On January 26, 1943, a number of wounded German soldiers were left in a snowdrift and froze to death during an offensive to break through the Soviet siege in the village of Nikolayevka.

   On the Eastern Front of World War II, the Battle of Nikolayevka was a siege breakthrough by Italian forces in January 1943 during the offensive over the Battle of Stalingrad. Near the village of Nikolayevka (now Livenka, Belgorod Oblast, Russia), the Alpini (Mountain) Corps of the Italian 8th Army broke through the Soviet siege, and on January 26, 1943, a number of wounded German soldiers were left in a snowdrift in the village of Nikolayevka to freeze to death in an offensive to break through the Soviet siege. They were left behind and froze to death. The frozen bodies were left on the snowy battlefield to become road gravel. The photographs were taken by Galina Sanko (Galina Sanko), a female Soviet Army photographer, and published in Leningrad, 1942.

　On December 16, 1942, Soviet forces launched Operation Small Saturn, targeting the Italian Eighth Army. The Soviets forced their way across along the Don River and surrounded the Italian Eighth Army, cutting it off from the German Army Group A fighting in the Caucasus On December 16, Soviet forces attacked the Italian Eighth Army, which was quickly destroyed. The Soviet forces moved rapidly south into the Black Sea.

　The Alpini Corps of the Italian Army did not receive an offensive from the Soviet Army on its right wing; on January 13, 1943, the Soviets attacked, surrounded, and destroyed the Hungarian II Army near Svoboda on the Don River northwest of the Italian Army in Operation Saturn. They pushed back the remaining German units on the Alpini left flank and surrounded the Italian Alpine Corps; on the night of January 17, the Italian Alpine Corps was ordered to withdraw completely. Only the Tridentina Division was able to carry out combat operations. The Italian Army's Alpini Corps, plus German and Hungarian troops, a group of about 40,000 men, supported by a handful of German armored vehicles, headed west toward the Axis lines.

　On the morning of January 26, the Tridentina Division reached the village of Nikolaevka, where Soviet troops fortified the railroad embankments on both sides. At 9:30 a.m., the Italian Alpine Corps and German troops began their attack. By noon, Italian troops reached the outskirts of the village of Nikolaevka. By sunset, the Italian Alpine Corps struggled to break through the reinforced Soviet lines. Using manpower tactics, the Italians attacked Soviet positions and broke through the Soviet lines. The surviving Italian units were able to break through the Soviet encirclement and withdraw from the combat zone.

　On February 1, the remnants of the Italian Army's Arpi Corps returned to the Axis lines. The Cunense Division was destroyed, only one-tenth of the Giulia Division (about 1,200 men out of about 15,000) survived, and only one-third of the Tridentina Division (about 4,250 men out of about 15,000). The Vicenza Division, which counted about 10,466 men at the start of the Soviet offensive, lost about 7,760 men killed or missing in action. In total, the Italian Alpine Legion, which numbered about 57,000 men at the start of the battle, lost 34,170 killed in action and 9,400 wounded. Soviet casualties were approximately 1,000.