Operation Ostrogoshsk-Rossosh

The operation Ostrogozhsk - Rossosh (in russian Острогожско-Россошанская операция) was an offensive of the Red Army during the Second World War , as part of the Voronezh-Kharkov operation of the Voronezh Front was performed. It lasted from January 13, 1943 to January 27, 1943 and led to the defeat of the Hungarian 2nd Army and parts of the Italian 8th Army .

Preparations

The aim of the offensive was the repetition and expansion of the successes of the Middle Don Operation of December 1942, this time on the Upper Don south of Voronezh . Georgi Schukow and Alexander Wassilewski were again responsible for the planning here as representatives of the high command .

Most sources cite January 12, 1943 as the start of the offensive, on this day after an artillery strike attacks were carried out by Soviet advance units. The offensive was carried out by the 3rd Panzer Army under Pawel Rybalko , which had only recently been released from the Stawka reserve. From the south the attack was supported by the right flank of the Soviet 6th Army (General FM Kharitonov ). The main power of the Soviet 40th Army (Lieutenant General Kirill Moskalenko ) was not used until the following day. The starting point of the Soviet offensive were the two Don bridgeheads at Storoschewoje and Schchuchje near Liski . Air support for the troops was provided by the 2nd Air Army under Major General KN Smirnow .

The attacked Army Group B ( GFM von Weichs ) were subordinate to the following large formations:

2nd Army - General of the Infantry Hans von Salmuth

LV. Army Corps (299th, 45th, 88th and 383rd Infantry Divisions )
XIII. Army Corps ( 82nd , 68th , 340th and 327th Infantry Divisions )
VII Army Corps ( 57th , 75th and 323rd Infantry Divisions )

Hungarian 2nd Army - Colonel General Gusztáv Jány

III. Corps, Major General Marcel Stomm with 6th, 7th and 9th light divisions
IV Corps, FML József Heszlényi with 10th, 13th and 20th light divisions
VII Corps, Major General János Legeza with 19th, 12th and 23rd light divisions
Corps e.g. V. Cramer with 168th Infantry Division and Hungarian 1st Panzer Division, General András Sándor (Colonel Ferenc Horvath)

Italian 8th Army - Army General Italo Gariboldi

XXIV Panzer Corps ( 27th Panzer Division , 385th and 387th Infantry Division )

Alpinikorps, General Gabriele Nasci

2nd Alpini Division "Tridentina", General Luigi Reverberi
1st Alpini Division "Vicenca"
4th Alpini Division "Cuneense", General Emilio Battisti

Army detachment Fretter-Pico

Leftovers Italian XXXV. Corps (Divisions: Pasubio, Torino, Cosseria)
German 19th Panzer and 298th Infantry Division
3rd Mountain Division
304th Infantry Division

The offensive

Pawel Rybalko (1938)

The attack of the Soviet 40th Army on January 12th tore the front of the Hungarian III. Corps on. The first breakthrough at Goldayevka was achieved by the 107th Rifle Division (Colonel PM Beschko) and the 86th Panzer Brigade (Lieutenant Colonel WG Saseyev) in the sector of Honved Regiment 4 of the Hungarian 7th Light Division. The attack by the 25th Guards Rifle Division (Major General PM Schafarenko) was also successful. With the support of the artillery and the 116th Panzer Brigade (Lieutenant Colonel A. Ju. Nowak), the heights at Orechovaja could be stormed after two hours of fighting. The 15th Panzer Corps (Major General WA Koptzow ) led the attack of the 3rd Panzer Army on the southern section. The 180th Rifle Division (Major General Isaak Maloschitzki), supported by the 173rd Tank Brigade, broke into the Hungarian defense at Pasekowo. On the left flank, the 48th Guards Rifle Division (Colonel Nikolai Matwejewitsch Makowtschuk) was deployed, supported by the 97th Panzer Brigade of the 12th Panzer Corps. The immediate intervention of the corps requested by the Hungarian Commander-in-Chief General Jány z. b. V. Cramer was initially forbidden by the German Army Command, because they feared a premature fragmentation of the reserve.

The morning of January 13th brought another artillery preparation - even more effective than the day before. The Soviet 40th Army attacked after the preparatory fire with 3 tank brigades and 4 rifle divisions. The army's first attack squadron comprised the 141st, 25th Guards, 340th and 107th Rifle Divisions as well as the 116th, 150th and 86th Armored Brigades. They were placed on a front about 10 kilometers wide against the enemy defense on the line of the villages Storozhevoje - Boldyrowka - Devitsa. The second squadron - the 305th Rifle Division and the 253rd Rifle Brigade - should not intervene in battle until the morning of the following day. On January 14th, the independently operating Soviet 18th Rifle Corps (Major General PM Sykow ) from the Shchuchye bridgehead attacked the front of the Hungarian VII Corps. Then the still holding left wing of the Hungarian III. Corps rolled up.

After the Soviet Don crossing at Novaya Kalitwa , the corps command post of the German XXIV Panzer Corps (Lieutenant General Martin Wandel ) was overrun by Soviet tanks on January 14 near Schilin. On January 15, the Soviet troops reached the Kolibella - Chrestiki - Koski line, then the resistance of parts of the Hungarian 19th Division and the remnants of the 12th Division prevented further land gains. The Hungarian troops were able to hold the front for 24 hours before they had to retreat. The intervention of the German 387th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Arno Jahr ) seemed to have curbed the Soviet advance, but on January 16 the situation changed.

The Soviet 12th Panzer Corps (General Mitrofanov) pushed into Rossosh on the morning of January 16 with the advance guard of the 106th Panzer Brigade. On January 17th, German troops tried unsuccessfully to recapture Rossoch, but failed and ended up in the columns of the Italian Alpine Corps, which were also pushed to the north, causing disorder and problems with coordination. While Rossoch was secured from the east by a Soviet tank brigade, the Soviet 15th Panzer Corps passed Olchowatka and reached the Kudeschowka - Marjewka line in the rear of the XXIV Panzer Corps. Other parts of the Soviet 3rd Panzer Army occupied Alexejewka until January 19 , the 15th Panzer Corps then established contact west of Ostrogosch with the 40th Army advancing from the north. The 7th Cavalry (later 6th Guards Cavalry) Corps under Major General Sergei W. Sokolow secured west to the Oskol sector opposite the Cramer Corps and occupied Waluiki far behind the overrun enemy units. Soviet troops outflanked the XXIV Panzer Corps at Nikolajewka as well as the mountaineering divisions of the Alpini Corps. The newly appointed corps commander Lieutenant General Karl Eibl was able to fight clear of a corridor to the west with part of his troops, but was killed on January 21. In the following week, the Hungarian, Italian and German units remaining in the boiler were gradually decimated.

German withdrawal

This operation, which took place northwest of Stalingrad parallel to the final phase of the Battle of Stalingrad , led to the encirclement of the Hungarian, Italian and German forces deployed there on the eastern front in the great Donbogen . The Hungarian 2nd Army , the Italian 8th Army and the 387th Infantry Division were affected by the encirclement . From a German point of view, it was more like the "pocket of Ostrogoschsk-Rossosh". The breakthrough of the remaining troops in icy temperatures was only possible with high losses and leaving the wounded behind. Soviet military historians described the German defeat as "Stalingrad on the Upper Don". 15 divisions were defeated and 86,000 Hungarian, German and Italian soldiers were captured.

In addition, the Voronezh-Kastornoye operation , which began on January 24, led to another defeat for the Germans.

The Greater Germany Division and SS units tried to secure the 100–150 km long gap in the front in counterattacks and defensive battles, but had to retreat to Kharkov by mid-February 1943. As a result, the Third Battle of Kharkov took place a little later .

literature

Голиков Ф. И. Острогожско-Россошанская операция , Военно-исторический журнал , 1973, № 1.
К.С. Москаленко : На Юго-Западном направлении. Воспоминания командарма. Книга I. - Наука, Moscow 1969.
Thomas Schlemmer (Ed.): The Italians on the Eastern Front 1942/43: Documents on Mussolini's war against the Soviet Union (translated by Georg Kuck). Munich, Oldenbourg, 2005, 291 pages, literature index. Pp. [275] - 283. Series of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 91, ISBN 3-486-57847-2 .
VP Morozov: West of Voronezh: A Brief Military History of the… , published 1959, Publishing House of the Ministry of National Defense , 202 pages.
(it) Alessandro Massignani: Alpini e Tedeschi sul Don. Edizioni Gino Rossato, Novale-Valdagno (Vicenza) 1991.
(it) Mario Rigoni Stern : Ritorno sul Don. Einaudi 1973, Edizione collana Nuovi Coralli , ISBN 88-06-38026-5 .
Lajos Vollner: "Voronezh, The fate of Hungarian soldiers on the Don / Russia between 1942/43" Bauer-Verlag Thalhofen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-941013-73-5

www.lajosvollner.nl A travel report (Hungarian) u. a. with pictures of the former positions of the III. Army Corps of the 2nd Hungarian (“Royal”) Army, on the Don, south of Voronezh.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Svetlana Wassiljewna Markowa, Voronezh Regional Museum for Regional Studies: The Battle of Voronezh. (Contribution to the colloquium on January 30, 2003 in Potsdam on the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad). Website of the “Berlin Society for Fascism and World War Research e. V. “Retrieved December 9, 2010.
↑ Hans Heinz Rehfeldt: With the elite group of the army "Greater Germany" deep in the vastness of Russia. Würzburg 2nd edition 2009, pp. 257–267

[1] Svetlana Wassiljewna Markowa, Voronezh Regional Museum for Regional Studies: The Battle of Voronezh. (Contribution to the colloquium on January 30, 2003 in Potsdam on the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad). Website of the “Berlin Society for Fascism and World War Research e. V. “Retrieved December 9, 2010.

[2] Hans Heinz Rehfeldt: With the elite group of the army "Greater Germany" deep in the vastness of Russia. Würzburg 2nd edition 2009, pp. 257–267