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In the previous video we presented the general situation of the front in northern Moldova between April and June 1944, prior to the Battle of Borta Dracului (the Devil's Hole). The front line stabilized on the alignment Gura Humorului - Falticeni - Târgu Neamt - Pascani - Târgu Frumos - Iasi - Orhei - Black Sea. The Red Army, on the way to Berlin, definitely wanted to break through the defensive line on the Neamt River valley (Ozana), east of Târgu Neamt and which would have allowed it to advance towards Transylvania. However, the Ozana Valley was blocked by an impregnable alignment of casemates and then the Soviet commanders decided to attack through the forest, a less defended area over Plesu Ridge, northwest of Târgu Neamt, through the point called Borta Dracului. In the initial phase of the battles, the Soviet troops manage to make a breach in the Romanian defense, cross the Plesu Crest and descend beyond, to the village of Nemtisor. Very fierce battles follow, with attacks and counterattacks, remaining like a nightmare in the minds of survivors and locals the episode in which German artillery fired incendiary projectiles in the Borta Dracului area, where many Soviet and Romanian soldiers were burned alive. The offensive, in total, pitted about 30,000 Soviet fighters against 10,000 Romanians, leaving 14,000 dead on the battlefield (10,000 Soviets and 4,000 Romanians). This is the biggest massacre on the Romanian territory in the Second World War, surpassing the one in Oarba de Mures, much more publicized.
This video shows the first moments of the offensive, namely about the first half of June 3, 1944. In view of the offensive, the Soviet troops were massaged on the alignment Boroaia - Târzia - Poiana - Brusturi. It should be mentioned, during the period of the offensive, the Russian espionage actions in which the cominternist Ana Pauker disguised as a peasant participated, the group of women obtaining the approval of the Romanian military from the front lines on Culesa Valley to pass them to "pick mushrooms in the forest". In addition, two Bessarabian non-commissioned officers from the Romanian army, initially deserted from the Soviet army, fled again to the Red Army with defense plans on them, precisely those of the Borta Dracului area. The Soviet offensive began on a wide front, 5-6 km, between northern Târzia and southern Poiana, with chains of soldiers going wave after wave. As they advanced, the width of the front decreased, reaching about 1 km in the ridge and about 500 m beyond, towards the Nemtisor Valley. The Soviet attacks were supported by two almost parallel access roads, namely the main one from Culeșa Valley in the direction of Poiana - Poiana Crucii - Poiana la Halău (place of the future Holy Cross Monastery) - Borta Dracului - Plesu Crest - Nemtisor and the second on Valea Târzia on the route Târzia - Grosi - Plesu Crest (junction with the previous road).
The first sequences of the video are made in the area of the church in the village of Poiana, the place where the Soviets made a command post and ammunition depots because the Romanian army did not fire in churches. In front of the church, on the road, we see the monument erected "in honor of the heroes of Poiana village who fell on duty in the two world wars and the 14,000 fighters who died at the place called Borta Dracului where today the Hermitage of the Holy Cross is erected." We are in fact on the main road that crosses the village of Poiana, along the Culesa Stream, exactly the one used by the Red Army. The video summarizes the first steps of the offensive, a distance of 4.1 km, from the village church (Heroes' Monument) to Poiana Crucii. It is the road taken by Soviet reinforcement trucks and the one used by the same trucks to bring the fallen to the battlefield. The huge number of victims, the conditions of the terrain and the times meant that neither the Russian nor the Romanian side could fully recover their deaths, many of them remaining under the open sky for years and years. Even today ... Eyewitnesses, teenagers at the time, tell about the Soviet mobile incinerators in the area of Poiana and Brusturi villages, which left mounds of ash, and the stench was terrible. At the exit from the village of Poiana, an open area, we stop in the area of the Soviet trenches which were also the starting lines for the offensive. Next is a forested area where we intersect the first line of defense of the Romanian army (extended to the south in the area of Lebada Hill), yielded without much resistance to the Soviet flood. Next is Poiana Arsintesti (Arsintesti Glade) and then Poiana Crucii (Cross Glade), much larger at that time, in the forest behind which was another Romanian defensive alignment, also ceded after the battles. The Romanian military withdrew to the high defense alignments from Plesu Ridge, in well-forested areas with rugged terrain, which we will see in the next episodes.
3 окт 2024
