중동부유럽

In the summer campaign of 1942 both warring sides were planning offensive operations with strategic goals. Stavka expected during successive operations from south to north to break the main enemy grouping in the Crimea, Donbass, in the direction of Moscow, Leningrad unlock. The German command was preparing a major impact on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. For this it was quantitatively and qualitatively enhanced the southern group of German troops, sent here as the main forces of the Allies, Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops, two divisions of the Slovaks. The Soviet command of the Bryansk, South-Western and Southern Fronts failed to reveal the direction of the main Wehrmacht forces and organize defenses in the offensive zone percussion groups of forces of Germany and its allies troops.