1944, Malinovsky was transferred to the 2nd Ukrainian Front. He expelled the Germans from the remaining Soviet territory and participated in an unsuccessful invasion of the Balkans (the first Jassy–Kishinev Offensive) together with Marshal Ivan Konev and Army General Fyodor Tolbukhin (who received Malinovsky's former command over the smaller 3rd Ukrainian Front). However, during the second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in late August and early September 1944, Malinovsky unleashed a highly successful Soviet version of the Blitzkrieg. Together with Tolbukhin, he destroyed or captured some 215,000 German, and 200,000 Romanian troops, forcing Romania to overthrow pro-German Conducător Ion Antonescu, and switch from the Axis to the Allies camp (see Romania during World War II). A triumphant Stalin recalled Malinovsky to Moscow, and on 10 September 1944 made him Marshal of the Soviet Union. Malinovsky was also nominal head of the Allied Commission in Romania (represented by Vladislav Petrovich Vinogradov). He continued his offensive drive, crossed the Southern Carpathians into Transylvania (entering Hungarian-ruled Northern Transylvania), and on 20 October 1944, captured Debrecen, defended by a large Axis force. His troops were tired after several months of combat and needed to be replenished and resupplied, but Stalin ordered Malinovsky to take the Hungarian capital Budapest, in order to open the road to Vienna and take Vienna before the Western Allies. With the help of Tolbukhin and the Romanian First and Fourth armies, Malinovsky carried out Stalin's order, and faced Adolf Hitler's determination to defend Budapest at any cost. The Germans and their Hungarian Arrow Cross Party allies tried to turn Budapest into a "German Stalingrad"; Hitler engaged the bulk of his Panzer troops (among them six Waffen SS divisions and five army Panzer divisions; one-fourth of the Wehrmacht's armor), weakening German forces fighting the Red Army in Poland and Prussia, as well as those engaging the Western Allies on the Rhine. Malinovsky's strategic and operational skills enabled him to overcome his troops' weakness and to conquer Budapest on 13 February 1945, following an exceptionally harsh battle. He captured 70,000 prisoners. Continuing his drive westward, Malinovsky routed Germans in Slovakia, liberated Bratislava, on 4 April 1945 captured Vienna, and finally, on 26 April 1945 freed Brno, second largest city in Czechoslovakia. These new victories established the Soviet's supremacy over the Danubian heartland of Europe. In return, Stalin rewarded him with the highest Soviet military decoration of the period, the Order of Victory. Malinovsky ended his