Second Battle of Târgu Frumos The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos , part of the First Jassy - Kishinev Offensive , was a military engagement primarily between the Wehrmacht and Red Army forces in May 1944 , near Iaşi , Romania . The battle resulted from a Stavka order to the forces of the 2nd & 3rd Ukrainian Front s to commence a coordinated invasion of Romania . It was directed towards Iaşi with a secondary objective of establishing bridgeheads across the Prut river . The battle 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 & Seret 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 , 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 the Northern Ukraine . The battle of Târgu Frumos has been used as a case study in officer tactical education in the United States Army 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 Red Army , including in the Iaşi sector , was intended to deceive OKH as to the real time and place of the major offensive planned in Belorussia . The German - Romanian forces successfully defended against the local limited objective attacks throughout the month of April . The attack aiming at Târgu Frumos 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 and 24th Panzer Division , 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 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 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 SPW ' s 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 Ju87 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 , Hasso von Manteuffel , 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 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 David Glantz 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 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 . However , 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 Romania , leading to negotiations between the traditional political parties and the Romanian Communist Party , represented by Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu .