The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos was a military engagement primarily between the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

and

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

forces in May 1944, near

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. The battle was the main engagement of the Târgu Frumos Operation, and is often referred simply as the Battle of Târgu Frumos. April1944

Military historian

David Glantz David M. Glantz (born January 11, 1942) is an American military historian known for his books on the Red Army during World War II and as the chief editor of '' The Journal of Slavic Military Studies''. Born in Port Chester, New York, Glantz ...

claims the battle was part of the

First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

, which resulted from a

Stavka The ''Stavka'' ( Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка, ) is a name of the high command of the armed forces used formerly in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrat ...

order to the forces of the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

3rd Ukrainian Front The 3rd Ukrainian Front () was a Front of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Gua ...

s to commence a coordinated invasion of Romania. The offensive was directed towards Iași, with a secondary objective of establishing bridgeheads across the

Prut River The Prut (also spelled in English as Pruth; , ) is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is long. Part of its course forms Romania's border with Moldova and Ukraine. Characteristics The Prut originates on the eas ...

. The battle of Târgu-Frumos was only briefly described by Soviet historians. Recently, Russian historians have begun describing this as a distinct battle. For example, the four volume ''Great Patriotic War'' (1998) prepared for the Russian Federation states:

Thus, during the Târgu-Frumos operation, the 2nd Ukrainian Front's forces tried unsuccessfully to complete a deep penetration of the enemy's defense and reach the territory between the Prut & Siret Rivers. By order of the Stavka, they themselves went over to the defensive along existing lines on 6 May.... The several attempts by the 3rd Ukrainian Front's armies to conduct attacks from their Dnestr bridgeheads & seize new bridgeheads also led to nothing.

According to accounts by

Hasso von Manteuffel Hasso Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel (14 January 1897 – 24 September 1978) was a German baron born to the Prussian noble Manteuffel, von Manteuffel family and was a general during World War II who commanded the 5th Panzer Army. He was a recip ...

, one of the two German division commanders, and Ferdinand Maria von Senger und Etterlin, the German forces defeated a Soviet offensive by the 2nd Ukrainian Front that was expected to be a precursor of a much larger offensive in Northern Ukraine. The battle of Târgu Frumos has been used as a case study in officer tactical education in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and other armies, teaching how a mobile defense can defeat an armoured spearhead. There are however questions about the accounts by the two German officers, relating to the failure to include Romanian forces into their account.

Prelude

During April 1944 a series of offensives by the

, including in the

sector, was intended to deceive

OKH The (; abbreviated OKH) was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler's rearmament of Germany. OKH was ''de facto'' the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat ...

as to the real time and place of the major offensive planned in

Belorussia Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. The German-Romanian forces successfully defended against the local limited objective attacks throughout the month of April. The attack aiming at

Târgu Frumos Târgu Frumos (also spelled ''Tîrgu Frumos'', sometimes ''Târgul / Tîrgul Frumos''), ) is a town in Iași County, Western Moldavia, Romania. Eleven villages were administered by the town until 2004, when they were split off to form Balș, Cos ...

was the initial attempt by the Red Army to achieve its goal of deceiving the OKH, and testing the Axis defenses in Romania while preventing movement of reserves to the Belorussian sector of the Eastern Front.

It had been thought that May Day, the traditional workers' day of celebration, would see the opening of a new assault by the Soviet forces. But the offensive re-opened on 2 May heralding three shattering and unceasing days and nights of combat. Behind a sixty-minute drum fire at dawn, two Soviet armies moved into an attack.

The battle

The battle of Târgu Frumos was a series of engagements and smaller combats over several days during which armoured forces of the Wehrmacht LVII Panzer Corps, in particular of the

Grossdeutschland Division Pan-Germanism ( or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanism seeks to unify all ethnic Germans, German-speaking people, and possibly also non-German Germanic peoples – into a sin ...

and

24th Panzer Division The 24th Panzer Division was formed in late 1941 from the 1st Cavalry Division (Wehrmacht), 1st Cavalry Division based at Königsberg. The division fought on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front from June 1942 to January 1943, when it ...

, engaged the Red Army's 16th Tank Corps of the 2nd Tank Army, which was also attacking from the north. One unit's experience in the opening hours of the battle was described as such:

(1st Battalion), P(an)z(er)Gr(enadier) R(e)g(imen)t G(ross)D(eutschland) and its Romanian allies occupied a well wired-in and T-Mine-strewn line running to the right of 3. SS-Pz.Div. "Totenkopf's" positions. The Soviets advanced in great waves, their tanks and infantry mixed together. Moving much faster than the Germans had anticipated, they overwhelmed...(the 1st Company), wiping it out to the last man. While (the) temporary battalion commander...attempted to halt and repulse the Soviets with what was left of his battalion, the Romanians to the left of (the 2nd Company) cowered in their trenches like "herrings", as (the) company commander...later recounted. Indeed, the Romanians seemed to have reached an unofficial cease fire with the enemy. That night the
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
succeeded in mounting an air strike in the enemy rear area, to no avail. The next morning the Soviets resumed their attack, preceding it with a bombardment of phosphorus shells. Over 100 enemy tanks and assault guns advanced against (the 3rd Platoon). With his Romanian artillery remaining inactive, (the 3rd Platoon of the 2nd Company) could count only on the support of three...(assault guns) and the four 15cm
Nebelwerfer The () was a World War II Nazi Germany, German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the German Army (Wehrmacht), Army's . Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replaced by a variety of roc ...
multiple rocket launchers of (the 10th Company, Panzer Artillery Regiment Grossdeutschland). (The 2nd Company) was soon back to the Nebelwerfer's position where it formed a 'hedgehog' defense...and a handful of...men then managed to gain the temporary safety of the railway embankment in their rear. His battalion scattered, (the 1st Battalion commander) sent (the 2nd Company commander) with four SPWs to cover the wide open left flank, completely vulnerable when the Romanians abandoned their positions. Although the enemy had not made any deep penetrations, the tension of the past two days had exhausted the Panzergrenadiers. "Suddenly...four T-34s were in among the SPWs when, as if by magic, tanks and assault guns of the SS-Division "Totenkopf" appeared. Before a single T-34 could train its gun, all had received direct hits." Immediately thereafter Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel's Ju 87 Stukas led off a counter thrust by "Totenkopf's" Panzerregiment, accompanied by...four SPWs. The Panzergrenadiers took a measure of revenge for what they had endured over the past 48 hours...before being pulled out of the line to regroup and refit.

Despite initial successes of the Soviet attack, a series of counter-attacks managed to halt the Soviet offensive. The battle reduced Soviet tank strength to a point where a continued attack into Romania was not possible. In the three days of fighting, the Wehrmacht LVII Panzer Corps (mainly Grossdeutschland and 24th Panzer Division) and LII Army Corps defeated the Soviet force and claimed the destruction of over 350 Soviet tanks, ca. 100 of these claimed by 24th Panzer Division. During the battle,

, commander of the Grossdeutschland division, first encountered the new Soviet Stalin tank, "It was at Târgu Frumos that I first met the Stalin tanks. It was a shock to find that, although my

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is tradition ...

began to hit them at a range of 3,000 metres, our shells bounced off, and did not penetrate them until we had closed to half that distance. But I was able to counter the Russians' superiority by manoeuvre and mobility, in making the best use of ground cover." Manteuffel also noted that the Stalin tanks had several "disadvantages: slow, not manoeuvrable enough; as well, in my opinion their crews were not sufficiently familiar with the tank."

Historiography

Soviet sources make few references to the battle. Historian

has found some mention of operations in Romania in April and May 1944 in divisional histories. The main source for him is the Soviet 2d Tank Army's history, where a direct reference to the battle is found. It states that in late March 1944, the tank army was shifted into the sector of 27th Army with the mission of "attacking in the direction of

Focuri Focuri is a commune in Iași County, Western Moldavia, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the ...

and

Podu Iloaiei Podu Iloaiei is a town in Iași County, Western Moldavia, Romania. It has 8,992 inhabitants as of 2021, and was declared a town in 2005. Four villages are administered by the town: Budăi, Cosițeni, Holm, and Scobâlțeni. Geography The town lies ...

. Subsequently, the army was to strike a blow toward the city of

and secure it." In the narrative on follow-on operations by the Tank Army it is stated that it attacked together with 27th Army’s 35th Rifle Corps. It also claims that the 3rd Tank Corps reached Târgu Frumos, but was repulsed by the German counterattacks. The 16th Tank Corps identified by the German officers appears not to be mentioned in the account. Despite German claims that the Soviet attack was a full-fledged offensive, it appears now that the battle of Târgu Frumos was a relatively small-scale operation in the context of 1944's fighting on the Eastern Front, even though a Soviet success would have put the Red Army into a much stronger position for its eventual attack into Romania.

Aftermath

At the end of the Battle of Târgu Frumos the frontline stabilised. It was from these positions that the Soviets launched the successful Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in late August 1944. On a political level, the battle accelerated the activities of anti-German forces in

, leading to negotiations between the traditional political parties and the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

, represented by

Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (; 4 November 1900 – 17 April 1954) was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he ...

Vladimir Tismăneanu Vladimir Tismăneanu (; born July 4, 1951) is a Romanian American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A specialist in political systems and comparative politics, he is d ...

, ''Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism'',

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, Berkeley, 2003, p. 86.

Formations involved

Soviet

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front () was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. History On October 20, 1943, the Steppe Front was renamed the 2nd Ukrainian Front. In mid-May 1944 Malinovsky took over the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During t ...

(

Ivan Konev Ivan Stepanovich Konev ( rus, Ива́н Степа́нович Ко́нев, p=ɪˈvan sʲtʲɪˈpanəvʲɪtɕ ˈkonʲɪf, links=no; 28 December 1897 – 21 May 1973) was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union who led Red Army forc ...

) ** Main Shock Group (Târgu Frumos Axis) ** 27th Army ( Sergei Trofimenko) *** 35th Guards Rifle Corps **** 3rd Guards Airborne Division **** 93rd Guards Rifle Division **** 202nd Rifle Division **** 206th Rifle Division *** 33rd Rifle Corps **** 78th Rifle Division **** 180th Rifle Division ****

337th Rifle Division The 337th Rifle Division was first formed in August 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, at Astrakhan. Like the 335th Rifle Division, this formation was assigned to the southern sector of the Soviet-German front during the winter counterof ...

** 40th Army (

Filipp Zhmachenko Filipp Feodosyevich Zhmachenko (; ; – 19 June 1966) was a Soviet Army colonel general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Early life, World War I and Russian Civil War Filipp Feodosyevich Zhmachenko was born on 26 November 1895 to a Ukrainian p ...

) ***

50th Rifle Corps The 50th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 23rd Army on 22 June 1941. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. Organization On 22 June 1941, the corps included the following units: * 43rd Rifle Division * 70 ...

****

4th Guards Rifle Division The 4th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division on September 18, 1941, from the 1st formation of the 161st Rifle Division as one of the original Guards formations of the Red Army, in recognition of that division's partici ...

**** 133rd Rifle Division **** 163rd Rifle Division ***

51st Rifle Corps The 51st Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 22nd Army (Soviet Union), 22nd Army. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. Organization * 98th Rifle Division (Soviet Union), 98th Rifle Division * 112th Rifle Divis ...

**** 42nd Guards Rifle Division **** 74th Rifle Division **** 232nd Rifle Division *** 104th Rifle Corps **** 38th Rifle Division **** 240th Rifle Division ** 2nd Tank Army (

Semyon Bogdanov Semyon Ilyich Bogdanov (; – 12 March 1960) was a Soviet Marshal of tank forces, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he was deputy commander of the 5th Army (1941–1942), commander of the ...

) *** 3rd Tank Corps (50 Tanks) **** 50th Tank Brigade **** 51st Tank Brigade **** 103rd Tank Brigade **** 57th Motorized Rifle Brigade *** 16th Tank Corps (55 Tanks) **** 107th Tank Brigade **** 109th Tank Brigade **** 164th Tank Brigade **** 154th Motorized Rifle Brigade *** 11th Guards Tank Brigade (16 Tanks) *** 8th Guards Separate Tank Regiment *** 13th Guards Separate Tank Regiment ** Northern Shock Group (N of Iasi) Secondary Operations ** 52nd Army ( Konstantin Koroteyev) *** 78th Rifle Corps **** 252nd Rifle Division **** 303rd Rifle Division **** 373rd Rifle Division ***

73rd Rifle Corps The 73rd Silesia Rifle Corps () was a Rifle corps (Soviet Union), rifle corps of the Red Army during World War II. World War II The corps headquarters was formed on 8 July 1943 at Kuzhenkino (urban-type settlement), Kuzhenkino, Leningrad Oblast, ...

**** 31st Rifle Division **** 254th Rifle Division **** 294th Rifle Division *** 116th Rifle Division (Army Reserve) ** 6th Tank Army ( Andrei Kravchenko) *** 5th Mechanised Corps (20-30 Tanks) *** 5th Guards Tank Corps

German

Army Group South Ukraine Army Group South Ukraine (, ) was a joint German-Romanian group on the Eastern Front during World War II. Army Group South Ukraine was created on 5 April 1944 by renaming Army Group A. This army group saw action during the Jassy-Kishinev Operat ...

(

Ferdinand Schörner Ferdinand Schörner (12 June 1892 – 2 July 1973) was a German military commander and convicted war criminal, who held the rank of ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (Field Marshal) in the ''Wehrmacht'' of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was the on ...

) ** 8th Army (

Otto Wöhler Otto Wöhler (12 July 1894 – 5 February 1987) was a German general in the ''Wehrmacht'' during World War II. He rose to a corps and army level commander. Wöhler was implicated in ''Einsatzgruppen'' activities while serving as Chief of Staff of ...

) *** LVII Panzer Corps (

Friedrich Kirchner Friedrich Kirchner (26 March 1885 – 6 April 1960) was a German general during World War II who commanded 1st Panzer Division and the LVII Panzer Corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. C ...

) ****

**** 23rd Panzer Division **** Battle group of 3rd SS Panzer Division

Totenkopf ''Totenkopf'' (, i.e. ''skull'', literally "dead person's head") is the German word for skull. The word is often used to denote a figurative, graphic or sculptural symbol, common in Western culture, consisting of the representation of a human s ...

*** IV Armeecorps (Group Mieth) (

Friedrich Mieth __NOTOC__ Friedrich Mieth (4 June 1888 – 2 September 1944) was a German general during World War II. In 1942, he commanded Army Group Don Rear Area. Mieth was killed in action on 2 September 1944 in Iași, Romania. Awards and decorations * Ir ...

) ****

46th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) The 46th Infantry Division () was an infantry division of the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army during World War II that fought on the Eastern Front (WWII), Eastern Front. Towards the end of the war, it became the 46th Volksgrenadier Division. ...

****

(Army Reserve)

Romanian

4th Romanian Army The Fourth Army (Armata a 4-a Română) was a field army (a military formation) of the Romanian Land Forces active from the 19th century to the 1990s. Its successor is the 4th Infantry Division. History World War I The Fourth Army fought u ...

(

Ioan Mihail Racoviță Ioan Mihail Racoviță (7 March 1889, Bucharest – 28 June 1954, Sighet Prison) was a Romanian general during World War II, and Minister of Defense in the aftermath of King Michael's Coup of August 1944. Biography In 1906 he was admitted to ...

) ** I Romanian Army Corps *** 8th Infantry Division *** 6th Infantry Division ** IV Romanian Army Corps *** 7th Infantry Division *** 1st Guards Division *** 18th Mountain Division *** 3rd Infantry Division * 1st Air Corps ( Emanoil Ionescu) ** 5th Bomber Group ** 8th Assault Group (flying German Hs 129 ground attack planes) ** 9th Fighter Group

Notes

Citations

References

Secondary Print

* * * * * * * * *

Primary Print

* Truppendienst Taschenbuch Band 16, Published by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Truppendienst Vienna 1971 * ''From the Dnepr to the Vistula: Soviet Offensive Operations - November 1943 - August 1944''. 1985 Art of War symposium, A transcript of Proceedings, COL. D.M Glantz ed., Center for Land Warfare, US Army War College, 29–3 May 1985

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Targu Frumos, Second Battle Of Battles of World War II involving Romania Battles involving the Soviet Union Military history of Romania during World War II Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War Romania–Soviet Union relations Battles of World War II involving Germany May 1944 in Europe