60th Army (Soviet Union)

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60th Army
Ivan Cherniakhovskii 1943-01.jpg
General of the Army Ivan Chernyakhovsky
ActiveOctober–December 1941
10 July 1942 – August 1945
CountryFlag of the USSR (1936-1955).svg  Soviet Union
Branch Red Army flag.svg Red Army
Type Infantry
Part of Moscow Military District
Voronezh Front
Kursk Front
Central Front
1st Ukrainian Front
4th Ukrainian Front
Engagements Battle of Voronezh (1942)
Voronezh-Kastornoye offensive
Battle of Kursk
Lower Dnieper Offensive
Battle of Kiev (1943)
Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive
Vistula-Oder Operation
Moravian-Ostrava Offensive
Prague Offensive
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Ivan Chernyakhovsky
Maksim Antoniuk

The Red Army's 60th Army was a Soviet field army during the Second World War. It was first formed in reserve in the Moscow Military District in October 1941, but soon was disbanded. It was formed a second time in July 1942, and continued in service until postwar. The 60th Army was commanded by Gen. Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky for much of the war, and it was while in this command that he proved himself worthy to be promoted to the rank of General of the Army and command of a Front at the age of 38 years. Elements of the army went on to, among other things, liberate the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Contents

First Formation

The 60th Army was first formed in October 1941, as a reserve formation of the Moscow Military District. It comprised the 334th, 336th, 348th, 358th, and 360th Rifle Divisions [1] and the 11th Cavalry Division. [2] All these divisions had been formed in the Volga Military District in the preceding months. The army was under the command of Lt. Gen. M.A. Purkayev. In December the rifle divisions were reassigned as follows: 334th, 358th and 360th to the 4th Shock Army, 336th to 5th Army, and 348th to 30th Army, [3] while the 11th Cavalry joined the 7th Cavalry Corps in January. Purkayev's headquarters group had already been used to create the command cadre for the new 3rd Shock Army, and 60th Army was disbanded on Dec. 25. [4]

Second Formation

In April and May 1942, STAVKA began forming a total of ten new combined-arms reserve armies in preparation for the expected German summer offensive. STAVKA expected this to be directed at Moscow, while the German plans were, in fact, for a drive to the southeast. On July 2, after disastrous losses further west, 3rd Reserve Army was released to take up positions north of Voronezh. The army was under command of Lt. Gen. M.A. Antoniuk. [5] As late as July 5, the Soviet command believed the new German offensive was a prelude to an advance on Moscow, but shortly thereafter they understood the true intent. [6] The 3rd Reserve Army was directed to deploy to Voronezh Front, in the immediate environs of that eponymous city, and was renamed 60th Army on July 10. [7] At that time its order of battle was as follows:

On July 25, Maj. Gen. I. D. Chernyakhovsky was appointed to the command of the army, a command he would hold until mid-April 1944. [9]

During the summer and autumn the 60th Army was engaged in an active defense of Voronezh and its approaches. German 4th Panzer Army arrived at the outskirts of the city on July 7 and began fighting to clear it of its 40th Army defenders. Counterattacks by 60th Army tied down these German mobile forces, leading to street fighting similar to what was to be seen in Stalingrad a few months later. The panzers were relieved by the infantry of 6th Army, and fighting continued until July 24 when the final Soviet defenders were cleared from the west bank sector of the city. The army continued to probe the German front in the weeks following in an attempt to deflect enemy forces from the fighting in Stalingrad; this cost significant losses in men and equipment and several of the divisions had to be taken out of the line for rebuilding.[ citation needed ]

In the wake of Operation Uranus and Operation Little Saturn, the remaining Soviet forces on the southern half of the front joined in the winter counteroffensive. On January 24, 1943, forces of Voronezh and Bryansk Fronts, including 60th Army, began the Voronezh-Kastornoye offensive against German 2nd Army, which was by now in a deep salient. Flanking and frontal attacks soon drove the remnants of that army westward in disorder towards Kursk and Belgorod. [10] The former city became the new objective, and it fell to the 60th on Feb. 8. Gen. Kuznetsov of Front headquarters reported:

"The city of Kursk was taken by our forces at 1500 hours on 8 February 1943. The 60th Army. The forces of the army fought intensely for possession of Kursk... The enemy offered stubborn resistance with the remnants of 82nd Infantry Division, the 340th Infantry Division, and the 4th Panzer Division, which approached from the Orel region, while counterattacking our units from the vicinity of Kursk with a force of up to a regiment of infantry." [11]

Following this the army staged another offensive aimed at L'gov and Ryl'sk from Feb. 12 - 20, exploiting the gap that had opened between German 2nd and 2nd Panzer Armies. Chernyakhovsky's attempt to take L'gov off the march was frustrated on Feb. 20; he then set out to envelop the town and eventually succeeded. [12] On March 19, 60th and 38th Armies formed the short-lived Kursk Front. Five days later this was renamed Oryol Front, and the 60th was reassigned to Gen. K.K. Rokossovsky's Central Front. As the Germans regained their balance and the offensives ground to a halt, 60th Army found itself in the deepest, westernmost sector of the Kursk Salient, where it would remain through the following months. [13]

Battle of Kursk

On July 5, 1943, the order of battle of the army was as follows:

24th Rifle Corps, with:

30th Rifle Corps, with:

Separate Division:

Other units:

The sector of the salient occupied by the 60th was considerably west of where German 9th Army attempted to penetrate Central Front's lines, and the army saw little combat during the German offensive. It also remained largely inactive when the Front went over to the counteroffensive towards Oryol.[ citation needed ] In August the army was reinforced by the 1st Guards Artillery Division. This unit would remain with 60th Army until after the transfer to 1st Ukrainian Front in October. [15]

Finally on August 26 Central Front renewed its offensive against Army Group Center. 65th Army, along with the weakened 2nd Tank Army, struck 2nd Army's center at Sevsk, which was liberated on that first day. 48th Army flanked this drive on the right, while 60th operated on the left. The Germans counterattacked northwest of Sevsk on August 29, halting the main drive, but the 60th was able to break through on its sector, which the Germans had weakened in favor of Sevsk. By the end of the day Cherniakhovsky's forces had liberated Glukhov, and he continued to exploit using forward detachments. [16] Rokossovsky changed his original plan and regrouped his 13th and 2nd Tank Armies to his left flank to exploit the gap. The Germans lost track of these mobile forces until Rokossovsky threw them against 2nd Army's flank and smashed it in. [17] 60th Army liberated Konotop on September 6, Bakhmach on the 9th, and Nezhin on the 15th. By September 22, 13th, 60th and 61st Armies, with armored support, were closing on the Dniepr River north of Kiev. [18]

Battle of the Dniepr

At this point Central Front had advanced 100-120km farther than Voronezh Front, and in spite of having very extended flanks, appeared to have a real chance to liberate the Ukrainian capital from the march. Rokossovsky wrote:

"I visited Cherniakhovsky after his troops had liberated Nezhin. The soldiers and officers were filled with unprecedented enthusiasm. They had forgotten their fatigue and were plunging forward. Everyone had the same dream -- to take part in the liberation of the Ukraine's capital. Of course, Cherniakhovsky also felt the same way. All his actions were filled with the desire to reach Kiev more quickly."

Political calculations deemed otherwise. Stalin was keen to have the Ukrainian capital liberated by Ukrainians; Gen. N.F. Vatutin and his Military Council member N.S. Khrushchev of Voronezh Front (soon to be renamed 1st Ukrainian Front) fit the bill. The boundary lines between the two Fronts were altered and Central Front (soon to be Belorussian, then 1st Belorussian Front) was directed at Chernigov. [19]

By the end of September, the 60th had a bridgehead over the Dniepr north of Kiev with a depth of 12-15km and a width of 20km. Rokossovsky ordered an attack to the west and southwest, past Kiev. Instead, Cherniakhovsky pushed southwards along the river; Kiev seemed to be "attracting the army commander just like a magnet." As this was the most heavily defended sector, the attack failed. On October 5, in a major reshuffle of the Fronts, 60th Army was moved to the (soon to be) 1st Ukrainian Front, where it continued to serve until the last weeks of the war. [20]

Clearing Western Ukraine

Kiev was finally liberated on Nov. 6. Over the following weeks see-saw battles took place west of the city, but by Dec. 26 the army had joined a new offensive against 4th Panzer Army towards Zhitomir. [21] Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, 1944, the 13th and 60th Armies joined with the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps to drive through the overextended German flank on the southern fringe of the Pripiat Marshes, unhinging their defenses, liberating Rovno and Lutsk, and taking favorable positions to continue operations into Army Group South's rear. [22]

On March 5, Cherniakhovsky was promoted to the rank of Colonel General, and on Apr. 15 he took command of 3rd Belorussian Front, at the age of 38 the youngest man to reach that level of command. He remained in this command until he was mortally wounded in action in East Prussia on Feb. 18, 1945. [9] Col. Gen. P.A. Kurochkin took over command of the army and held it for the duration. [23] At about this time the 1827th SU Regiment (ISU-152s) was assigned as a support unit to the army, where it remained (redesignated as 368th Guards SU Reg't. in July) until April 1945. [24]

On the sector of 60th Army, directly east of Lvov, the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive began on July 14, with it and 38th Army hitting the left flank of 1st Panzer Army. That army had two panzer divisions in reserve close to the front; their counterattack the next day stopped the 38th and even won back some ground, but the 60th opened a breach in the line farther north. The next day, Marshal Konev ordered the 3rd Guards Tank Army into this gap. The Germans tried to pull their flanks back to a switch position called the Prinz Eugen line, but the Soviet forces continued to make penetrations. On the 18th their armored spearheads met on the Bug River 50km west of Lvov and the German XIII Army Corps (five German divisions and the SS Division Galicia) was encircled. By July 22 the gap in the German front was 50km wide and Soviet forward detachments were racing for the San and Vistula Rivers. On that same day XIII Corps attempted to break out, but of its 30,000 men only about 5,000 escaped. [25] During the following months the 60th Army took up positions on the southern flank in the Sandomierz bridgehead and rebuilt in anticipation of the coming winter offensive.[ citation needed ]

Into Germany

At the end of December 1944, the order of battle of 60th Army was as follows:

15th Rifle Corps, with:

28th Rifle Corps, with:

106th Rifle Corps, with:

The 1st Ukrainian Front kicked off the Vistula-Oder Operation on Jan. 12, 1945, eight days earlier than originally planned, due to a request for assistance from the western Allies during the later stages of the Battle of the Bulge. 60th Army was tasked to provide protection on the south side of the main penetration force. By 1400 hours the two tank armies of the Front passed through the attacking infantry; by the end of the day the German defenses had been breached on a 35km frontage to a depth of 20km. Twenty-four hours later the penetration was 60km wide and 40km deep, and by Jan. 18 the Front was five days ahead of schedule. [27]

On January 27, 1945, as the 60th continued on its flanking mission, the 322nd Rifle Division liberated the survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. [28]

In the last weeks of the war, 60th Army was transferred to 4th Ukrainian Front, and ended the war near Prague. [29] On 30 July 1945 the army's headquarters became the staff of the Kuban Military District at Krasnodar. On 4 February 1946 the district became the Kuban Territorial Military District, and became part of the North Caucasus Military District. The Kuban Territorial Military District was disbanded on 6 May. [30]

Commanders

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The 340th Rifle Division began forming in August 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, at Balashov in the Saratov Oblast. The division went into the lines defending Moscow in November, then into the winter counteroffensive in December. After rebuilding, the division was assigned as the only rifle division in the new 5th Tank Army, but avoided the fate of most of the tank units of that formation when it attacked in July 1942. Following another aborted offensive in July, the 340th settled into mostly defensive assignments until after the Soviet victory at Kursk, when it joined in the general offensive through eastern Ukraine to the Dniepr River, winning honors for its role in the liberation of Sumy, and later Kiev. During 1944 the division continued the westward march through northern Ukraine and on into Poland in the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive before being reassigned to 4th Ukrainian Front advancing into the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia. The 340th ended its distinguished record of service in 1st Guards Army in Czechoslovakia.

The 12th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 258th Rifle Division and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was in 50th Army when it was redesignated but was soon assigned to the 49th Army, then to the 10th Army and finally to the 16th Army near the end of that month. In June it was assigned to the 9th Guards Rifle Corps of 61st Army where it remained almost continually for the duration of the war, serving under several Front commands but always on the central sector of the front. During the summer offensive in 1943 it fought through western Russia and into Belarus during the winter campaigns there. Along with the rest of 61st Army it took part in the second stage of Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944, advancing into the Pripyat marshes region, winning a battle honor and shortly thereafter the Order of the Red Banner. After a short time in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command it was moved to the 3rd Baltic and later the 1st Baltic Front driving into Latvia and Lithuania, being decorated with the Order of Suvorov for its part in the liberation of Riga. In December it was returned to the 1st Belorussian Front and took part in the offensives that propelled the Red Army into Poland and eastern Germany. After the fall of Berlin the division advanced to the Elbe River where it linked up with the US 84th Infantry Division. Following the German surrender it was disbanded in July, 1946.

The 15th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in February, 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 136th Rifle Division, and served in that role until well after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The division had already distinguished itself during the Winter War with Finland in 1940 and had been decorated with the Order of Lenin; soon after its redesignation it also received its first Order of the Red Banner. It was in Southern Front as this time but was soon moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command where it was assigned to 7th Reserve Army in May, then to 28th Army in Southwestern Front in June, then to 57th Army in Stalingrad Front in July. It remained in that Army for the rest of the year, with one brief exception, until it was transferred to Don Front's 64th Army in January, 1943 during the closing stages of the battle of Stalingrad. In March this Army became 7th Guards Army and was railed to the northwest, joining Voronezh Front south of the Kursk salient. In the battle that followed the 15th Guards assisted in the defeat of Army Detachment Kempf, then took part in the summer offensive into Ukraine, winning one of the first battle honors at Kharkov. It remained in either 7th Guards or 37th Army into the spring of 1944. It saw action in the Nikopol-Krivoi Rog Offensive and was awarded the Order of Suvorov before being involved in the frustrating battles along the Dniestr River on the Romanian border. In June the division became part of 34th Guards Rifle Corps in 5th Guards Army and was redeployed north becoming part of 1st Ukrainian Front and taking part in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive into Poland. The 15th Guards made a spectacular advance across Poland during the Vistula-Oder Offensive and was further decorated with the Order of Kutuzov for forcing a crossing of the Oder River. It then saw action in the drive on Berlin in April and the Prague Offensive in May, winning a further battle honor and an unusual second Order of the Red Banner in the process. After the war the division did garrison duty in Austria, then in Ukraine, followed by a move in late 1947 to Crimea and the Kuban where its personnel assisted in rebuilding the local economy and infrastructure for nearly 20 years. It September 1965 it was renumbered as the "51st" and became the 2nd formation of the 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division.

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The 68th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in February 1943, based on the 1st formation of the 96th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It originally served in the Stalingrad Group of Forces, mopping up in the ruins of that city after the Axis surrender there before eventually being assigned to the 4th Guards Army and moving north to the Kursk area in the Steppe Military District. It entered combat with its Army during the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive in August and continued fighting toward the Dniepr River and Kiev during the autumn and early winter. From late September until early November it was involved in the fighting around the Bukrin bridgeheads which ultimately ended in a stalemate. The 68th Guards was part of 1st Ukrainian Front until September, 1944 but was subordinated to numerous army and corps commands during this period and won an honorific in western Ukraine during March; subsequently it was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its part in the liberation of Lvov. After being removed to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for much-needed rebuilding its combat path shifted into the Balkans. While rebuilding its antitank battalion had its towed pieces replaced with self-propelled guns and at the beginning of November the entire division was temporarily motorized to take part in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the city of Budapest via a mechanized thrust. The 68th Guards spent the remainder of the war fighting in Hungary and Austria; its regiments would all receive recognition for their roles in the battles for Budapest. The division was finally assigned to the 30th Rifle Corps of 26th Army in January, 1945 and remained under these headquarters for the duration of the war. Despite a solid record of service the 68th Guards was disbanded within two years.

The 71st Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in March 1943, based on the 1st formation of the 23rd Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

The 204th Rifle Division was twice formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was destroyed in the first weeks of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The first formation was based on the shtat of July 29, 1941 and it then remained for nine months in the far east of Siberia training and organizing before it was finally sent by rail to the Stalingrad region in July 1942 where it joined the 64th Army southwest of the city. During the following months it took part in the defensive battles and later the offensive that cut off the German 6th Army in November. In the last days of the battle for the city it took the surrender of the remnants of a Romanian infantry division. Following the Axis defeat the division was recognized for its role when it was redesignated as the 78th Guards Rifle Division on March 1, 1943.

The 1940 formation of the 160th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, formed as part of the prewar buildup of forces, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. The division completed its formation at Gorki in the Moscow Military District and at the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was in the same area, assigned to the 20th Rifle Corps in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. It was moved west by rail to join the 13th Army of Western Front in the first days of July 1941 in the Mogilev area. At the end of the month the division was assigned to the reserves of Central Front before becoming part of Operations Group Akimenko in the reserves of Bryansk Front. In mid-September it was encircled and forced to break out; in the process it lost its commanding officer, much of its command staff and so many men and heavy weapons that it was briefly written off. Its number was reallocated to the 6th Moscow Militia Division and for the next 18 months there were two 160th Rifle Divisions serving concurrently. By the start of Operation Typhoon at the end of September it was in Operations Group Ermakov; while falling back to southwest of Kursk it managed to avoid encirclement but remained barely combat-effective due to its heavy losses.

The 211th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed just after the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. In fact the division remained chronically short of equipment, particularly heavy weapons, throughout the existence of the 1st formation. Assigned to 43rd Army of Reserve Front it first saw combat along the Desna River at the time of the Yelnya offensive and several of its subunits were overtaken by panic when counterattacked by German tanks. During the first day of Operation Typhoon its line was breached and it was soon encircled and destroyed.

The 212th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was badly damaged and then redesignated about five weeks after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

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 226th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed as one of the first reserve rifle divisions following the German invasion of the USSR. After being hastily organized it arrived at the front along the lower Dniepr River as part of 6th Army and in the wake of the German victory in the Kiev encirclement it fell back toward, and then past, Kharkiv and spent the winter fighting in this area. During the Second Battle of Kharkov in May 1942 it scored early successes but was soon forced back by counterattacking panzers and barely escaped destruction in the first phases of the German summer offensive. After rebuilding in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command the division returned to the front north of Stalingrad where it joined the 66th Army. It took heavy losses in one of the last efforts to break through to the city before Operation Uranus cut off the German 6th Army, but it still played an important role in the reduction of the pocket during Operation Ring and as a result was redesignated as the 95th Guards Rifle Division in May 1943.

The 232nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the weeks just before the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. It was quickly moved to the fighting front as part of the 66th Rifle Corps in 21st Army, and it remained in this Corps for its brief existence. 21st Army was deployed in western Belarus, attempting to plug the gaps created by the defeats of the border armies in the first weeks of Barbarossa, and the division made a deep penetration into the German rear in the eastern fringes of the Pripet Marshes, but this was ultimately unsustainable. By early September, the 232nd was greatly depleted due to almost continual combat, before being encircled and destroyed east of Kyiv.

References

  1. ↑ Charles C. Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX, 1996, pp 80, 81, 87, 92, 93
  2. ↑ Sharp, "Red Sabers", Soviet Cavalry Corps, Divisions, and Brigades 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. V, 1995, p 41
  3. ↑ Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p 79
  4. ↑ David M. Glantz and Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1995, p 70
  5. ↑ Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, p 139
  6. ↑ Glantz & House, p 117
  7. ↑ Glantz & House, p 113
  8. ↑ Keith E. Bonn, ed., Slaughterhouse, The Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005, p 329. Note that this source also includes the 167th Rifle Division, but according to Charles S. Sharp in Red Swarm, p 67, this division did not reach the front in 60th Army.
  9. 1 2 "Biography of Army General Ivan Danilovich Cherniakhovskii - (Иван Данилович Черняховский) (1906 – 1945), Soviet Union". www.generals.dk. Retrieved 2016-08-28.
  10. ↑ Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009, pp 19-20, 34
  11. ↑ Glantz, After Stalingrad, p 243
  12. ↑ Glantz, After Stalingrad, pp 278-80
  13. ↑ Glantz, After Stalingrad, pp 370-73
  14. ↑ http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/943RGCC.PDF Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine , pp 40-41
  15. ↑ Sharp, "Red Thunder", Soviet Artillery Corps, Divisions and Brigades 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VI, Nafziger, 1995, p 38
  16. ↑ Dr. Boris Sokolov, Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky, trans. and ed. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, p 270-71
  17. ↑ Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, Center of Military History, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C., 1968, p 159
  18. ↑ Glantz & House, p 171
  19. ↑ Sokolov, pp 271-72
  20. ↑ Sokolov, p 273
  21. ↑ Ziemke, pp 218-20
  22. ↑ Glantz & House, p 188
  23. ↑ Glantz & House, p 240
  24. ↑ Sharp, "Red Hammers", Soviet Self-Propelled Artillery and Lend Lease Armor 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. XII, Nafziger, 1995, pp 36, 86
  25. ↑ Ziemke, pp 332-33
  26. ↑ http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/944RLAA.pdf Archived 2015-11-22 at the Wayback Machine , pp 1-2
  27. ↑ Glantz & House, pp 240-44
  28. ↑ Rawson 2015, p. 114.
  29. ↑ Sharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, 1996, pp 113, 114
  30. ↑ Feskov et al 2013, p. 516.
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