July 1942

Eastern Front

The German attack on the Don Elbow grinds to a halt as the 6th Army runs out of fuel. This allows the 62nd and 64th Armies to build a thin defense line west of Stalingrad. The bulk of the 64th, however, is withdrawn via Kalach to the eastern bank of the Don.

In the Caucasus the German attakc from the Don has torn apart the South Front, leaving a 100-mile hole in the Soviet line. The Stavka disbands the South Front and absorbs its units into the North Caucasus Front. In just 3 days of heavy fighting, the South Front has lost 15,000 killed and missing and 1,500 wounded. Marshal Budenny becomes overall commander in this sector but his front is split into two distinct groups. Don Group, under Gen Malinovsky comprises the 37th, 51st and 12th Armies and is instructed to halt the advance of the 1st Panzer Army toward the Maikop oilfields, while Coastal Group, under Gen Cherevichenko, with the 18th, 56th and 47th Armies and the XVII Cossack Cavalry Corps, is ordered to halt the 17th Army and protect the Kuban and the approaches to Krasnodar. Tyulenev is ordered to fortify the line of the Terek and Urukh Rivers and the Caucasus mountain passes.

With the southern axis crumbling as the Germans push deeper into the Caucasus and the Stalingrad Front reeling on the road to Stalingrad, Stalin issues his infamous Order No. 227, the 'no step back' order. This forbids any more withdrawal east by the combat forces. The Red Army is rapidly running out of space to maneuver as the Wehrmacht presses east and south. Draconian punishment are extended to prevent any retrat from the front, combat units being backed up by NKVD security patrols, which have the authority to open fire on anyone or any unit that retreats before the Germans.