Novopostoyalovka

Novopostoyalovka Новопостояловка
Khutor
Novopostoyalovka Novopostoyalovka
Coordinates: 50°20′N 39°27′E
Country	Russia
Region	Voronezh Oblast
District	Rossoshansky District
Time zone	UTC+3:00

Novopostoyalovka (Russian: Новопостояловка) is a rural locality (a khutor) in Novopostoyalovskoye Rural Settlement, Rossoshansky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia. The population was 261 as of 2010. There are 2 streets. During World War II, Italian Alpini attacked the city, leading to the Battle of Novopostoyalovka, one of bloodiest battles in the history of Italy.

Geography

Novopostoyalovka is located 21 km northwest of Rossosh (the district's administrative centre) by road. Drozdovo is the nearest rural locality.

The battle of Novopostoyalovka

Main article: Italian participation in the Eastern Front

Between January 19 and 20, 1943, the 4th Alpine Division "Cuneense", involved in the Russian Campaign, was almost completely destroyed by the Red Army near Novopostoyalovka. In January 1943, the Red Army had encircled the Axis armies stationed on the Don river. The 8th Italian Army was compelled to retreat. Only the 2nd Alpine Division "Tridentina" managed to break out on January 26, 1943 at Nikolayevka, thus allowing thousands of hungry, wounded and frostbitten men to save their lives. A far more tragic fate befell the 4th Alpine Division "Cuneense".

On January, 15, the Red Army attacked the remaining units of the German XXIV Army Corps, pushing it back and aiming for Rossosh, the headquarters of the Alpine Corps. Between January 15 and 16, the Russians tried to attack the Tridentina, but they were repelled. To the left of the Alpine Corps, however, the Hungarian Second Army abandoned its positions without informing anyone, thereby leaving the left flank of the Tridentina uncovered.

Russian soldiers in Rossosh in January 1943

On January 16, the Soviet attacked again with huge forces, and Rossosh capitulated. On the evening of 17 January the commanding officer of the Italian Alpine Corps General Gabriele Nasci ordered a full retreat. By then it was too late; the circle was closing around them, and they would have to fight their way out.

The Russians deployed against the Italians 754 T-34 tanks supported by 810 guns and 1,255 mortars, 300 anti-tank guns and 200 Katyusha rocket launchers. To fight them off, the Italians had only 47 tanks of various models, 132 guns, 108 mortars and 114 anti-tank guns.

On January 17, the Cuneense began to withdraw. During the night the rearguard was attacked by Soviet partisans, but the "Saluzzo" Battalion managed to repel them, inflicting heavy casualties. The purpose of the retreat was to settle as quickly as possible between Valuyki and Rovenki, so as to be able to line up in defense of the north-eastern front. The Tridentina and the XXIV German Army Corps were given the order to withdraw in the direction of Podgornoye-Opyt. The Cuneense and Vicenza divisions were to head towards Popovka, the Julia north of Rossosh. The routes assigned for the Julia and Cuneense divisions crossed with around 10,000 German and Hungarian stragglers, which inevitably led to jams, chaos, and friction between the various formations. On January 19, General Emilio Battisti, commander of the "Cuneense", held a meeting with Generalleutnant Karl Eibl, commander of the 385th Infantry Division. They determined to abandon the direction of withdrawal that had been assigned to them and to head toward Valuyki which was considered not yet in enemy hands.

Italian soldiers with a Breda 38 machine gun on the Russian Front, 1943

Around 7 pm, Russian units attacked the 72nd Battery of the "Val Po" Group, causing serious losses. The 21st Battery of the "Saluzzo" Battalion was completely destroyed. Its sacrifice allowed the column to disengage and continue its retreat towards Novopostoyalovka. On January 20, the Cuneense division encountered some units of the Julia blocked by the Russians near Novopostoyalovka. The "Ceva" and the "Mondovì" battalions were ordered to attack the village. The batteries of the "Mondovì" were destroyed by Soviet T-34 tanks and the "Ceva" Battalion suffered heavy losses. The Soviets demanded surrender, but General Battisti refused. He ordered the commander of the 2nd Alpine Regiment to launch an attack with the "Saluzzo" and "Borgo San Dalmazzo" battalions. The two battalions nearly succeeded in their intent, i.e. crossing a ridge between two small villages north of Novopostoyalovka, but the Russians counterattacked violently with infantry troops and numerous tanks, inflicting heavy losses on both. Dead and mortally wounded Alpini amounted to 1,500. General Battisti, having ascertained the impossibility of forcing the ridge without anti-tank weapons, still tried to escape the encirclement. The Cuneense units began to abandon their positions at Novopostoyalovka, but Soviet cavalry consisting of Siberian troops (at home in both snow and ice) renewed attack on the remnants of the "Mondovì" Battalion, in charge of protecting the retreat and the flank of the column. The "Mondovì" was completely destroyed. Meanwhile the Russians attacked from behind the remnants of the 2nd Alpini Regiment, retreating from the village of Kopanki, southeast of Novopostoyalovka.

Upon leaving the zone of Novopostoyalovka, survivors of the Cuneense and Julia divisions marched northwest in two columns throughout the night of January 20. They managed to reach Postojali, and at 8 pm they arrived in the village of Alexsandrovka, west of Postojali, where there was still a small German garrison.

On January, 21 Italo Gariboldi, commander of the Italian 8th Army, warned General Nasci that Valuyki had fallen into Russian hands and ordered him to head twenty kilometers further north to Nikolayevka, which was about 50 kilometers west of the Italian spearhead. However, this report never reached the surviving units of the Julia and the Cuneense, which continued to fight rearguard battles on the left flank of the Tridentina.

On the morning of January 22, the Cuneense set off again to march towards Novokharkovka; in the evening of the same day they reached the first houses of the village. At dawn January 23, the Cuneense resumed its march, but at 2 pm three Russian tanks suddenly appeared and attacked the head of the column. A German mortar disabled one tank; the other two withdrew back toward the village of Krawzowka. The march resumed, ending in the evening in the town of Nowo Dimitriewka. General Battisti now asked for the maximum effort from his men, telling them that the longer they marched then the higher the likelihood for them to save themselves. At midnight General Battisti gathered his remaining officers together to ask them if they wanted to proceed marching as a united group under his command, or if they preferred to try and get out of the encirclement in small groups. All officers said that they wanted to continue the withdrawal as a united group under his command.

Italian troops use Model 40 flamethrowers to attack a Soviet bunker in 1943

At 2 am in the morning of January 24, they headed off on the march again in two columns. Around 6 pm, the two columns of Alpini headed south in order to cross the valley of the Chyornaya Kalitva. At a certain point, a German plane landed close to the marching column. A German officer approached Battisti saying he had orders to take him out of the encirclement. Battisti refused, stating that he wanted to share the fate of his Alpini. He sent two wounded men to fly out of the area in his place. Between dawn and 8 am of January 25, the two columns gathered together one at Rybalkin the other at Dechtjarna. In the latter location Russian tanks and heavy artillery opened a violent fire, inflicting heavy losses. The march resumed, and towards noon what remained of the column joined the other in Rybalkin. At twilight January 25, what remained of the Cuneense and Julia divisions prepared to march on. Then a violent storm erupted with tremendous winds and snowfall. The column now crawled along at 200 m per hour. At dawn on January 26, the storm ceased, and the Alpini resumed their march in one column, in direction of Valuyki. The Cuneense was now in sight of Schukowo. From the village heavy mortar and machine gun fire erupted. The "Dronero" Battalion led a bayonet charge and forced the Russians to retreat. The march resumed until evening without any disturbance. Having arrived near Malakeyevo, the column was hit by heavy artillery fire. The column split again into two, one stopping at Malakeyevo and the other at Solonzi.

Column of soviet tanks (Operation Little Saturn, december 1942)

At dawn on January 27, the two columns formed up, joining up in the outskirts of the village of Voronovka, were the Russians awaited them. Large squads of Cossacks sporting machine guns loaded on sleds attacked the head of the column. The Soviets offered surrender terms, but General Battisti replied with a stern refusal. The "Dronero" Battalion rallied for combat again forcing the enemy to retreat.

At the break of dawn January 28, the Cuneense was worn out. In twelve days and eleven nights it had been on retreat covering about 200 km, had marched for 182 hours with an average of about 11 hours per day, had sustained twenty battles, had lost 80% of its infantry and more than 50% of its artillery. The division continued to march. As soon as it reached the crossing between the Poltava and Valuyki rivers a ferocious artillery barrage blasted those that remained. A squad of Cossacks arriving from the north galloped along the bottom of the valley toward the column. The Alpini mistook them for friendly Hungarian cavalry, and ran towards them. The Russians surrounded them and launched their final attack. The Italians now had no ammunition left and were so desperate that they engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. The last surviving officers of the Cuneense were captured around the outskirts of Valuyki in the morning of January 28. In the afternoon the last Alpini from "Borgo San Dalmazzo", "Saluzzo" and "Mondovì" battalions were captured. In the evening of that tragic day, even the "Mondovì" Battalion laid down its arms.

Only 1,600 men out of 17,000 were able to escape the encirclement. Thousands who survived the Soviet onslaught were taken prisoner and died on the so-called davai marches - named for Russian guards' command to keep prisoners moving - or later in Prisoner-of-war camps. General Battisti was initially held in a Soviet prison, where he was for some time a cellmate of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, and then in a prisoner-of-war camp, for over seven years; he was only released in 1950, returning to Italy on May 15 of that year, along with Generals Umberto Ricagno and Etelvoldo Pascolini and thirty South Tyrolean SS soldiers.

Bibliography

• Ferraris, Giorgio (2013). In prima linea a Nowo Postojalowka. La campagna di Russia di Giacomo Alberti alpino della Cuneense. Araba Fenice. ISBN 9788866171805.