Battle of Nikolayevka

The Battle of Nikolayevka was fought in January 1943,

as a small part of the larger Battle of Stalingrad. The
Battle pitted forces of the Italian 8th Armys Alpini Corps
against the four Soviet Armies (corps) of the Voronezh
Front. Since the war the village has been absorbed by the
nearby village of Livenka.

Prelude

On December 16, 1942, Soviet forces launched

Operation Little Saturn aimed at the Italian 8th Army.
The Soviet plan was to force the River Don, encircle and
destroy the Italian 8th Army along the Don, then push
towards Rostov on Don and thus cut the line of communication of Army Group A ghting in the Caucasus and
the line of communication of 4th Panzer Army, which
was in the midst of Operation Wintergewitterthe attempt to relieve 6th Army from encirclement in the city
of Stalingrad.

The Alpini positions on the river Don before the Soviet advances
during operations Uranus, Mars and Saturn and their line of retreat in red.

selves. The Alpini held the front, but within three days the
On December 16 General Fyodor Isidorovich Soviets advanced 200 kilometers (120 mi) to the left and
Kuznetsov's 1st Guards Army and General Dmitri right of the Alpini, who were thus encircled.
Danilovich Lelyushenko's 3rd Guards Army attacked Although the Alpini corps was ordered to hold the front
the units of the Italian 8th Army, which were quickly at all costs, preparations for a general retreat began on
overcome, encircled and crushedin three days the January 15. On the evening of January 17, the comSoviets had opened a gap in the Axis front 45 km (28 manding ocer of the corps General Gabriele Nasci mi) deep and 150 km (93 mi) wide and destroyed two nally ordered the full retreat. At this point the Julia and
of the Italian Armys Corps (2nd and 35th). The Soviet Cuneense divisions were already heavily decimated and
armored columns now rapidly advanced south towards only the Tridentina division was still capable of conductthe Black Sea. Thus 4th Panzer Army was forced to ing eective combat operations.
abandon its relief attempt of the 6th Army and fall back
The 40,000-strong mass of stragglersAlpini and Italto halt the advancing Soviets.
ians from other commands, plus various Germans and
Hungariansformed two columns that followed the Tridentina division which, supported by a handful of German armoured vehicles, led the way westwards to the new
2 Battle
Axis front. The Soviets had already occupied every vilThe Italian 8th Armys Alpini Corps, consisting of Alpine lage and bitter battles were fought by the soldiers of the
Divisions 3rd Julia, 2nd Tridentina and 4th Cuneense and Tridentina to clear the way. In fteen days the soldiers
the 156th Vicenza Infantry Division to their rear, were covered 200 km on foot, fought twenty-two battles and
at this point largely unaected by the Soviet oensive on spent fourteen nights camped in the middle of the Rustheir right ank. But on January 13, 1943, the Soviets sian steppe. Temperatures during the night fell between
30 C (20 F) and 40 C (40 F).
launched the second stage of Operation Saturn.
On the morning of January 26, the spearheads of the Tridentina reached the little hamlet of Nikolayevka, now part
of the village of Livenka. A Soviet division of nearly
6,000 well armed soldiers occupied it and the surrounding
area.[1]

In this stage four armies of Soviet General Filipp Golikov's Voronezh Front attacked, encircled, and destroyed
the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda on the Don
to the northwest of the Italians, they attacked and pushed
back the remaining units of the German 24th Army Corps
on the Alpini left ank and then attacked the Alpini them-

The Alpini immediately began their attack with their last

1

EXTERNAL LINKS

4,000 combat-ready soldiers, as they knew that this was

the last Soviet position blocking their way to safety. But
the Soviet forces held their ground, and after hours of
ghting the Italian units became desperate as each hour
increased the risk that Soviet reinforcements could arrive.
Although the chief-of-sta of the corps, Brigadier General Giulio Martinat, had already been killed earlier that
day while leading an assault of the Edolo battalion,
General Luigi Reverberi, commander of the Tridentina
division, stepped onto one of the last three Panzers as
the sun began to set and, yelling Tridentina, Avanti!"
(Tridentina Forward), led his men personally on the nal assault. As the 4,000 Alpini advanced, all remaining
soldiers of the columns fell in and the Soviets, facing a
human wave attack by many of the 40,000 Italians (with
some Germans and Hungarians), relented and abandoned
the village after suering huge losses.
The retreat of the Alpini was no longer contested by Soviet forces and on February 1 the remnants of the Corps
reached Axis lines, under the leadership of general Reverberi (who later received the Italian gold medal of Father Gnocchi in departure for the Russian front, in the comhonor[2] ).
pany of general Luigi Reverberi (saluting in the photo)
The Alpini did pay a high price in The Soviet Union. The
4 Alpine Division Cuneense was annihilated. Only about 5 References
one tenth of the 3 Alpine Division Julia survived (approximately 1200 survivors of 15000 troops deployed) and [1] Nikolayevka (in Italian)
only about one third of the 2 Alpine Division Tridentina
survived (approximately 4250 survivors of 15000 troops [2] Reverberis Gold Medal of Honor
deployed).
[3] Gli alpini in Russia. Alpinivenezia.it. Retrieved 201310-27.

Myths

A tenacious urban legend often heard in Italy[3][4][5][6]

quotes an alleged Soviet war bulletin N.630 read on
February 8, 1943 at radio Moscow stating that the only
force that can regard itself as undefeated on Russian soil is
the Italian Alpini corps": actually, this bulletin was never
issued by the Soviets.
Another myth is that Blessed Father Carlo Gnocchi participated in the Battle of Nikolayevka: he was present in
the nal attack on the Soviet troops, but as the chaplain
of the Alpini.

[4] Associazione pro Ruscio - La campagna di Russia.

Proruscio.it. Retrieved 2013-10-27.
[5] Bredyfox (2006-04-29).
Storia
Smalp155.org. Retrieved 2013-10-27.

degli

alpini.

[6]

6 Bibliography
Hamilton, H. Sacrice on the Steppe. Casemate,
2011 (English)

7 External links
4

See also
Italian Army in Russia
Italian participation in the Eastern Front
Luigi Reverberi
Giulio Martinat

Italian Army homepage: History of the Tridentina

Division (Italian)
Survivors account (Italian)
Alpini association site (Italian)
Mario Rigoni Stern: The Sergeant in the Snow
(Marlboro Press - 1998)
L'Alpino, Alpini association magazine

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

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Battle of Nikolayevka Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nikolayevka?oldid=664009216 Contributors: Ezhiki, Domino

theory, Klemen Kocjancic, Bender235, GregorB, Ali Isingor, Noclador, Kirill Lokshin, Alex Bakharev, Capt Jim, SmackBot, Chris the
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