When Tigers Crushed IS-2s: The Fierce Battle at Targul Frumos That Stopped Soviet Armor

In May of 1944 the German Wehrmacht was in retreat everywhere in the east. With the failure of Operation Citadelle the preceding summer, initiative had finally passed to the Soviets. The only hope the Germans had to slow the Soviet onslaught were to fight a series of skilled defensive actions and ambushes. During April and May of 1944, the Soviet 2nd Tank Army tried to break through the German-Romanian lines on the river Pruth in order to gain access to Central Romania with its rich oil fields. The battle boomed at the beginning of May when the Soviets were trying to brake through the front in the Targul-Frumos area in Romania and were confronted by the German Grossdeutschland Division. Unlike so many battles in the East in 1944, the Germans were well-prepared to conduct a defense in depth at Targul Frumos and were able to coordinate the actions of dug-in defenders holding key terrain features with counterattacks by mobile forces. Targul Frumos is notable for being the first clash