Armata Italiana in Russia, Conclusion
By Ottavio Ricchi
Edited by John Stafford
August 2012

The Offensive
The full scale Soviet attack began on December 16th in the II Army Corps sector under adverse weather conditions. Morning fog hindered artillery observation and aviation close air support. The outcome of the initial attack, carried out by Soviet infantry with limited tank support, was disappointing. A number of Soviet tanks were immobilized by minefields that had not been properly cleared, and by Italian artillery and German assault guns. Overall, the Russians suffered heavy losses in the face of stiff resistance and achieved only limited results.  During the night of December 17th General Vatutin decided to release the tank formations that were not supposed to be used until the exploitation phase. Thus on the 17th the Soviet tank corps (17th, 24th, 25th and 18th) were employed en mass to crush the Italian positions and finally achieve a breakthrough. On December 18th, the armored wave (nearly 700 tanks) swept the lines of Cosseria and Ravenna and began to advance deep into the Italian lines, threatening command centers and logistics, and a full breakthrough.

The Italian II Army Corps was officially disbanded by the German command. A new army corps formed by the Alpine Division Julia, 27th Panzer Division, and German 385th and 387th Infantry Divisions and additional units, called XXIV Panzer Corps, could not save the situation. They were, however, just able to form a defensive flank that shielded the Alpini Corps (the northernmost Italian unit placed along the Don) and prevented its encirclement. On 19 December the 17th Tank Corps reached Kantemirovka, the main Italian logistical center in this area.  The Soviet tanks also screened other Soviet corps that plunged into the rear of the Axis positions advancing rapidly toward south and pocketing the Italian divisions of XXXV and XXIX corps.

Meanwhile, on December 18th the Soviet 3rd Guards Army had broken through German-Romanian lines in the Bokovskaja sector. This force moved westwards and represented the second pincer of the offensive. The Italian divisions placed along the Don still largely intact, with the exception of the Pasubio and Celere Divisions, had been firmly ordered to hold the defensive line. After contradictory orders which caused confused back-and-forth marches, the Italians were allowed to disengage and retreat. But it was too late, as the Soviets were already far in the rear. By December 20th the battle had split into three main foci: the retreat of Italian, Romanian, and German columns, often intermixed, trying to escape to the west and the subsequent attempts by Soviet infantry divisions to surround and destroy them; the simultaneous rapid progression of Soviet armored corps to the south aimed at disrupting the rear areas that insured supplies to the Germans that were trying to relieve the Sixth Army blocked at Stalingrad; and the German attempts to rebuild a solid front to the west.

An Italian cavalry column on the move in the warmer days of 1942.

The Italian divisions began a desperate retreat westward grouped into two main masses: the so-called North Block (Torino and Pasubio divisions, a fraction of the Ravenna division, a few Blackshirts, and the German 298th Infantry Division) and South Block (the 6th Regiment of the 3rd Celere Division, the Sforzesca Division, the German Kampfgruppe Shuldt, and elements of the 7th Romanian Division). The retreat took place in chaos, hampered by winter weather, the difficulty of the terrain, and constant harassment by the Soviets from all directions. The lack of fuel soon forced the Italians to abandon artillery and support weapons and the retreat turned into a grueling march on foot of masses more and more disorganized. The North Block moved towards Certkovo, but on December 22nd it found the road blocked and got pocketed in the area of ​​Arbuzovka by the Soviet 35th Guards Division (a veteran of Stalingrad). The subsequent tragic battle of the Valley of Death ended on December 25th with the almost complete destruction of the Italian divisions, though they fought desperately. Thanks to a breakthrough achieved by Germans, 7,000 Italians escaped to Certkovo and joined its garrison. Certkovo would be vacated at the start of January and survivors would reach the lines held by the 19th Panzer Division after a final march.  The fate of the South Block was slightly less dramatic as in that sector Soviet lines were thinner. Thanks to the leadership of Colonel Carloni, the commander of the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment, a larger fraction of the column was able to rejoin German lines.

As all these tragedies unfolded, four Soviet armored corps plunged deeper into the Axis defenses. After the collapse of the Italian II Army Corps, the Soviet 17th Armored Corps initially moved westward. After taking Kantemirovka it turned south to protect the right flank of the other moving tank corps. The 18th Corps steered east in cooperation with infantry divisions and the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps to attend the destruction of various Italian pockets of resistance retreating from the Don River. The remaining two tank corps were totally devoted to achieving the deep raid. Finding virtually no obstacles, they proceeded south at full speed towards the important airfields of Tatsjnskaja and Morozovsk. While the 25th Armored Corps pointed towards Morozovsk, the 24th advanced 240 km in four days to surprise Tatsjnskaja on the 24th, finding the airfield there full of Luftwaffe aircraft and completely unaware of the danger. Soviet tanks stormed the runways, sparking panic, while many German aircraft tried to take off to avoid capture or destruction. The 24th Corps tanks destroyed over 70 German planes, and captured the town and airport.

The German reaction plan was to hold a few key towns as communications centers, with the hope of delaying the Soviets. Millerowo was held for two weeks, and Certkovo’s garrison was under siege for almost a month. In the meantime additional units coming from the rear, such as the 19th Panzer Division, were rushed to the sector with the intent to build a new continuous defensive line (General Ferdinand Fretter-Pico assumed command of this sector).

Alpini dug in along the Don, winter 1942.

Field Marshal Erich von Manstein obtained permission from Hitler to divert west a portion of his forces to stop the Soviet advance. He countered the isolated 24th Tank Corps, still in possession of Tatsjnskaja, with the 11th Panzer Division. Short of supplies and in serious difficulties, the 24th Corps fought bravely until 29 December. General Vatutin held dramatic talks with Stalin and Zhukov, being greatly concerned about the fate of General Badanov and his men. On the 29th the remains of the corps (renamed 2nd Stalin Guard Tank Corps "Tatsjnskij" for its valor in battle) were given permission to abandon Tatsjnskaja. They reached friendly lines after losing almost all their armored vehicles. On December 30th, the 25th Tank Corps was surprised and driven back by a well-conceived counterattack of 6th Panzer Division.

By the end of the year, further progression of the Soviet offensive was momentary contained, but the overwhelming initial success of Operation Little Saturn marked the final fate of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. The evacuation of the airports, the losses of transport aircraft, and the abandonment of the rescue attempt by General Hermann Hoth presented a fatal combination for the entrapped army. Still, the troops in Caucasus, even if threatened, could still be saved (Hitler approved their retreat after much discussion on December 30th).

Operation Little Saturn had wrought tragedy for the Italian ARMIR that suffered the brunt of the overwhelming main Soviet forces. This abuse was compounded by Hitler and his propaganda machine who played the Italians as the scapegoats for the defeat. Of the four army corps, three were now practically destroyed. Human losses amounted to at least 65,000 to 70,000 dead, and only a small fraction of the additional 50,000 prisoners made the return journey home. Virtually all the material and weapons were lost. The surviving Alpini Corps suffered a similar tragic fate in January 1943, thus concluding the tragic epic of the ARMIR’s Russian campaign.

Overall the Axis lost more than 10 divisions (6 Italian, 2 Romanian, and at least 2 other German), totaling 120,000 men (including at least 60,000 prisoners) and nearly 300 tanks. The Red Army demonstrated its offensive power and the advanced capabilities of its mechanized corps (although at the cost of heavy losses as well: 95,000 men and 900 tanks). The experience of the 24th Corps also gave useful lessons for the future, highlighting the risk of advanced armored becoming isolated, and the need to strengthen the logistical support and improve the cohesion and links between mobile units. From 1943 on, tank units would be further strengthened and more care would be taken to provide enough motorized infantry to keep up with the pace of advancing armor.