Grotere afbeelding (opent in nieuw venster)

Although the crucial Russian campaign in the Balkans states is perhaps one of the war's lesser known stories, it is a saga packed with drama. In August 1943 the Romanians - no doubt prompted by merciless Allied bombing - overthrew their leader Antonescu and changed sides. Thereafter, events moved swiftly - the Russians soon captured the vital Ploesti oilfields, a huge loss to the German war effort, and within days the Soviets had taken Bucharest itself. A nervous Bulgaria sued for peace with the Allies, but the Russians pushed on into Sofia. Despite the German delaying tactics, Hungary fell next, although there were reinforcements from Axis troops stationed in Greece and Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia itself the Germans held on grimly to Belgrade until October. The bloody fighting over, the Balkans were carved up and left to Soviet control in the immediate post war era, and the area remains a volatile political and ethnic mix to this very day.