| 21st Army | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1941–1945 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army |
| Type | Combined arms |
| Size | Field army |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Fyodor Kuznetsov Vasiliy Gordov Mikhail Grigoryevich Yefremov Vasily Kuznetsov Nikolay Krylov |
The Soviet 21st Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II.
21st Army was a part of the Second Operational Echelon of the Red Army. It was formed from the forces of the Volga Military District in May 1941 and was initially based on 63rd Rifle Corps (53rd, 148th, and 167th Rifle Divisions) and 66th Rifle Corps. The army was under the command of Lieutenant-General Vasily Gerasimenko, and its chief of staff was Major-General Vasily Gordov. The commander of 63rd Rifle Corps was Lieutenant-General Leonid Petrovsky and the commander of 66th Rifle Corps was Major-General Fyodor Sudakov. In early June the army was moved to the eastern fringes of the Pripyat Marshes south of Homel. At the outbreak of hostilities on 22 June the army was redeployed north to defend the right bank of the Dnepr between Rybchev and Stary-Bykhov. At the same time 25th Mechanized Corps, under the command of Major-General Semyon Krivoshein, was assigned to 21st Army from the Kharkov Military District.
On 27 June 1941 it was proposed to Joseph Stalin that the Soviet armies (13th Army, 19th Army, 20th Army, 21st, 22nd Army) would defend the line going through the Daugava-Polotsk-Vitebsk-Orsha-Mogilev-Mazyr. [1] On 2 July, 21st Army was subordinated to the command of Western Front. On 4 July, the 3rd Panzer Division crossed the Dnepr and established a bridgehead on the east bank near Rahachow. Relentless assaults made by 63rd Rifle Corps from 21st Army forced the Germans to evacuate the bridgehead two days later. [2] On 6 July a battle-group from the 21st Army (led by the 117th Rifle Division) crossed the Dnepr at Zhlobin south of Rahachow and attacked in direction of Babruysk. The Soviet attack was repelled by the German 10th Motorized Division with help from 3rd Panzer Division [3] as German forces closed to the Dnepr, taking Rahachow and Zhlobin by 7 July and isolating 66th Rifle Corps' 117th Rifle Division in the eastern fringes of the Pripyat Marshes.
On 13 July, 21st Army, by this time under the command of Colonel-General Fyodor Kuznetsov, and reinforced with 67th Rifle Corps (commanded by Colonel Filipp Zhmachenko) and a cavalry group under the command of Colonel-General Oka Gorodovikov, went on the offensive again. Its 63rd Rifle Corps crossed Dnepr on pontoon bridges and recaptured Rahachow and Zhlobin, the first large towns to be retaken from German forces since the start of the invasion. Further south 232nd Rifle Division from 66th Rifle Corps under cover of woods, and with Gorodovikov's cavalry forces advancing off its left flank, gained 80 kilometres due west and took a bridgehead on Berezina river. [4] The advance of 21st Army was brought to a halt after a few days by fresh German forces from the German Second Army moving east from Minsk after the final surrender of the Soviet frontier armies in western Belorussia. During the second half of July the frontline stabilised from southeast of Babruysk to the Dnepr north of Rahachow and along the Sozh.
On 24 July, 21st Army came under command of the newly formed Central Front. Fedor Kuznetsov was assigned to the command of this new Front, and Lieutenant-General Mikhail Eframov was assigned as the new commander of 21st Army. Subsequently, 3rd Army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Vasilii Kuznetsov, was assigned to the frontline off the left flank of 21st Army in the Pripyat Marshes. By early August, 21st Army's defences were beginning to crumble against increasing pressure from Second Army. On 7 August Eframov moved to the command of Central Front and Gordov assumed command of 21st Army.
When on 12 August Krychaw was taken by the Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group, the 21st Army with its right flank severed began to withdraw to the east. Its new defensive position was to be on the line of river Desna. Zhlobin fell to Second Army on 14 August and the bridges over the Dnepr to the east of the town, though damaged, were taken in usable condition. Rahachow was taken by Second Army the next day and a sizable Soviet force, predominantly from 63 Rifle Corps, became trapped in the resultant pocket. The advance of Second Army towards Homel was slowed by counterattacks from 21st Army, but Gordov's army was being threatened with encirclement by the southward advance of 2nd Panzer Group from Krychaw. Homel was taken by forces from Second Army on 20 August but not before the bridges over the Sozh had been destroyed. On 25 August Central Front was disbanded; 21st Army and 3rd Army were merged, assigned to the newly created Bryansk Front, and, though the combined force was still designated 21st Army, Vasilii Kuznetsov was appointed to its command.
On 26 August German 2nd Panzer Group secured a bridgehead on the Desna's eastern bank near Novhorod-Siverskyi which threatened the eastern flank of 21st Army. Kuznetsov ordered a withdrawal over the river Desna. Unfortunately Kuznetsov did not inform the neighbouring Soviet units about his decision. Because of that 40th Army was forced to abort its attack on the German bridgehead near Novhorod-Siverskyi and the army commander, Major-General Kuzma Podlas, ordered a retreat to the southeast. Thus 21st Army, between South Western Front's 40th and 5th Armies was cut off from the forces of Bryansk Front. Kuznetsov can't be blamed for that decision because his army was at that point already beaten by German forces and in full retreat. In this situation on 6 September Kuznetsov's army was placed under the command of Southwestern Front. By then the advance by 2nd Panzer Group had forced a gap between South Western Front and Bryansk Front, [5] and 21st Army, continuing to retreat to the south, became caught up in a vast encirclement that became the Battle of Kiev (1941). During the second week of September a significant portion of 21st Army was able to escape eastwards through gaps in 2nd Panzer Group's lines between Priluki and Piriatin, but the bulk of the army found itself, together with the rest of South Western Front, in a tightening encirclement east of Kiev. Only a few thousand soldiers, mainly from 21st Army and 5th Army, together with 500 men from Kuznetsov's headquarters staff, escaped from the final encirclement of South Western Front in the second half of September. [6]
On 26 September Colonel-General Yakov Cherevichenko was appointed to the command of the residual forces of 21st Army that had escaped encirclement at Kiev. The army grew rapidly in strength as reserves were fed into Ukraine from the Soviet strategic reserve, so that by the beginning of October the army included three rifle divisions and five cavalry divisions. On 5 October Fyodor Kuznetsov briefly resumed command of 21st Army. By then it had become clear to Soviet high command that the main thrust of the German autumn offensive would not be directed at the Kharkov – Belgorod axis, the defence of which was assigned to South Western Front. On 15 October command of 21st Army reverted once again to Vasiliy Gordov, and Major-General Aleksei Danilov was appointed as the army's chief of staff. During October, under constant pressure from the German Sixth Army, 21st Army withdrew steadily to the east on the Belgorod axis north of Kharkov towards the upper Donets. Since the German mechanised forces had been directed towards Moscow and Rostov, Gordov's forces easily avoided encirclement by the slow-moving infantry divisions of Sixth Army, and by early November the frontline had begun to stabilise along the upper Donets.
On 1 January 1942 21st Army, which by then included six rifle divisions, launched an offensive towards Oboyan against part of the German Sixth Army. This was part of a wider offensive by South Western Front and Southern Front to retake Kursk, Kharkov and the Donbas; the offensive in Ukraine being part of a general winter offensive by the Red Army that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. By 3 January, the 21st Army, in conjunction with 40th Army further north, was involved in heavy fighting on the line of the Seym River, and the next day Gordov's forces cut the Belgorod – Kursk road and began to close in on Oboyan. However, by 5 January the progress of 21st Army had stalled after a series of counterattacks by Sixth Army. On 10 January Sixth Army attacked 21st Army's right flank north of Oboyan and also attacked the army's positions south of the town. Gordov could not prevent German forces from breaking through his lines and threatening the rear of his forward units. This German counterattack brought South Western Front's offensive north of Kharkov to an end and placed 21st Army on the defensive along the upper Donets for the rest of the winter and spring.
On 12 May 1942 South Western Front launched a renewed offensive to take Kharkov. 21st Army was to be part of the northern arm of an attempt to encircle the city from north and south. In conjunction with 28th Army on its left, Gordov's forces attacked XVII Army Corps of the German Sixth Army. For several days it seemed that a breakthrough against XVII Army Corps might be possible, but a reserve Soviet cavalry corps was not available in time to support the offensive and the Soviet advance stalled short of Kharkov in the face of effective German defences.
By late June 1942, 21st Army, with nine rifle divisions and a tank corps, occupied the northern flank of Southwestern Front along 100 kilometres of frontline east of Belgorod. Gordov's army, facing the left flank of the German Sixth Army and the right flank of the newly introduced Hungarian Second Army, was still flanked on its right by 40th Army, but 40th Army at this time constituted the southern wing of Bryansk Front which was responsible for the defence of the Voronezh axis. [7] On 28 June the main German strategic offensive of 1942, Case Blue, began. The initial German objectives were to break through the left wing of Bryansk Front in an advance to the Don at Voronezh, and, further south, to then break through the left wing of 21st Army in an advance towards Stary Oskol that would encircle 21st Army and 40th Army. Subsequently, German mechanised forces would advance down the right bank of the Don in order to encircle South Western Front, and would develop the offensive into the great bend of the Don and across the lower Don in order to encircle Southern Front, interdict the Volga river traffic at Stalingrad and secure the oilfields at Maykop. Within days of the opening of the German offensive, the right wing and centre of 40th Army had disintegrated and German mechanised forces were advancing rapidly towards Voronezh. On 30 June, XL Panzer Corps, subordinated to the German Sixth Army, struck 21st Army's left flank 40 kilometres southeast of Belgorod. At the same time German mechanised forces that had broken through the centre of 40th Army began to move towards Stary Oskol. On 1 July, with XL Panzer Corps breaking through 21st Army's lines and rendering the left wing of 40th Army and the bulk of 21st Army at risk of encirclement, Gordov was given permission to withdraw to the east. Making effective use of rearguards, Gordov and his staff managed to slow the German advance sufficiently to enable the bulk of 21st Army to reach the Don in the Liski area, and to withdraw to the relative safety of the left bank of the river.
On 12 July, as 21st Army was being deployed further south to defend the left bank of the Don bend in the Serafimovich – Kletskaya sector, Gordov was assigned to the command of one of three reserve armies that had been activated and were in the process of being deployed to the Don. Danilov was then assigned to the command of 21st Army and Colonel Valentin Penskovskii became the army's chief of staff. On 26 July, the 21st Army crossed the Don to attack German Sixth Army positions on the right bank of the river in the Serafimovich – Kletskaya sector. This attack was made to support the Soviet 62nd Army which was under severe pressure from Sixth Army in the Don bend, but the attack was only partially successful and by early August the offensive had stalled. Yet it left Danilov's forces in control of substantial bridgeheads on the right bank of the river at Serafimovich and Kletskaya, bridgeheads that the over-stretched Sixth Army did not have the resources to eliminate. By the fourth week of July Sixth Army had secured bridgeheads on the left bank of the Don at its eastern extremity, and were preparing for an advance across the narrow strip of land to the Volga north of Stalingrad. In conjunction with other Soviet forces facing Sixth Army, 21st Army launched desperate attacks on Sixth Army's positions to try to relieve the pressure on 62nd Army's defences on the left bank of the Don. These attacks failed to prevent Sixth Army from reaching the Volga, but 21st Army managed to enlarge its bridgehead at Serafimovich.
During August and September, as the battle for the city of Stalingrad progressed, 21st Army maintained the pressure on Sixth Army's positions on the right bank of the Don. During October the Rumanian Third Army replaced German divisions defending the northern sector of the Don bend, but the Rumanians were unable to prevent 21st Army from further enlarging the Serafimovich bridgehead. Soviet high command had decided to use the Serafimovich bridgehead to launch a major offensive (codenamed Uranus) to the southeast which, in conjunction with an offensive from Soviet positions south of Stalingrad, would strike into the flanks of Sixth Army to end the siege of the city. At the beginning of November Major-General Ivan Chistyakov replaced Danilov as commander of 21st Army. (Penskovskii, promoted in October to the rank of Major-General, remained as the army's chief of staff). Subsequently, 21st Army was reinforced with a tank corps and an elite cavalry corps. By then the army's bridgehead on the right bank of the Don was 50 kilometres long stretching from west of Serafimovich to east of Kletskaya. During November, 21st Army relinquished control of the Serafimovich sector of the bridgehead to the newly arrived 5th Tank Army. This tank army and the mobile forces of 21st Army were to spearhead the encirclement drive from the north.
Operation Uranus began in freezing fog on the morning of 19 November. By midday, though 6th Rumanian Infantry Division on 21st Army's right flank held its ground, the resistance of the other Rumanian forces facing 21st Army began to crumble and the army's mobile corps were committed to the offensive. By mid afternoon 21st Army's two mobile corps had broken through the Rumanian lines, and, as the cavalry corps turned east to attack the flank of Sixth Army's XI Army Corps, the tank corps advanced rapidly to the southeast in parallel with a tank corps from 5th Tank Army. On 21 November, the 21st Army's tank corps reached the Don near its eastern extremity and deep in Sixth Army's rear. The next day, further south, the tank corps from 5th Tank Army crossed the Don, and on 23 November linked up with mechanised forces from the Soviet's southern offensive. The whole of the German Sixth Army was surrounded in, and west of, Stalingrad, and five divisions of the Rumanian Third Army were encircled between the right wing of 21st Army and the left wing of 5th Tank Army in the Verkhe Fomikhinsky – Raspopinskaya area. Soviet commanders moved rapidly to secure the encirclement of Sixth Army. While part of 21st Army was committed to the subjugation of the surrounded Rumanian divisions on its right flank, the rest of the army advanced south and east into the Don bend. Sixth Army did not try to defend the right bank of the Don; the army's XI Army Corps had pull back to the left bank by 26 November and over the next few days pulled back further to the east to form part of a tighter defensive perimeter. Chistiakov's forces followed to form the western face of the Stalingrad encirclement, an encirclement that included a further six Soviet armies. In all, 22 Axis divisions were caught in the Stalingrad encirclement east of the Don. This was a far larger force than the Soviet high command had expected to ensnare, and throughout December piecemeal Soviet attacks on the Stalingrad perimeter achieved little. To break through the German defences a carefully prepared and coordinated offensive would be required. By the beginning of January 1943 the Soviet armies of the Stalingrad perimeter had been brought under one Front command (Don Front), and the general offensive (Operation Ring) began on 10 January. By this time the combat effectiveness of Sixth Army had been eroded by shortages of food, fuel and ammunition, yet the attacks against most of the perimeter made little progress. Only on the western and north-western face of the perimeter, where the German defences were weakest, was significant progress made by 21st Army and its neighbouring 65th Army. Six days later Pitomnik, the larger of Sixth Army's two major airbases, was taken, and Gumrak, the second airbase fell on 22 January. Four days later forces from 21st Army, advancing towards Stalingrad from the west, met forces from 62nd Army which had broken through the centre of the city to its western outskirts. Sixth Army was cut in two, and by early February the last German forces in the city had surrendered.
Within days of Sixth Army's surrender, preparations were underway for the deployment of several of the Soviet armies from the Stalingrad battle, including 21st Army, north to the Livny area to assist in a major offensive towards Kursk. Chistiakov's divisions did not begin to arrive in the Livny area until the second week in March by which time, instead of being committed to the offensive, they were deployed to the Oboyan area to defend against German mechanised forces that were threatening to advance north from Belgorod. Over the subsequent weeks the defensive positions of 21st Army south of Oboyan were to become the southern face of the Kursk salient.
At the beginning of May 1943 the designation of Chistiakov's army, in recognition of the part it had played in the battle of Stalingrad, was changed from 21st Army to 6th Guards Army. This change of designation was not made public until July.
On 12 July 1943 the 3rd Reserve Army, part of the Red Army's strategic reserve, was designated as the new formation of 21st Army. On 23 July it was transferred from the reserve to the operational army and at the beginning of August was assigned to Western Front to participate in an offensive to retake Smolensk (Operation Suvorov). At that time the army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Nikolai Krylov (chief of staff – Major-General Pavel Tikhomirov), included eight rifle divisions. The first phase of Operation Suvorov began on 7 August (without 21st Army's initial participation) but made little progress. Spas Demensk was taken on 13 August but thereafter the offensive began to stall. Changing the axis of the offensive from southwest towards Roslavl to a westerly offensive towards Elnia, Western Front renewed its efforts on 28 August using 21st Army and 10th Guards Army to spearhead the attack. Elnia was taken three days later, but 21st Army was unable to advance further to the west. Western Front ordered another operational pause until mid-September. By the time the offensive was resumed on 14 September, the defending German Fourth Army had been so weakened by the transfer of forces to other sectors of the frontline, that it made no determined attempt to defend its positions. Instead, it began a planned withdrawal to more defensible positions east of Orsha. As Fourth Army withdrew, Western Front's armies followed, and in the second half of September, 21st Army advanced 140 kilometres west from Elnia to the Belorussian border southwest of Krasnii where it was stopped by determined German resistance in prepared positions.
At the end of October, 21st Army Headquarters was returned to the high command reserve, the army's rifle divisions having been assigned to Western Front's 33rd Army and 68th Army.
After the failure of armistice negotiations between the Soviets and the Finns in the spring of 1944, the Stavka began preparations for an offensive in eastern Karelia and in the Karelian Isthmus to retake territory lost to the Finns in 1941. In order to destroy the Finnish Army and force Finland out of the war, the Stavka decided to conduct the two-pronged Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. At the beginning of May 1944, the headquarters of 21st Army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Dmitrii Gusev, was assigned from the reserves to Leningrad Front. His task was to take command of forces facing the Finnish army's IV Corps in the western half of the frontline in the Karelian Isthmus north of Leningrad. The offensive was planned to begin in early June, by which time 21st Army included nine rifle divisions subordinated to three rifle corps headquarters:
On 9 June, 21st Army, supported by the guns of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, opened a massive artillery barrage against IV Corps' positions. The next day, on 10 June, after a further artillery barrage, the Soviet 21st Army, spearheaded by 30th Guards Corps and with ample air and armoured support, opened the offensive on the Valkeasaari sector, which was defended by the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Finnish 10th Division. During the day, the Soviet units captured frontline trenches and destroyed fortifications, shattering the first Finnish "Main line" of the breakthrough sector. IV Corps was forced back to its second defence line and the Finns were obliged to send in reinforcements to try to stabilise their defensive position. On 13 June, the Soviet 21st Army reached the partially-completed VT-line (Vammelsuu-Taipale) as part of the second line defences at the town of Kuuterselkä, running 20 kilometres behind the "Main line". After two days of fighting, on 15 June, the VT-line was breached at Kuuterselkä by the 109th Rifle Division. As a result, the western sector of IV Corps' second line defences had been overrun and Finnish high command ordered its forces to withdraw to the third defence line, the VKT-line (Viipuri-Kuparsaari-Taipale), based on the Vuoski river. This defence line ran to the north and northeast of the important city and seaport of Vyborg. Following IV Corps' withdrawal, 21st Army advanced north and on 20 June, took Vyborg against negligible Finnish resistance.
Gusev, who was promoted to the rank of colonel-general on 18 June, was ordered to continue the offensive further north to break the Finnish defences at the villages of Tali, northeast of Vyborg, and at Ihantala, north of Vyborg. The renewed Soviet offensive began on 25 June against IV Corps' defences in the Tali area, culminating into the Battle of Tali–Ihantala. After four days of intense fighting, during which both sides fed reserves into the battle, the Finns were pushed back, but their lines did not break under the heavy Soviet manpower. On 3 July, 21st Army attacked Finnish defensive positions at Ihantala, but the attack had been anticipated by the Finns and after several days of effort, 21st Army's forces had made few gains. By 6 July, after four weeks of intense fighting and after having sustained heavy casualties, 21st Army's offensive capacity was exhausted as a result of their swift advance. Within days, some of 21st Army's best units were being withdrawn for deployment to other Soviet armies further south, and by mid-July, the offensive in the Karelian Isthmus had been terminated. 21st Army remained with Leningrad Front until the end of September 1944, when it was again returned to the high command reserve.
On 11 December 1944, the 21st Army was assigned to the 1st Ukrainian Front from the high command reserve. From this date, 21st Army remained operationally active throughout the remainder of the war. (In November, 21st Army had been briefly assigned to the operational army before being returned once again to the high command reserve). Dmitrii Gusev was still the army commander, and the army chief of staff was Major-General Georgii Bukhovets. (Bukhovets had replaced Major-General Victor Petukhov as chief of staff in June 1944). In December 1944, 1st Ukrainian Front occupied a largely static frontline in southern Poland, a frontline that had changed little since the autumn. The Front's main offensive efforts during that time had been directed towards expanding a bridgehead over the Vistula in the Sandomierz area, and in attempting to advance its left wing through the northern Carpathians into Slovakia. However, Stavka was planning a major offensive in Poland, and by December, planning was well-advanced
The offensive opened in the early morning of 12 January 1945 in a breakout from the Sandomierz bridgehead. Gusev's forces were not part of the breakout effort; 21st Army was one of 1st Ukrainian Front's reserve armies and it was not committed to the action until 17 January. By that time, 1st Ukrainian Front had advanced deep into southern Poland, and 21st Army was deployed against the German Seventeenth Army in the Miechow area for an attack towards Zawiercie and subsequently Tarnowskie Gory in order to outflank the Katowice industrial area from the north. For this task, 21st Army was reinforced with a tank corps and with an elite cavalry corps, and by 23 January, it had bypassed German forces in Silesia from the north, its right wing having reached the Oder near Opole, and its left flank having reached Tarnowskie Gory. From Opole 21st Army's cavalry corps, in conjunction with mechanised forces from a Soviet tank army, was turned to the southeast into the German rear and down the right bank of the Oder towards Raciborz. Meanwhile, the rest of 21st Army ceased its outflanking move to the west and attacked east towards Katowice. This manoeuvre, made in conjunction with a westerly advance further south by 4th Ukrainian Front, threatened German forces in the Katowice industrial area with encirclement and forced their withdrawal by 29 January.
Thereafter the priority for 1st Ukrainian Front was to cross the Oder and to advance to the river Neisse, from where it was planned it would launch its final offensive towards Dresden and central Germany. By early February, 1st Ukrainian Front had established two bridgeheads over the Oder at Scinawa Mala (formerly Steinau), which was downriver from Wroclaw (formerly Breslau), and at Brzeg, which was between Wroclaw and Opole. Both 5th Guards Army and 21st Army were concentrated into the southern bridgehead, with 21st Army on the left wing. The breakout from the northern bridgehead began on 8 February and within days had forced a gap of more than 100 kilometres in the German lines. The breakout from the Brzeg bridgehead against the German Seventeenth Army began on 14 February. 5th Guards Army advanced to the west and northwest to encircle the substantial German garrison at Wroclaw, and 21st Army advanced to the southwest towards Grodkow. The subsequent advance of 21st Army was modest compared to that made by the armies of 1st Ukrainian Front further west. As the axis of 1st Ukrainian Front's offensive shifted to the west, 21st Army found itself on a relatively inactive sector of the frontline. It was not until mid-March that 1st Ukrainian Front was able to deploy sufficient forces to its left flank to conduct an offensive there. By then, the Front was ready to mount a combined attack north and south of Opole towards the Prudnik area, an attack that was expected to outflank much of Seventeenth Army. The northern force, which included 21st Army, was to attack southwest from the Grodkow area. The southern force would attack to the west from the Kedzierzyn-Kozle area. Within four days, a number of German divisions in the Opole area had been destroyed by this offensive and by the end of the month, 21st Army occupied a 70 kilometre sector of the frontline some 40 kilometres southwest of Wroclaw. In April, this frontline stabilised again as 1st Ukrainian Front's resources were directed to the west for the impending offensive across the Neisse into central Germany.
In early May, as representatives of the German government were beginning to discuss with the Allies a general surrender of German forces, Soviet high command decided to launch a final offensive against Army Group Centre. The main objective was the capture of Prague, but other Soviet armies facing Army Group Centre's frontline further east, including 21st Army, were required to participate in placing the whole of Army Group Centre under pressure. The hurriedly prepared offensive by more than twenty Soviet armies was launched on 5 May and made rapid progress. Over the subsequent four days, 21st Army advanced 70 kilometres, taking Wałbrzych and crossing the Czech border to reach Jaromerz by the war's end on 9 May.
Source: Leo Niehorster [9]
Commander: Lieutenant-General Vasilii Gerasimenko
Infantry Forces:
63rd Rifle Corps – Lieutenant-General Leonid Petrovskii
66th Rifle Corps – Major-General Fedor Sudakov
Artillery:
Mechanised Forces:
25th Mechanized Corps – Major-General Semen Krivoshein
Commanders
Operation Uranus was a Soviet 19–23 November 1942 strategic operation on the Eastern Front of World War II which led to the encirclement of Axis forces in the vicinity of Stalingrad: the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The Red Army carried out the operation at roughly the midpoint of the five-month long Battle of Stalingrad, aiming to destroy German forces in and around Stalingrad. Planning for Operation Uranus had commenced in September 1942, and developed simultaneously with plans to envelop and destroy German Army Group Center and German forces in the Caucasus.
Case Blue was the Wehrmacht's plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of Baku, Grozny and Maikop for two purposes: to enable the Germans to re-supply their low fuel stock and also to deny their use to the Soviet Union, thereby bringing about the complete collapse of the Soviet war effort.
The 3rd Guards Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.
The Stalingrad Front was a front, a military unit encompassing several armies, of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the city of Stalingrad on the Volga River.
The 38th Red Banner Army was a field army of the Soviet Union that existed between 1941 and 1991.
The Battle of Kalach took place between the German Sixth Army and elements of the Soviet Stalingrad Front between July 25 and August 11, 1942. The Soviets deployed the 62nd and 64th Armies in a Don River bridgehead west of Kalach with the intent of impeding the German advance on Stalingrad. In the initial period of the battle, the Germans attacked and managed to surround part of the 62nd Army. In reaction, the Soviets counter-attacked and temporarily forced the Germans onto the defense. Following resupply of German forces, the roles again reversed and the Germans attacked into the flanks of the Soviet bridgehead, successfully collapsing it. The German victory positioned the Sixth Army to cross the Don River and advance on Stalingrad, which became the site of the Battle of Stalingrad.
The 304th Rifle Division had its roots in the 109th Mechanized Division, which served before the Great Patriotic War as a mixed armor and infantry formation. Soon after the German invasion it was reorganized as a standard rifle division and renumbered as the 304th. It served in the southwestern part of the Soviet-German front for more than a year and a half, fighting under difficult conditions, including the German summer offensive of 1942. The division did not distinguish itself until Operation Uranus in late 1942 and the subsequent Operation Ring, in which it helped defeat the encircled German Sixth Army. In recognition of these successes, even before the German surrender at Stalingrad, it was raised to Guards status as the 67th Guards Rifle Division. A second 304th was raised six months later, based on a pair of rifle brigades, facing the German 17th Army in the Kuban. After helping to liberate this region the division continued in combat through Ukraine and Poland, winning its own distinctions at Zhitomir and an Order of the Red Banner, before ending the war near Prague.
The 4th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division on September 18, 1941, from the 1st formation of the 161st Rifle Division as one of the original Guards formations of the Red Army, in recognition of that division's participation in the successful counter-offensive that drove German forces out of their positions at Yelnya. The division then moved northwards to serve in the defense of Leningrad, as well as the early attempts to break that city's siege, but later was redeployed to the southern sector of the front as the crisis around Stalingrad developed. The 4th Guards took part in Operation Uranus which surrounded the German 6th Army in and around that city and then in the pursuit operations that drove the remaining German forces from the Caucasus steppes and the city of Rostov. The division remained in this sector for the duration of the war, fighting through the south of Ukraine through the summer of 1943 and winning the Order of the Red Banner in the process; it was further distinguished with the award of a battle honor in February, 1944. During April and May its advance was halted during the battles along the Dniestr River, but resumed in the August offensive that carried it and its 31st Guards Rifle Corps into the Balkans. It served extensively in the fighting through Hungary and in the outer encirclement during the siege of Budapest in the winter of 1944/45 and in mid-April was awarded a second battle honor for its part in the capture of Vienna. Despite this distinguished service the division was disbanded in 1946.
The 293rd Rifle Division began service as a Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion. It was largely based on what would become the shtat of July 29, 1941. The division was initially assigned to 40th Army of Southwestern Front when that Army was formed on August 26. It served in several clashes with the German 2nd Panzer Group in the vicinity of Korop and was therefore outside the area encircled by 2nd and 1st Panzer Groups in September, spending the winter along the front near Kursk. It fought in the unsuccessful Soviet offensive on Kharkiv in May, 1942 as part of 21st Army, suffering significant casualties in the process. During June and July the remnants of the division fought along the Don River against the German summer offensive until it was pulled back into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding. It returned to the front in October, again as part of 21st Army, near Stalingrad, where it played a leading role in the encirclement and destruction of German 6th Army in January 1943, for which it was raised to Guards status as the 66th Guards Rifle Division as the battle was still ongoing.
The 399th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army. Partially raised in 1941, this formation was abandoned until a second formation began in February 1942, this time in the far east of Siberia. The formation lasted until July, after which it was moved west to join the Stalingrad Front in the great bend of the Don River. Badly mauled in its first actions, it was rebuilt west of the Don in late July, and went on to contest the German advance right into the center of the city. The remnants of the division were pulled out and sent north to Bryansk Front, and the once-again rebuilt division went on to serve in the winter offensive against the German forces in the salient around Oryol. It was present on the right flank of the Kursk salient during the German offensive in July 1943 but saw little action until the Soviet forces went on the counterattack later that month. During the advance into western Russia it earned a battle honor. Through the winter of 1943-44 it helped to make incremental gains against the forces of Army Group Center, setting the stage for the summer offensive, during which the division would win its first decoration. Later that year it advanced into Poland and in early 1945 it took part in the battles for East Prussia, and won the Order of the Red Banner for its efforts. The division was disbanded shortly thereafter.
The 321st Rifle Division was formed in September 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, based on an existing division of militia. This formation had an extremely short career, coming under devastating attack in the north of the Crimea on the day of its redesignation and being officially disbanded just over a month later. A second division began forming in the Transbaikal in February 1942, and served in the defensive and offensive fighting around Stalingrad, eventually distinguishing itself sufficiently to be redesignated as the 82nd Guards Rifle Division. The world had not seen the last of the 321st, however, as a new division was formed from two existing rifle brigades in the spring of 1944, which gave very creditable service for the duration, completing its combat path in northeastern Germany, and serving into the postwar period.
The 343rd Rifle Division was first formed in late August, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, at Stavropol, in the Caucasus region. Its first major operation was in the liberation of Rostov in December, 1941. Following this, it was nearly caught up in the debacle near Kharkov in May, 1942, but managed to evade the German spearheads during Operation Blue to join the forces defending the Stalingrad region during the summer and fall. Following the German surrender at Stalingrad, on May 4, 1943, it was re-designated as the 97th Guards Rifle Division. Over a year later, a new 343rd Rifle Division was formed, based on the personnel and equipment of a Fortified Region, just after the start of Operation Bagration, the destruction of German Army Group Center. This new division went on to distinguish itself by helping to liberate the Polish city of Białystok, and ended the war in East Prussia, near Königsberg.
The 346th Rifle Division began forming in late August, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, in the Volga Military District. It was assigned to the 61st Army while both it and its Army continued to form up before moving to the front lines in December to take part in the winter counteroffensive south of Moscow. In September, 1942, it became part of the 5th Tank Army, and joined the offensive that encircled German Sixth Army at Stalingrad during Operation Uranus. During 1943 and early 1944 it continued to serve in the southern part of the front, taking part in the liberation of Crimea, before being transferred to the Baltic States region, serving in Latvia and Lithuania until February, 1945, when it was once again reassigned, this time to be part of the follow-on forces in the conquest of eastern Germany. The division ended the war with a distinguished service record, but was disbanded shortly after the German surrender.
The 14th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 96th Rifle Division, which was officially a mountain unit at the time, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was on Southern Front when it was redesignated and was soon assigned to the 57th Army. It was encircled during the May German counterattack in the Second Battle of Kharkov. Its first commander was made a prisoner of war, later dying in German captivity. A cadre of the division managed to escape and was sent to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding. In July it joined the 63rd Army and took part in the attacks against the Italian 8th Army that created the bridgehead south of the Don River near Serafimovich during August. In October, now in the 21st Army of Don Front, it was active in two probing attacks against the Romanian forces now containing the bridgehead which inflicted severe casualties in advance of the Soviet winter counteroffensive. At the start of that offensive the division was in 5th Tank Army, but was soon transferred to 1st Guards Army and then to the 3rd Guards Army when that was formed. It was under this Army as it advanced into the Donbas in late winter before returning to 57th Army during most of 1943, fighting through east Ukraine and across the lower Dniepr by the end of the year. After being briefly assigned to 53rd Army in December it was moved to 5th Guards Army in February, 1944 where it remained for the duration, mostly in the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps. It saw action in the Uman–Botoșani Offensive and won its first decoration, the Order of the Red Banner, as it advanced, before being involved in the frustrating battles along the Dniestr River on the Romanian border. In late spring, 1944 the division was redeployed north becoming part of 1st Ukrainian Front and taking part in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive into Poland. The 14th Guards made a spectacular advance across Poland during the Vistula-Oder Offensive and was awarded the Order of Lenin for its part in the liberation of Sandomierz. On January 22, 1945, its commander suffered mortal wounds in the fighting for a bridgehead over the Oder River. In the drive on Berlin in April the division and its regiments won further honors and decorations but despite these distinctions it was disbanded in August, 1946.
The 41st Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in August 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 10th Airborne Corps, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was the last of a series of ten Guards rifle divisions formed from airborne corps during the spring and summer of 1942. It was briefly assigned to the 1st Guards Army in Stalingrad Front, then to the 24th Army in Don Front, and suffered heavy casualties north of Stalingrad before being withdrawn to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for a substantial rebuilding. Returning to 1st Guards Army in Southwestern Front in November it took part in Operation Little Saturn as part of 4th Guards Rifle Corps and then advanced into the Donbas where it was caught up in the German counteroffensive in the spring of 1943. During the summer and fall the division fought its way through eastern Ukraine as part of the 6th, and later the 57th Army under several corps commands. It would remain in the southern part of the front for the duration of the war. By February 1944 it was in the 7th Guards Army and took part in the battle for the Korsun Pocket, winning its first battle honor in the process. Shortly after it was transferred to the 4th Guards Army, where it would remain for the duration, still moving through several corps headquarters. The 41st Guards saw limited service in the first Jassy-Kishinev offensive in the spring, but considerably more in August's second offensive and several of its subunits received battle honors or decorations. The division itself won a second honorific during the offensive into Hungary in January 1945 and was later decorated for its role in the capture of Budapest. After the fall of Vienna in April it did garrison duty in the city for a short time before being directed west into lower Austria where it linked up with U.S. forces in the last days of the war. In October, while still in Austria, it was converted to the 18th Guards Mechanized Division.
The 50th Guards Rifle Division was an elite infantry division of the Red Army during World War II that continued as part of the Soviet Army during the early period of the Cold War. Converted into the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division in the late 1950s, the division was based in Brest, Belarus. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the division became part of the Belarusian Ground Forces and was reduced to a brigade and then a storage base before being disbanded in 2006.
The 214th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. It was moved to the fighting front to join 22nd Army in late June and took part in the fighting between Vitebsk and Nevel in early July, escaping from encirclement in the process, and then played a significant role in the liberation of Velikiye Luki, the first Soviet city to be retaken from the invading armies. In October it was again encircled near Vyasma during Operation Typhoon and was soon destroyed.
The 219th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was redesignated about 10 weeks after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Due to a chronic lack of vehicles, and especially tanks, the division had been effectively serving as a motorized rifle brigade since June 22, so the redesignation was a formality and it was soon destroyed in the encirclement battle east of Kiev.
The 229th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. As part of 20th Army it was moved from the Moscow Military District to the front west of Orsha by July 2. Serving under the Western Front the 20th was soon pocketed in the Smolensk region but the 229th was able to escape at the cost of significant losses. It was partially rebuilt before the start of the final German offensive on Moscow, when it was completely encircled and destroyed.
The 197th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed as part of the prewar buildup of forces, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. It began forming just months before the German invasion in the Kiev Special Military District, where it was soon assigned to the 49th Rifle Corps in the reserves of Southwestern Front. At the start of Operation Barbarossa it was in western Ukraine and quickly came under intense pressure from the 1st Panzer Group which split the Corps apart. Forced to the south and east it was assigned to 6th Army and in early August was encircled and destroyed near Uman.
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