Eastern Front · Germany and Romania vs Soviet Union
Battle of Rostov
17 November 1941 – 2 December 1941
Kleist's 1st Panzer Army took Rostov-on-Don, the gateway to the Caucasus, but its supply lines were dangerously overextended. A Soviet counteroffensive by the Southern Front retook the city eight days later, forcing Rundstedt's Army Group South back to the Mius river in the first significant German withdrawal of the war; Rundstedt was relieved of command days later.
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Day by day
— The drive on Rostov
Kleist's First Panzer Army attacks south-east for Rostov, the bridge over the Don and the road to the Caucasus oil. Its three panzer divisions are down to a third of their tanks, its supply comes up 250 kilometres of dirt road, and its northern flank is a line of villages. On the same morning the Soviet 37th Army attacks that flank.
— Rostov taken
The 13th and 14th Panzer Divisions and the SS Leibstandarte take Rostov on 21 November after fighting through the western suburbs, and reach the Don bridges. It is the largest city the Germans have taken since Kiev, and the furthest east they have got. Kleist's flank now runs 100 kilometres back to the north-west with nothing on it.
— The counteroffensive
The 37th Army comes down on the exposed northern flank, the 9th Army from the north-east and the 56th over the frozen Don from Bataysk. Kleist asks to pull back behind the Mius on the 28th; Rundstedt agrees, Hitler forbids it. The panzer divisions have on average forty tanks each in running order.
— Rostov retaken
The 56th Army's rifle divisions cross the ice of the Don into the city on the morning of the 28th and clear it by evening. It is the first city the Red Army takes back, and the first German operational retreat of the war. Rundstedt is relieved of Army Group South on 1 December for ordering the withdrawal that Hitler then has to allow anyway.
— Back to the Mius
First Panzer Army completes its withdrawal to the prepared line on the Mius on 2 December, eighty kilometres back from Rostov. It will hold that line for seven months. Reichenau has taken over the army group, and the Caucasus is put off for a year.
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