Thread by @GHarward

#OTD 80 years ago Operation Uranus, the Soviet counteroffensive at #Stalingrad began at 5:30 AM with an 80-minute barrage against Romanian 3rd Army on the Don Bend NW of the city. Artillery, rockets, & heavy mortars blasted apart trenches, cut barbed wire, & collapsed shelters.🧵

Soviet armor, accompanied by infantry, immediately followed the bombardment with two attacks thrusting out from the Serafimovich & Kletskaya bridgeheads. A thick fog concealed the Soviet advance hindering the Romanian response until the enemy was extremely close.

The Soviet attacks tore open a big hole in the Romanian center of the near Bolshoy, steamrolling over II Corps, & a smaller gap on the right flank at Gromky cutting through IV Corps. By 9:30 AM Soviet infantry jumping off tanks were among the Romanian gun line.

I'll be updating this thread daily for the next week or so to cover the operation and then weekly to detail the subsequent fighting from the Romanian perspective.
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Assuming Twitter still exists through February. 😉

While in some places Romanian soldiers broke, in most they fought until being overwhelmed or running out of ammunition. German Army Group B had face a logistical crisis before the offensive started. Now ammo dumps were blown up & resupply wagons ambushed.

Between the Soviet breakthroughs, V Corps held firm.

The 15th Infantry Division, the only one from 3rd Army in reserve attempted to counterattack to close the hole at Gromky.

German XXXXVIII Panzer Corps, German 22nd Panzer & Romanian 1st Armored, took the initiative to advance toward Gromky before being redirected toward Bolshoy to respond to the greater Soviet threat. Already short on fuel, both Axis divisions soon encountered heavy resistanc.

Note: the armored reserve was under the control of German Army Group B not Romanian Third Army.

Romanian corps commanders on the Don River (west to east):

I Corps - Teodor Ionescu (no photo)
II Corps - Nicolae Dăscălescu
V Corps - Aurelian Son (no photo)
IV Corps - Constantin Sănătescu

The German liaison unit with the Romanian 1st Armored Divison had its radio destroyed & its officer wounded during night fighting as the division assumed an all-around "hedgehog" defense. It lost touch with the German 22nd Panzer Division hindering a coordinated response.

Panic spread in the rear of Romanian Third Army as Soviet forces continued forward relentlessly through the night.

On 20 November at 10 AM, the second part of the Soviet counteroffensive began with a 45-minute barrage against German 4th Panzer Army-which had no panzers & was mostly comprised of Romanian soldiers by this point-that blasted a whole in the Axis line on the Kalmyk Steppe.

The HQ of Romanian 4th Army was supposed to take operational control of the 2 Romanian corps on the steppe south of #Stalingrad in a day or two, so there was a degree of confusion over whether Romanian or German commanders should be making decisions about how to respond.

The Romanian flank on the Kalmyk Steppe was even weaker & more exposed than that in the Don Bend. Short of mines, trenches, AT guns. Supply trains had not arrived for over a week. VI Corps simply disintegrated under the Soviet attack.

The only mobile reserve was the 6th Motorized Roşiori Regiment (photo from earlier in Crimea), which was immediately overwhelmed by Soviet tanks & cavalry.

VII Corps, on the end of the Axis flank to the south, was not as hard hit & began to transfer cavalry northward to try to cut off the Soviet penetration.

Romanian corps commanders on the Kalmyk Steppe (north to south):

VI Corps - Corneliu Dragalina
VII Corps - Florea Mitrănescu

German counterattacks helped prevent the Romanian 20th Infantry Division from being overwhelmed & it began to withdraw toward the southern suburbs of #Stalingrad.

Meanwhile the situation in the Don Bend deteriorated. German 22nd Panzer & Romanian 1st Armored Divisions continued to fight separately but temporarily stalled the Soviets in their sector. In the other sector, outflanked Romanian 1st Cavalry Division retreated toward #Stalingrad.

Romanian divisions on the Don River in 1942 under 3rd Army had fought at Odessa in 1941 under 4th Army. Demobilized for winter & remobilized in spring as Echelon II units that were deployed from Romania & Transnistria with a mix of veterans & fresh recruits.

Romanian divisions on the Kalmyk Steppe under 4th Army in 1942 had fought under various German armies during the previous year in S Ukraine (Izyum) & Crimea (Kerch). Quickly refitted on the front in spring/summer these Echelon I units consisted of experienced veterans.

A midnight war council on 20-21 November of Nicolae Mazarini, Mihail Lascăr, & Ioan Sion, leading 5th, 6th, & 15th Infantry Divisions voted 2 to 1 against surrendering. These divisions & remnants of the 13th & 14th, formed the Lascăr Group between Soviet breakthroughs on the Don.

German XXXXVIII Panzer Corps received control of the Lascăr Group, still desperately hoping that German 22nd Panzer & Romanian 1st Armored Division (the latter briefly linked up with the Lascăr Group) could seal the massive hole in the line.

The small Axis mobile reserve prove unequal to halting the large Soviet attack & began to withdraw. The Mare Cartier General (MCG) asked Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) to allow the Lascăr Group to try to breakout but the Germans refused the Romanians.