On 5 March 1944,
Marshal Ivan Konev—commander of the
2nd Ukrainian Front—commenced the
Uman–Botoșani offensive operation in
Ukraine. This operation succeeded in separating
Army Group South's
1st Panzer-Armee from
8th Army by 17 March. By early April Soviet units approached the Romanian border. s of the
Grossdeutschland division in
Romania – April 1944 Glantz claims that starting with early April 1944,
Stavka ordered the 2nd and
3rd Ukrainian Fronts to mount a major offensive with strategic implications in Romania. In Glantz's view,
Stavkas strategic intentions were to break German and Romanian strategic defenses in northern Romania, capture the key cities of
Iași and
Chișinău, and afterward project forces deep into Romanian territory, if possible as deep as
Ploiești and
Bucharest. By 5 April, Konev's front had crossed the upper reaches of
Dniester and
Prut rivers, captured
Hotin and
Dorohoi, and approached the
Târgu Frumos and
Botoșani regions— northwest of Iași—facing only light Romanian resistance. On 8 April, Konev ordered the 27th and
40th Armies to conduct a coordinated offensive southward along the Târgu Frumos axis, in close cooperation with Semyon Bogdanov's
2nd Tank Army. While Konev's shock group was advancing toward Târgu Frumos,
Konstantin Koroteev's 52nd Army and elements of Andrei Gravchenko's
6th Tank Army— which were operating north of Iași—were conducting operations alongside the Iași axis in order to support Konev's main effort. As Konev's armies prepared to launch their offensive toward Târgu Frumos,
Otto Wöhler's German 8th Army was involved in the heavy fighting taking place in and around the village of
Popricani, north of Iași, where two Soviet corps were fighting with armored
Kampfgruppen, distracting the Germans' attentions and forces away from the critical Târgu Frumos sector. Exploiting the 52nd Army diversionary operations in the Iași region, the three armies of Konev's shock group began advancing southward early in the morning of 8 April. The advance was quite slow due to mud-clogged roads during the
rasputitsa (the twice yearly period of water-logged ground), as well as crossing to the west bank of the Prut River northwest of Iași. According to Glantz, Konev's armies' initial mission was to reach the Târgu Frumos,
Pașcani, and
Târgu Neamț regions — west of Iași—and capture the three towns from their Romanian defenders by surprise. While three divisions of 51st Rifle Corps were supposedly ordered to press southward toward Pașcani, another two rifle divisions were protecting their advance in the region north and northwest of Târgu Neamț. Further to the east, seven rifle divisions assigned to 35th Guards and 33rd Rifle Corps of 27th Army would advance southeastward along the Prut starting on 7 April, forcing the Romanian 8th Infantry Division to retreat toward
Hârlău, north of Târgu Frumos. Meanwhile, another two divisions of 33rd Rifle Corps joined by two corps of the 2nd Tank Army would press the Romanian 7th Infantry Division back toward Târgu Frumos. == See also ==