Battle of Nikolayevka The Battle of Nikolayevka was fought in January 1943 , as a small part of the larger Battle of Stalingrad . The Battle pitted forces of the Italian 8th Army ' s Alpini Corps against the four Soviet Armies of the Voronezh Front . Since the war the village has been absorbed by the nearby village of Livenka . Prelude . On December 16 , 1942 , Soviet forces launched Operation Little Saturn aimed at the Italian 8th Army . The Soviet plan was to force the River Don , encircle and destroy the Italian 8th Army along the Don , then push towards Rostov on Don and thus cut the line of communication of Army Group A fighting in the Caucasus and the line of communication of 4th Panzer Army , which was in the midst of Operation Wintergewitter — the attempt to relieve 6th Army from encirclement in the city of Stalingrad . On December 16 General Fyodor Isidorovich Kuznetsov ' s 1st Guards Army and General Dmitri Danilovich Lelyushenko ' s 3rd Guards Army attacked the units of the Italian 8th Army , which were quickly overcome , encircled and crushed — in three days the Soviets had opened a gap in the Axis front deep and wide and destroyed two of the Italian Army ' s Corps ( 2nd and 35th ) . The Soviet armored columns now rapidly advanced south towards the Black Sea . Thus 4th Panzer Army was forced to abandon its relief attempt of the 6th Army and fall back to halt the advancing Soviets . The battle . The Italian 8th Army ' s Alpini Corps , consisting of Alpine Divisions 3rd Julia , 2nd Tridentina and 4th Cuneense and the 156th " Vicenza " Infantry Division to their rear , were at this point largely unaffected by the Soviet offensive on their right flank . But on January 13 , 1943 , the Soviets launched the second stage of Operation Saturn . In this stage four armies of Soviet General Filipp Golikov ' s Voronezh Front attacked , encircled , and destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda on the Don to the northwest of the Italians , they attacked and pushed back the remaining units of the German 24th Army Corps on the Alpini left flank and then attacked the Alpini themselves . The Alpini held the front , but within three days the Soviets advanced to the left and right of the Alpini , who were thus encircled . Although the Alpini corps was ordered to hold the front at all costs , preparations for a general retreat began on January 15 . On the evening of January 17 , the commanding officer of the corps General Gabriele Nasci finally ordered the full retreat . At this point the Julia and Cuneense divisions were already heavily decimated and only the Tridentina division was still capable of conducting effective combat operations . The 40 , 000 - strong mass of stragglers — Alpini and Italians from other commands , plus various Germans and Hungarians — formed two columns that followed the Tridentina division which , supported by a handful of German armoured vehicles , led the way westwards to the new Axis front . The Soviets had already occupied every village and bitter battles were fought by the soldiers of the Tridentina to clear the way . In fifteen days the soldiers covered 200 km on foot , fought twenty - two battles and spent fourteen nights camped in the middle of the Russian steppe . Temperatures during the night fell between and . On the morning of January 26 , the spearheads of the Tridentina reached the little hamlet of Nikolayevka , now part of the village of Livenka . A Soviet division of nearly 6 , 000 well armed soldiers occupied it and the surrounding area . The Alpini immediately began their attack with their last 4 , 000 combat - ready soldiers , as they knew that this was the last Soviet position blocking their way to safety . But the Soviet forces held their ground , and after hours of fighting the Italian units became desperate as each hour increased the risk that Soviet reinforcements could arrive . Although the chief - of - staff of the corps , Brigadier General Giulio Martinat , had already been killed earlier that day while leading an assault of the " Edolo " battalion , General Luigi Reverberi , commander of the Tridentina division , stepped onto one of the last three Panzer s as the sun began to set and , yelling " Tridentina , Avanti ! " ( Tridentina Forward ) , led his men personally on the final assault . As the 4 , 000 Alpini advanced , all remaining soldiers of the columns fell in and the Soviets , facing a human wave attack by many of the 40 , 000 Italians ( with some Germans and Hungarians ) , relented and abandoned the village after suffering huge losses . The retreat of the Alpini was no longer contested by Soviet forces and on February 1 the remnants of the Corps reached Axis lines , under the leadership of general Reverberi ( who later received the Italian gold medal of honor ) . The Alpini did pay a high price in Russia . The 4 Alpine Division Cuneense was annihilated . Only about one tenth of the 3 Alpine Division Julia survived ( approximately 1200 survivors of 15000 troops deployed ) and only about one third of the 2 Alpine Division Tridentina survived ( approximately 4250 survivors of 15000 troops deployed ) . Myths . A tenacious urban legend often heard in Italy quotes an alleged Soviet war bulletin N . 630 read on February 8 , 1943 at radio Moscow stating that " the only force that can regard itself as undefeated on Russian soil is the Italian Alpini corps " : actually , this bulletin was never issued by the Soviets . Another myth is that " Blessed Father " Carlo Gnocchi participated in the Battle of Nikolayevka : he was present in the final attack on the Soviet troops , but as the chaplain of the Alpini .