[Alt-WWII] 6-7 July 1940- Defeat at Bălți

IV Corps was responsible for holding the center of 2nd Army's front line northeast of Bălți. Due to IV Corps being the last unit to reach Bessarabia, they had limited time to prepare their sector, and their lines had the least defense in depth of any Romanian position at the start of the battle. While the Soviets initially intended to encircle the Romanians and deal with the central force last, their attacks that intended to simply put pressure on IV Corps quickly broke through. When the Soviets decided to funnel in their reserves, the Romanians broke into a rout. Some units managed to make it to the streets of Bălți just in time to reorganize, and street fighting broke out while the rest of the corps retreated. These units were able to hold out for another day before a second, more orderly retreat to the bridgehead was conducted.

 

The loss at Bălți would tarnish the reputation of both 2nd Army and the Romanian Army as a whole. It was the only battle during the Battle for Bessarabia where Romanian casualties were greater than the Soviets, losing about almost a full division of men and equipment in the chaos, and the only battle where a Romanian unit of that size was forced into a rout rather than withdrawing after a successful defense. Their retreat would eventually lead to the destabilization of the entire northern sector of the front, although by the time this happened the Soviet 12th Army had also taken enough casualties to be essentially taken out of action.

 

Ultimately, this loss would cause the Romanian High Command to reassess several of their strategies. The decision to place 2nd Army in the north of Bessarabia, even though it had to be transferred from Transylvania and had to move through Chișinău by rail anyway, was called into question. The rapid evacuation of 2nd Army's headquarters from Bălți exposed the weaknesses of the army's then still telephone-based communication systems, and a push was made in the high command to begin standardizing radios. Lastly, they were forced to address the fact that, just one week into the war, the morale of the ordinary infantrymen was beginning to deteriorate.

Done