[6] In the middle of the XVIII century, on the road from Ostrogozhsk to Rossosh (further on to Azov), an inn arose, near which the village of Postoyaly grew up.

In the winter of 1942/43, the Red Army launched several large offensives on the southern part of the Eastern Front in the wake of the Battle of Stalingrad.

On the evening of 17 January, the Alpine Army Corps commander, General Gabriele Nasci, ordered a full retreat.

The routes assigned for the "Julia" and "Cuneense" divisions crossed with around 10,000 German and Hungarian stragglers, which inevitably led to jams, chaos, and friction between the various formations.

[12] During the night of January 17, the rearguard of the "Cuneense" was attacked by Soviet partisans, but the "Saluzzo" Battalion managed to repel them, inflicting heavy casualties.

He ordered the commander of the 2nd Alpini Regiment to launch an attack with the "Saluzzo" and "Borgo San Dalmazzo" battalions.

The two battalions nearly succeeded in their intent, i.e. crossing a ridge between two small villages north of Novopostoyalovka, but the Russians counterattacked violently with infantry troops and numerous tanks, inflicting heavy losses on both.

The commander of the "Mondovì" Battalion, Major Mario Trovato, and that of the "Ceva", Lieutenant colonel Giuseppe Avenanti died heroically in the battle.

General Battisti realised it was impossible to force the ridge without anti-tank weapons, but still hoped he could escape Soviet encirclement.

The "Cuneense" units began to abandon their positions at Novopostoyalovka, but Soviet cavalry consisting of Siberian troops (at home in both snow and ice) renewed the attack on the remnants of the "Mondovì" Battalion, in charge of protecting the retreat and the flank of the column.

Upon leaving the zone of Novopostoyalovka, survivors of the "Cuneense" and "Julia" divisions marched northwest in two columns throughout the night of January 20.

On January 21, Italo Gariboldi, commander of the Italian 8th Army, warned General Nasci that Valuyki had fallen to the Russians and ordered him to head twenty kilometers further north to Nikolayevka (now Livenka, Belgorod Oblast, in Russia).

However, this report never reached the surviving units of the Julia and the "Cuneense" divisions, which continued to fight rearguard battles on the left flank of the "Tridentina".

On the morning of January 22, the Cuneense set off again to march towards Novokharkovka; in the evening of the same day they reached the first houses of the village.

At dawn January 23, the "Cuneense" resumed its march, but at 2 pm three Russian tanks suddenly appeared and attacked the head of the column.

General Battisti now asked for the maximum effort from his men, telling them that the longer they marched then the higher the likelihood for them to save themselves.

Large squads of Cossacks sporting machine guns loaded on sleds attacked the head of the column.

The division had walked 250 km, fought 20 battles, lost 80% of its men and more than 50% of its artillery and spent 11 nights camped out in the middle of the Russian Steppe.

General Battisti was initially held in a Soviet prison, where he was for some time a cellmate of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, and then in a prisoner-of-war camp, for over seven years; he was only released in 1950, returning to Italy on May 15 of that year, along with Generals Umberto Ricagno and Etelvoldo Pascolini and thirty South Tyrolean SS soldiers.