RP79SP
Storozhevskoy placdarm

The right flank of Stalingrad on the Middle Don.

In July-August 1942, the high steep bank of the Don near the ancient village of Storozhevoe Pervoe was occupied by the Nazis, and to be more precise-by units of the 2nd Hungarian Army. The Magyars, who were pursuing the Red Army troops retreating from Kharkiv itself, appreciated the strategic and defensive potential of the place, took up advantageous positions and began to strengthen them. In August 1942, as a result of an offensive operation by separate forces of the Voronezh and Bryansk fronts, the Storozhevskaya bridgehead was taken and held until January 1943. On January 13, 1943, during the Ostrogozhsko-Rossoshanskaya offensive operation, called by modern historians "Stalingrad on the Middle Don", it was from this bridgehead that the offensive of the 40th Army of the Voronezh Front under the command of General K. S. Moskalenko began.