Battle of Sokolovo

Battle of Sokolovo
	Part of the Third Battle of Kharkov
Date	8–13 March 1943
Location	Sokolovo, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Result	German advance slowed, Czechoslovak moral victory
Belligerents
Czechoslovakia ; Soviet Union	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Ludvík Svoboda	Walther von Hünersdorff
Strength
350 soldiers; 2 anti-tank cannons; 16 anti-tank rifles	2,400 infantry; 20–40 tanks; 20 Armored vehicles
Casualties and losses
86 dead; 20 POW or missing; 114 injured; 2 anti-tank cannons; 7 anti-tank rifles	300–400 infantry; 19 tanks; 6 armored vehicles

The Battle of Sokolovo took place on 8 and 9 March 1943, near the village of Sokolovo (Ukrainian: Соколове, Sokolove) near Kharkiv in Ukraine when the ongoing attack of the Wehrmacht was delayed by joint Soviet and Czechoslovak forces. It was the first time that a foreign military unit, the First Czechoslovak Independent Field Battalion, fought together with the Red Army. Under the command of Ludvík Svoboda, later President of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak soldiers delayed the advance of Germans to the Mzha River. On 13 March the position was abandoned as untenable due to the complete German encirclement of Kharkov.