The German military forces fighting in Russia primarily consisted of five Army Groups. However, compared with Army Group A, Army Group B, and Army Group C, which were encircling Moscow, Army Group D and Army Group E, responsible for operations on the southern front, held a secondary position. After all, between the two Army Groups, the German military had only five armies, a mere one million men. Even including the forces of its puppet states, their total strength was only 3.8 million, less than half that of the German military and Puppet Troops attacking Moscow.
Naturally, the Russian army had not deployed many troops on the southern front either. Apart from the Southern Front Army, there was only the Caucasian Front Army, as well as the Yuzefgrad Front Army, hastily formed in Yuzefgrad. Overall, the Russian army held no advantage in manpower. In combat effectiveness, it was at an even greater disadvantage. Even the logistical support for German Army Group D and Army Group E was more adequate than that of the forces attacking Moscow.
Turkey had now joined the Allied Powers in the war, allowing the German military's logistics department to transport vast quantities of supplies to the Black Sea coast aboard merchant ships. Some smaller vessels could even sail upstream along the Don River, providing the German military with even more supplies. This made German operations on the southern front proceed all the more smoothly.
While the main German forces launched fierce assaults against the Russian Western Front Army, Southwestern Front, and Northwestern Front Army, German Army Group D likewise launched a fierce assault against the Russian Southern Front Army.
German Army Group D commanded the German Army's 2nd Army Corps, 19th Army Corps, and 20th Army Corps, as well as Ukraine's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd armies; Yugoslavia's