1st Panzer Army (Red Army)

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1st Panzer Army

active July to August 1942
(1st list)
February 1943 to April 1944
(2nd list)
Country Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Soviet Union
Armed forces Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Red Army
Armed forces Land Forces
Type army

The 1st Panzer Army was a large armored unit of the Red Army in World War II . It was erected twice, first in July 1942 on the Stalingrad Front and for the second time in early February 1943 on the Northwest Front . At the end of April 1943 she was assigned to the Voronezh Front , with which she took part in the Battle of Kursk , the Belgorod-Kharkov Operation , the Battle of Kiev and the Dnepr-Carpathian Operation . On April 25, 1944, she received Guard status , her further history is described under 1. Guard Armored Army .

history

1. Formation

On the basis of Directive No. 994125 of the Stawka of July 22, 1942, the 1st Panzer Army was formed on July 26, using the High Command of the 38th Army under the command of the then Major General Kirill Moskalenko . It was subordinate to the Stalingrad Front and had two tank corps (13th and 28th), an independent tank brigade, two rifle divisions as well as artillery, engineer and other units. Immediately after its formation in support of the 62nd Army, it took part in the Kesselschlacht near Kalatsch . On July 27, the 23rd Panzer Corps was also placed under her command.

Army organization on July 30, 1942

  • 13th Panzer Corps, Major General Trofim Ivanovich Tanaschishin (6th Guard, 13th and 254th Tank Brigade and 38th Motorized Rifle Brigade)
  • 28th Panzer Corps, Major General Georgi Semenowitsch Rodin (39th, 55th and 56th Tank Brigade and 32nd Motorized Rifle Brigade)
  • 23rd Panzer Corps, Major General Abram Matveevich Chasin (6th, 114th and 130th Tank Brigade and 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade)

On August 4th, another directive was issued by the Stawka (No. 994140) stating that a new south-eastern front was to be set up from the high command of the 1st Panzer Army under Andrei Jerjomenko on August 9th . The previous Stalingrad Front was effectively divided into two new fronts, a new Stalingrad Front and the Southeast Front. In further directives this date was brought forward to August 6th, the 1st Panzer Army ceased to exist on this date.

2. Formation

By order of the Stawka on January 30, 1943, a new 1st Panzer Army was set up under Lieutenant General Mikhail Katukov from the 29th Army High Command on February 7, 1943 , initially in the reserve of the High Command. At that time it comprised the 6th Panzer Corps, the 3rd Mechanized Corps, an independent tank brigade and three tank regiments, two airborne divisions, six ski-hunter brigades and other units. On February 15, she was assigned to the Chosin Operational Group of the Northwest Front . From March 1943 she was then assembled at Obojan south of Kursk and assigned to the Voronezh Front . In June 1943 it was reinforced by additional armored units, including the newly formed 31st Panzer Corps. From July 5th to 14th the army took part in the Kursk tank battle, where it was attacked by troops of the German 4th Panzer Army under Hermann Hoth and suffered heavy losses.

Structure on July 10, 1943
3rd Mechanized Corps Lieutenant General Semjon Moissejewitsch Krivoschein 3rd and 10th mechanized brigade, 1st armored guard and 49th armored brigade
6th Panzer Corps Major General Andrei Lavrentievich Getman 22nd, 112th and 200th tank brigade and 6th motorized rifle brigade
31st Panzer Corps Major General Dmitri Khrissanfovich Cherniyenko 100th, 237th and 242nd Armored Brigade, and 65th Motorized Rifle Brigade

From July 12th, she was replaced by the 5th Guards Armored Army Pavel Rotmistrov , which stopped the German advance in the tank battle near Prokhorovka .

On August 3rd, the 1st Panzer Army, with the support of the 5th Guards Armored Army, began a major attack aimed at recapturing Kharkov (→  Belgorod-Kharkov Operation ). The city, which had previously been the site of heavy fighting on several occasions, finally fell back to the Red Army on August 23. The 1st Panzer Army was then temporarily taken into the Stawka reserve and relocated to the Sumy area. At the end of November 1943 it was moved by train to the east of Kiev to intervene as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the " Kiev strategic offensive operation ". From the end of December 1943 to mid-January 1944 she took part with the 3rd Guards Armored Army in the Zhitomir-Berditschewer operation , then in the encirclement of a strong German force group at Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi (→  Kessel von Korsun ). From the beginning of March to the middle of April 1944, he participated in the Proskurow-Czernowitz operation together with the 3rd Guards Armored Army and 4th Armored Army. On the instructions of the People's Commissariat for Defense on April 25, the army was finally given guard status and was consequently renamed 1st Guard Armored Army (for further history see there).

Commander

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