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Jassy-Kishinev Offensive of the Great Patriotic War began
By August 1944, favorable conditions had formed to attack the enemy on the left flank of the Soviet-German front. The 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts after a successful winter-spring offensive took the defense on the borders to the north of towns of Jassy and Orhei and on several bridgeheads on the western bank of the Dniester. The Soviet troops were opposed by "South Ukraine" group of armies, which included 25 German and 22 Romanian divisions numbering 900, 000 men, 7, 600 guns and mortars, 400 tanks and assault guns, and 810 combat aircrafts. At the 600-kilometer section of the front from the Carpathians to the Black Sea the enemy had created powerful defenses, whose depth in some places was up to 80 km or more.
The offensive operations were entrusted to the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, the Danube Flotilla and the Black Sea Navy. Soviet troops numbered about 1, 250, 000 men, 16, 000 guns and mortars, 1, 870 tanks and self-propelled guns, more than two thousand combat aircrafts. The plan was to break through enemy defenses on their flanks, and then surround and destroy the enemy in the area of Jassy – Kishinev, expanding the offensive into the territory of Romania and to the borders of Bulgaria.
Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under General R. Ya. Malinovsky were to deliver their main blow from the area to the north-west of Jassy in the direction of Vaslui, and the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, under the command of General F. I. Tolbukhin – from the Dnieper bridgehead to the south of Tiraspol. The headquarters’ representative, Marshal S. K. Timoshenko was assigned to coordinate the fronts. The Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Flotilla were to land troops in Akkerman and on the sea shore, make air strikes against the ports of Constanta and Sulina, destroy enemy ships at sea, and help ground troops to cross the Danube.
In the morning of 20 August, a powerful artillery strike hit the enemy fortifications. The shelling was so intense that the front line of the German defense was completely destroyed. At 7:40 a.m. Soviet forces, accompanied by a double barrage, took the offensive. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, acting on the northern sector, in the first two days of fighting had captured Jassy and Tyrgu-Frumos fortified areas, and expanded the breach through the enemy’s defense to 65 km wide and 40 km deep in the direction of the main attack. The troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front successfully advanced in the southern sector, and by the end of the second day of the operation also broke through the defenses of the enemy. In the night of August 22 sailors of the Danube Flotilla successfully forced the Dniester estuary, liberated the town of Akkerman and started an offensive in the south-west. August 24 the first stage of the strategic operation completed - the break of the defense and the encirclement of the Jassy-Kishinev grouping. Soviet troops had surrounded 18 divisions - the main force of the German 6th Army.
Lightning and crushing defeat of the German-Romanian forces near Jassy and Chisinau aggravated the political situation in Romania, and on August 23 an uprising against the regime of Ion Antonescu broke out in Bucharest. King Michael I took the side of the rebels, and ordered the arrest of Antonescu and pro-Nazi generals. August 24 German aircrafts bombed Bucharest, and the troops began the offensive. The Soviet command sent 50 divisions and main forces of both air armies involved in the Jassy-Kishinev operation, deep into the territory of Romania to help the uprising.
August 29 was completed the liquidation of the surrounded enemy troops to the west of Prut River. Advanced front forces reached the approaches to Ploiesti, Bucharest and occupied Constanta. At this Jassy-Kishinev operation ended. In the course of the offensive Moldova and a major part of the territory of Romania had been released. By the morning of August 30 the town of Ploiesti was liberated, and the next day, August 31, Soviet troops entered the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Jassy-Kishinev operation, one of the "ten Stalin strikes", entered the history of military art as "the Jassy-Kishinev Cannes." As a result of the offensive, 126 units and formations were awarded honorary titles, more than 140 men and commanders were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and six of the Soviet soldiers became full holders of the Order of Glory. During the operation, the Soviet forces lost 67,130 men, including 13,197 killed, seriously wounded or missing, while the German and Romanian troops lost up to 135,000 killed, wounded and missing. More than 200, 000 German and Romanian soldiers and officers were captured.
Lit.: История Великой Отечественной войны Советского Союза 1941-1945 гг.: В 6 т. Т. 4. М., 1962; История второй мировой войны 1939–1945 гг.: В 12 т. Т. 9. М., 1978; Ясско-Кишинёвские Канны. М., 1964.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: