It existed between November 1942 and February 1943 and was primarily concerned with the Battle of Stalingrad, which was concurrently fought.

After a large-scale Soviet counterattack, "Operation Uranus", had resulted in the encirclement of the German 6th Army, Adolf Hitler named Erich von Manstein as commander of a newly-formed "Army Group Don," named for the Don River, on 20 November 1942.

[2] The only commander of Army Group Don during its short history was Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) Erich von Manstein.

[3] Zhukov stated, "We now know that Manstein's plan to rescue the encircled forces at Stalingrad was to organize two shock forces - at Kotelnikovo and Tormosin."

"[4] This article about a specific German military unit is a stub.