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| Unidentified SS-Hauptsturmführer of the Theodor Eicke |
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| Oberleutnant Hans-Karl Richter of the Großdeutschland |
On May 2 1944 the Red Army began its offensive southwards to break through to Târgu Frumos. The 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf occupied a line running to the left of its Romanian allies and Panzergrenadier-Division Großdeutschland positions. The Soviets advanced in great waves, their tanks and infantry mixed together. Oberleutnant Hans-Karl Richter wrote: four T-34s were in among the SPWs when, as if by magic, tanks and assault guns of SS-Division Totenkopf appeared. Before a single T-34 could train its gun, all had received direct hits. Immediately thereafter Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel's Ju87 Stukas led off a counter thrust by Totenkopf's Panzerregiment, accompanied by Richter's four SPWs. At the end of the Battle of Târgu Frumos the frontline stabilised. However, it was from these positions that the Soviets launched their new offensive in late August 1944. Images: Oberleutnant and Kompanieführer Hans-Karl Richter of 2.(SPW)/Panzergrenadier-Regiment Großdeutschland, briefs his opposite number, an SS-Hauptsturmführer of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 6 Theodor Eicke when the latter relieved Richter's exhausted command near Târgu Frumos on May 3 1944. Richter, awarded both the German Cross in Gold and the Close Combat Clasp in Silver, recalls that after a perfunctory conversation when maps and documents were turned over to the Waffen-SS, he and his men boarded their SPWs and went back to the rear to rest. Richter never learned the Hauptsturmführer's name and never saw him again. Photos by KB Theodor Scheerer. Commons: Bundesarchiv.
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