Battle of Rostov (1941)

The Battle of Rostov (1941) was a battle of the Eastern

Front of World War II, fought around Rostov-on-Don
between the German Army Group South, commanded
by General Gerd von Rundstedt and the Soviet Southern Front commanded by General Yakov Timofeyevich
Cherevichenko.

fore initially von Manstein replaced the LIV Corps with

the smaller XXXth Army Corps and XLIXth Mountain
Corps, and ordered the LIV Corps into the rst echelon
in the advance to Rostov.
Late in September the 3rd Romanian Army joined the
11th Army in its advance towards Rostov, but was
severely depleted by the attacks of the Soviet 9th and
18th Armies on 26 September. This forced a halt to
the Armys advance to safeguard its ank, and forced
von Manstein to use his only mobile reserve unit, the
Leibstandarte Brigade to shore up Romanian defenses.[3]

It comprised three phases: the German Army Group

South Sea of Azov Oensive Operation (begun on 12
September 1941),[2] the Soviet Rostov Defensive Operation (5 November 1941 16 November 1941) by the
Southern Front, and the Rostov Oensive Operation
(27 November 1941 2 December 1941) executed by
the same Soviet Front.

3 Rostov Defensive Operation

1

Prelude

The Soviet counter-attack delivered as part of the general Donbass-Rostov Strategic Defensive Operation (29
September 1941 16 November 1941) also forced von
Rundstedt (Army Group South) to order his 1st 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 of Chernigovka where the commander of the 18th
Soviet Army General-Lieutenant Smirnov was killed during the breakout attempt[3] 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.[4] As a commemorative gesture, Hitler issued
the order to redesignate the Leibstandarte Brigade as 1st
SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.

After concluding the Battle of Kiev in September 1941,

the German Army Group South advanced from the
Dniepr to the Sea of Azov coast. Walther von Reichenau's 6th Army captured Kharkov. Carl-Heinrich
von Stlpnagel's 17th Army marched through Poltava towards Voroshilovgrad. Erich von Manstein's 11th Army
moved into the Crimea and had taken control of all of the
peninsula by autumn (except Sevastopol, which held out
until 3 July 1942).
Ewald von Kleist's 1st Panzer Army advanced from Kiev,
and encircled Soviet troops at Melitopol in October, then
attacked east along the shore of the Sea of Azov toward
Rostov at the mouth of the Don river, known as the gateway to the Caucasus.

The German 11th Army was ordered back to Crimea to

eect the breakthrough of the Isthmus of Perekop.

Sea of Azov oensive Operation

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 ill prepared Romanian 3rd Army, the Italian Alpine
Corps, and the Slovakian Motorised Brigade.

Rostov was assigned as the objective for the 11th Army

now commanded by General von Schobert, however he
died in a crash on the same day after landing his liaison
Fieseler Storch aircraft in a mineeld.[2] To replace him,
General of Infantry von Manstein was ordered to travel
from the Leningrad sector of the front to the extreme
southern sector. He would also receive support from the
4th Luftwae Air Fleet.

During the subsequent reorganisation of Axis forces the

3rd Panzer Corps and 14th Panzer Corps took the lead,
supported by the XLIX Mountain Corps recently arrived
from Crimea.

At this time the LIVth Army Corps of the 11th Army

was still engaged in Crimea, and because the Romanian
forces were still engaged in the Siege of Odessa, the
Armys resources for the Rostov objective were severely
limited even against retreating Red Army troops. There-

By 17 October 1941 the Mius river was crossed by the

14th Panzer Division and Taganrog was captured by German troops, with the mountain troops entering Stalino,
forcing the newly formed 12th Army into a renewed withdrawal. However the Red Army was at this stage fortu1

7 SEE ALSO

nate in that the Autumn rains had begun, and the infamous Rasputitsa had set in slowing the 1st Panzer Armys
advance to meter by meter.[5] 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.[6]
The assault on Rostov began on 17 November, and on 21
November the Germans took Rostov. However, the German lines were over-extended, and von Kleists warnings
that his left ank was vulnerable and that his tanks were
ineective in the freezing weather were ignored.

Rostov Oensive Operation

On 27 November the Soviet 37th Army, commanded by

Lieutenant-General Anton Ivanovich Lopatin, as part of
the Rostov Strategic Oensive Operation (17 November 1941 2 December 1941), counter-attacked the 1st
Panzer Armys spearhead from the north, forcing them to
pull out of the city. Adolf Hitler countermanded the retreat. When von Rundstedt refused to obey, Hitler sacked
him, and replaced him with von Reichenau. However,
von Reichenau saw at once that von Rundstedt was right
and succeeded in persuading Hitler, via Franz Halder, to
authorise the withdrawal.,[7] and the 1st Panzer Army was
forced back to the Mius River at Taganrog. It was the rst
signicant German withdrawal of the war.

References

[1] http://velikvoy.narod.ru/bitvy/1941/rostov_nast_oper_
1941.htm
[2] p.87, Haupt, Army Group South
[3] p.91, Haupt, Army Group South
[4] p.92, Haupt, Army Group South
[5] p.95, Haupt, Army Group South
[6] p.101, Haupt, Army Group South
[7] Clark, Alan (1965). Barbarossa: The Russian-German
Conict 194145; p. 178

Sources
Haupt, Werner, Army Group South: The Wehrmacht in Russia 1941-1945, Schier Military History,
Atglen, 1998

See also
In the Battle of Rostov (1942), the German 17th
Army captured the city.

In the Battle of Rostov (1943), the Soviet Union recaptured the city.

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