11–23 March 1945 The frontFront

Artillery began falling on Poniky on 11 March 1945 and the shelling went on for twelve days. On 23 March Soviet reconnaissance units and troops of the Romanian army — Romania had changed sides in August 1944, and its soldiers fought their way across Slovakia — took the village. Sixty-four soldiers were killed in the fighting around it. Banská Bystrica was taken two days later. The village has a monument to the Romanian dead, which is not something most people expect to find in the hills above the Zvolen basin.11. marca 1945 začali na Poniky dopadať delostrelecké granáty a ostreľovanie trvalo dvanásť dní. 23. marca obsadili obec sovietske prieskumné jednotky a vojaci rumunskej armády — Rumunsko prešlo v auguste 1944 na druhú stranu a jeho vojaci sa prebíjali cez Slovensko. V bojoch v okolí padlo šesťdesiatštyri vojakov. Banskú Bystricu oslobodili o dva dni neskôr. Obec má pamätník padlým Rumunom, čo je vec, ktorú by v kopcoch nad Zvolenskou kotlinou väčšina ľudí nečakala.