Photos of Târgu Frumos

Below are some of the photos from Istochnik’s 1944 immersion event, Romanian Spring, the battle for Targu Frumos. Istochnik portrayed the 2nd Battalion of the 281st Guards Rifle Regiment. Determined to bring the war to a swift conclusion, they were apart of the spearhead invasion of Romania in April of 1944. They were fresh off of their success in defeating German forces in Ukraine apart of Ivan Konev’s 2nd Ukrainian Front.

At this point the war was heavily in the Allies favor, this is no longer the early years of the war, the Red Army now firmly controls the initiative. The Soviets are advancing on all fronts after the German defeat at Kursk the year prior. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers have been regained by the Red Army all while the western Allies are on the eve of the invasion of France and the liberation of Western Europe. 

Will the German army continue to hold out with its armies now primarily on the defensive? For now the Red Army pushes forward hoping to find a defeated, weak enemy in Romania, but this is not what they meet at the village of Târgu-Frumos. However, later that summer the German army will suffer its greatest defeats up to that point by the Allies. The Soviet summer offensives and invasion of France ultimately decimate the German army, staging the war to come to a conclusion in the first half of 1945…