The 300th Infantry Division in Mius-Front Fights in February-March of 1943

• Main Author: Medvedev Maksim Valeryevich
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Volgograd State University 2015-11-01
• Series: Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriâ 4. Istoriâ, Regionovedenie, Meždunarodnye Otnošeniâ
• Subjects: Mius-front; offensive; 300th infantry division; Red army; Wehrmacht
• Online Access: http://hfrir.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/component/attachments/download/972

After the encirclement of the German troops and their allies near Stalingrad at the end of November, 1942, the Red army was able to develop large-scale offensive to the west. In January and in the beginning of February of 1943 the forces of the Southern front struck blow on the Rostov direction. This article is devoted to military operations of the 300th infantry division of the 13th Guard infantry corps of the 2nd Guards army at the beginning of 1943. Mentions of them are practically absent in a historiography. Meanwhile, in fights of February – the first decade of March, when the division has suffered huge losses and has been taken away in a reserve, are of great historic importance. In the Soviet historiography in days of the Great Patriotic War not enough attention was paid to destiny of separate fighting connections, the principal value was attached to actions of large expeditions and strategic military associations. It concerns also the 300th infantry division operating to Mius-fronte in February-March, 1943. Meanwhile, the appeal to its fighting way allows to understand better the reasons of failures of the Soviet approach, to find out in what conditions it passed. The approach of this division failed and brought big losses to staff and military equipment. Being guided by the declassified documents of the Central archive of the Ministry of Defence, the author discovers one of the little-known pages of the Mius-front history.