Between the 26^th and the 28^th of August 1944 took place fights for freeing Orșova from the Second World War. The fights continued until the 30^th of August 1944 for freeing the defile Orșova – Severin. In the month of September 1944 took place the fights for defending the Defile of the Danube in front of the enemy which started the offensive throughout the entire defile.

The Second World War was a generalized armed conflict, at the middle of the XXth century, which consumed the biggest part of the globe, being considered the biggest and the deadliest uninterrupted war from the history of mankind. It was the first time when a number of new technical discoveries, including the atomic bomb, were used at a large scale against the militaries and the civilians, equally. The Second World War generated the direct or indirect death of over 70 million people, approximately 3% of the world population from that period of time. Moreover, many other people were seriously injured, acquired life infirmities because of the fire weapons, the classical or nuclear bombardments, or because of the inhuman military and medical experience at which they were subjected.

It was estimated the fact that this war cost more money and resources than all the other wars together, 1.000 billion dollars at the value from 1945, without being taken into account the amounts spent for the reconstruction after the war.

The majority of the historians consider the fact that the Second World War started on the 1^st of September 1939, together with the invasion of Poland by Germany, which attracted in the conflict France, England and the Commonwealth. Some of the historians consider the fact that the attack of China by Japan (the 7^th of July 1937) marks the beginning of the world conflict. The Soviet Union, which annexed the eastern part of Poland in 1939, started a separate war with Finland and was, also, attacked by the Nazi Germany, in June 1941. The United States of America entered in a conflict in December 1941, after the Attack from Pearl Harbor. The war ended in 1945, when all the powers of the Ax were defeated.

The principal war theatres were the Atlantic Ocean, the Western and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa, Middle East, the Pacific Ocean and South – West Asia and China. In Europe, the war ended together with the unconditional capitulation of the Nazi Germany, on the 8^th of May 1945, but continues in Asia after the capitulation of Japan – the 15^th of August 1945.

On the 22^nd of June 1941, Romania entered in War, alongside Germany, against the URSS, in order to reunite its territory. There were involved in the military operations the effectives of the two armies, which totalized 12 infantry divisions, an armored division and 6 independent brigades, as well as the military aviation (672 airplanes, among which 219 of bombardment and 146 for hunting).