Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front ( Воронежский Фронт wiss. Transliteration Voronežskij Front ) was a military formation of the Red Army at the time of World War II . The front was formed at the end of June 1942 when German troops as part of the Blue Company reached Voronezh. In October 1943 it was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Front .
Voronezh Front 1942–1943
After being set up, the front took part in the battle for the eponymous city of Voronezh . In December 1942 they carried out the Middle Don Operation together with the Southwest Front , during which the Italian 8th Army was crushed. In January 1943, the front also smashed the Hungarian 2nd Army as part of the Voronezh-Kharkiv operation , and in February retook Kursk , Belgorod and Kharkov as part of Operation Stern . This operation culminated in the Third Battle of Kharkov in March , in which large parts of the previous territorial gains were lost again.
In August 1943 the front was one of the troops concentrated in the Kursk front arc. In the course of the Battle of Kursk , she defended to the south and led the Battle of Prokhorovka . During Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev , which began on August 3, 1943, the Voronezh Front was able to retake both Belgorod and Kharkov. In the further course the front participated in the liberation of eastern Ukraine through the Battle of the Dnieper . On October 20, 1943, it was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Front .
Operations of the 1st Ukrainian Front 1943–1945
- 1943 Kiev attack and defense operation; Battle of the Dnieper
- 1943/1944 Zhitomir-Berdichev operation
- 1944 Korsun-Shevchenkovsk operation ; Rovno-Lutsk operation ; Proskurov-Chernivtsi Operation , Lviv-Sandomierz Operation
- 1945 Sandomierz-Silesian Operation; Lower and Upper Silesian Operation ; Vistula-Oder operation ; Berlin and Prague operation
structure
- Operation star
- 38th, 40th, 60th and 69th Army, 3rd Panzer Army (later renamed 57th Army).
- Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
- 38th, 40th, 27th, 6th Guard Army, 5th Guard Army and 1st and 5th Armored Guard Army .
- 1st Ukrainian Front
- 3rd and 4th Armored Guard Army , 3rd and 5th Guard Army, 13th, 21st, 28th, 31st, 52nd and 59th Army
- 2nd Air Army
Front command
- Voronezh Front
- Lieutenant General Filipp Ivanovich Golikow (June 1942)
- Lieutenant General Nikolai Fyodorowitsch Watutin (June - October 1942)
- Lieutenant General FI Golikow (October 1942 - March 1943) (since January 1943 Colonel General)
- Colonel General N. F. Watutin (March - October 1943) (Army General since February 1943)
- Corps Commissioner IS Sussaikow ( Member of the Military Council , July - September 1942)
- Corps Commissioner Lev Sakharovich Mechlis (Member of the Military Council, September - October 1942)
- Army Commissioner 2nd rank Fyodor Fedotowitsch Kuznetsov (October 1942 - March 1943) (since December 1942 Lieutenant General)
- Lieutenant General Nikita Sergejewitsch Khrushchev (Member of the Military Council, March - October 1943)
- Major General KW Krainyukov (Member of the Military Council, October 1943)
- Major General FI Shevchenko (Chief of Staff, July 1942)
- Major General Mikhail Ilyich Kazakov (Chief of Staff, July 1942 - February 1943) (since January 1943 Lieutenant General)
- Major General AP Pilipenko (Chief of Staff, February - March 1943)
- Major General FK Korschenwitsch (Chief of Staff, March - May 1943)
- Lieutenant General Semyon Pavlovich Ivanov (Chief of Staff, May - October 1943)
- 1st Ukrainian Front
- Army General NF Watutin (October 1943 - March 1944)
- Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgi Konstantinowitsch Zhukov (March - May 1944)
- Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Stepanowitsch Konew (May 1944 - end of war)
- Lieutenant General Nikita Sergejewitsch Khrushchev (Member of the Military Council, October 1943 - August 1944)
- Major General KW Krainjukow (Member of the Military Council, October 1943 - end of the war) (Lieutenant General since March 1944)
- Lieutenant General SP Ivanov (Chief of Staff, October - November 1943)
- Lieutenant General AN Bogolyubov (Chief of Staff, November 1943 - April 1944)
- Army General Vasili Danilowitsch Sokolowski (Chief of Staff, April 1944 - April 1945)
- Army General Ivan Efimowitsch Petrov (Chief of Staff, April 1945 - end of war)
Ethnic composition of the troops
Contrary to what the Polish Foreign Minister Schetyna claimed in the context of the Ukraine crisis in January 2015 , the 1st Ukrainian Front did not consist primarily of Ukrainians, but of people from all the peoples of the Soviet Union (mainly Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Georgians, etc.), the proportion of Ukrainians was not above average.
literature
- John Erickson: Road to Stalingrad. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1975, ISBN 0-297-76877-8 ( Stalin's war with Germany 1).
- John Erickson: Road to Berlin. Continuing the History of Stalin's war with Germany. Westview Press, Boulder CO 1983, ISBN 0-89158-795-0 .
- David M. Glantz : From the Don to the Dnepr. Soviet Offensive Operations. December 1942 - August 1943. Frank Cass, London 1991, ISBN 0-7146-4064-6 ( Cass Series on Soviet Military Experience ).
- István Nemeskürty: Fall of an Army. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1976 (2nd edition, ibid 1982).
- Earl F. Ziemke: Stalingrad to Berlin. The German defeat in the East. United States Army - Office of the Chief of Military History , Washington, DC 1968 ( Army historical series. ZDB -ID 1121970-1 ), (several reprints).
- Lajos Vollner: Voronezh, The fate of Hungarian soldiers on the Don / Russia between 1942/43. Bauer-Verlag, Thalhofen 2011, ISBN 978-3-941013-73-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de of January 27, 2015: Russia struggles for the memory of Auschwitz - history as a weapon