December 1942

Eastern Front

The XLVIII Panzer Cors evacuates the Nizhne Chirskaya bridgehead. Fighting at Verkhne Kumski intensifies.

The Stavka completes the planning of Operation LITTLE SATURN. The attack has been revised so that the aim of the campaign is the capture of the Tatsinskaya and Morozovsk airfields and the disruption of communications between Army Groups Don and A. Golikov's Voronezh Front employs Kharitonov's 6th Army. Kuznetsov's 1st Guards Army, Lelyushenko's 3rd Guards, Romanenko's 5th Tank and Popov's 5th Shock Armies of the Southwest Front will also join the offensive in varying forms. The 5th Tank and 5th Shock Armies are already committed to the Chir sector against the XLVIII Panzer Corps and Group Hollidt, but increases their attacks to prevent the transfer of German units from the Chir to the Don. Total Soviet forces committed to the offensive numbers 425,000 ment supported by 5,000 arty pieces. Garibaldi's 8th Army fields 216,000 men and just 50 tanks while Army Detachment Hollidt, the remnants of the 3rd Rumanian Army and the XLVIII Panzer Corps has between them 110,000 men and 70 tanks.