March 1942

Eastern Front

Manstein commits the 22nd Panzer Division to the fighting on the Kerch peninsula but the new and inexperienced division suffers a severe mauling. The German counterattack, however, succeeds in breaking up new Soviet assaults, giving the XLII Corps a brief respite.

The Stavka revises it sorders to the Kalinin and West Fronts. The objectives are to reach the line Belyi-Dorogobuzh-Elnya-Krasnoye by mid April. By the end of March, the West Front is to establish contact with those units in the German rear, while the 5th Army is to capture Gzhatsk. The 5th will then co-operated with the 43rd, 49th and 50th Armies to take Vyazma using the 29th, 30th, 39th and 31st Armies ant then co-operated with the 22nd Army to destroy the Germans around Olenino. Group Kolpakchy, a force of 5 rifle divisions, is to take Belyi.