Operation Jassy-Kishinev

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Operation Jassy-Kishinev
The major Soviet attack on August 20, 1944
The major Soviet attack on August 20, 1944
date August 20-29, 1944
place Eastern Romania
output Decisive Soviet victory
Parties to the conflict

Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Soviet Union Romania (23-29 August)
Romania kingdomRomania 

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire Romania (August 20-23)
Romania kingdomRomania 

Commander

Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky Fyodor Tolbuchin Michael I.
Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union
Romania kingdomRomania

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) Johannes Frießner Maximilian Fretter-Pico Ion Antonescu Petre Dumitrescu
German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era)
Romania kingdomRomania
Romania kingdomRomania

Troop strength
Soviet Union :
1,314,200 men
16,000 guns
1,870 tanks
2,200 aircraft
German Empire :
Army Group South Ukraine
Romania :
1,224,691 men (40 divisions)
170 tanks
800 aircraft
losses

Soviet Union :
13,197 fallen and missing
53,933 wounded and sick
111 aircraft

German Empire :
approx. 100,000 killed
115,000 prisoners
Romania :
8,305 killed
24,989 wounded
170,000 prisoners and missing
25 aircraft

The Jassy-Kishinev Offensive ( Russian Ясско-Кишинёвская Операция / Jassko-Kischinjowskaja Operazija ) refers to the Soviet major attack of 20 August 1944, the territory of the former Bessarabia and today's Moldova between the cities of Iasi and Chisinau . It was one of the great Soviet offensive operations of 1944 and consisted of a large-scale containment operation. In this way, Soviet troops conquered large parts of Romania in a few days and wiped out the opposing German armies in a cauldron battle . During the battle, the German 6th Army was largely crushed after it got into a boiler southwest of Kishinev. Parts of the 8th Army were able to retreat to Hungary via the Carpathian Mountains . For the German side, the dimensions of the military catastrophe corresponded to that of the defeat of Stalingrad .

introduction

After the defeat of the German Reich had emerged from the spring of 1943, the Romanian opposition leaders Constantin Brătianu and Iuliu Maniu began secret negotiations with the Western Allies for a separate peace . With a similar intention, ex-prime minister Gheorghe Tătărescu took up secret contacts with the Soviet Union. When Soviet troops had thrown the southern German army group back to the Romanian border by April 1944, Minister of State Mihai Antonescu began hastily secret negotiations with the Soviets about neutral Sweden. In mid-August 1944, Maniu informed the Western Allies of the intention to overthrow Marshal Ion Antonescu and to accept an armistice immediately after taking power.

On July 25, 1944, Colonel General Johannes Frießner had received the supreme command of the Army Group in Southern Ukraine . He had orders to keep Romania's troops on the side of the German Reich and to secure Romania's oil fields, which were important for the war economy. After the Army Group was annihilated in June / July 1944, no major Soviet attacks were suspected in the section of Army Group South Ukraine. The OKW even assumed that the Soviet troops would withdraw their forces and, in turn, withdrew several divisions from the Army Group in Romania by July 13, including the only powerful XXXX. Panzer Corps with the 14th and 23rd Panzer Divisions .

Preparations

The Soviet operation was preceded by an attack order from the Stawka in early 1944 to eliminate Romania and Bulgaria from the war. The line of the front projecting far to the east invited the Soviet troops to encompass and destroy the enemy groups from two sides. In the former Bessarabia, the German-Romanian line of defense along the bank of the Dniester was heavily fortified with trenches and positions down to a depth of five kilometers. In the event of a retreat, another battle line had been built inland, but it consisted only of a trench on the bank of the steppe river Kogälnik.

On the front in Bessarabia between the Bukovina and the Black Sea , 1,250,000 soldiers, 16,000 artillery pieces, 1,870 tanks and 2,200 aircraft of the Red Army and around 900,000 German and Romanian soldiers, 7,600 artillery pieces, 400 tanks and 810 aircraft stood in line in August 1944 facing a largely calm front line . The 1st Romanian Volunteer Infantry Division "Tudor Vladimirescu" fought on the Soviet side . The Red Sea Fleet under Admiral Oktjabrski had to support the left wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front during the attack. The actions of the two participating Soviet army fronts were coordinated by the present representative of the High Command, Marshal Tymoshenko .

Troops involved

Red Army

2nd Ukrainian Front (General Malinowski )

3rd Ukrainian Front (General Tolbuchin )

Wehrmacht and Romanians

Johannes Friessner

Army Group South Ukraine (Colonel General Johannes Frießner )

Western Army Group Wöhler

  • Reserve: 10th Panzer Grenadier Division and 153rd Field Training Division

8th Army (General of the Infantry Otto Wöhler )

Romanian 4th Army (General Ioan Racoviță )

Eastern Army Group Dumitrescu

6th Army ( General of the Artillery Maximilian Fretter-Pico )

Romanian 3rd Army (Colonel General Petre Dumitrescu )

course

The Soviet attacks began in the morning hours of August 20, 1944 with almost two hours of artillery fire from around 16,000 guns and launchers. The artillery commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Colonel General Fomin let the fire work continuously for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and Colonel General Nedelin of the 3rd Ukrainian Front for 1 hour and 45 minutes. The Red Army concentrated its artillery on the front line, which was several hundred kilometers long, and specifically those sections of the front were selected on which the less powerful Romanian units were located. The concentration per kilometer averaged about 260-280 guns and mortars. The breakthroughs were only 5 to 8 kilometers wide because of the heavily fortified defensive positions. Due to the concentration of troops at the narrow breakthroughs, the attackers' superiority was five times that of soldiers, seven times that of guns and ten times that of tanks.

The 2nd Ukrainian Front under General Malinowski concentrated its breakthrough wedge on the right wing between Sereth and Pruth against the area north-west of Jassy held by the Romanian 4th Army , while only a local breakthrough was sought on the left wing along the Raut to bind enemy forces. On the eastern 3rd Ukrainian Front attacking the Dniester under General Tolbuchin, three armies were deployed simultaneously from the southern bridgehead at Tiraspol . while only a diversionary attack was carried out from the Butor bridgehead near Grigoriopol . After the breakthrough with the armored forces, both wedges had to screw in and encircle the bulk of the German 6th Army, which was located in the middle. The XVII. Army Corps , on the left wing of the German 8th Army, which was responsible for securing the Carpathian passes east of Máramarossziget (Sighetu Marmației) in the Radautz - Kimpolung area , was initially spared the Russian attacks.

Combat section northwest of Jassy

After the two-hour artillery strike, the infantry attack of the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front followed from 6.30 a.m. The Soviet 27th and 52nd Army and the 6th Panzer Army , which was introduced later, broke through the right wing of the Kirchner Corps Group (Romanian V Corps) and the left wing of the Mieth Corps Group (Romanian VI and IV Corps) at a width of about 25 kilometers . . After the Romanian units had offered no resistance and had quickly retreated, the German 76th Infantry Division (Major General Abraham ) saw itself encompassed on both sides, suffered heavy losses at Letcani and had to retreat across the Bahlui River .

The 7th Guard Army broke through on the right wing via Tupilatsi south to Târgu Frumos . The front of the 79th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Weinknecht ) initially held, but had to build a hook position on the left wing from Stanca south to Jassy and go back to Cucuteni because of the threat behind.

The German IV Corps (corps group Mieth) tried to keep the still open Prut crossings to the west at Kostuleni and Sbiroja open for the eastern parts of the 6th Army. After the breakthrough was achieved, the motorized Soviet troops, especially with tanks, immediately pushed deep into the interior to reach the Prut near Husi. On the evening of August 20, the front of the Wöhler Army Group between Pruth and Sereth was torn open to a width of 30 kilometers and a depth of 16 kilometers, the connection between the LVII. Panzer Corps and the IV Army Corps had been lost. On August 21, the 52nd Army (Lieutenant General Korotejew) who had followed them occupied Jassy. On the same day the mechanical cavalry group Gorshkov (5th Guards Cavalry Corps and 23rd Panzer Corps) was led into battle to lead the advance on Roman .

Breakthrough southwest of Tiraspol

The artillery strike of the 3rd Ukrainian Front started a little earlier on August 20, around 4:00 a.m. After 50 minutes, the first infantry attacks took place over a width of 30 kilometers, initially by the German XXX. Army Corps (15th and 306th Divisions) could be beaten. From 7.45 a.m. to 9.30 a.m., the massive barrage of the Soviets started again, which was also massively supported by air strikes by the attack aircraft. With the last impacts, the massed infantry attack of the Soviet 37th and 57th Armies followed right behind the fire roller . The right wing of the 15th Infantry Division (Major General Sperl ) collapsed quickly and was pushed back on Kauschany. The section of the German 306th Infantry Division and the Romanian 4th Mountain Division (Major General Gheorghe Manoiliu) was overrun by the Soviet 66th Rifle Corps under Major General Kupriyanov. A counter-attack by the 13th Panzer Division (Lieutenant General Tröger ), to which the 306th Infantry Division was also tactically subordinated, was unsuccessful. The 15th Division had to retreat to the area west of Grigojewka.

After the breakthrough in the main attack section, General Tolbuchin led the 4th Guards Mechanical Corps (General VI Zhdanov) on August 21 at around 10 a.m. to pursue the enemy in the direction of Tarutino. Around 4 p.m., the 37th Army was also reinforced by the introduction of the 7th mechanical corps (General FG Katkow ), which took the lead in the direction of Gurogalbina. The 306th Infantry Division tried on the line Tokus - Opatsch a catchment position for the further east also cut off parts of the XXIX. Army Corps (Lieutenant General Bechtoldsheim) to keep open.

At the Dniester estuary, the amphibious group under Lieutenant General AN Bakhtin also carried out a landing operation on August 22nd. Two groups were landed on either side of Akkerman in order to conquer the city, then proceed in a southwest direction to the steppe river Kogilnik to establish the union with the 46th Army and thus cut off the entire Romanian 3rd Army. On August 23, the remnants of the 13th Panzer Division and the 306th Infantry Division fought their way back towards Comrat . The rescued staff of the XXIX. Army corps under General Bechtoldsheim took over the leadership of all remaining formations and tried to escape from Leowa and Cahul over the Prut to Bârlad . The 13th Panzer Division held a small bridgehead on the eastern bank near the village of Falciu as they retreated.

Kishinev cauldron battle

On the morning of August 22nd, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts were advancing, while the Wehrmacht's operational reserves had already been used up. By the end of the day, the entire mass of German troops in the area from Jassy to Kishinev was enclosed. The Raut section and the Dniester between Dubossary and Bender had been held at a width of 120 kilometers by the 5th Guard Army alone, now Bersarin's troops were advancing on Kishinev to tighten the German units. On the evening of August 22nd, the 4th Guard Army (Galanin) had pushed the German VII Army Corps to the south and occupied the Prut crossings near Ungeni and Kostuleni. The 7th Guard Army, operating separately to the west, had meanwhile conquered Târgu Frumos and crossed the Sereth River to the west. The mechanical cavalry group Gorshkov had taken Roman and headed further south to Bacau .

In the early morning of August 23, the reserves of the 10th Panzer Grenadier Division arrived at Vaslui and encountered superior Soviet armored forces at Sloesti. Lieutenant General Schmidt broke off the hopeless battle and was pushed off by opposing forces on Husi and Crasna. The 73rd Rifle Corps of the 52nd Army took the small town of Husi on that day, and remnants of the German IV and VII Corps pushed southwards were surrounded by Stalinesti. The Soviet 37th and 57th Armies had advanced north of it further west in the direction via Gurogalbina to the Prut in order to close the pocket in the Kishinew area. After the withdrawal order issued by Colonel General Friessner, the German troops returned to the Prut and gave up Kishinev. Troops of the Soviet 5th Shock Army occupied the city and made contact with the 57th Army, which had meanwhile cleared the Dnjestrufer near Bendery . On the other bank of the Prut, considerable parts of the German IV Army Corps had been pushed aside north and south of Husi. On the same day the 7th Mechanized Corps reached the River Pruth at Leuzeni and took a defensive position. The Soviet 6th Panzer Army had encircled Vaslui after a 45 km deep breakthrough to the south and reached Bârlad . The main thrust was directed in a southerly direction towards Focşani with the aim of cutting off the Germans every opportunity to retreat between Sereth and Pruth.

On August 24th the connection to the 52nd Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front was established, the ring around the German VII., XXXXIV., LII., And XXX. Army corps firmly closed. Soviet bombers and low-flying aircraft intervened in the fighting with up to 2,000 daily missions. They caused heavy losses in the columns of the retreating German troops. Major General Blümke , commander of the 257th Infantry Division , was seriously wounded in a low-flying attack on August 24th and was taken prisoner .

On August 25th and 26th, the mass of the 6th Army enclosed between Kishinev - Lopushina - Oneschty - Sarata Galbina was in continuous Soviet fire and in complete dissolution. In a hopeless escape, thousands of German soldiers tried to save themselves through the river to the west on the Prut, as the Red Army had occupied the crossings during their rapid advance or had already destroyed the bridges. The commanders of the enclosed 292nd and 384th Infantry Divisions , General von Eichstedt and de Salengre , fell in the unsuccessful attempt to break out . The commander of the 302nd Infantry Division, General von Bogen , got along with the commanding general of the XXX. Corps, General Postel in Soviet captivity. The evacuation of the encircled enemy on the left bank of the Prut River was completed by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front by August 29th. Only about 10,000 soldiers had managed to break through to the southwest and reach the area north of Adjud . Units of the 7th Guards Army and the 23rd Panzer Corps were sent to pursue them, the destruction of these remaining groups was completed by September 4th.

Finale

In Romania, three days after the start of the Soviet offensive, a coup took place on August 23, 1944 , in which Marshal Antonescu was arrested and the Romanian army switched sides. This coup had already been planned several months earlier, for which negotiations had taken place with the Allied powers. The German army mission in Romania saw itself almost completely taken by surprise, but tried by force to assert itself in Bucharest . On August 26, the air force units under General der Flieger Gerstenberg and Stahel north of Bucharest were surrounded by Romanian troops, and control of the economically important oil fields of Ploiesti was lost.

Units of the Soviet 40th Army began their attack on August 24th against the positions of the intact XVII. Army Corps. Together with the 7th Guard Army, the German positions between the Sereth and Bistritz rivers were taken. Troops of the 7th Guards Army stormed Bacau and the 40th Army took Targu Neamt one.

The Soviet 6th Panzer Army overcame the approaches to Tecuci and was able to occupy Focșani on August 27 . The 27th Army behind it secured Bârlad. Tolbuchin's troops took the port cities of Brăila and Sulina on August 28 and attacked the port city of Constanța on August 29, together with the Black Sea Fleet . The 46th Army followed the Danube at Galați . The following day mobile forces of the 53rd Army reached the Romanian capital Bucharest , where on August 31 the general entry of the Red Army took place.

The Combat Group Winkler (Flak Regiment 12 and supply units ), which was still organized by the defunct German Army Group, stood in the northwestern part of Bacău until the evening of August 30 and kept the route of retreat through the Buzău Valley open the following day . This mission enabled at least the rear units to move over the Szekler tip to Transylvania . The Wöhler Army Group built a first new front there with intact and retreating troops, but this only lasted for a short time. After the 3rd Ukrainian Front marched into Bulgaria , which took place between September 6 and 28, German Army Group E had to quickly withdraw its occupation troops from Greece.

Loss balance

Bucharest residents greet the invading Soviet troops on August 31, 1944

There is still a great deal of uncertainty about the Wehrmacht's losses . The information provided by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) , which can generally be regarded as reliable, states that during the entire Second World War around 38,000 German soldiers died on the territory of today's Romania and 150,000 on the territory of today's Republic of Moldova between 1941 and 1945. In the only central German military cemetery in Moldova in Kishinew until 2005, only 4,200 dead were embedded; the burial of a total of over 30,000 dead is planned. The number of German prisoners of war brought in by the Red Army during the operation can be estimated at 115,000, 55,000 of whom died before they were transported to the Soviet Union - a death rate of almost 50%, which, apart from Stalingrad, was not exceeded. The German Red Cross processed 80,000 search requests for members of the Wehrmacht, of which the last message was from what was then Romania. The combined losses of Germans and Romanians are estimated at 650,000 dead, missing, wounded and prisoners. The Red Army put its own losses at 13,197 dead / missing and 53,933 wounded / sick; However, these are only figures that can be substantiated from official military records.

Military historical review

Conquest of Romania in August 1944

The operational and tactical leadership of the Red Army showed in 1944 during Operation Jassy-Kishinev an unprecedented level of performance. German warfare had been adopted, which once won kettle battles with strong, rapid encircling actions . To the advantage of the Soviets, the hilly landscape, which was pronounced in a north-south direction, was also enough to accommodate the network of trails. The encircling attack from north to south was easier to cope with than the retreat from east to west, in which valleys and heights had to be passed.

The cause of the German-Romanian defeat lay in accepting the Soviet attack on the Dniester . An early retreat to the west on the Prut and the Danube with the expansion of rear positions could have delayed the sinking. For hundreds of thousands of German soldiers, an immediate retreat would have been possible on the first day of the attack. This was prevented by Hitler's notorious slogans to hold out in defense of every meter of ground.

About the importance of the battle, wrote Sergei Matveyevich Shtemenko (Chief of the Operational Administration of the General Staff):

“The importance of the Soviet victory in the Iasi-Kishinev operation can hardly be overestimated. The destruction of the main forces of Army Group South Ukraine had a military and political impact. With this victory, the Soviet troops opened the door to the interior of Romania and to the borders of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The operation also created favorable military and political conditions for the elimination of the Antonescu dictatorship because it shattered the military support of this regime. Under these conditions, the Romanian Communist Party called on the people to armed insurrection that paved the way for the socialist future of the country. "

literature

  • Hans Kissel : The disaster in Romania in 1944 , Darmstadt 1964.
  • Hans Friessner : Battles betrayed. The tragedy of the German armed forces in Romania and Hungary , Hamburg 1956.
  • W. Rehm: Iassy. Fate of a division or an army? , Neckargemünd 1959.
  • Peter Gosztony : Germany's comrades in arms on the Eastern Front 1941–1945 , Stuttgart 1981.
  • Axel Hindemith: Bessarabia in World War II , in: Yearbook of Germans from Bessarabia , Heimatkalender 2004, Hannover 2004, ISBN 3-9807392-5-2 .
  • WA Mazulenko: The destruction of Army Group South Ukraine. August – September 1944 . Publishing house of the Ministry for National Defense, Berlin 1959.
  • David M. Glantz : Red Storm Over the Balkans . The Failed Soviet Invasion of Romania 1944, University Press of Kansas 2007.

Web links

Commons : Operation Jassy-Kishinev  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. http://wwii-soldat.narod.ru/OPER/ARTICLES/027-kishenev.htm
  2. P. Klatt: the 3rd building div. Podzun Verlag 1958, pp. 277–296, map attachment location of August 8, 1944
  3. http://www.volksbund.de/kgs/
  4. http://www.volksbund.de/kgs/stadt.asp?stadt=2439
  5. KW Böhme: The German prisoners of war in Soviet hands. Eine Bilanz , München 1966, p. 112 (series: On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War ", Volume VII -" Maschke Commission ")
  6. G. Krivosheev: Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century , ISBN 1-85367-280-7 , Greenhill Books, 1997