German and Italian Troops in Stalino

NCOs of the German 1. Gebirgs-Division with Italian soldiers of the "Celere" Division in Stalino, Ukraine, October 1941. In that month, during the Axis advance into the industrial heartland of the Donets Basin as part of Operation Barbarossa, the 1. Gebirgs-Division, operating under the command of Generalmajor Hubert Lanz within the XXXXIX. Gebirgs-Korps led by General der Infanterie Ludwig Kübler, pushed southward after the Battle of the Sea of Azov and reached the major Soviet industrial city of Stalino (present-day Donetsk) on 20 October. Simultaneously, elements of the Italian Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia (CSIR), commanded by Generale Giovanni Messe and attached to the German Heeresgruppe Süd, advanced in coordination with the German mountain troops; the highly mobile 3ª Divisione Celere "Principe Amedeo Duca d’Aosta" formed the spearhead of this effort, deploying its 3° Reggimento Bersaglieri in fast-moving columns supported by the cavalry regiments Savoia Cavalleria and Lancieri di Novara. Despite heavy mud, destroyed bridges, fuel shortages and determined Soviet rearguard resistance, the Italian cavalry and Bersaglieri executed flanking manoeuvres and seized the vital railway station and northern approaches to Stalino on the evening of 20 October, while German Gebirgsjäger entered the city from the south and completed the occupation of the industrial zone. The joint action, praised by both Italian and German commanders for the decisive contribution of the Celere Division’s mobility and the tenacity of the mountain troops, secured the key mining and metallurgical centre for the Axis and opened the route toward the Mius River. Following the capture, the 1. Gebirgs-Division continued eastward through Stepanowka, Amwrossijewka and Dmitrijewka, establishing a bridgehead across the Mius by early November, while Italian units of the Celere Division consolidated positions in and around Stalino before later sharing defensive sectors with the 1. and 4. Gebirgs-Division along the same river line through the harsh winter of 1941–1942.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2324520138285504&set=gm.4294751364097123&idorvanity=1599549446950675