Battle of Kalach

The tank battle of Kalatsch from late July to early August 1942, a part of the fighting in the Don bend during the German summer offensive of 1942 in the south of the Eastern Front. It led to a smaller success of the German 6th Army to advance into Stalingrad.

Background

The Winter Offensive 1941/42, the Red Army was stopped by the Wehrmacht under enormous losses and stabilizes the Eastern Front. As part of a German counter offensive during the Battle of Kharkov 1942 240.000 Red Army soldiers were captured in May. Ahead of the planned German summer offensive in the south of the Eastern Front was, inter alia, the Crimean peninsula, including the besieged fortress of Sebastopol fully occupied. With the aim of their way to Stalingrad and the Caucasus to make free, the Don bend should now be captured.

The summer offensive began on 28 June, the Army Group South under the code name " Case Blue " was aimed at securing the oil resources in the Caucasus foothills and the conquest of Stalingrad on the Volga. In order to pursue both of these goals simultaneously, the Army Group in early July was divided into Army Groups A and B. The Army Group B under its 6th Army under General of Panzer Troops Friedrich Paulus was ordered to fight his Vormarschweg in the Donetsk region, while other parts of Army Group occupied the important center of Voronezh.

Since Hitler, given the size of the proposed operation area feared supply problems, he ordered that, instead of long-distance Umfassungsoperationen of 1941 with large kettle formations, this time should be operated by means of small boilers. As a result of the rapid and orderly retreat of the Red Army, the areas of the two small boilers were nearly empty. Added to this was that the German forces for a conquest of the heavily defended Voronezh were ultimately insufficient. Therefore, the rise ( flow through Voronezh ) remained despite initial successes on Tim stuck and the transport hub remain under Russian control. The later of troops of the Soviet armed forces, which finally broke the covered by Romanian and Italian associations northern flank of the German front, were made ​​possible by.

The battle of encirclement

The 6th Army end of July 1942 was approaching the apex of the Donschleife at Kalatsch on-Don, about 85 km west of Stalingrad. The Soviet High Command decided to defend the Donübergänge in this area and concentrated his forces, mainly the newly established Soviet 1st Tank Army and a large part of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad front, in the hilly terrain west of Kalatsch. The procedure an enclosure used by Paul was successful. In early August, a boiler was built by several Soviet divisions, on August 11, according to Germany capitulated 57,000 Red Army soldiers. The 6th Army formed a bridgehead across the Don, the last obstacle before Stalingrad was overcome with two weeks late. So Stalin was reached in the last successful encirclement battle of the Wehrmacht until 22 August. In the period following victories were only reserved in encirclement battles the Allies.

Follow

The battle of encirclement Kalatsch offered a prerequisite for the subsequent German attack on Stalingrad. Paul successful action boosted his fame, and the last time you were on the German side hopes of an imminent Soviet collapse down, although the number of Red Army soldiers fallen into captivity was relatively low, as the Red Army not stop the advance of the 6th Army, but only should disturb briefly. This tactic thus enabled the expansion of the Soviet defense in Stalingrad.