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Operation Don's Main Attack: The Soviet Southern Front's Advance on Rostov, January-February 1943

Operation Don's Main Attack: The Soviet Southern Front's Advance on Rostov, January-February 1943

by David M. Glantz
Operation Don's Main Attack: The Soviet Southern Front's Advance on Rostov, January-February 1943

Operation Don's Main Attack: The Soviet Southern Front's Advance on Rostov, January-February 1943

by David M. Glantz

Overview

With the defeat and destruction of German Sixth Army at Stalingrad all but certain at the end of 1942, the war on the Eastern Front took a definitive turn as the Germans struggled to erect a new defensive front to halt the Soviet juggernaut driving west. Operation Don’s Main Attack is the first detailed study of the dramatic clash of armies that followed, unfolding inexorably over the course of two months across an expanse of more than 1,600 kilometers.

Using recently released Russian archival material never before available to researchers, David M. Glantz provides a close-up account, from both sides, of the planning and conduct of Operation Don—the Soviet offensive by the Red Army’s Southern front that aimed to capture Rostov in January–February 1943. His book includes a full array of plans, candid daily reports, situation maps, and strength and casualty reports prepared for the forces that participated in the offensive at every level. Drawing on an unprecedented and comprehensive range of documents, the book delves into many hitherto forbidden topics, such as unit strengths and losses and the foibles and attitudes of command cadre. Glantz’s work also presents rare insights into the military strategy, combat tactics, and operational art of such figures as Generals Eremenko and Malinovsky and Field Marshal Erich von Manstein.

A uniquely informed study of a critical but virtually forgotten Soviet military operation, Operation Don’s Main Attack offers a fresh perspective on the nature of the twentieth century’s most terrible of wars.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780700625260
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Publication date: 03/08/2018
Series: Modern War Studies
Pages: 912
Sales rank: 884,860
Product dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 2.50(d)

About the Author

David M. Glantz, an officer in the US Army from 1963 to 1993, is editor-in-chief of The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. He is the author of numerous books, many from Kansas, including his celebrated Stalingrad Trilogy and, most recently, with Mary Elizabeth Glantz, Battle for Belorussia: The Red Army’s Forgotten Campaign of October 1943–April 1944.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Tables

Preface

Selected Abbreviations

1. The Situation on 1 January 1943

Strategic and Operations Realities

Military Operations, 24031 December 1942

Competing Strategies

Opposing Forces on 1 January 1943

2. Operational Planning and the Southern Front’s Advance, 107 January 1943

Planning

The Situation on 1 January

The Advance, 2-7 January

Conclusions

3. The Southern Front’s Advance, 8-15, January 1943

The Situation on 8 January

The Advance, 8-15 January

Conclusions

4. The Southern Front’s advance, 16-23 January 1943

The Situation on 16 January

The Advance, 16-23 January

Conclusion

5. The Southern Front’s Advance, 24-31 January 1943

The Situation on 24 January

The Advance, 24-31 January

Conclusions

6. Denouement: The Fall of Bataisk and Rostov, 1-13 February 1943

The Situation on 1 February and Competing Plans

Overview of the Situation on 1-18 February

Stalemate, 1-7 February

The Battle for Rostov City and Novocherkassk, 8-13 February

Army Detachment Hollidt’s Withdrawal and the Southern Front’s Pursuit, 8-13 February

Conclusions

7. Postscript: From Rostov to the Mius River, 14-22 February 1943

The Southern Front’s Pursuit to the Mius River, 14-16 February

The Battle for Matveev Kurgan and the Mius River Line, 17-18 February

Stalemate at Matveev Kurgan and the Destruction of 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, 19-22 February

Aftermath, 23 February-March 1943

Context, Conclusions, and Summary Judgments

Context

Conclusions

Summary Judgments

Appendix A: Initial Orders and Reports on Operation Don

Appendix B: A Chronology of the Formation and Evolution of the Northern Group of Forces’ Tank Group Titov, 19 January - 5 February 1943

Appendix C: The Southern Front's Strength and Casualty Reports (Selected), December 1942 - February 1943

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

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