 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Battle of Rostov" 1941 – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Battle of Rostov (1941) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theEastern Front ofWorld War II | |||||||
 Soviet troops fighting in Rostov | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Soviet Union |  Germany Romania Slovakia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Yakov CherevichenkoAnton Lopatin | Gerd von RundstedtWalther von ReichenauEwald von Kleist | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 33,000 (17 November–2 December)[1] (including 27,000 combat casualties) | Per German medical data only (incomplete data and excluding non-combat casualties): 1,141 killed 5,118 wounded 251 missing Total: 6,510 (11 November–30 November)[2] | ||||||
TheBattle of Rostov (1941) took place on theEastern Front ofWorld War II aroundRostov-on-Don and was fought betweenArmy Group South ofNazi Germany and theSouthern Front of theSoviet Union.
The battle comprised three phases: the GermanSea of Azov Offensive Operation by Army Group South (GeneralGerd von Rundstedt) (begun on 12 September 1941),[3] the SovietRostov Defensive Operation (5 November 1941 – 16 November 1941) by the Southern Front (GeneralYakov Timofeyevich Cherevichenko), and theRostov Offensive Operation (27 November 1941 – 2 December 1941) executed by the same Soviet Front.
After forcing their way across theMius River on 17 November, the German forces captured 10,000 Soviet troops and took Rostov on 21 November. Six days later the Southern Front, reinforced with the newly raised37th Army, counterattacked from the north and threatened to surround the overstretched GermanIII Motorized Army Corps. Rundstedt then ordered a retreat to the Mius line from Rostov to prevent the encirclement. The Red Army retook Rostov on 28 November. It was the first successful major Soviet counteroffensive of the war. Hitler fired von Rundstedt on 1 December. Rundstedt's successorWalther von Reichenau confirmed the retreat order with the backing of theArmy High Command Chief of StaffFranz Halder and Hitler relented (detailshere).
After concluding theBattle of Kiev in September 1941, the GermanArmy Group South advanced from theDniepr River to theSea of Azov coast.Walther von Reichenau's6th Army captured Kharkov in theFirst Battle of Kharkov.Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel's17th Army advanced throughPoltava towardsVoroshilovgrad.Erich von Manstein's11th Army moved into theCrimean Peninsula and took control of all of the peninsula by autumn (exceptSevastopol, which held out until 3 July 1942).
Ewald von Kleist's 1st Panzer Army advanced from Kiev, and encircled Soviet troops atMelitopol in October, then attacked east along the shore of the Sea of Azov towardRostov at the mouth of theDon River, known as the gateway to theCaucasus.
Rostov was assigned as the objective for the11th Army now commanded by GeneralEugen Ritter von Schobert, however he died in a crash on the same day after landing his liaison aircraft in a minefield.[3] To replace him, Manstein was ordered to travel from the Leningrad sector of the front to the extreme southern sector. He would also receive support from the4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet.
At this time theLIVth Army Corps of the 11th Army was still engaged in Crimea, and because the Romanian forces were still engaged in theSiege of Odessa, the Army's resources for the Rostov objective were severely limited even against retreating Red Army troops. Therefore, Manstein initially replaced the LIV Corps with the smallerXXXth Army Corps andXLIXth Mountain Corps and ordered the LIV Corps into the first echelon in the advance to Rostov.
Late in September, theRomanian 3rd Army joined the 11th Army in its advance towards Rostov, but was severely depleted by the attacks of the Soviet9th and18th Armies on 26 September. This forced a halt to the Army's advance to safeguard its flank and forced Manstein to use his only mobile reserve unit, theLeibstandarte Brigade to shore up Romanian defenses.[4]
The Soviet counter-attack delivered as part of the generalDonbas–Rostov strategic defensive operation (29 September 1941 – 16 November 1941) also forced Rundstedt's Army Group South to order his1st Panzer Army to manoeuvre in order to be better placed to counter any further Soviet thrusts in the Romanian sector of the front, and also to attempt an encirclement of the two Soviet Armies, which was partly successful in the area ofChernigovka where on 8 October the commander of the 18th Soviet Army, General-Lieutenant A.K. Smirnov, was killed by artillery fire on his command post in the village of Popovka[5] during the breakout attempt[4] between 5 and 10 October 1941. This was interpreted by Hitler as such a success that he declared "The battle of the Sea of Azov is over" on 11 October before the troops had even reached their objective.[6] As a commemorative gesture, Hitler issued the order to redesignate the Leibstandarte Brigade as SS Division Leibstandarte.
The German 11th Army was ordered back to Crimea to effect thebreakthrough of theIsthmus of Perekop.
Perceiving that the way to Rostov and the Caucasus was open, Hitler issued an order transferring the objective from the 11th Army to the 1st Panzer Army and attaching to it the ill-prepared Romanian 3rd Army, theItalian Alpine Corps, and theSlovakian Motorised Brigade.
During the subsequent reorganisation of Axis forces theIII Panzer Corps andXIV Panzer Corps took the lead, supported by the XLIX Mountain Corps recently arrived from Crimea.
.jpg)
By 17 October 1941 theMius River was crossed by the14th Panzer Division andTaganrog was captured by German troops, with the mountain troops enteringStalino, forcing the newly formed12th Army into a renewed withdrawal. However, the autumn rains had begun, and theRasputitsa ("roadlessness") had set in slowing the 1st Panzer Army's advance to "meter by meter".[7] This meant that the leading German units did not reach the outskirts of Rostov until mid-November, having lost contact with the Red Army in the meantime.[8]
The assault on Rostov began on 17 November, and on 21 November the Germans took the city. However, the German lines were over-extended, and Kleist's warnings that his left flank was vulnerable and that his tanks were ineffective in the freezing weather were ignored.
On 27 November the37th Army, commanded by Lieutenant-GeneralAnton Ivanovich Lopatin, as part of theRostov Strategic Offensive Operation (17 November 1941 – 2 December 1941), counter-attacked the 1st Panzer Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of the city.Adolf Hitler countermanded the retreat. When Rundstedt refused to obey, Hitler sacked him, and replaced him with Reichenau. However, Reichenau saw at once that Rundstedt was right and succeeded in persuading Hitler, viaFranz Halder, to authorise the withdrawal,[9] and the 1st Panzer Army was forced back to theMius River atTaganrog. It was the first significant German withdrawal of the war.
