The Second Battle of Rostov was a WW2 military clash between vanguard elements of German Army Group A, and the Red Army. It was fought in the Soviet town of Rostov, from July 19 to July 23, 1942, during Operation Fall Blau. This Russian city, located on the Don River, was in the middle of the way of the main Wehrmacht thrust towards the Baku oil fields in the Caucasus. The German spearhead unit that recaptured and secured Rostov was the 1st Panzer Army, under Paul Ewald von Kleist. The town would be in German hands for 7 months, until February 1943, which would lost to the Russian after the Battle of Stalingrad.
The First Battle of Rostov had taken place in the summer of 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, but the Red Army managed to recover the city, which would be retaken by the Germans during the Second Battle of Rostov, in Operation Fall Blau (Case Blue) in July 1942. When Fall Blau was set in motion, Rostov was on the way of Army Group A’s attack on the Caucasus (Operation Edelweiss). Elements of von Kleist’s 1st Panzer Army spearheaded this offensive as they were the first units to enter Rostov, followed by one mechanized infantry division from the 17th Army.
Map of the Second Battle of Rostov, showing the advance of Army Group B, and Army Group A
