Eastern Front · Soviet Union vs Germany and Romania
Jassy-Kishinev Offensive
20 August 1944 – 29 August 1944
Two Soviet fronts broke through the Romanian sectors of Army Group South Ukraine and encircled the German 6th Army for the second time in the war. Romania switched sides within days, opening the Balkans to the Red Army.
Explore Jassy-Kishinev Offensive on the interactive map · Wikipedia
Day by day
— Both shoulders
Army Group South Ukraine has been stripped of six panzer divisions for the north, and half its line is held by Romanian troops whose government is already talking to the Allies. At 06:10 the 2nd Ukrainian Front attacks the Romanian Fourth Army north-west of Jassy and the 3rd Ukrainian the Romanian Third Army out of the Kitskany bridgehead below Tiraspol. Both sectors are through by the afternoon.
— The coup
Jassy fell on the 21st and the 6th Tank Army is running south for the Focsani gap, the last defended line before the plain. This evening King Michael has Antonescu arrested at the palace in Bucharest, announces an armistice on the wireless and orders the Romanian army to stop fighting. Twenty-two German divisions east of the Prut lose their flanks, their rear and their allies in a single night.
— Husi
The two fronts meet on the Prut at Husi and Leova today and the Sixth Army is encircled for the second time in the war, five divisions west of the river and thirteen east of it. Kishinev is taken the same day. Friessner has already ordered a general retreat behind the Prut, three days too late for most of his army.
— Romania changes sides
The Luftwaffe bombed Bucharest yesterday to bring the new government down and has only made it certain; Romania declares war on Germany today, and its divisions turn on the German troops in the passes and the oilfield garrisons. The 6th Tank Army is through the Focsani gap and there is nothing in front of it.
— The oilfields
The last of the pocket gives up today; about 100,000 German prisoners have been taken and the Sixth Army has ceased to exist for the second time. Constanta is entered the same day, Ploesti tomorrow and Bucharest on the 31st, and the refineries the Eighth Air Force spent a year bombing are handed over almost intact. The Balkan front has fallen in, and Bulgaria is next.