to start their breakout at midnight on August 24/25 in the general direction of Huși. Command and control had broken down in the encircled grouping and the escape efforts were widely scattered; heavy equipment was being abandoned or destroyed at the Prut. The withdrawal continued into the next night as the three Corps split into separate combat groups while the 21st Guards Corps reached a line from Murgeni to Fălciu to Berezeni and joined hands with the 3rd Ukrainian Front while part of its forces turned north to combat German forces in woods southwest of Huși. On August 27 the Corps beat off German attacks south and southwest of Hurdugi while continuing to hold defensive positions along the Prut. From this date until September 5 the 52nd Army was involved in completing the elimination of the Chișinău group. During the afternoon of the 28th a significant group of German troops managed to push south on a road to Vutcani despite resistance from 21st Guards Corps and consequent heavy losses. Remnants of five German divisions which had managed to break through to Vutcani began a withdrawal through the rear areas of 2nd Ukrainian Front on August 29 with 21st Guards Corps in pursuit as far as the Bârlad River. The German objective now was to cross the Siret River, and broke up into small detachments for the purpose. The total strength of these detachments was roughly 10,000 men, but between September 1–4 these were eliminated before they could cross the Trotuș River. During this operation Cpt. Pyotr Georgievich Korochkin, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 139th Guards Artillery Regiment, became a Hero of the Soviet Union. At the start on August 20, as the rifle troops came under heavy Axis artillery and mortar fire, Korochkin deployed two of his batteries for direct fire and suppressed these guns, paving the way for the capture of a dominant height. On August 28, during heavy fighting with German troops attempting to break out of the encirclement his guns ran out of ammunition. Korochkin organized his gunners for hand-to-hand combat which restored their positions; in the course of this he personally accounted for 18 German troops killed or wounded but was then killed himself. On March 24, 1945 Captain Korochkin would be posthumously awarded the Gold Star. Into the Balkans At the start of October the 69th Guards, with the remainder of 21st Guards