July 1942

Eastern Front

German attacks halt the 4th and 1st Tank Armies, inflicting crippling losses. Hoth's 4th Panzer strikes Kolomit's 51st Army, pushing its 5 weak divisions back upon Kotelnikovo. To meet this new threat, Gordov has to try to redeploy his skeletal forces. Lopatin takes over the 62nd Army while Shumilov takes over the 64th, Chuikov going to command and operational group on the southern wing of the 64th. The 57th Army is to be pushed into the line from the reserve.

The Germans are increasingly relying on their allies to protect the long exposed Don flank, having introduced the 2nd Hungarian and 8th Italian Armies between the 2nd and 6th Armies. Across the front as a whole, the Germans have moved 2 infantry divisions into the line but 1 panzer, 1 motorized and 2 infantry divisions leave, leaving 19 panzer, 15 motorized and 135 infantry divisions in the line. During July the German motorized divisions are re-designated panzer-grenadier divisions.

During July the Germans lose 38,000 men killed in the east.

The 15th Air Army, under Pyatykhin, is raised and attached to the Bryansk Front.