On 12 July, two weeks after
Case Blue began, the XXXV Army Corps (ex CSIR), along with two German corps, began an offensive designed to take the important coal-mining basin of
Krasnyi Luch (southeast of
Kharkiv) with a rapid enveloping manoeuvre. After a week of heavy fighting in which all three Italian divisions took part the Krasnyi Luch basin, one of the richest coal deposits in the U.S.S.R., was in Axis hands. As the Italians moved forward to the Don river pursuing the withdrawing Soviet
63rd Army, the highly-mobile riflemen (
Bersaglieri) of the motorized
3rd Cavalry Division were diverted to help the Germans eliminate the Soviet bridgehead at Serafimovič on the Don river. From 30 July to 13 August, the Italians fought off a heavy Soviet attack, took the town, swept the woods and swamps around it, and fought off infiltrations and counter-attacks, destroying an enemy armoured brigade, knocking out 35 Soviet tanks and taking 1,600 prisoners. The 75/32 battery proved very effective at short range and destroyed twelve tanks. The battle cost the division 2,989 dead and wounded and the division was withdrawn from the front line to rest and regroup. On 13 August, the Italian 8th Army reached its assigned sector on the Don on the left flank of the
6th Army's XVII Corps. The Italians had to defend a 270-kilometre front along the right bank of the Don. Only before Christmas both divisions were driven back and defeated, after heavy and bloody fighting. Meanwhile, on 17 December 1942, the Soviet
21st Army and the Soviet
5th Tank Army attacked and defeated what remained of the Romanians to the right of the Italians. At about the same time, the Soviet 3rd Tank Army and parts of the
Soviet 40th Army hit the Hungarians to the left of the Italians. This resulted in a collapse of the Axis front, north of Stalingrad: the ARMIR was encircled, but for some days the Italian troops were able—with huge casualties—to stop the attacking Soviet troops. The
Soviet 1st Guards Army then attacked the Italian centre which was held by the 298th German, the Pasubio, the Torino, the Prince Amedeo Duke of Aosta, and the Sforzesca divisions. After eleven days of bloody fighting against overwhelming Soviet forces, these divisions were surrounded and defeated and Russian air support resulted in the death of General
Paolo Tarnassi, commander of the Italian armoured force in Russia. On 14 January 1943, after a short pause, the
6th Soviet Army attacked the divisions of the Alpine Corps as part of the
Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh offensive. These units had been placed on the left flank of the Italian army and, to date, were still relatively unaffected by the battle. However, the Alpini's position had turned critical after the collapse of the Italian centre, the collapse of the Italian right flank, and the simultaneous collapse of the Hungarian troops to the left of the Alpini. The
Julia Division and
Cuneense Division were destroyed. Members of the
1 Alpini Regiment, part of Cuneese Division, burned the regimental flags to keep them from being captured. Part of the
Tridentina Division and other withdrawing troops managed to escape the encirclement. On 26 January 1943, the Alpini remnants breached the encirclement and reached new defensive positions set up to the west by the
German Army. Many of the troops who managed to escape were frostbitten, critically ill, and deeply demoralized: for practical purposes, the Italian Army in Russia did not exist anymore by February 1943. Officially, ARMIR losses were 114,520 of the original 235,000 soldiers ==See also==