Liberation of Botosani. Romania 1944

Liberation of Botosani. Romania 1944

The Soviet photojournalist Oleg Knorring is one of the brightest representatives of frontline photographers of the Second World War. Recently discovered in Russia, an archive of unknown frontline negatives by Oleg Knorring only confirms this. Oleg Knorring (1907 - 1968) was born on 13 November 1907 in Kuibyshevo, Rostov region. He started working as a photographer in the early 1930s. Before the war he collaborated with many magazines, such as "Our Achievements" and others. During the Great Patriotic War, Oleg Knorring was a photo correspondent for the newspapers "Geroicheskiy Pohod" and "Krasnaya Zvezda". He photographed on many fronts of the war and, without any military training, worked throughout the war alongside journalists Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman. Oleg Knorring was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War I and medals: "For the defence of Moscow", "For the defence of Stalingrad", "For the defence of the Caucasus", "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". In the post-war years he worked for the illustrated weekly "Ogonyok".

Part of the unknown negatives from the surviving archive taken by Oleg Knorring during the Uman-Botoshanskaya offensive operation in the first major Romanian city of Botoshani, liberated in the spring of 1944. The Uman-Botoshanskaya Operation was a front-line offensive operation of the Soviet troops, conducted by the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, which lasted one and a half months, from March 5 to April 17, 1944. The operation resulted in the almost complete defeat of the 8th German Army.

Units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front were the first to reach the border of the USSR and moved the fighting outside the USSR. On April 7, 1944, the first large Romanian city to be liberated was Botosani, located in northeastern Romania. The German air force, knowing that the Soviet soldiers could station themselves in any public institution and other private houses and buildings, attacked the main buildings of the city such as: the railway station, the Lauriani gymnasium, the city hall (but did not hit), the theater, the Mavromati hospital, etc., as well as other buildings. The rapid advance of the Soviet army was a serious blow to the Germans. During the retreat, German units tried to be the first to pass the crossings, which led to armed clashes with the Romanians. Out of 22 divisions of the 8th and 6th German Armies, which were included in the Army Group "South", 10 divisions were defeated, losing from 50 to 75% of their personnel and almost all heavy weapons and equipment. The defeat cost Field Marshal Erich von Manstein his position. On March 31, he was removed from command of the Army Group "South" and sent into retirement. Colonel-General Hollidt was removed with him.

The 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev had 7 general armies, 3 tank armies, 1 air army with 56 rifle divisions, 3 cavalry, 6 tank and 4 mechanized corps (691,000 men, 670 tanks and self-propelled guns, 8890 guns and mortars, 551 aircraft). The success of the operation was achieved with relatively few armored vehicles. At the end of February 1944 the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front were quite exhausted from the fighting at Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi. But Konev created a superiority in infantry, tanks and artillery in the directions of the main attack - two tank armies (2 TA and 5 TA) took part in the breakthrough, the third (6 TA) joined later to develop the success. Meanwhile, on the rest of the front the cover was very thin. Konev's risk was explained by the fact that at that moment the group of German troops opposing the front had not recovered from the defeat at Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi and was not ready for offensive actions.

This was the operation that demonstrated the best combat qualities of the tank paratroopers. In the conditions of spring thaw the vehicles became sluggish and moving on foot on the muddy roads did not give the necessary speed. Without infantry support, armored vehicles became extremely vulnerable. Therefore, the tanks were accompanied by small groups of infantry placed on their armor.

As a result of the Uman-Botoshanskaya operation, the German 8th Army suffered a heavy defeat and was pushed back behind the Dniester River. The Germans lost a huge amount of combat and support equipment, destroyed and abandoned the entire area from Uman to the Dniester River. The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front lost during the operation more than 66 thousand soldiers killed and missing, more than 200 thousand were wounded. German and Romanian troops lost 118,400 soldiers and officers killed. The number of prisoners of war exceeded 27 thousand.