Shortly after 7:20 am on November 19, 1942, Russian artillery began a massive bombardment of Romanian positions in the north of the salient. A dozen infantry divisions, three tank corps, and two cavalry corps soon attacked through the holes blown in Romanian lines. By midday, Russian tanks had broken through the Romanian lines and moved toward the city of Kalach. The Axis response was slow in coming. Sixth Army Headquarters had been informed of the offensive at 9:45 am, but it was not until two hours later that they realized it presented a threat. Paulus still did not withdraw his tanks to create a response force. By five o’clock that afternoon, German commanders had realized that they needed to form a new defensive line to protect the Sixth Army’s rear, but it was not until the next day that the Sixth Army was finally ordered to redeploy. Without orders, Paulus had felt no need to respond. In this way, Hitler’s determination to control events produced a disastrous lack of reaction.

On November 20, the southern arm of the Soviet offensive began their attack. They again broke through Romanian lines quickly but faced issues from fuel shortages and a reactive German presence in the area.