasked with preventing the withdrawal of enemy troops, the removal of material assets and the deportation of the population. Detachment P.S. On that day, Bordova destroyed a convoy of 17 vehicles near Lapushna. At the Zlot station, partisans from the detachment of V.A. Shpak was sent down the train. The sabotage group of I.S. Pikuzo from the detachment under the command of I.E. Nuzhina, having blown up a train with ammunition on the Comrat-Prut line, interrupted traffic on the railway. German sappers restored the path, but on August 21, the partisans staged another crash, and on the 22nd, a third. This time, on the Bayush-Dezginzh stretch, they blew up a locomotive and 7 wagons, killed 75 and wounded 95 Romanian soldiers and officers. The actions of the partisans west of Comrat disrupted military transportation during the decisive battles at the front. In Comrat, at the stations of Bessarabskaya and Abaklia, the enemy was forced to leave 10 serviceable steam locomotives and up to 500 wagons with military equipment and fuel. 18 echelons with equipment, ammunition and looted property remained at the Comrat station.

On August 21, the detachment "For the Honor of the Motherland" under the command of A.I. Kostelova destroyed a convoy of 10 vehicles and 300 enemy soldiers and officers on the Kotovsk-Lapushna road; On August 24, the partisans of this detachment defeated a convoy of 110 carts, guarded by 60 cavalrymen, on the Stolnicheny-Lapushna road. On August 22, the partisans of the detachment I.E. Nuzhin fired from an ambush on a column of German troops near the village of Kochulia west of Comrat, and near the village of Largutsa they defeated a German convoy of 200 wagons. On August 23, this detachment fired at the column of the headquarters of the 6th German army retreating from Comrat near the village of Yargora, and only the partisans' lack of heavy weapons prevented them from destroying the staff officers (31). In the Novo-Anensky district ( north of the city Bendery) partisans of the M.M. Chernolutsky, having previously scouted the location of enemy minefields, assisted the tankers and infantry of the 3rd Ukrainian Front in overcoming them (32).

On the night of August 23, the partisans of the detachment. Lazo under the command of M.V. Kuznetsov, having “removed” the guards, they blew up a concrete bridge near the village of Dolna. The next morning, in search of detours, columns of enemy vehicles moved along forest roads. The detachment set up several ambushes between the villages of Bursuk and Kristesty, destroying or capturing about 100 German and Romanian soldiers and officers. Increasing the panic, the partisans blew up an ammunition depot four kilometers from the village of Nisporeni. Detachment I.I. Ivanov on August 23 defeated an enemy column near the village of Boltsun with a force of up to a battalion. On August 24, having discovered 5 guns firing at the Soviet troops near the village of Spariets, a group of partisans under the command of Ivanov fired at the battery. The infantry cover fled, and the guns, the supply of shells and the radio station became trophies of the partisans. The detachment also captured 150 prisoners. On the same day, on the edge of the forest near the village of Sarata-Meresheny, partisans threw grenades at four 122-millimeter enemy guns (33).

Detachment A.V. Obushinsky for four days smashed the enemy's convoys near the village of Metropolitan. However, on August 24, a group of partisans under the command of the chief of staff of the detachment G.M. Khramova, laying mines, did not notice the tankette and armored personnel carrier in the tail of the enemy column. The partisans met the infantry column approaching the ambush site with fire from two machine guns. The infantry retreated. But then, pouring fire on everything, a tankette moved towards the chain of partisans. Khramov and three fighters were injured. The tankette was blown up by a partisan mine, but its crew continued to fire. The partisans nevertheless managed to retreat in an organized manner and carry out the wounded. Covering the retreat of his comrades, the machine gunner S.P. distinguished himself. Porumba (34) .

On August 20-22, in the same area, detachments of L.I. Diryaeva, M.Kh. Zhemadukova, N.A. Lyasotsky and A.G. Shevchenko was destroyed by three large convoys, and on August 23-24, traffic was generally blocked on the road in the area between the villages of Mitropolit and Lipoveny. Repelling enemy attacks, the partisans of these detachments disabled 3 tanks, an armored personnel carrier, 175, destroyed 250 and captured about 600 soldiers and officers. One of the tanks was hit by a Czech paratrooper Jan Krošlak with a grenade. The Soviet government awarded him the Order of the Red Star, and in his homeland he was awarded the title of Hero of Czechoslovakia (35).

In May-August 1944, the partisans of Moldova destroyed over 11 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, derailed 13 military echelons, blew up 9 bridges, destroyed 25 tanks and armored vehicles, about 400 vehicles (36). 4500 German soldiers and officers were taken prisoner by the partisans and handed over to the regular troops of the Red Army. In essence, they destroyed an entire division of the enemy. The peoples of Moldova, as well as the whole country, waged a Patriotic War against Germany and Romania.

rout

On the night of August 23, the Chisinau enemy grouping began to withdraw from their positions. Having discovered this, the troops of the 5th shock army of Lieutenant-General N.E. Berzarin, overcoming minefields and knocking down the enemy's rearguards, began the pursuit. By the end of the day, parts of the divisions under the command of Generals V.P. Sokolova, A.P. Dorofeeva and D.M. Syzranov broke into Chisinau. From the side of Orhei, units of rifle divisions under the command of General M.P. advanced on Chisinau. Seryugin and Colonel G.N. Shostatsky, and from the area of ​​​​the village of Dorotskoye, the rifle division of Colonel S.M. Fomichenko. Chisinau was captured by Soviet troops from the northeast and south.
The city was on fire, explosions thundered: on the orders of the German commandant Stanislaus von Devitz-Krebs, a team of sappers, Lieutenant Heinz Klik, destroyed the largest buildings and utility facilities. After a three-hour battle, noted in the combat summary, the 89th division of General M.P. Serugina captured the stations of Visterniceni and Petrikany, crossed the river Byk and by 23.00 with one regiment reached the southwestern outskirts of Chisinau, with two regiments by 24.00 occupied the villages of Durlesti and Boyukany. In cooperation with the 94th Guards Rifle Division, by 24.00 Chisinau was basically cleared of enemy troops. However, skirmishes in the city continued into the night. The liberation of Chisinau was completed on the morning of August 24 (37). Realizing that the German troops in the city were surrounded, about 12 thousand soldiers and officers laid down their arms.

West of Chisinau, in the area of ​​the villages of Lapushna, Stolnicheni, Costesti, Rezena, Karakui, Soviet troops surrounded the remnants of 12 German divisions. With columns of several thousand soldiers and officers, with the support of artillery and tanks, they tried to break into southwest direction. In the fields north of the town of Leovo, the fighting took on the character of beating the attackers. “The Nazis,” recalled the commander of the artillery battery V.E. Sekhin, “went in crowds, distraught, out of control. German division […] From a distance of 200m, all guns and 4 captured machine guns "MG-12", which were also in service with the battery, opened heavy fire on the moving column. This came as a surprise to the enemy. In this battle, about 700 soldiers were destroyed by the battery and enemy officers, 228 were taken prisoner, including the division commander "(38). Thousands of enemy soldiers and officers drowned in the Prut while fleeing. Their bodies formed jams on the river (39). But in the area of ​​​​the village of Leuseni and to the north, the enemy held crossings, and this allowed him part of the forces to seep to the western bank of the Prut.On September 2-3, they were destroyed in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe cities of Khush and Bacau.

In an effort to stop the bloodshed, on August 26, the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front F.I. Tolbukhin offered to surrender to the encircled enemy troops. The general guaranteed life, safety, food, inviolability of personal property to all who surrendered, and medical care to the wounded. The terms of surrender were conveyed through the envoys to the commanders of the encircled formations, they were reported on the radio, sound installations broadcast. Despite the humane nature of the terms of surrender, the Nazis rejected them. However, on the morning of August 27, when the surrender period expired and the Soviet troops resumed fire, enemy units began to surrender in whole columns. In the south of Bessarabia, having landed troops at the mouth of the Danube, the forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the 3rd Ukrainian Front cut off the retreat routes of the 3rd Romanian army. On August 25, Romanian troops capitulated in the area of ​​​​the villages of Tatarbunary, Bayramcha, Budaki (40). On August 26, 5 Romanian divisions surrendered to the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in full strength. On August 30, Soviet troops entered Bucharest.

The victory achieved by the Red Army in the Iasi-Kishinev operation brought down the southern flank of the Soviet-German front and opened the way for it to the Balkans. It allowed Romania and Bulgaria to be wrested from the power of the pro-Nazi regimes and created the conditions for their joining the Anti-Hitler coalition. She forced the German command to withdraw its troops from Greece, Albania, and Bulgaria. On August 25, Romania declared war on Germany, and on September 9, the pro-fascist regime in Bulgaria was overthrown. In September, Soviet troops established direct contact with the Yugoslav partisans and liberated Belgrade on October 23. The Balkans were lost by Hitler, formations of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts went to Hungary.

During the Iasi-Kishinev operation, huge losses were inflicted on the enemy. Of the 341,000 soldiers and officers of the 6th German Army, 256,000 died or were captured (41). For the Carpathians, only 6 badly battered divisions of the 8th German Army managed to retreat, which escaped encirclement. The units formed from these, according to G. Frisner, spiritually and physically exhausted people, were not enough for the German command even to close the Carpathian passes, which were only six. On September 5, while already in Transylvania, the command of the Army Group "Southern Ukraine" stated that the encircled formations of the 6th Army should be considered as completely lost and that this defeat represents the greatest catastrophe that the Army Group has ever experienced (42 ) .

The statistics of losses of the Romanian army is mysterious. According to the official reference “Romanian War for the Restoration of National Integrity (1941-1945), it includes only soldiers (without officers?), including: 8,305 killed, 24,989 wounded and 153,883 “disappeared and captured” (43). Under the motto “ We can forgive, but not forget "signed by 2830 persons (as of August 17, 2011) a text was published under the title pretending to be ironic," Stalin and the Russian people brought us freedom ". For the destruction of the army of invaders who invaded the country, neither Russia, neither Moldova nor Ukraine needs Romanian forgiveness, but the article contains statistical information:

“More than once, our historians and Western historians, less often Soviet ones, considered the consequences of the coup d'état on August 23, 1944 to be more severe for the Wehrmacht than those of Stalingrad. This is true, there is nothing to object to this point of view. Only, according to the statistics of the general staff [of the Romanian army], this event caused the Romanian Army damage in terms of people and military property significantly greater than the battle in the bend of the Don, an integral part of the Stalingrad operations.[...] From November 1 to December 31, 1942, in the period the most violent clashes with the Soviets at the front in the Bend of the Don, the Romanian army lost 353 officers, 203 non-commissioned officers and 6680 soldiers killed in action, 994 officers, 582 non-commissioned officers and 30,175 soldiers wounded in battle and 1829 officers, 1567 non-commissioned officers and 66959 missing soldiers, in most cases captured by the Soviets. Much more were the losses of the Romanian army in the period from June 1 to August 31, 1944, with the clarification that between June 1 and August 19, the date of the start of the Soviet offensive, the front in Moldova and South Bessarabia was stable, and there were no more or less significant battles. . It was about losses in personnel, including 509 officers, 472 non-commissioned officers and 10262 soldiers killed, 1255 officers, 993 non-commissioned officers and 33317 soldiers wounded and 2628 officers, 2817 non-commissioned officers and 171 243 soldiers missing, more part captured by the Soviets after the king announced a non-existent truce on the radio. As you can see, in all categories, the figures of losses incurred during the 12 days of August 1944 exceed the losses for November 1 - December 31, 1942, even twice ”(44) .

Thus, 11,243 Romanian soldiers and officers were killed - since they managed to draw up the appropriate documents - in the first days of the offensive, and 176,688 were missing, i.e. were killed or captured. The answer to the question about the number of prisoners can be found in the online article "Romania's War for the Restoration of National Integrity (1941-1945)". Even after the speech of King Mihai on the radio, its authors argue, “the Russians continued operations against the Romanian armies, capturing all the Romanian troops in Moldova and Bessarabia that they overtook. 114,000 still combat-ready Romanian soldiers experienced this fate, having passed the path of prisoner-of-war camps in Russia ”(45).

The assertion that the Russians beat future allies too painfully seems strange: the aggressor should have been beaten mercilessly. The sufferings of the former occupiers in the camps do not arouse sympathy either. An opportunity missed by the Soviet command should be recognized as the refusal to form a dozen divisions from Romanian prisoners. They could be thrown into battle against the Germans and, especially, against the Hungarians. However, we are interested in the Romanian losses incurred during the Iasi-Kishinev operation. The given figure of 11,243 killed Romanian soldiers should be supplemented by the difference between 176 thousand and 114 thousand people. The total number of Romanian soldiers and officers who died during the Iasi-Kishinev operation amounted to 73.9 thousand people. Thus, during the Iasi-Kishinev operation, Soviet troops destroyed or captured 50% of the personnel of the opposing enemy troops.

The victory was won with little bloodshed. The losses of the Red Army in the Iasi-Kishinev operation included 13,197 dead and missing (1 percent of the total number of troops on the two fronts) and 53,933 wounded, which seems to be a very small price to pay for victory in an operation involving more than a million troops.

The lightning-fast, within eight days, defeat of the enemy army group revealed the superiority of the strategy and tactics of the Red Army, combat training and weapons, the spirit of soldiers and officers. The Soviet command correctly chose the places of strikes and planned the offensive in terms of time, means and methods. It carried out the maximum concentration of forces and means quickly and secretly from the enemy. The Iasi-Chisinau operation remains an example of the effective use of mobile units of tanks and motorized infantry, clear interaction ground forces with aviation and navy; partisans successfully interacted with the front.

The Iasi-Kishinev operation, brilliant in design and execution, rightly entered the history of the Great Patriotic War as one of the most productive offensive operations of the Red Army. This operation is the largest military event of the twentieth century that took place on the soil of Moldova. It rightfully went down in history as one of the strategic blows with which the army of the USSR / Russia knocked the spirit out of the strongest army in the West - the German one. It also remains a remarkable page in the history of Moldova, a victory achieved with the participation of its peoples.

See: Edemsky A.B. To the problem of the ambitious task of creating a single pan-European textbook on the history of Europe: how it will present the Second World War and the role of the USSR in the victory over Nazism. // World War II and the Great Patriotic War in the history textbooks of the CIS and EU countries: problems, approaches, interpretations. materials international conference(Moscow, April 8-9, 2010). – M., 2010. P.162.

National Archives of the Republic of Moldova. F.680. Op.1. D.4812. L.156.

Kovalev I.V. Transport in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. - M., 1982. S. 289-291.

NARM. F.1931. Op.1. D.69. L. 70.

There. F.706. Op.1. D.529. L. 94.

Story National economy Moldavian SSR. 1917-1958 - Chisinau. Shtiintsa. 1974. P.213.

Liberation of Southeast and Central Europe. 1944-1945. - Moscow. 1970. P.59.

Frisner G. Lost battles. -M., military publishing house. 1966. P.67.

See: Shtemenko S.M. General Staff in the years. -M., 1968. S. 234, 239.

Samsonov A.M. The collapse of fascist aggression. 1939-1945. Historical essay. -Moscow. The science. 1975, pp. 488, 489.

Aftenyuk S., Elin D., Korenev A., Levit I. Moldavian SSR in the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945. - Chisinau. Shtiintsa. 1970. P.356.

Samsonov A.M. Decree. cit., S. 489.

There. pp. 490, 491.

Frisner G. Decree. cit., p.72.

http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/blazhey_ak/04.html

Frisner G. Decree. op. P.72.

There. pp. 75, 105.

Moldavian SSR in the Great Patriotic War….T.1. P.591.

History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945. In 6 vol. T.IV. -M., 1962. S.271.

Historia Basarabiei. De la inceputuri pina in 1994. -Bucuresti. Editura Nova Tempus. 1994. P.338.

Frisner G. Decree. cit., pp. 85, 86.

There. P.80.

Moraru P. Serviciile secrete si Basarabia. Dictionary 1918-1991. –Bucuresti. Editura militara. 2008. P.34.

Frisner G. Decree. cit., pp. 84,85.

Cit. by: Aftenyuk S., Elin D., Korenev A., Levit I. Decree. cit., p.345.

History and culture of the Gagauz. Essays. – Chisinau-Comrat. 2006. P.341.

Aftenyuk S., Elin D., Korenev A., Levit I. Decree. cit., pp. 345, 346; Elin D.D. Decree. cit., pp. 208, 209; Moldavian. SSR in the Great Patriotic War... V.2. pp. 495, 608, 611, 545; T.1. pp. 431,590.

Aftenyuk S., Elin D., Korenev A., Levit I. Decree. cit., pp. 346,347.

Moldavian. SSR in the Great Patriotic War... V.2. S.501.

Aftenyuk S., Elin D., Korenev A., Levit I. Decree. cit., p.349.

Iasi-Chisinau Cannes (Edited by R. Malinovsky). -Moscow. 1964. P.157.

Moldavian SSR in the Great Patriotic War….T.1. pp. 436, 590, 591.

Moraru A. Istoria romanilor. Basarabia and Transnistria. 1812-1993. – Chisinau. 1995. P. 387.

Aftenyuk S., Elin D., Korenev A., Levit I. Decree. cit., pp. 366-368.

There. P.368.

Frisner G. Dec. cit., S. 103.

Iasi - Chisinau operation

In April 1944, as a result of a successful offensive in Right-Bank Ukraine, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the line of the cities of Iasi and Orhei and went on the defensive. Troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front came to the river Dniester and captured several bridgeheads on its western bank. These fronts, as well as Black Sea Fleet and the Danube military flotilla was tasked with carrying out the Iasi-Chisinau strategic offensive operation with the aim of defeating a large grouping of German and Romanian troops, covering the Balkan direction.

The Army Group "Southern Ukraine" under the command of Colonel General G. Frisner defended before the Soviet troops. It included two army groups: "Vehler" (8th German and 4th Romanian armies, and the 17th German army corps) and "Dumitrescu" (6th German and 3rd Romanian armies). In total, it had 900 thousand people, 7600 guns and mortars, over 400 tanks and assault guns and 810 combat aircraft (4th German air fleet and Romanian aviation). The enemy created a strong defense in depth, consisting of 3-4 defensive lines linked to water barriers and hilly terrain. Strong defensive contours encircled many cities and other settlements.

The operation was entrusted to the troops of the 2nd (commander - General of the Army R. Ya. Malinovsky),

R.Ya. Malinovsky

3rd (commander - General of the Army F. I. Tolbukhin)

F.I. Tolbukhin

Ukrainian fronts, the Black Sea Fleet (commander Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky) and the Danube Military Flotilla (commander - Rear Admiral S. G. Gorshkov). The actions of the fronts were coordinated by the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters, Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko.

According to the plan of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube military flotilla, were to use an advantageous configuration of the front line in relation to the enemy grouping, break through his defenses in two sectors (north-west of Yassy and south of Bender ), encircle and destroy the main forces of the Army Group "Southern Ukraine" in the areas of Iasi and Chisinau and develop an offensive deep into Romania.

Soviet troops numbered 1250 thousand people, 16 thousand guns and mortars, 1870 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, 2200 combat aircraft. High operational densities of advancing troops were created in the areas of penetration of enemy defenses (on the 2nd Ukrainian Front - 16 km, on the 3rd - 18 km) - up to 240 guns and mortars and up to 56 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations per 1 km of the front . Rifle divisions advanced on a front of less than 1 km.

According to the directive of the Headquarters of October 2, 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front received the task of breaking through the enemy's defenses, striking with the forces of three combined arms and tank armies at Iasi - Felchiul. At the first stage of the operation, the troops were to capture the crossings across the Prut River and, together with the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, defeat the enemy's Chisinau grouping, preventing it from withdrawing, and then develop an offensive in the general direction of Focsany, securing the right flank of the strike force from the Carpathians. The 3rd Ukrainian Front was given the task of breaking through the enemy defenses south of Bendery and delivering a strike with the forces of the troops of three combined arms armies in the direction of Khushi, providing a strike grouping of the front from the south. At the first stage, in cooperation with the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, they were to defeat the enemy’s Chisinau grouping and capture the Leonovo, Moldavka line, and further develop the offensive in the general direction of Reni and Izmail, preventing the enemy from retreating beyond the Prut and Danube rivers.

The fronts were supposed to use the tank army, tank and mechanized corps after breaking through the enemy defenses to quickly capture the crossings on the Prut River, and the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps to force the Seret River and provide troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front from the west. The Black Sea Fleet received the task of assisting the offensive of the troops of the left wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, ensuring that they cross the Dniester Estuary, land tactical landings, and destroy enemy ships. The Danube flotilla was supposed to assist the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front in forcing the Danube.

On August 20, at 07:40, after a powerful artillery and aviation preparation, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts went on the offensive, accompanied by a double barrage of fire. At the same time, attack aviation in groups of 8-20 aircraft at intervals of 15 minutes delivered bombing and assault strikes against the strongest strongholds and firing positions of enemy artillery. Artillery preparation and air strikes proved to be very effective. The enemy fire system was suppressed. The enemy suffered heavy losses in manpower and military equipment, especially on the main strip. Command and control in the link battalion - regiment - division was lost by the enemy. This favorable situation was used by the troops of the strike groupings of the fronts to develop high rates of attack and break through the enemy's tactical defenses in the shortest possible time.

Destroyed German technology

Formations of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the first half of the day broke through two enemy defense lines. In the zone of the 27th Army, Lieutenant General S. G. Trofimenko, the 6th Tank Army, Lieutenant General A. G. Kravchenko, began to enter the breakthrough, which, however, could not break away from the infantry at a considerable distance. This was explained by the fact that the forward units of the enemy’s 1st Panzer and 18th Mountain Infantry Divisions, advanced from the operational reserve, took up defensive positions on the approaches to the Mare Ridge and, together with the retreating remnants of the defeated units of the 5th and 76th Infantry Divisions, offered stubborn resistance the Soviet troops. Due to the fact that the enemy held the Iasian heights in his hands, it was not possible to bring the 18th Panzer Corps into the gap on the first day of the operation. Serious assistance to the advancing troops was provided by the 5th Air Army of Colonel-General S.K. Goryunov, which made 1580 sorties that day.

The fighting of the 3rd Ukrainian Front was also successful. The attack was so swift that by the end of the first day of the operation, his troops had completed the breakthrough of the enemy's main line of defense and reached the second defensive line, in places wedging to a depth of 10-12 km and expanding the front of the breakthrough to 40 km. This created favorable conditions for the development of a rapid offensive in depth and for isolating the formations of the 3rd Romanian army with a view to their subsequent defeat in parts.

The calculation of the anti-tank rifle of Sergeant Petrov fires at the enemy

The enemy, in an effort to disrupt the offensive that had begun, pulled up reserves on the morning of August 21 and, relying on the second line of defense, launched a counterattack on the troops of the 37th Army of Lieutenant General I.T. Shlemin, placing special hopes on the actions of his 13th Panzer Division. However, all his attempts to stop our advance were unsuccessful. Having exhausted and bled the enemy, the troops of the 37th Army captured the settlement of Ermoklia with a decisive attack, and by the end of the day they reached the Opach region. Formations of the 46th Army by this time had reached the Alexandren region.

German tank formation

Deutsch heavy tank T-VI "Tiger"

On the second day of the operation, August 21, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front continued to expand and deepen the breakthrough. By the end of the day, the formations of the 27th and 6th tank armies captured the passes on the Mare ridge, and during the night they completed the breakthrough of the enemy's army defense line. The troops of the 52nd Army, Lieutenant General K. A. Koroteev, by this time had captured the large political and economic center of Romania - the city of Iasi, overcame all three enemy defensive lines and entered the operational space. On the same day, a cavalry-mechanized group and the 18th Panzer Corps were introduced into the breakthrough, which proceeded to develop success in the general direction of Khushi.

Liberation of the city of Iasi

During the breakthrough of the Tyrgu-Frumos fortified area, junior sergeant Alexander Shevchenko performed a heroic deed. The advance of his unit was delayed by enemy fire from a pillbox. All attempts to suppress this pillbox with artillery fire from closed firing positions were unsuccessful. There was a threat of disruption of the offensive. Then the young patriot, not sparing his life, rushed to the embrasure of the enemy pillbox and closed it with his body, opening the way for the assault group. For his heroism and self-sacrifice, the glorious son of our Motherland, Junior Sergeant A. Shevchenko, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Participants in the battles in Bessarabia 1944

In connection with the success achieved by the strike force of the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, its commander at 10 o'clock on August 21 introduced the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps into the gap in the 46th Army zone, which proceeded to the rapid pursuit of the enemy and by the end of the day reached border Raylen, Klyastits. At 4 p.m., in the zone of the 37th Army, its mobile group, the 7th Mechanized Corps, was put into battle, which, however, did not act decisively enough and by the end of the day was unable to break away from the rifle formations. Nevertheless, during August 20 and 21, the troops of the shock group of the 3rd Ukrainian Front broke through the enemy’s tactical defenses, defeated his 13th Panzer Division and, having increased the breakthrough to a depth of 40-50 km and expanding it to 40 km, created a real threat isolation of the 6th German army from the 3rd Romanian. By the morning of August 22, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front captured the Mare ridge and entered the operational space in the direction of the main attack. The troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front also achieved serious results. By this time, the enemy had used up all his operational reserves and did not have any large forces and means to counter the offensive of our troops.

German assault gun "Stug III"

In connection with the successes achieved, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on August 21 issued a directive in which it pointed out the need "by the combined efforts of the two fronts to quickly close the encirclement ring of the enemy in the Khushi area, and then narrow this ring in order to destroy or capture the enemy's Chisinau grouping." Fulfilling the instructions of the Headquarters, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front continued to develop the offensive. On August 22, the formations of the 4th Guards Army, Lieutenant General I.V. Galanin, launched the offensive, delivering the main blow on the right flank along the eastern bank of the Prut River. By the end of that day, the troops of the front had deeply engulfed the enemy grouping in the area of ​​Iasi and Chisinau from the west. On August 23, formations of the 27th Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front completed the task scheduled for five days. On the same day, the 6th Panzer Army finished clearing the city of Vaslui from the enemy and, having advanced 45 km to the south, captured the city of Byrlad. The troops of the 7th Guards Army, Colonel-General M.S. Shumilov, completely overcame the Tyrgu-Frumossky fortified area and crossed the Seret River, and the horse-mechanized group of Major-General S.I. Gorshkov liberated the city of Roman. The 73rd Rifle Corps of the 52nd Army on the same day captured the city of Khushi.

Continuing the offensive on August 24, the troops of the 4th Guards and 52nd Armies and the 18th Tank Corps of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the Prut River at the turn west of Khushi, Kotumori and connected with the advanced units of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, completing the encirclement of a large enemy groupings. At the same time, the forward detachments of the 6th Panzer Army captured the crossings on the Seret River in the area north of Focsana and were more than 120 km from the troops of the 52nd Army and the 18th Panzer Corps, operating on the inner front of the encirclement. On August 27, the 6th Panzer Army broke through the enemy defenses at the Foksha Gate and developed the offensive at a rate of 50 km or more per day.

Mobile groups and the 37th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on August 22 were rapidly advancing into the depths of the enemy defenses. The 7th Mechanized Corps fought 80 km that day, completing the task set for two days, and the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps covered 90 km. By the end of the day, the strike force of the front expanded the breakthrough to 170 km along the front and up to 70 km in depth.

On the left wing of the front, on the night of August 22, General Bakhtin's group crossed the Dniester Estuary and captured a narrow coastal strip. With the support of aviation and naval artillery of the Black Sea Fleet, the first echelons of the 46th Army landed, whose troops defeated the enemy's 310th Infantry Division. In the current situation, the commander of the enemy army group "Southern Ukraine" requested permission from the high command of the ground forces to withdraw the troops of the 6th and 3rd Romanian armies to positions equipped along the Prut River. Such permission was given to him only on the night of August 22, but it turned out to be belated. By the beginning of the withdrawal of these armies (on the night of August 23), the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were already advancing to their rear and communications, and the next day they completed the encirclement of the 3rd Romanian army (three divisions and one brigade). On August 24, this army ceased to exist, many of its scattered units, realizing the futility of resistance, surrendered, and the units that offered stubborn resistance were destroyed.

On the night of August 23, the Chisinau enemy grouping began to retreat to the Prut River. Having discovered this, the troops of the 5th shock army of Lieutenant-General N.E. Berzarin went on the offensive, broke into Chisinau by the end of August 23, and liberated him the next day. Formations of the 57th Army captured Bendery by the morning of August 23 and continued their offensive towards the Prut River. On the same day, the 7th Mechanized Corps entered the enemy's withdrawal route to the Prut River and took up defenses to the northeast, and the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps went to the northeast and also took up defenses.

Thus, by the end of August 23, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front cut off the main withdrawal routes of the 6th German Army. The next day, the 37th Army went to the Prut River and connected with the troops of the 52nd Army and the 18th Tank Corps of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, thereby finally closing the inner front of the encirclement, where 7, 44, 52, 30 and partly the 29th army corps of the enemy, as well as a number of its other units.

Taking advantage of the indecisive actions of the 78th Rifle Corps of the 4th Guards Army, advancing along the Prut River, the enemy held the crossings in the Leuseni area and to the north. This allowed him to infiltrate part of the forces to the western coast. In the rear of the 52nd Army, north and south of Khushi, there were significant enemy forces. Armored boats of the Danube military flotilla, fulfilling the assigned task, on the morning of August 24 broke through the Ochakovskoye arm of the Danube to the port of Vilkov and captured it, and then Kiliya.

Armored boats of the Danube Flotilla

The liquidation of the main forces of the encircled enemy grouping on the left bank of the Prut River was carried out by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on August 25-27. The destruction of the enemy grouping that broke through to the right bank was completed by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, basically by August 29th. Only one large enemy grouping of over 10,000 men managed to break through to the southwest, march 70 km, and reach the area north of Ajul-Nou. To eliminate it, three rifle divisions of the 7th Guards Army, the 23rd Tank Corps and other units were sent, which completed this task on September 4th.

In the period from August 20 to 29, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube military flotilla, defeated the main forces of the enemy army group "Southern Ukraine", liberated the Moldavian Republic and continued to develop the offensive in the central regions of Romania and towards borders of Bulgaria.

Under favorable conditions, created by the outstanding victories of the Red Army, the democratic forces of Romania raised an armed uprising on August 23, 1944 and overthrew the fascist regime of Antonescu. The next day, Romania withdrew from the war on the side of Germany and on August 25 declared war on her. Romanian troops took part in the battles with the German invaders, now on the side of the Red Army.

Developing the offensive in the Bucharest and Izmail directions, the main forces of the 2nd Ukrainian and part of the forces of the 3rd Ukrainian fronts, breaking through the Foksha fortified area, captured the city of Fokshany on August 27. The next day they took the city of Brailov and the port of Sulina, and on August 29, together with the Black Sea Fleet, they captured the port city of Constanta. On the same day, the mobile detachment of the 46th Army entered Bucharest.

As a result of the successful implementation of the Iasi-Chisinau operation, Soviet troops completed the liberation of the Moldavian SSR and the Izmail region of the Ukrainian SSR, and withdrew Romania from the war on the side of Nazi Germany.

Again, during the campaign of the second half of 1944, following the breakthrough in Belorussia, the enemy's strategic defense front was broken through. The defeat of the German troops created favorable conditions for a deep coverage of the entire southern wing of the German strategic front. The paths to Hungary were opened for Soviet troops. It became possible to provide direct assistance to the federal Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Favorable conditions arose for the development of the struggle against the Nazi enslavers in Albania and Greece.

The Iasi-Kishinev operation is perhaps one of the few major strategic operations of the Great Patriotic War in which victory over the enemy was achieved with relatively small casualties. The 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts lost 12.5 thousand people, while the enemy lost 18 divisions as a result of the encirclement and destruction of his grouping. Only prisoners of the Soviet troops captured 208,600 enemy soldiers and officers. This is clear evidence of the high level of Soviet military art and the combat skills of command personnel.

Compared to other encirclement operations during the Great Patriotic War, in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the fronts did not disperse their efforts in the main and auxiliary areas, and each of them initially carried out one, but extremely powerful blow. Auxiliary strikes were delivered only after breaking through the defenses in the main direction, using the already formed gap to expand the front of the offensive.

The 6th Panzer Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, numbering 500 combat vehicles, was introduced into the gap already in the middle of the first day of the offensive. This was the only case during the Great Patriotic War. In fact, the fact that such a wide water barrier as the Dniester Estuary (11 km wide) was crossed by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front is also unprecedented. In operations, the interaction between the two fronts and the Black Sea was well organized and carried out. navy. The Black Sea Fleet played big role both in supporting the landing operation in the Akkerman area (the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky), and in clearing all naval bases and ports on the Black Sea from German troops.

The combat operations of our aviation took place with its complete air supremacy. This made it possible to reliably support and cover the advancing troops and inflict heavy damage on enemy aircraft. Thus, during the operation, 124 air battles were carried out, as a result of which 172 enemy aircraft were shot down - 24.4% of the initial composition of his aviation group in this operation.

The Iasi-Kishinev operation is characterized by a skillful choice of the directions of the main attacks of the fronts, a resolute massing of forces and means, high rates of advance, rapid encirclement and liquidation of a large grouping, close interaction of ground forces, aviation and naval forces. As a result of the operation, 126 formations and units were awarded the honorary titles of Chisinau, Iasi, Izmail, Focsani, Rymnik, Constance and others.

By August 1944, a favorable situation had developed for the Soviet troops in the Balkan direction for delivering a decisive blow. The German command in the summer of 1944 transferred 12 divisions from this direction to Belarus and Western Ukraine, thereby weakening the Army Group South Ukraine. Despite this, the German-Romanian command created a powerful defense in depth here, consisting of 3-4 defensive lanes linked to water barriers and hilly terrain. Strong defensive contours encircled many cities and other settlements of Moldova and eastern Romania.
The political situation in Romania by this time had deteriorated sharply. On August 4, 1944, the Romanian conductor Ion Victor Antonescu met with the German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. At this meeting, Hitler assured the Romanian ally that the Wehrmacht would defend Romania as well as Germany. But, in turn, he demanded assurances from Antonescu that, no matter how the circumstances developed, Romania would remain an ally of the Reich and would take over the maintenance of the German troops operating on Romanian territory. However, in Romania itself, dissatisfaction with the Antonescu regime grew more and more. Many no longer believed in the successful development of events for the Axis countries on the fronts and feared the threat of the occupation of Romania by Soviet troops.
The Soviet command believed that the Romanian troops, which were mainly located on the flanks, were less combat-ready than the German ones. Therefore, it was decided to strike the main blow on the flanks in two areas far from each other. The 2nd Ukrainian Front struck northwest of Yass, the 3rd Ukrainian Front - south of Bendery (Suvorov Mountain). At the same time, it was necessary to convince the enemy that the main blow was supposed to be delivered in the tactically more advantageous Chisinau direction. For this purpose, special operational camouflage measures were developed and implemented. Developing the offensive along the directions converging to the Khushi - Vaslui - Falciu area, the fronts were supposed to surround and destroy the main forces of the Southern Ukraine Army Group, and then quickly move deep into Romania. The Black Sea Fleet was to provide fire support to the coastal flank of the Third Ukrainian Front, disrupt the coastal sea communications of Germany and Romania, destroy enemy ships and deliver massive air strikes against the naval bases of Constanta and Sulina.
The Iasi-Kishinev operation began early in the morning on August 20, 1944 with a powerful artillery offensive, the first part of which consisted in suppressing the enemy defenses before the attack of infantry and tanks, and the second in the artillery escort of the attack. At 07:40, the Soviet troops, accompanied by a double barrage of fire, went on the offensive from the Kitskansky bridgehead and from the area west of Yass.
The artillery strike was so strong that the first strip of German defense was completely destroyed.

The offensive was backed up by assault aircraft strikes against the strongest strongholds and firing positions of enemy artillery. The shock groupings of the Second Ukrainian Front broke through the main, and the 27th Army, by the middle of the day, also the second line of defense.
In the offensive zone of the 27th Army, the 6th Panzer Army was introduced into the gap, and in the ranks of the German-Romanian troops, as General Hans Frisner, commander of the Southern Ukraine Army Group, admitted, "incredible chaos began." The German command, trying to stop the advance of Soviet troops in the Yass region, threw three infantry and one tank divisions into counterattacks. But this did not change the situation. On the second day of the offensive, the strike force of the 2nd Ukrainian Front waged a stubborn struggle for the third lane on the Mare ridge, and the 7th Guards Army and the mechanized cavalry group fought for Tirgu Frumos. By the end of August 21, the troops of the front expanded the breakthrough to 65 km along the front and up to 40 km in depth and, having overcome all three defensive lines, captured the cities of Iasi and Tirgu Frumos, thereby taking two powerful fortified areas in the shortest possible time. The 3rd Ukrainian Front was successfully advancing in the southern sector, at the junction of the 6th German and 3rd Romanian armies.
By the end of the second day of the operation, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front isolated the 6th German Army from the 3rd Romanian, closing the encirclement of the 6th German Army near the village of Leuseni. Its commander fled, abandoning his troops. Aviation actively helped the fronts. In two days, Soviet pilots made about 6350 sorties. Aviation of the Black Sea Fleet attacked Romanian and German ships and bases in Constanta and Sulina. German and Romanian troops suffered heavy losses in manpower and military equipment, especially in the main line of defense, and began to hastily retreat. During the first two days of the operation, 7 Romanian and 2 German divisions were completely defeated.
The commander of the Army Group "Southern Ukraine" Frisner, after analyzing in detail the situation after the first day of the offensive of the Soviet troops, realized that the battle was not in favor of the army group and decided to withdraw the troops of the army group behind the Prut and, despite the absence of Hitler's order, brought his order to troops on 21 August. The next day, August 22, he gave permission for the withdrawal of troops from the army group and the General Staff, but it was too late. By that time, the strike groups of the Soviet fronts had already intercepted the main escape routes to the west. The German command overlooked the possibility of encircling its troops in the Chisinau region. On the night of August 22, the sailors of the Danube military flotilla, together with the landing group of the 46th army, successfully crossed the 11-kilometer Dniester estuary, liberated the city of Akkerman and began to develop an offensive in a southwestern direction.
On August 23, the Soviet fronts fought in order to close the encirclement and continue advancing on the outer front. On the same day, the 18th Tank Corps went to the Khushi area, the 7th Mechanized Corps to the crossings over the Prut in the Leushen area, and the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps to Leovo. The 46th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front pushed back the troops of the 3rd Romanian Army to the Black Sea, and on August 24 it ceased resistance. On the same day, ships of the Danube military flotilla landed troops in Zhebriyany - Vilkovo. Also on August 24, the 5th shock army under the command of General N.E. Berzarin occupied Chisinau.
On August 24, the first stage of the strategic operation of two fronts was completed - the breakthrough of the defense and the encirclement of the Iasi-Chisinau group of German-Romanian troops. By the end of the day, Soviet troops advanced 130–140 km. 18 divisions were surrounded. On August 24-26, the Red Army entered Leovo, Cahul, Kotovsk. By August 26, the entire territory of Moldova was occupied by Soviet troops.

The lightning-fast and crushing defeat of the German-Romanian troops near Iasi and Chisinau aggravated the internal political situation in Romania to the limit. The regime of Ion Antonescu lost all support in the country. At the end of July, many top state and military figures of Romania established contact with opposition parties, anti-fascists, communists and began to discuss preparations for the uprising. The rapid development of events at the front hastened the onset of the anti-government uprising, which broke out on August 23 in Bucharest. The young Romanian king Mihai I took the side of the rebels, ordered the arrest of Antonescu and pro-Nazi generals. A new government of Constantin Sănătescu was formed, with the participation of National Caranists, National Liberals, Social Democrats and Communists. The new government announced the withdrawal of Romania from the war on the side of Germany, the acceptance of the terms of peace offered by the allies, and demanded that the German troops leave the country as soon as possible. The German command refused to comply with this demand and made an attempt to suppress the uprising. On the morning of August 24, German aircraft bombarded Bucharest, and in the afternoon the German troops went on the offensive. The new Romanian government declared war on Germany and asked the Soviet Union for help.
The Soviet command sent 50 divisions and the main forces of both air armies deep into Romania to help the uprising, and 34 divisions were left to eliminate the encircled group. By the end of August 27, the group surrounded to the east of the Prut ceased to exist.
By August 28, that part of the German troops was also destroyed, which managed to cross to the western bank of the Prut with the intention of breaking through to the Carpathian passes.
The offensive of the Soviet troops on the external front was growing more and more. The troops of the Second Ukrainian Front developed success in the direction of Northern Transylvania and in the Focsani direction, on August 27 they occupied Focsani and reached the approaches to Ploiesta and Bucharest. Formations of the 46th Army of the Third Ukrainian Front, advancing south along both banks of the Danube, cut off the escape routes of the defeated German troops to Bucharest. The Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Military Flotilla contributed to the advance of the troops, landed troops, and struck with naval aviation. On August 28, the cities of Braila and Sulina were taken, on August 29, the port of Constanta. On this day, the liquidation of the encircled enemy troops west of the Prut River was completed. On this, the Iasi-Kishinev operation ended.

After the successful completion of the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts launched a vigorous offensive in the central part of Romania and on the outskirts of Bulgaria.

On August 29, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command set the task for the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts - to complete the defeat of the Nazis in Romania. The 2nd Ukrainian Front was to develop the offensive in the direction of Turnu Severin with the main forces, occupy the Ploiesti oil-industrial region, clear Bucharest of the remnants of German troops, and by September 7-8 capture the Kampulung, Pitesti, Giurgiu line. In the future, this grouping was supposed to reach the Danube south of Turnu Severin. The troops of the right wing of the front advanced in a northwestern direction with the task of capturing the passes through the Eastern Carpathians and by September 15 reaching the line of Bistrica, Cluj, Sibiu. Then they struck at Satu Mare in order to assist the 4th Ukrainian Front in overcoming the Carpathians and reaching the areas of Uzhgorod and Mukachevo. The troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were to, developing the offensive in their entire zone, occupy Northern Dobruja, force the Danube in the Galati, Izmail sector and reach the Romanian-Bulgarian border by September 5-6.

Fulfilling the directive of the Headquarters, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front inflicted new powerful blows on the enemy. Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the Nazi troops, the 5th Guards Tank Corps of the 6th Tank Army on August 29 defeated them on the eastern outskirts of Ploiesti and broke into the city. By the morning of August 30, by the joint efforts of the corps and the 3rd Guards Airborne Division of the 27th Army, Ploiesti was completely cleared of the Nazis. Together with the Soviet troops, the 18th Romanian Infantry Division, which operated from the front, as well as Romanian units and work detachments blocked by the Nazis in the city, participated in the liberation of Ploiesti. During August 30 and 31, Soviet and Romanian troops defeated the enemy in the valley of the Prakhova River and liberated the entire Ploeshty region. As a result, the threat to Bucharest from the north was eliminated, the Nazi army lost Romanian oil, and the Soviet and Romanian troops were able to quickly move into Transylvania. Regarding the loss of Romanian oil by the Germans, the former Nazi General E. Butlar wrote: “... On August 30, the Russians captured the Ploiesti oil region, despite the stubborn resistance of individual scattered units supported from the air. From a military-economic point of view, this was the heaviest and, one might say, decisive blow for Germany” (249) .

Successfully advanced on Bucharest and two other corps of the 6th Panzer Army. They were followed by the troops of the 53rd Army under the command of General I.M. Managarov, and to the south of it - the 46th Army of General I.T. Shlemin, which was part of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. Their task was to defeat the Nazi units blocking the approaches to Bucharest as quickly as possible, to provide assistance to the rebels, and to save the population from unnecessary victims. The approach of Soviet troops to the city inspired the rebels to a courageous struggle.

Reactionary figures in the Romanian government and outside it understood that the entry of Soviet troops into Bucharest would deal a blow to their anti-popular plans and would be a great moral support to the democratic forces. Therefore, they tried at all costs to prevent this, insisted on stopping the further advance of the Soviet Army deep into Romania, proposing to declare Bucharest, the Ilfov region and the entire western territory of the country a zone where Soviet troops should not enter. With such a proposal, the representative of the Romanian government addressed the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, General F. I. Tolbukhin (250). But the plans of the Romanian reaction were thwarted by the rapid advance of the Soviet troops. The 6th Panzer, 53rd and 46th armies came close to Bucharest and thus ensured the consolidation of the victory of the uprising. By the end of August, the rebels had established complete control in the capital. In total, from August 23 to August 31, over 56 thousand were captured and 5 thousand Nazi soldiers and officers were destroyed (251).

Separate units of the 46th Army passed through the Romanian capital liberated by the patriots on August 29-30. On August 30 and 31, troops of the 6th Panzer and 53rd Soviet armies, as well as units of the 1st Romanian Army, entered Bucharest.

Infantry Volunteer Division named after Tudor Vladimirescu. The population of the capital gave a warm welcome to the Soviet soldiers-liberators and Romanian volunteers. Everywhere there were exclamations: “Hurrah!”, “Long live the Soviet Liberator Army!”. The newspaper “Romania Libere” wrote in those days: “Thousands of flags, a sea of ​​flowers. Cars with soldiers... hardly move. Soldiers are showered with flowers, hugged, kissed, thanked. Many climbed onto Soviet tanks” (252) . The entry of Soviet troops into the Romanian capital contributed to the consolidation of democratic forces and predetermined the failure of the reaction plans to maintain and strengthen their power in the country, to carry out repressions against democratic organizations and the masses.

After the victory of the people's uprising in Romania, the 2nd Ukrainian Front conducted a further offensive together with the Romanian army, which turned its weapons against the Nazis. Interaction and cooperation with it had to be established in difficult conditions direct contact with the enemy. By the beginning of the entry into the war with Germany, Romania had 2 armies, including 9 combat-ready divisions, the remnants of 7 defeated divisions returning from the front, and 21 training divisions. They were poorly armed, had a small amount of artillery and had almost no tanks.

Formations of the 1st Romanian Army, commanded by General N. Machich, covered the border with Hungary and Yugoslavia in the west and northwest. They were at a distance of 200 - 300 km from the Soviet troops. From the remnants of the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies, the 4th army was formed under the command of General G. Avramescu. She received the task of covering the Romanian-Hungarian border in the north.

The fascist German command sought to restore the strategic front that had collapsed under the blows of the Soviet Army, to close the southern flank of Army Group South Ukraine with Army Group F, located in Yugoslavia. It concentrated in Transylvania the remnants of the Southern Ukraine Army Group, as well as the Horthy Hungarian units, intending to launch a surprise attack on the Romanian troops and capture the passes in the Carpathians before the Soviet troops entered there.

On the morning of September 5, five German and Hungarian divisions, supported by tanks and aircraft from the Turda region, suddenly launched an offensive against the 4th Romanian Army, which had just entered this sector and had not yet had time to organize defenses. By the end of September 6, the enemy managed to advance 20-30 km. In the next two days, under his onslaught, the Romanian troops retreated another 20 - 25 km. At the same time, the Nazis launched an offensive against the 1st Romanian Army. On September 6, they crossed the Danube northwest of Turnu Severin and threatened to capture the city of Timisoara and the large industrial center of Resita.

In this difficult situation, by agreement with the government of Romania, the 1st and 4th Romanian armies, the 4th separate army corps and the 1st aviation corps (20 divisions in total) from September 6 came under operational control of the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. By that time, they had 138,073 people, 8159 machine guns, 6500 machine guns, 1809 mortars, 611 guns and 113 serviceable aircraft (253).

Fulfilling the instructions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the front commander immediately sent the 27th and 6th tank armies to defeat the enemy group advancing against the 4th Romanian army. To destroy the enemy forces advancing against the 1st Romanian army, the 53rd army and the 18th tank corps were involved. The actions of these troops were supported by the 5th Air Army, which included the Romanian Aviation Corps.

On September 5, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command ordered the 2nd Ukrainian Front, advancing in a westerly direction, to turn its main forces to the north and northwest and strike at Cluj and Deva, and with the right-flank armies to overcome the Transylvanian Alps and the southern part of the Carpathian ridge. Its general task was to reach the Satu-Mare, Cluj, Deva, Turnu-Severin line and help the 4th Ukrainian Front break through into Transcarpathia. In the future, he was to reach the Tisza River at the Nyiregyhaza, Szeged section (254).

The troops of the front had to advance in extremely difficult conditions. Tanks with difficulty overcame the Carpathian passes. Enemy aircraft continuously bombed the narrow mountain passes. Every kilometer of roads in the Southern Carpathians was watered with sweat and blood by Soviet soldiers. The situation was aggravated by the provocations of the Romanian reaction, which in September-December 1944 carried out criminal acts of terrorism against Soviet servicemen. But no difficulties could stop the Soviet soldiers rushing to the aid of the Romanian troops. The troops of the 6th Panzer Army, having overcome the mountain range, reached the Sibiu region on September 7th. The Soviet and Romanian soldiers repulsed the enemy's counterattacks by joint efforts and went on the offensive. Particularly stubborn battles flared up in the area of ​​​​the city of Turda.

The Soviet Union gave the Romanian people every possible support in the field of foreign policy as well. This was expressed primarily in the development of humane terms of the Armistice Agreement with Romania, which was signed on September 12 in Moscow. The main provisions of the Agreement provided for the elimination of fascism in Romania and ensured its democratic and independent development, created the conditions for the fastest liberation of the country from the Nazis. The Soviet-Romanian border was restored in accordance with the Agreement between the USSR and Romania of June 28, 1940, and the “Viennese arbitration” on Northern Transylvania was annulled. The Romanian government undertook to send at least 12 infantry divisions with reinforcements to participate in the war against fascist Germany and Hungary under the general leadership of the allied (Soviet) command. The armistice agreement was met with satisfaction by the Rumanian people and the democratic forces of the world.

To control the fulfillment of the terms of the armistice, the Allied Control Commission in Romania (JCC) was created, consisting of representatives of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (255) under the chairmanship of Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky (256) .

Meanwhile, the forces of the front, continuing the offensive, fought fierce battles with the stubbornly defending enemy troops. By September 15, with the efforts of the 27th and 6th Guards (257) tank armies and the 4th Romanian army, the enemy was driven back to their original positions. The troops reached the defensive line, passing along the rivers Muresh and Ariesh. Under their pressure, the German-Hungarian formations in a number of sectors began to leave their positions and retreat into the depths of the defense. The 53rd Army and the 18th Tank Corps, which advanced into the defense zone of the 1st Romanian Army, by the end of September 12, advanced formations advanced to the Petrosheni area and to Turnu-Severin. Acting ahead, the 18th Panzer Corps captured the areas of Brad and Deva. The troops of the 53rd Army, having overcome the Transylvanian Alps, reached these areas three days ahead of schedule. They defeated the advanced units of the enemy and seized a bridgehead for the deployment of army and front forces in the Hungarian plain. Having repulsed the enemy's fierce attacks, the Soviet and Romanian troops thwarted his attempts to capture the passes.

The successful actions of the main forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the Southern Carpathians endangered the entire group of German-Hungarian troops with a powerful flank attack. However, in mid-September the fascist German command succeeded in concentrating 27 divisions here, including 6 tank and motorized divisions, and for some time restored a continuous line of defense here. In the second half of September, stubborn battles continued in this sector, especially in Northern Transylvania.

Reinforcing its troops in the area of ​​Cluj, Turda with two tank divisions and two Hungarian mountain rifle brigades, the Nazi command organized powerful counterattacks against the 27th, 6th Guards Tank and 4th Romanian armies. The further advance of the Soviet-Romanian troops in this direction was delayed.

The situation on the left wing of the front was different. Here, the troops of the 53rd Army, in cooperation with the 1st Romanian Army, developing an offensive to the northwest, liberated the cities of Arad and Beyush and on September 22 reached the Romanian-Hungarian border. On September 23, formations of the 18th Tank Corps under the command of General P.D. Govorunenko and the 243rd Infantry Division of Colonel H.N.

During the offensive, which continued continuously for a month, the arsenal of combat experience of the Soviet troops was significantly replenished. Much valuable and instructive material has also appeared in party political work. On September 20, 1944, the Military Council of the 2nd Ukrainian Front summed up its results for the period of the Iasi-Kishinev operation and the subsequent offensive in Romania. The adopted resolution noted that party political work in the troops had improved significantly: the personal responsibility of commanders and political workers for the task assigned had increased; increased attention to the ideological and theoretical training of officers. Members of military councils, commanders of formations and heads of political agencies began to speak to them more often with reports on military and political topics. More concern was shown for the officers to master the skills of political education of the personnel. “Improvement of educational work,” the resolution of the Military Council emphasized, “provided a high offensive impulse of the personnel, strengthening military discipline, order and organization in the units” (258) .

In September, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (259) advanced west and northwest from 300 to 500 km, frustrated the plans of the Nazi command to stabilize the front on the line of the Southern Carpathians, liberated the western regions of Romania, cleared part of Northern Transylvania from the enemy and reached the borders Yugoslavia and Hungary. Their offensive was still carried out in close cooperation with the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front (260), the forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube military flotilla, which at that time were from Dobruja and southeastern regions Romania undertook a liberation campaign in Bulgaria.

By October 5, 1944, two Romanian armies fought together with the Soviet troops - 23 divisions (including the division named after Tudor Vladimirescu), a separate motorized regiment and one aviation corps. After October 16, 17 divisions remained in the Romanian troops at the front, which were poorly equipped and felt a lack of weapons and military equipment. The remaining formations were withdrawn to the rear (261).

In October 1944, Romania was completely liberated from the Nazis. On October 25, units of the 40th Army of General F.F. Zhmachenko and the 4th Romanian Army under the command of General G. Avramescu liquidated the last enemy strongholds in the country - they expelled him from the cities of Satu Mare and Carei.

For about seven months, from the end of March 1944, the Soviet Army fought for the liberation of Romania. Of decisive importance in achieving this goal was the Iasi-Kishinev operation, which led to the liquidation of a large group of Nazis and created favorable conditions for the overthrow of the fascist regime and the expulsion of the Nazi troops from the country. During the battles for the liberation of the Romanian people from fascism, the Soviet Army inflicted huge losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and military equipment. The Nazis lost Romanian oil and other important sources of raw materials.

Carrying out the liberation mission in Romania, the Soviet soldiers showed high combat skills and mass heroism. Only in August - October 1944, more than 50 thousand soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals for military merit. Over 150 units and formations received honorary titles. The liberation of Romania was achieved at the cost of great sacrifices. From March to October 1944, more than 286 thousand Soviet soldiers shed their blood on Romanian soil, of which 69 thousand people died. During the fighting, the Soviet troops lost here 2083 guns and mortars, 2249 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts and 528 aircraft (262). The losses of the Romanian troops in the fight against the Nazis from August 23 to October 30 amounted to more than 58.3 thousand people killed, wounded and missing (263).

The great merits of the Soviet Army in the liberation of the Romanian people are mentioned in many documents of the Romanian Communist Party. “The Romanian people,” it is emphasized in the greetings of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania and the government of Romania on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Victory over fascism, “feel deep gratitude to the Soviet people, their glorious Armed Forces, which, under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, displaying brilliant heroism and cost enormous sacrifices, bore the brunt of the war on their shoulders, made a decisive contribution to the defeat of fascist Germany and provided invaluable assistance in the liberation of Romania and other countries and peoples from Hitlerite domination” (264) .

The liberation of Romania and the withdrawal of Soviet troops to the borders of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Hungary predetermined the question of the speedy and complete expulsion of the Nazis from all the Balkan countries. The successes of the Soviet Army provided tremendous military and moral support to the peoples of the Balkans in their struggle against the Nazi invaders.

In the course of the struggle against the Nazis in Romania, the military commonwealth of the Soviet and Romanian troops developed and withstood the first test, and the friendship between the peoples of the USSR and Romania was sealed with blood shed together.

rout Soviet Army Nazi troops and the victory of the anti-fascist national armed uprising in Romania allowed the Romanian people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, to follow the path of building a new life.

Iasi-Kishinev operation, also known as Iasi-Chisinau Cannes(August 20 - 29, 1944) - strategic military operation The armed forces of the USSR against Nazi Germany and Romania during the Great Patriotic War, with the aim of defeating a large German-Romanian group that covered the Balkan direction, the liberation of Moldova and the withdrawal of Romania from the war. Considered as one of the most successful Soviet operations during the Great Patriotic War, it is one of the so-called "Stalin's Ten Strikes".

The situation before the operation

By August 1944, a favorable situation had developed for the Soviet troops in the Balkan direction for delivering a decisive blow. In the summer of 1944, the German command transferred 12 divisions from this direction to Belarus and Western Ukraine, thereby weakening the Southern Ukraine Army Group. Despite this, the German-Romanian command created a powerful defense in depth here, consisting of 3-4 defensive lanes linked to water barriers and hilly terrain. Strong defensive contours encircled many cities and other settlements of Moldova and eastern Romania.

The political situation in Romania by this time was difficult. On August 4, 1944, the Romanian leader Ion Antonescu met with Hitler. At this meeting, Hitler assured the Romanian ally that the Wehrmacht would defend Romania as well as Germany. But, in turn, he demanded assurances from Antonescu that, no matter how the circumstances developed, Romania would remain an ally of the Reich and would take over the maintenance of the German troops operating on Romanian territory. However, in Romania itself, dissatisfaction with the Antonescu regime grew more and more. Many no longer believed in the successful development of events for the Axis countries on the fronts and feared the threat of the occupation of Romania by Soviet troops.

The Soviet command believed that the Romanian troops, which were mainly located on the flanks, were less combat-ready than the German ones. Therefore, it was decided to strike the main blow on the flanks in two areas far from each other. The 2nd Ukrainian Front struck northwest of Yass, the 3rd Ukrainian Front - south of Bendery (Suvorov Mountain). At the same time, it was necessary to convince the enemy that the main blow was supposed to be delivered in the tactically more advantageous Chisinau direction. For this purpose, special operational camouflage measures were developed and implemented. Developing the offensive along the directions converging to the Khushi-Vaslui-Falciu area, the fronts were supposed to surround and destroy the main forces of the Southern Ukraine Army Group, and then quickly move deep into Romania. The Black Sea Fleet was to provide fire support to the coastal flank of the Third Ukrainian Front, disrupt the coastal sea communications of Germany and Romania, destroy enemy ships and deliver massive air strikes against the naval bases of Constanta and Sulin.

balance of power

USSR

• 2nd Ukrainian Front (commander R. Ya. Malinovsky). It included the 27th Army, 40th Army, 52nd Army, 53rd Army, 4th Guards Army, 7th Guards Army, 6th Tank Army, 18th Separate Tank Corps and Cavalry Mechanized Group. Air support for the front was provided by the 5th Air Army.
• 3rd Ukrainian Front (commander F. I. Tolbukhin). It included the 37th Army, 46th Army, 57th Army, 5th Shock Army, 7th Mechanized Corps, 4th Guards Mechanized Corps. Air support for the front was provided by the 17th Air Army, which included 2,200 aircraft.
• The Black Sea Fleet (commander F.S. Oktyabrsky), which also included the Danube military flotilla. The fleet consisted of 1 battleship, 4 cruisers, 6 destroyers, 30 submarines and 440 ships of other classes. The Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet consisted of 691 aircraft.

Germany and Romania

• Army Group "Southern Ukraine" (commander G. Frisner). It included the 6th German Army, the 8th German Army, the 3rd Romanian Army, the 4th Romanian Army and the 17th Army German Corps - a total of 25 German, 22 Romanian divisions and 5 Romanian brigades. Air support for the troops was provided by the 4th Air Fleet, which included 810 German and Romanian aircraft.

The Iasi-Chisinau operation began early in the morning on August 20, 1944 with a powerful artillery offensive, the first part of which consisted in suppressing enemy defenses before an attack by infantry and tanks, and the second - in artillery escort of the attack. At 07:40, the Soviet troops, accompanied by a double barrage of fire, went on the offensive from the Kitskansky bridgehead and from the area west of Yass.

The artillery strike was so strong that the first strip of German defense was completely destroyed. Here is how one of the participants in those battles describes the state of the German defense in his memoirs:

The offensive was backed up by assault aircraft strikes against the strongest strongholds and firing positions of enemy artillery. The shock groupings of the Second Ukrainian Front broke through the main, and the 27th Army, by the middle of the day, also the second line of defense.

In the offensive zone of the 27th Army, the 6th Panzer Army was introduced into the gap, and in the ranks of the German-Romanian troops, as General Hans Frisner, commander of the Southern Ukraine Army Group, admitted, "incredible chaos began." The German command, trying to stop the advance of Soviet troops in the Yass region, threw three infantry and one tank divisions into counterattacks. But this did not change the situation. On the second day of the offensive, the strike force of the 2nd Ukrainian Front waged a stubborn struggle for the third lane on the Mare ridge, and the 7th Guards Army and the mechanized cavalry group fought for Tirgu Frumos. By the end of August 21, the troops of the front expanded the breakthrough to 65 km along the front and up to 40 km in depth and, having overcome all three defensive lines, captured the cities of Iasi and Tirgu Frumos, thereby taking two powerful fortified areas in the shortest possible time. The 3rd Ukrainian Front was successfully advancing in the southern sector, at the junction of the 6th German and 3rd Romanian armies.

On August 20, during a breakthrough, Sergeant Alexander Shevchenko distinguished himself in the battles in the Tirgu Frumos area. The advance of his company was in jeopardy due to enemy fire from the bunker. Attempts to suppress the bunker with artillery fire from closed firing positions did not bring success. Then Shevchenko rushed to the embrasure and closed it with his body, opening the way for the assault group. For the accomplished feat, Shevchenko was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On August 21, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command issued a directive according to which it was necessary "by the combined efforts of the two fronts to quickly close the encirclement ring of the enemy in the Khushi area, and then narrow this ring in order to destroy or capture the Chisinau enemy grouping."

By the end of the second day of the operation, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front isolated the 6th German Army from the 3rd Romanian, closing the encirclement of the 6th German Army near the village of Leuseni. Its commander fled, abandoning his troops. Aviation actively helped the fronts. In two days, Soviet pilots made about 6350 sorties. Aviation of the Black Sea Fleet attacked Romanian and German ships and bases in Constanta and Sulina. German and Romanian troops suffered heavy losses in manpower and military equipment, especially in the main line of defense, and began to hastily retreat. During the first two days of the operation, 7 Romanian and 2 German divisions were completely defeated.

The commander of the Army Group "Southern Ukraine" Frisner, after analyzing in detail the situation after the first day of the offensive of the Soviet troops, realized that the battle was not in favor of the army group and decided to withdraw the troops of the army group behind the Prut and, despite the absence of Hitler's order, brought his order to troops on 21 August. The next day, August 22, he gave permission for the withdrawal of troops from the army group and the General Staff, but it was too late. By that time, the strike groups of the Soviet fronts had already intercepted the main escape routes to the west. The German command overlooked the possibility of encircling its troops in the Chisinau region. On the night of August 22, the sailors of the Danube military flotilla, together with the landing group of the 46th army, successfully crossed the 11-kilometer Dniester estuary, liberated the city of Akkerman and began to develop an offensive in a southwestern direction.

Distinguished in battles:

• for the capture of the city of Bendery - the troops of Lieutenant General Hagen, Major General Shkodunovich, Major General Kruse; artillerymen Major General of Artillery Balaev and Colonel Kovalev; pilots of Colonel-General of Aviation Sudets.
• for the capture of the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (Akkerman) - the troops of Lieutenant General Shlemin, Lieutenant General Bakhtin, Colonel Nikitin, Colonel Vlasov, Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov; gunners Major General of Artillery Alekseenko; pilots of Lieutenant General of Aviation Yermachenkov; sailors of Rear Admiral Gorshkov, Captain 1st Rank Davydov, Major Grigoriev; sappers of Colonel-General Kotlyar, Colonel Nominas, Colonel Puzyrevsky.

On August 23, the Soviet fronts fought in order to close the encirclement and continue advancing on the outer front. On the same day, the 18th Tank Corps went to the Khushi area, the 7th Mechanized Corps to the crossings over the Prut in the Leushen area, and the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps to Leovo. The 46th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front pushed back the troops of the 3rd Romanian Army to the Black Sea, and on August 24 it ceased resistance. On the same day, ships of the Danube military flotilla landed troops in Zhebriyany - Vilkovo. Also on August 24, the 5th shock army under the command of General N.E. Berzarin occupied Chisinau.

On August 24, the first stage of the strategic operation of two fronts was completed - the breakthrough of the defense and the encirclement of the Iasi-Chisinau group of German-Romanian troops. By the end of the day, Soviet troops advanced 130-140 km. 18 divisions were surrounded. On August 24-26, the Red Army entered Leovo, Cahul, Kotovsk. By August 26, the entire territory of Moldova was occupied by Soviet troops.

In the battles for the liberation of Moldova, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to more than 140 fighters and commanders. Six Soviet soldiers became full holders of the Order of Glory: G. Alekseenko, A. Vinogradov, A. Gorskin, F. Dineev, A. Karasev and S. Skiba.

Coup d'état in Romania. The defeat of the encircled group

The lightning-fast and crushing defeat of the German-Romanian troops near Iasi and Chisinau aggravated the internal political situation in Romania to the limit. The regime of Ion Antonescu lost all support in the country. At the end of July, many top state and military figures of Romania established contact with opposition parties, anti-fascists, communists and began to discuss preparations for the uprising. The rapid development of events at the front hastened the onset of the anti-government uprising, which broke out on August 23 in Bucharest. King Mihai I took the side of the rebels, ordered the arrest of Antonescu and pro-Nazi generals. A new government of Constantin Sănătescu was formed, with the participation of National Caranists, National Liberals, Social Democrats and Communists. The new government announced the withdrawal of Romania from the war on the side of Germany, the acceptance of the terms of peace offered by the allies, and demanded that the German troops leave the country as soon as possible. The German command refused to comply with this demand and made an attempt to suppress the uprising. On the morning of August 24, German aircraft bombarded Bucharest, and in the afternoon the German troops went on the offensive. The new Romanian government declared war on Germany and asked the Soviet Union for help.

The Soviet command sent 50 divisions and the main forces of both air armies deep into Romania to help the uprising, and 34 divisions were left to eliminate the encircled group. By the end of August 27, the group surrounded to the east of the Prut ceased to exist.

By August 28, that part of the German troops was also destroyed, which managed to cross to the western bank of the Prut with the intention of breaking through to the Carpathian passes.

The offensive of the Soviet troops on the external front was growing more and more. The troops of the Second Ukrainian Front developed success in the direction of Northern Transylvania and in the Focsani direction, on August 27 they occupied Focsani and reached the approaches to Ploiesta and Bucharest. Formations of the 46th Army of the Third Ukrainian Front, advancing south along both banks of the Danube, cut off the escape routes of the defeated German troops to Bucharest. The Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Military Flotilla contributed to the advance of the troops, landed troops, and struck with naval aviation. On August 28, the cities of Braila and Sulina were taken, on August 29, the port of Constanta. On this day, the liquidation of the encircled enemy troops west of the Prut River was completed. On this, the Iasi-Kishinev operation ended.

The meaning and consequences of the operation

The Iasi-Kishinev operation had big influence on the further course of the war in the Balkans. During it, the main forces of the Southern Ukraine Army Group were defeated, Romania was withdrawn from the war, the Moldavian SSR and the Izmail region of the Ukrainian SSR were liberated. Although by the end of August most of Romania was still in the hands of the Germans and the pro-Nazi Romanian forces, they were no longer able to organize powerful defensive lines in the country. On August 31, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Bucharest, occupied by the Romanian rebels. The battles for Romania continued until the end of October 1944. On September 12, 1944, in Moscow, the Soviet government, on behalf of the allies - the USSR, Great Britain and the USA - signed an armistice agreement with Romania.

The Iasi-Chisinau operation entered the history of military art as the "Iasi-Chisinau Cannes". It was characterized by a skillful choice of directions for the main attacks of the fronts, a high rate of advance, rapid encirclement and liquidation of a large enemy grouping, and close interaction of all types of troops. As a result of the operation, 126 formations and units were awarded the honorary titles of Chisinau, Iasi, Izmail, Foksha, Rymnik, Constance and others. During the operation, Soviet troops lost 12.5 thousand people, while German and Romanian troops lost 18 divisions. 208,600 German and Romanian soldiers and officers were captured.

Restoration of Moldova

Immediately after the completion of the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the post-war restoration of the economy of Moldova began, for which 448 million rubles were allocated from the USSR budget in 1944-45. The socialist transformations, begun in 1940 and interrupted by the Romanian invasion, also continued. By September 19, 1944, with the help of the population, the Red Army restored railway communication and bridges across the Dniester, blown up by the retreating German-Romanian troops. The industry was resurrected. In 1944-45 Moldova received equipment from 22 large enterprises. 226 collective farms in the left-bank regions and 60 state farms were restored. The peasantry received, mainly from Russia, a seed loan, a large cattle, horses, etc. However, the consequences of the war and drought, while maintaining the system of compulsory state grain procurements, led to mass starvation and a sharp increase in mortality.

The most significant assistance to Moldova provided to the Red Army was the replenishment of its ranks with volunteers. After the successful completion of the Iasi-Kishinev operation, 256.8 thousand inhabitants of the republic went to the front. Importance the work of Moldovan enterprises for the needs of the army also had.

Memory

• The name of the Hero of the Soviet Union, participant of the Yassko-Kishinev operation Alexei Belsky in 1970 was named after the street on Botanica. After the collapse of the USSR, this street was named Cuza-Voda in honor of the sovereign, who united the Moldavian principality with Wallachia. In 2011, on the initiative of the residents of Cuza-Voda (Belskoy) street in Chisinau, the League of Russian Youth of the Republic of Moldova collected and handed over 5,000 signatures to the Mayor of Chisinau in support of returning the street to its former name. Subsequently, the initiative of the youth movement was supported by about 30 public organizations and political parties, including Bashkan of Gagauzia Mihail Formuzal, PCRM, Party of Patriots of Moldova, PSRM, PSDM, Third Force Party, NSPM, Russian Community of Moldova, Community of Ukrainians of Moldova and many others. Also, the participants of the round tables “68 years of the liberation of Chisinau” and “The liberation of Moldova from the fascist invaders: 68 years later” addressed the municipal council with an appeal to return the name of the street. Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca promised to consider this issue.
• On August 25, 2012, in the village of Malinovskoe, Ryshkansky district, named after the Hero of the USSR Rodion Malinovsky, events were held dedicated to the anniversary of the Iasi-Chisinau operation.