10 Days of Carnage: 150,000 Casualties, Commander Collapses in a Day, The Battle That Proved Most Fatal for Germany in World War II

This battle sounded the death knell for the fall of the Third Reich

In today’s landscape between Romania and Ukraine lies a small country named Moldova. This small European nation was once the 14th member state of the former Soviet Union and a famous battlefield during World War II.

When the Soviet-German War erupted in 1941, Germany was not fighting alone but was accompanied by a group of smaller nations including Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. In the south, Romanian troops joined the German forces to invade Ukraine, first conquering Moldova and then advancing eastward along the Black Sea.

By 1944, under the Soviet counteroffensive, the German forces were pushed back to the Ukrainian border. In August 1944, the Soviets launched the “Iași-Chișinău Offensive” targeting the German “Southern Ukraine Army Group” stationed in Romania, resulting in a devastating defeat for the Germans and a splendid victory for the Soviets.

Military analysts believe that the Iași-Chișinău Offensive was the first major defeat for the German forces in 1944, compromising the entire Eastern Front defense of Nazi Germany, and its significance was comparable to the Battle of…