2nd Alpine Division "Tridentina" and the 3rd Alpine Division "Julia" formed the Alpine Army Corps, which was transferred to Eastern Ukraine. In July 1942 the division arrived in Izium from where it marched eastwards to Millerovo and then onward to the Don river. The Italian units covered part of the left flank of the German 6th Army, which spearheaded the German summer offensive of 1942 into the city of Stalingrad. On 12 December 1942 the Red Army's Operation Little Saturn commenced, which in its first stage attacked and encircled the Italian Army in Russia's II Army Corps and XXXV Army Corps. On 13 January 1943, the Red Army launched the second stage of Operation Little Saturn: four armies of General Filipp Golikov's Voronezh Front attacked, encircled, and destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda on the Don to the northwest of the Alpine Army Corps and pushed back the remaining units of the German XXIV Army Corps on the Alpine Army Corps' left flank, thus encircling the Alpine Army Corps. On the evening of 17 January, the Alpine Army Corps commander, General Gabriele Nasci, ordered a full retreat. At this point only the Tridentina division was still capable of conducting effective combat operations. The 40,000-strong mass of stragglers — Alpini and Italians from other commands, plus German and Hungarian Hussars — formed two columns that followed the Tridentina division which, supported by a handful of German armored vehicles, led the way westwards to the Axis lines. As the Soviets had already occupied every village bitter battles had to be fought to clear the way. On the morning of 28 January the division had walked 200 km, fought 20 battles, lost 80% of its men and spent 11 nights camped out in the middle of the Russian Steppe. Temperatures during the nights were between -30 °C and -40 °C. On 28 January the last remnants of the division were annihilated by Cossack forces. The last survivors of the 1st Alpini regiment burned the regiment's flag to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. The Cuneense then ceased to exist. Casualties On 11 February 1943 the count of the survivors gave the following result: 1st Alpini Regiment out of 5,282 men: 722 survivors; none of the soldiers of the battalions Ceva, Pieve di Teco and Mondovì survived. 2nd Alpini Regiment out of 5,229 men: 208 survivors; none of the soldiers of the