December 1942

Eastern Front

The XXIV Tank Corps reaches Tatsinskaya and, after a brisk battle, takes the town and airfield. Luftwaffe losses are heavy as the base was hastily evacuated, 72 of 180 transport aircraft being lost. Elements of the XXV Tank Corps and the I Guards Mechanized Corps close around Morozovsk. The XLVIII Panzer Corps begins to redeploy its 11th and 6th Panzer Divisions around Tatsinskaya, intending to destroy the Soviet force. Late in the day a German counterattack cuts the corps' line of communications.

With the Chir line disintegrating and Soviet forces pushing into the rear of Army Group Don, Manstein completes the transfer of the 6th Panzer Division to Group Hollidt. Hoth has only the weak 17th and 23rd Panzer Divisions left, a total of only 28 panzers and barely 20,000 men. Having suffered 8,000 casualties and 160 tanks lost since December 12, Group Hoth was bleeding to death. The 51st and 2nd Guards Armies facing Hoth totalled 149,000 men and 635 tanks and now begin to counterattack, rolling Hoth back toward Kotelnikovo. Fighting is fierce as the Soviets defeat the Rumanian forces on the German flanks, undermining the German positions in the center. Both the VI and VII Rumanian corps disintegrate, opening the flanks of the LVII Panzer Corps.

Inside Stalingrad, the 62nd Army regains control of the Red October factory after costly fighting with the LI Corps.