Battle of the Voroshilovgrad - Rostov line (2 October – 4 November)
Following the withdrawal from the Don River bend, Army Group South had attempted to establish a new frontline from Voroshilovgrad to Rostov-on-Don. However, the Red Army had been hot on the heels of our withdrawing forces and had captured Krasnyi Luch before our troops could move into the area. As a result, composite battle groups of the 4th and 6th SS Panzer Armies were ordered to attack this bulge from the north and south.
The Krasnyi Luch bulge.
On 2 October, eleven divisions struck aiming to pinch off the forward Soviet troops, destroy the bulge, and straighten out the frontline. As the panzers, halftracks, and trucks moved forward, the Red Army counterattacked. Soviet motorized forces struck the southern wing of our attack, and fed armoured formations into Krasnyi Luch to counter our northern blow. The attack on our southern wing dwindled our offensive strength down from eleven divisions to seven. In support, the Red Air Force was launching daily high and low level bombing raids on our attacking and defending troops. The Luftwaffe squadrons, already based on the Eastern Front, were unable to reply due to the heavy losses previously received, thus the decision was made to temporarily transfer forces from the Western Front. 320 FW 190s and 640 ME 410s were dispatched until the offensive began in the west. By 7 October, the battle group assaulting the northern wing of Krasnyi Luch had dropped to three divisions, and the next day the attack was finally called off. While the attack had mauled four Red Army divisions, due to the dense air cover there had been no break through.
On 9 October, intercepted radio communications suggested that the Red Army was withdrawing all forces from Krasnyi Luch: news that would have been much more welcomed in the previous days, although there was no troops to take advantage. The following day, the Red Army finally captured the small town of Bolshiye Sal (north of Rostov and south of Krasnyi Luch). With the Soviets in control of these two areas, and the vast open terrain in between, Rostov was now looking rather isolated and the Red Army in a commanding position to push west. However, the heavy fighting that had taken place during the withdrawal from the Don River bend and for these two small towns had seemed to sap the offensive power of the Red Army.
Rostov, looking isolated.
For four days peace descended across the front, it seemed the Red Army had been rendered ineffective by the fighting. This was not the case. The Red Army has simply been redeploying their troops. On 14 October, hundreds of Soviet tanks rolled across the open Steppe and farmland towards the Ukrainian city of Horlivka. Facing this onslaught was the 13th Panzer Division. For a day and a half a rolling armour battle unfolded in the countryside in front of the city. Despite their best efforts, and the destruction of scores of Soviet tanks, the 13th Panzer Division was forced to withdraw creating a hole in the frontline, and leaving the city in Soviet hands. A rapidly assembled battle group of infantry and tanks were thrown into the flank of the overstretched and weakened Red Army troopers. This attack stopped the Red Army from achieving the breakthrough that they sought, closed the gap, but was unable to retake the city. A complete break of the front had narrowly been avoided. Meanwhile, to their northeast, reconnaissance forces had identified only a small force holding the area around Krasnyi Luch. The 16th SS Panzergrendier and the 22nd and 27th Panzer Divisions were ordered forward to smash this Red Army formation. On the 16th, the area was retaken. However, this double victory was overshadowed by international developments.
A soldier from the 13th Panzer Division looks towards no-mans-land,
surrounded by knocked out Soviet tanks.
On the 16th, the Japanese Empire announced to the world that they had defeated China and annexed its territory in the name of the Emperor. Their next move, they declared, was to remove all European imperialists from Asia and create an Asian only "Co-Prosperity Sphere". The collapse of Chinese resistance sent a shockwave around the world: the Chinese had only recently – with the help of the Soviets – destroyed the Kwantung Army and launched two invasions of Japan. It was also believed that the British Empire – known to have sent numerous divisions from all over the empire – had suffered massive losses during the Japanese offensive. A short time after the Japanese announcement, international newspapers made front page news of the US marine landing on Taiwan.
Situation Report: Asia, October 1947
Over the course of the next week, the Red Army launched numerous limited attacks all along our line. Each struck at a different point, slowly withering down the ability of our armed forces to resist. The first struck Voroshilovgrad and Krasnyi Luch. After two days, our troops once again were forced to give up the latter and the Soviets halted their attack on Voroshilovgrad. Next, an amphibious attack was launched against Taganrog. As this attack was fought off, the Red Army launched a major offensive across the entire sector on the 25th. That day, Voroshilovgrad, Lysychansk, and Matveev Kurgan were all struck by Red Army infantry and tanks. Our own infantry, and especially the Panzer Group, were exhausted from the constant fighting, which had worn down their ability to fend off prolonged attacks. With the frontline commanders noting that their men could not hold out for more than a few days, the front looked destined to crack. At this point, the Panzer Group launched a final hurrah of the campaign in an attempt to force the Red Army to halt their attacks. The Red Army effort against Lysychansk was halted, and then the 2nd SS, 3rd SS, and 5th SS struck out towards Krasnyi Luch while the 22nd Panzer and 104th and 109th Motorized divisions attacked Horlivka.
The Soviet main attack, and the last hurrah of the Panzer Group.
These attacks, while initially successful and nearly achieving their goals, were ultimately failures. The Red Army simply had just too many troops in the area. On the 30th, the Red Army marched into Voroshilovgrad while their attack at Matveev Kurgan had barely been fended off. The same day, on the Western Front, the U-Boat fleet was ordered back to port after heavy losses and numerous more damaged within the space of a few days.
With Voroshilovgrad lost, Lysychansk was abandoned. This formed a major bulge in the frontline and left Rostov looking even more vulnerable. The city’s strategic importance, being the southern anchor of the frontline, had been lost. It was now decided to abandon the city and redeploy the city’s garrison behind Matveev Kurgan – under constant and repeated attacks – before the Soviets broke though. The previous month of fighting appeared as a grand repeat of the fighting that took place around the city during 1945. Here in the present, Rostov’s surrounding area lay waste, littered with foxholes, craters, bodies, burnt out tanks, and other assorted wrecked military equipment from both sides. Yet not a single shot had been fired in either defense of the city or an attempt to take it, but Rostov had still fallen. On 4 November, the Red Army finally punched through our lines at Matveev Kurgan, several hours after the Rostov garrison had moved in behind the frontline and proceeded to dig in.
Frontline, 4 November 1947
25,000 men had been killed in the fighting, and once more a similar number of Red Army troopers had been lost. However, the Soviet attempt to break our line had failed. On the other hand, the offensive and defensive power of the Panzer Group – and the infantry of Army Group South in this area – had been seriously weakened. The only major positive coming out of this entire affair was the destruction of 120 Red Air Force bombers and 50 fighters for the mere loss of 11 of our own.