Red Army beaten out of Rumania

As 1945 began Stalin was frustrated by the progress of the Western allies. Bad weather and strong German defences in the east had prevented an all out Russian attack and the communist leader watched appalled as it appeared the western allies were about to defeat Germany single handed. Stalin made plans to avert this.

While the red army massed in Poland to mount an assault on Berlin - before the British and Americans got their, the Russians had unresolved issues in Rumania. On the 3rd of January they renewed their attack, but found the Germans too had been planning an assault. Many more German units, pulled from Yugoslavia and Hungary massed an armoured force against the Russians in the north of the country, taking the Russians by surprise. By the 15th of January the Germans had secured and armoured breakthrough and reached the Black Sea, trapping five Russian divisions who were forced to surrender.

The victory however was a pyhric one. Despite capturing or destroying seven Russian divisions, almost as many German divisions, especially tank divisions, had been destroyed or reduced to mere Batallion strength. The loss in Panthers was particularly severe, so that the gain of the north of Rumania, strategically unimportant, had cost Hitler badly needed troops and equipment which could have been used in the defence of the homeland.