Battle of Rostov (1941)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
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 South Front commanded by General Yakov Timofeyevich Cherevichenko.
After winning the Battle of Kiev in September 1941, Army Group South pushed down from the Dniepr to the Sea of Azov coast. Walther von Reichenau's 6th Army captured Kharkov. Heinrich von Stulpnagel'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 drove down from Kiev and encircled Soviet troops at Melitopol in October, then drove east along the shore of the Sea of Azov toward Rostov at the mouth of the Don river, the gateway to the Caucasus.
On 21 November the Germans took Rostov. However, the German lines were over-extended, and Kleist's warnings that his left flank was vulnerable and that his tanks were ineffective in the freezing weather were ignored. On 27 November the Soviet 37th Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Anton Ivanovich Lopatin, counterattacked the 1st Panzer Army's 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. However, retreat was unavoidable, and the 1st Panzer Army was forced back to the Mius River at Taganrog. It was the first significant German withdrawal of the war.
The battle cost the Red Army about 140,000 dead, and the Germans about 14,000 dead.
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.
