During the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940, the Soviets deployed three armies (12th, 5th and 9th).[1] Altogether the Soviet Southern Front opposing Bessarabia and Bukovina consisted of 32 (or 31) rifle divisions, 2 (or 3) motorised rifle divisions, 6 cavalry divisions, 11 tank brigades, 3 airborne brigades (one in reserve), 14 corps artillery regiments, 16 artillery regiments of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command and 4 heavy artillery divisions. These force totalled around 460,000 men, ca. 12,000 guns and mortars, ca. 3,000 tanks and 2,160 aircraft.
First Formation
Troops of the front in pursuit of retreating German forces, October 1941
After the German invasion, the Southern Front was re-created on June 25, 1941 from the forces in the Moscow and Odessa Military Districts, and included the 9th Army. From July 1941 the 44th Fighter Aviation Division was part of the Front's air forces. It was commanded by General Ivan V. Tiulenev from June 1941 to August 1941. Lieutenant General Dmitri I. Ryabyshev took over on 30 August 1941 and held command until 5 October, when Colonel General Yakov Cherevichenko took command, until December 1941. During 1941 the Front fought in the border battles in the southern Ukraine, defended Odessa, and then conducted the defense and successful counteroffensive at Rostov-on-Don.[2]
Lieutenant General Rodion Ia. Malinovsky arrived in December and held the reins until July 1942. In 1942 the Front took part in the Donbass, Barvenko-Lozovaia, and Voronezh-Stalingrad (Volgograd) operations. According to Glantz and Bonn, the Front then suffered a notable failure at the Second Battle of Kharkov.[2] The Front received additional forces from the (disbanded) Southwestern Front on July 12, 1942 and was formally disbanded on July 28, 1942, with the forces transferred to the North Caucasus Front.
Commanders
Army General Ivan Tyulenev (21 June 1941 - 20 August 1941),
Lieutenant General Dmitry Ryabyshev (30 August 1941 - 5 October 1941),
Lieutenant General Rodion Malinovsky (December 1941 - 28 June 1942).
Second Formation
A soldier of the Southern Front writes a letter to relatives, 1943
In July 1942, three armies (the 1st, 5th and 7th Reserve Armies) out of the Supreme High Command reserve were moved into the Stalingrad sector and redesignated the 64th, 63rd and 62nd armies respectively. They formed the core of the Stalingrad Front on 12 July. The Stalingrad Front was then divided into the Stalingrad Front, under General Lieutenant V.N. Gordov, and the Southeastern Front, under Colonel General Andrei I. Yeremenko on 7 August 1942 as the Battle of Stalingrad began. Stalin had actually taken the decision to split the two fronts on 3 August at 0300 despite protest from his advisors.[3] The Tsaritsa gully in Stalingrad was the dividing line. Yeremenko's new South-Eastern Front included the 51st, 57th, and 64th Armies. They were then re-transformed into the Don and Southwestern Fronts on 28 September with the Southeastern Front becoming the Stalingrad Front (Second Formation).[4]
The Southern Front was re-formed from the Stalingrad Front on January 1, 1943, and Colonel General Andrei I. Yeremenko stayed in command, until February 1943. General Lieutenant Rodion Malinovsky [promoted to Colonel General in February 1943] then filled in until Lieutenant General Fyodor I. Tolbukhin took command in March 1943. Tolbukhin was promoted to Colonel General in April. He would command the Front into 1944.
The Southwestern Front was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War, formed thrice.
The 4th Army was a Soviet field army of World War II that served on the Eastern front of World War II and in the Caucasus during the Cold War. It was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union, with its divisions being withdrawn to Russia and disbanded.
The 4th Mechanized Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.
The Toropets–Kholm offensive was a military operation conducted south of Lake Ilmen by the Red Army during World War II, from 9 January–6 February 1942. The operation contributed to the formation of the Kholm Pocket and the encirclement of the Wehrmacht's II Army Corps in the Demyansk Pocket.
Two Romanian armies, the Third and the Fourth, were involved in the Battle of Stalingrad, helping to protect the northern and southern flanks respectively, of the German 6th Army as it tried to conquer the city of Stalingrad defended by the Red Army in mid to late 1942. Underpowered and poorly equipped, these forces were unable to stop the Soviet November offensive, which punched through both flanks and left the 6th Army encircled in Stalingrad. The Romanians suffered enormous losses, which effectively ended their offensive capability on the Eastern Front for the remainder of the war.
The 18th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was formed on 21 June 1941 on the basis of HQ Kharkov Military District and armies of the Kiev Special Military District.
The 63rd Army was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.
The 3rd Shock Army was a field army of the Red Army formed during the Second World War. The "Shock" armies were created with the specific structure to engage and destroy significant enemy forces, and were reinforced with more armoured and artillery assets than other combined arms armies. Where necessary the Shock armies were reinforced with mechanised, tank, and cavalry units. During the Second World War, some Shock armies included armoured trains and air–sled equipped units.
Operation München was the Romanian codename of a joint German-Romanian offensive during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, with the primary objective of recapturing Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region, ceded by Romania to the Soviet Union a year before. The operation started during the night of 2–3 July 1941 and concluded successfully after 24 days of fighting. Axis formations involved included the Romanian Third Army in the north; the German Eleventh Army and subordinated Romanian units in the center; and the Romanian Fourth Army in the south. The invasion was followed by a genocide against the Jewish population of Bessarabia.
The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.
The 12th Guards Uman Orders of Lenin Red Banner and Suvorov Tank Division was a tank division of the Soviet Ground Forces. It drew its history from the World War II 16th Tank Corps. It was redesignated successively as 12th Guards Tank Corps (1943) and 12th Guards Tank Division (1946).
The Soviet order of battle for Operation Uranus details the combat units of the Soviet forces that fought in Operation Uranus, the Soviet strategic counteroffensive that led to the encirclement of the German troops in Stalingrad. The order of battle lists units present on 19 November 1942, the day the operation began, from north to south.
The 95th Rifle Division was a Red Army Rifle Division during World War II, formed three times. The division was first formed in November 1923 with the 6th Rifle Corps. It fought in the Winter War and the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. After Operation Barbarossa, the division fought in the retreat from Moldova and fought in the siege of Odessa and the siege of Sevastopol. It was destroyed during the siege of Sevastopol and was disbanded in late July 1942. The division was reformed in August 1942 from the 13th Motor Rifle Division NKVD and fought at the Battle of Stalingrad. For its actions during the battle, the division became the 75th Guards Rifle Division in March 1943. In April 1943, the division was formed a third time at Kaluga from the 121st Rifle Brigade. It fought in Operation Bagration.
The 5th Shock Army was a Red Army field army of World War II. The army was formed on 9 December 1942 by redesignating the 10th Reserve Army. The army was formed two times prior to this with neither formation lasting more than a month before being redesignated.
The 5th Guards Cavalry Division was a military unit in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Great Patriotic War.
The 169th Rifle Division began forming as an infantry division of the Red Army in the Ukraine Military District in August 1939, based on the shtat of the following month. It nominally saw service in the occupation force in western Ukraine in September, but was not in any state to see combat. It played a more active role in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in June/July 1940. The German invasion in June 1941 found it still in Ukraine, as part of 55th Rifle Corps fighting back to the Dniepr until it was nearly destroyed. It joined the reformed 28th Army after that Army was assigned to Southwestern Front. In May it formed part of the Front's northern shock group for the offensive intended to liberate Kharkiv. While initially hampered by the failure to take the German strongpoint at Ternovaya it gradually developed momentum in cooperation with 175th Rifle Division and ended up deep into the German positions before being struck by an armored counterattack on May 20 and being driven back to near its starting line, at considerable cost. In June it was nearly encircled during Operation Wilhelm, but managed to escape, again with serious losses. At the end of July it was removed to the Stalingrad Military District for rebuilding, joining the reformed 28th Army in the Kalmyk Steppe, but was then moved north in October to 64th Army south of Stalingrad and played a minor role in an offensive to break into the city. At the start of Operation Uranus it was in 57th Army south of the city and quickly penetrated the Romanian positions and exploited westward until coming up against German positions on the southern edge of what was now the Stalingrad Kessel (Pocket). During the operation that eliminated the pocket in January 1943 it was again under 64th Army, now in Don Front. Following the German surrender the 169th was removed to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command and sent north to join 11th Guards Army in Western Front, and under these command it took part in the offensive against the Oryol salient in July and August. With the successful conclusion of this operation the division was moved to 63rd Army, which became part of Belorussian Front in October, following an advance through northeastern Ukraine. It saw action in eastern Belarus through the fall and winter, being moved to 3rd Army after the 63rd was disbanded, and it would remain in this Army for nearly the entire remainder of the war. In late February 1944 the 169th was awarded a battle honor for its part in the liberation of Rahachow. After a pause in operations in the spring the division fought in Operation Bagration, including taking part in the clearing of the city of Babruysk, and during the pursuit of the defeated forces of Army Group Center won the Order of the Red Banner after taking Vawkavysk, now as part of 2nd Belorussian Front. Before the offensive culminated it advanced past Białystok nearly to the borders of East Prussia. During the Vistula-Oder Offensive in January 1945 the 169th crossed that border and fought in there into March, briefly as part of 3rd Belorussian Front, winning the Order of Suvorov and Order of Kutuzov in the process. It was moved, with 3rd Army, back to 1st Belorussian Front in time for the final assault on Berlin, and fought in the encirclement battle with German 9th Army southeast of the city in the last days of April. It ended the war along the Elbe River and, although it was slated for disbandment during the summer, it continued in service in Belarus until June 1946.
The 49th Guards Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army. The division was formed in October 1942 from the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division.
The 387th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. It began forming on September 1, 1941, in the Central Asia Military District. It first served in the winter counteroffensive south of Moscow, then spent the spring and summer of 1942 on the relatively quiet fronts southwest of the capital in the area of Kaluga and Tula. In September it was withdrawn to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command where it joined the 1st Reserve Army. This became the 2nd Guards Army and the division fought south of Stalingrad against Army Group Don during the German attempt to relieve their encircled 6th Army in December. During January and into February, 1943, 2nd Guards advanced on both sides of the lower Don River towards Rostov in a race to prevent Army Group A from escaping being trapped in the Caucasus region. The division was now part of Southern Front and it would remain in that Front until May, 1944. During the summer advance through the Donbas and southern Ukraine the 387th served under several different army commands before returning to 2nd Guards for the Crimean Offensive in April, 1944, during which it won a battle honor. After the Crimea was cleared the division remained there as part of the Separate Coastal Army until it went back to the Reserve in March, 1945. It then was assigned to the 2nd Ukrainian Front as a separate rifle division, and spent the last weeks of the war in Hungary and Austria. It continued to serve briefly into the postwar period.
The 33rd Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in May 1942, based on the 2nd formation of the 3rd Airborne Corps, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was the second 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 47th Army in the North Caucasus Front but was soon moved to the Volga Military District and saw its first action as part of 62nd Army in the fighting on the approaches to Stalingrad. It was withdrawn east of the Volga in September, but returned to the front with the 2nd Guards Army in December, and it remained in this Army until early 1945. After helping to defeat Army Group Don's attempt to relieve the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad the 33rd Guards joined in the pursuit across the southern Caucasus steppe until reaching the Mius River in early 1943. Through the rest of that year it fought through the southern sector of eastern Ukraine as part of Southern Front and in the spring of 1944 assisted in the liberation of the Crimea, earning a battle honor in the process. The Crimea was a strategic dead-end, so 2nd Guards Army was moved north to take part in the summer offensive through the Baltic states and to the border with Germany as part of 1st Baltic Front. During the offensive into East Prussia the division and its 13th Guards Rifle Corps was reassigned to 39th and the 43rd Armies before returning to 2nd Guards Army in April. For its part in the capture of the city-fortress of Königsberg the 33rd Guards would receive the Order of Suvorov. In mid-1946 it was converted to the 8th Separate Guards Rifle Brigade.
The 61st Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 159th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War.
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