3rd shock army

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3rd Shock Army
- XXXX -

GCB

National badge of the armed forces of the USSR
active December 25, 1941 to January 6, 1954
Country Flag of the Soviet Union.svg USSR
Armed forces RA 1941-1946
CA 1946-1954
Armed forces army
Type Large association
structure See outline
Subordinate troops

1954 = 2 rifle corps with 1 rifle division and 1 mechanized division each

HQ Stendal 1945, Magdeburg 1946–1954
commander
Important
commanders

see list

The 3rd Shock Army ( Russian 3-я ударная армия 3-ja udarnaja armija ) was one of five during the Second World War established shock armies of the Red Army . It emerged from the renaming of the 60th Army at the end of December 1941 and initially fought briefly on the Northwest Front in the Toropez-Kholm Operation and near Demyansk , then the Kalinin Front in the Velikiye Luki operations . In October 1943 she came to the newly formed 2nd Baltic Front , with which she took part in the Newel Offensive . It was also used in the Baltic Operation in the summer of 1944. At the turn of the year 1944/45 she was transferred to the 1st Belarusian Front , with which she took part in the Vistula-Oder Operation , the Battle of East Pomerania and finally the final Battle of Berlin in 1945 .

The United Association was from 1945 to 1954 part of the Group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany . It was restructured several times and in 1954 renamed the 3rd Army ( Russian 3-я общевойсковая армия / 3-ja obschewoiskowaja armija; literal: 3rd General Army).

history

The major association has had the following names since it was set up:

  • 60th Army 1941 (November 15, 1941, first formation)
  • 3rd Shock Army 1941 to 1954 (December 25, 1941, created after reclassification from the60th A)
    • New formation of a 60th Army 1942 to 1945 (July 7, 1942, based on the 3rd Reserve Army ; dissolution August 1945)
  • 3rd Army 1954 to 1991 (January 6, 1954, renamed)

Second World War

The 3rd Shock Army was created on December 25, 1941, at the same time as the 2nd and 4th Shock Army , and emerged from the renaming of the 60th Army (1st Formation), which had previously been formed in November 1941 in the Volga Military District and part the Moscow Defense Zone during the Battle of Moscow . On December 27, the army was assigned to the Northwest Front, where a major offensive was planned as part of the Red Army's winter counter-offensive. As part of the Toropez-Cholmer operation , two shock armies , the 3rd and 4th, were supposed to attack the interface between the German Army Group North and Army Group Center and smash the weak German formations west of Lake Seliger with the aim of then pivoting to the southwest and connecting with the Kalinin Front and the Western Front to encircle and destroy the enemy groupings in the Rzhev - Vyazma area . The goals of Cholm and Velikije Luki fell to the 3rd shock army , while the 4th shock army was supposed to advance on Toropez and Velish . The ultimate goal of the extremely ambitious operation was the recapture of Smolensk and the occupation of the strategically important land bridge between the Dnieper and Daugava near Vitebsk and Orsha .

On January 9, the offensive between Dolmaticha and Selisharowo began . The deployment of the two shock armies was hidden by the Seligersee and their attack took the Germans completely by surprise. Nevertheless, they managed to put up serious resistance and slow down the Soviet advance. Adolf Hitler developed his “breakwater” concept here, according to which isolated German units should hold their positions to the end in order to keep the back of the enemy forces that had broken through. Places like Demyansk , Cholm and Bely became such “breakwaters”, where relatively small, enclosed associations could successfully resist for a long time. The 3rd Shock Army , supported by parts of the 34th Army , was only able to advance a few kilometers on the first day, while the 4th Shock Army attacking south penetrated up to 15 kilometers behind the enemy lines. While the 34th Army and 1st Shock Army closed the Demyansk pocket in the north , the 3rd Shock Army moved towards Kholm as planned and reached the city on January 20th. The battle for Cholm against the enclosed German units lasted until June 1942, without the Soviets ever being able to take the city completely. The 3rd Shock Army was forced to leave stronger forces behind to siege the Demyansk and Kholm pockets and was thus diverted from their real goals. In order to correct the tendency towards diverging directions of advance, the Stawka subordinated the two shock armies of the Kalinin Front on January 22nd . The 3rd Shock Army still had the goal of taking Cholm, and its front grew to over 200 kilometers in length. On January 30, her left wing reached Velikiye Luki, then the advance slowed and was completely stopped in early February.

Contrary to German hopes, the large Soviet promontory at Toropez could not be removed for the whole of 1942; on the contrary, they were forced to clear the bottleneck of Demyansk and the front arch of Rzhev at the beginning of 1943 . The 3rd Shock Army had already succeeded in taking Velikiye Luki after a long siege in January 1943 (→  Battle of Velikiye Luki ). The rest of the year 1943 remained largely static; it was not until the autumn of 1943 that the 3rd and 4th shock armies made a renewed attempt to break into the interface between the Army Groups North and Central. In the course of the Newel Offensive , in the first half of October they managed a deep break-in between the 16th Army and the 3rd Panzer Army in the Newel area . In the course of the dissolution of the Kalininer Front, the 3rd Shock Army came to the Baltic Front on October 10, renamed the 2nd Baltic Front a little later . By January 1944, the two shock armies were able to expand their positions despite some threatening German counter-attacks. The 3rd Shock Army stood before Pustoschka and Novosokolniki .

From February 18 to March 1 1944, the second Baltic Front led by the 3rd Shock Army , the Staraya Russa-Noworschewer operation in expanding the success of the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive by, in which the Germans but the withdrawal to the Panther position a Combat was preferred and the 3rd Shock Army was denied a major success. In July 1944, as part of the Reshiza-Dvinsk operation of the 2nd Baltic Front , the army took Sebezh on the border with Latvia and towards the end of the month Rēzekne . From August to October 1944 she took part in the Baltic Operation , in which Riga was retaken and Army Group North was reduced to a bridgehead in Courland . The 3rd Shock Army was involved in the first three of the six battles of Courland , but was moved south to the 1st Belarusian Front at the turn of the year 1944/45 .

The 3rd shock army in the fighting for the Berlin government district
Victory banner in the Central Museum of the Russian Armed Forces, Moscow

As part of this front, the army took part in the Vistula-Oder operation in January 1945 and in the Battle of East Pomerania in February and March . In mid-April she was involved in the battle for the Seelow Heights and then in the decisive battle for Berlin . On April 23, she advanced to Pankow and was involved in the last battles over the government district and the Reichstag . Units of the Army's 150th Rifle Division hoisted their flags over the Reichstag on April 30th as a token of victory. The flag, known as the Victory Banner , is displayed today in the Central Museum of the Russian Armed Forces .

post war period

Locations of the armies of the Western Group of Troops in 1991

With the establishment of the Group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany end of May 1945 involved the 3rd Shock Army its headquarters first in Stendal , in early 1946, she moved to Magdeburg . The staff was there in the former Encke barracks . The army took part in the suppression of the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 . In 1954 it was renamed the 3rd Army ( Russian 3-я общевойсковая армия / 3-ja obschewoiskowaja armija; literal: 3rd General Army). This remained stationed in East Germany until 1991. It was then peeled off and dissolved.

See also

Army Commander

further see 3rd Army

literature

  • Владимир Дайнес: Советские ударные армии в бою. Эксмо-пресс, 2009, ISBN 978-5-699-31536-9 .
  • К. Н. Галицкий: Годы суровых испытаний. 1941-1944 (записки командарма) , Наука, 1973.
  • Г. Г. Семёнов: Наступает ударная. Воениздат, 1986.
  • Белов, Пятков, Фролов: Третья Ударная. Боевой путь 3-й Ударной армии , Воениздат, 1976.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Алексей Валерьевич Исаев: Краткий курс истории ВОВ. Наступление маршала Шапошникова , Эксмо, 2005, Chapter 4 .