Battle of Kalach The Battle of Kalach took place between the German Sixth Army and elements of the Soviet Stalingrad Front between July 25 and August 11 , 1942 . The Soviets deployed the 62nd and 64th Armies in a Don River bridgehead west of Kalach with the intent of impeding the German advance on Stalingrad . In the initial period of the battle , the Germans attacked and managed to surround part of the 62nd Army . In reaction , the Soviets counter - attacked and temporarily forced the Germans onto the defense . Following resupply of German forces , the roles again reversed and the Germans attacked into the flanks of the Soviet bridgehead , successfully collapsing it . The German victory positioned the Sixth Army to cross the Don River and advance on Stalingrad , which became the site of one of the most decisive battles of World War II . Planning . Operational goals . Following the occupation of the Crimea and the Battle of Kharkov , the Germans launched their 1942 summer offensive with the objectives of occupying the Don Basin , Stalingrad , and the Caucasus . Advancing as part of Army Group B , the German Sixth Army pushed toward the town of Kalach on the Don River as a step toward the capture of Stalingrad . As defenders , the Soviets were reacting to German initiatives , but they knew Stalingrad was a German objective and were determined to defend the city as far forward as possible . To meet this goal , while the Soviets were generally withdrawing before the German offensive , they retained a bridgehead across the Don at Kalach with lines behind the Tsimla and Chir Rivers . Terrain . The battlefield was the steppe country west and northwest of Kalach . The terrain of the battlefield is mostly open with occasional treelines that obscure lines of sight and fire . The land rolls slightly and exhibits small rises with an average elevation of 100 to 200 meters above sea level . Cross country vehicular movement is constricted by balkas , steep stream banks that have been strongly cut by erosion . Between the treelines and balkas , the countryside is agricultural with occasional villages and fewer towns . The relatively open nature of the terrain favors long - range direct fire weapons such as the long 75 - mm cannon that were mounted on German Panzer IV tanks . A lack of commanding terrain and structures made observation for artillery fire challenging and rewarded the opponent who could fly aerial observation missions . In the event , the German forces enjoyed air superiority over the Kalach battlefield with the commitment of the entire VIII Air Corps under the command of General Fiebig . Deployments . German Sixth Army had ranged from north to south the VIII , XIV Panzer , LI , and XXIV Panzer Corps , commanding some 270 , 000 men , over 500 tanks , and 3 , 000 guns and mortars . The German forces had superior battle experience and excellent gunnery skills . Their movement and attacks enjoyed air support , but the Sixth Army had temporarily outrun its supplies , particularly in the cases of fuel and ammunition . Soviet opposition in the Don bend was still weak , but it was increasing . 62nd Army had 6 rifle divisions , a tank brigade , and 6 independent tank battalions on its half of the line , and 64th Army had 2 rifle divisions and a tank brigade . To the north of the 62nd Army was the 63rd Army . The force committed by the Soviets to defend in front of Kalach included 160 , 000 men , some 400 tanks , and 2 , 200 guns and mortars , but suffered from serious shortages of anti - aircraft and antitank guns . Rifle divisions of the Stalingrad Front were in a parlous state , with over half of them understrength , ranging in strength between 300 and 4 , 000 men . Between the Volga and the Don , 57th Army was being reformed as the front reserve and the Headquarters , 38th and 28th Armies , together with those of their troops that had survived earlier battles , were being used as cadres for building the 1st and 4th Tank Armies . The tank armies would be committed before their organization was complete and without the cohesion enjoyed by more experienced and better trained formations . The Soviet forces in the Kalach Bridgehead were subordinated to the Stalingrad Front under the command of General - Lieutenant Vasiliy N . Gordov . Battle . After a ten - day hiatus caused by a lack of transportation , German Sixth Army ( under the command of General Friedrich Paulus ) returned to the offensive . On 23 July , Paulus submitted his plan to take Stalingrad . He proposed to sweep to the Don on both sides of Kalach , take bridgeheads on the run , and then drive a wedge of armor flanked by infantry across the remaining thirty miles . On 23 July the German main body started its advance toward the Don River . The Germans now met with increasing Soviet resistance from the 62nd and 64th Armies of the newly formed Stalingrad Front . German Sixth Army had been running into and over 62nd and 64th Armies ' outposts since 17 July without knowing it . On the 23rd , Sixth Army hit the Soviet main line east of the Chir River . The VIII Corps , on the north , encountered several Soviet rifle divisions in the morning , and those delayed its march east four or five hours . The XIV Panzer Corps , bearing in toward Kalach , reported 200 enemy tanks in its path and claimed to have knocked out 40 during the day . The German advance of 23 July caved in part of the 62nd Army ' s front and encircled two rifle divisions and a tank brigade of the army . On the 24th , VIII Corps cleared the northern quarter of the Don bend except for a Soviet bridgehead at Serafimovich and another around Kremenskaya and Sirotinskaya . To the south , as the daily report put it , Sixth Army " consolidated , " because XIV Panzer Corps ran out of motor fuel and the infantry could not make headway against stiffening resistance north and east of Kalach . General Major K . S . Moskalenko , who had taken command of 1st Tank Army three days before , began the counterattack on 25 July , with General Vasilevsky present as Stavka representative . The 1st Tank Army was given the mission of pushing to the northwest , relieving the encirclement of the 62nd Army forces , and cutting of elements of the XIV Panzer Corps that had reached the Don . While XIV Panzer Corps was still waiting to refuel , 60 Soviet tanks cut the road behind it , and German 3d and 60th Motorized Divisions , the ones closest to Kalach , became entangled with 200 Soviet tanks . The army chief of staff told the army group operations chief , " For the moment a certain crisis has developed . " At the day ' s end , XIV Panzer , LI , and XXIV Panzer Corps were ranged shoulder to shoulder on the Stalingrad axis , but the Russians were still holding a forty - mile - wide and twenty - mile - deep bridgehead from Kalach to Nizhniy Chir . The German forces experienced continuing ammunition shortages , caused by the extraordinarily large numbers of Soviet tanks they were meeting in the Kalach bridgehead . XIV Panzer Corps alone claimed to have knocked out 482 Soviet tanks in the last eight days of the month , and the total Sixth Army claimed was well over 600 . Soviet accounts confirm that strong tank forces were in the Kalach bridgehead , but not as many tanks as the Germans claimed . Moskalenko ' s 1st Tank Army had 13th and 28th Tank Corps ( with just over three hundred tanks ) and one rifle division . 4th Tank Army , under General Major V . D . Kruchenkin , entered the battle on 28 July with one other tank corps , the 22nd Tank Corps , and pushed west against the XIV Panzer Corps . The hasty Soviet attacks failed to throw the Germans back , but they forced the German advance to halt and compelled the German units to engage in combat at a time when their stocks of supplies were low . By 30 July , General Franz Halder at OKH noted in his diary , " Sixth Army ' s striking power is paralyzed by ammunition and fuel supply difficulties . " During this phase , the Soviets fought at a disadvantage as the Luftwaffe dominated the air over the Kalach Bridgehead and repeatedly struck the 1st and 4th Tank Armies . While waiting for its motor fuel and ammunition stocks to be replenished , Sixth Army was getting Headquarters , XI Corps , which had been held at Kamensk - Shakhtinsky with two infantry divisions as the OKH reserve . On 4 August , when his mobile units had enough fuel to go about thirty miles , Paulus ordered the attack on the Kalach bridgehead to start on the 8th . The next day the OKH asked to have the attack start at least a day earlier because Hitler was worried that the Soviet troops would escape across the Don if Paulus waited longer . From the northeast and southwest , tight against the Don River , XIV and XXIV Panzer Corps struck into the Kalach bridgehead on the morning of 7 August . Their spearheads made contact southwest of Kalach by late afternoon , trapping the main body ( eight rifle divisions ) of 62nd Army . Together with the infantry of LI Corps , the two panzer corps reduced the pocket in four more days , eventually taking nearly fifty thousand prisoners by 11 August . The Germans claimed the destruction of a thousand Soviet tanks and 750 guns during the battle , although the claims of destroyed Soviet tanks are considered exaggerated . Aftermath . Both Soviet tank armies and the 62nd Army suffered heavy losses during the battle . The German Sixth Army closed to the Don River and prepared to advance on Stalingrad , but had also taken losses during the two - week battle . Among areas of Soviet resistance not cleared up was a small bridgehead across the Don at Kremenskaya . Months later , this bridgehead became one of the launching points for Operation Uranus , the Soviet offensive that encircled and eventually forced the surrender of the Sixth Army . The loss of the Kalach bridgehead brought the close - in defense of Stalingrad nearer to actuality on the Soviet side , and the Stavka committed more of its reserves , totaling fifteen rifle divisions and three tank corps between 1 and 20 August . The losses suffered during the Battle of Kalach resulted in the disbandment ( for the time being ) of the 1st Tank Army , the remnants of which were used to partially rebuild the 62nd Army starting on 17 August . References . Attribution