Operation München

Operation München (Romanian: Operațiunea München) was the Romanian codename of a joint German-Romanian offensive during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, with the primary objective of recapturing Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region, ceded by Romania to the Soviet Union a year before (Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina). The operation started during the night of 2–3 July 1941 and concluded successfully after 24 days of fighting. Axis formations involved included the Romanian Third Army (under the command of Petre Dumitrescu) in the north; the German Eleventh Army and subordinated Romanian units (under the command of Eugen Ritter von Schobert) in the center; and the Romanian Fourth Army (under the command of Nicolae Ciupercă) in the south. The invasion was followed by a genocide against the Jewish population of Bessarabia.

The offensive started on 2 July, with Romanian forces striking north. On 5 July, Cernăuți, the capital of Northern Bukovina, was seized by the 3rd and 23rd Vânători de Munte Battalions. On 16 July, Chișinău, the Bessarabian capital, was seized after heavy fighting by Romanian forces spearheaded by the 1st Romanian Armored Division (Divizia 1 Blindată), equipped mainly with 126 R-2 light tanks. By 26 July, the entire region was under Romanian-German control. On 17 August, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were formally re-integrated into the Romanian state.