38th Army (Red Army)

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38th Army

USSR 38 army flag icon.jpg

Military flag of the 38th Army
Lineup November 1941-1945
Armed forces Red Army
Armed forces Land Forces
Type army
Butcher Second World War
Battle of Kiev
Battle for Kiev (1943)
Battle of the Dnieper
Battle for Kursk

The 38th Army ( Russian 38-я армия ) was a large unit of the Red Army that was deployed in the south of the Eastern Front during World War II and advanced through Galicia in 1944 to pursue the German Wehrmacht and into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia until May 1945 .

history

1. Formation

The 38th Army was set up from August 4, 1941 in accordance with the guidelines of the General Staff of July 22, 1941 in the Association of the Southwest Front . The command command of the 38th Army was formed from the headquarters of the 8th Mechanized Corps. The 1st formation of the army comprised the

  • 47th Mountain Division and the 169th, 199th, 300th and 304th Rifle Divisions

and took part in the defense of the Dnieper section in the Cherkassy area. From August 8, 1941, the troops took part in the Battle of Kiev (July 7 - September 26). The army defended itself in the final phase of the Kessel Battle with the 34th Cavalry Division, the 132nd Panzer Brigade and 7 rifle divisions (47th, 76th, 300th, 226th, 169th, 199th and 304th) on the Gavrontsi - Kochubeyevka line - Karlovka - Krasnograd. Under pressure from the German Panzer Group 1 ( Colonel General von Kleist ) they had on the line Poltava , Volchansk and Waljuki withdraw and held the end of December 1941, new front section between Waljuki and Kupyansk . In the winter and spring of 1942 the army fought defensive battles and launched a limited counter-offensive in the Volchansk area during the Kharkov Battle . As a result of Operation Blau, he took part in the defensive battles in the Donbass region , with the 38th Army subordinate to the southern front on July 12, 1942 . Since July 17, she fought against the German offensive as part of the Stalingrad Front . On July 23, the army was de facto disbanded because its troops were transferred to the 21st Army and the headquarters were used for the 1st Panzer Army .

2. Formation

A new formation of the 38th Army was formed on August 3, 1942 from the previous 4th Reserve Army. It included that

  • 167th, 237th, 240th and 340th Rifle Divisions, several tank brigades and other units.

While still part of the Brjansk Front and from September 2, 1942 on the Voronezh Front, the 38th Army fought defensive and offensive battles in the Voronezh area . From January to March 1943 she took part in the Voronezh-Kastornoye operation (January 24th - February 2nd) and the Kharkov operation (February 2nd - March 3rd), in which, together with the 13th and 40th Army, the Cities Kastornoje (January 28), Tim (February 5) and Obojan (February 18) were liberated and by March 3 the region northeast of Sumy could be reached. In March 1943 the army fought in the Battle of Kharkov (March 4th - 25th), on March 23rd the army was briefly assigned to the Kursk Front and on March 26th to the Voronezh Front . On the new front line Korenevo - up to 55 km northeast of Sumy , the 38th Army held its positions until August 1943. In the course of the Kursk battle (July 5–23), the 38th Army covered the main forces of the front from enemy attacks from the north-west and participated in repelling the enemy offensive towards Obojan and Prokhorovka . A part of the army troops joined the 40th and 69th Army . With the transition of the Soviet troops on the offensive, the army advanced south of the city of Sumy and formed the link between the Voronezh Front and the Central Front . In September 1943, the army took part in the liberation of the left bank of the Dnieper in Ukraine. In renewed collaboration with the 40th Army, Sumy (September 2), Romny (September 16) and Priluki (September 18) were retaken. At the end of September the troops forced the Dnieper crossing at Lyutesch north of Kiev, after which the troops formed a stepping stone across the Dnieper in the area west of Swaromje and Novo-Petrovsk.

From November to December 1943, the 38th Army participated as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front (from October 20) in the Kiev Offensive (November 3 to 13) and the Kiev Defensive Operation (November 13 to December 22) ). In late 1943 - early 1944, the army successfully continued its operations on the right bank of the Dnieper in Ukraine.

1944-1945

During the Zhitomir-Berdychev operation (December 24, 1943 - January 14, 1944) the troops penetrated the German defenses and on January 5, in cooperation with other armies, liberated Berdychev and a number of other towns and villages. At the end of January 1944, the army was operating in the area east of Winnitza . In the Proskurov-Chernivtsi Operation (March 4 - April 17, 1944) the army liberated a large number of settlements, including the city of Vinnitsa and Shmerinka (March 20). By the end of the operation, several bridgeheads had been formed on the Sereth River southwest of Chernivtsi . At the end of June to the beginning of July 1944, the troops were transferred to the 1st Guard Army and regrouped in the area west of Tarnopol . The troops took part in the Lvov-Sandomierz operation (July 13th - August 29th) and, after a further regrouping, in the Carpathian-Dukla operation from September 28th - October 28th. From November 30, 1944 until the end of the war, the 38th Army operated as part of the 4th Ukrainian Front .

Army organization on January 12, 1945

  • 52nd Rifle Corps, Major General Sergei M. Bouchew with 81st, 121st and 340th Rifle Divisions
  • 101st Rifle Corps, Lieutenant General Andrei L. Bondarew with 70th Guards, 183rd and 140th Rifle Divisions
  • 67th Rifle Corps, Major General Iwan S. Sniffing with 211th, 241st and 305th Rifle Divisions

In the winter of 1945 she participated in the Western Carpathian Operation (January 12th - February 18th), March 10th - May 5th - in the Moravian-Ostrava Operation , in which the Czech industrial area of ​​the same name was liberated. On March 10th, the 38th Army started the offensive across the Czech border to Ostrava as one of three Soviet armies . The attack met well-prepared German resistance, and Ostrau was not captured until April 30th. The last major offensive of the 38th Army began on May 6th, as a result of the Prague operation , the troops had advanced more than 100 kilometers west of Moravian-Ostrau by May 10th.

Commanders

  • Lieutenant General Dmitri I. Ryabyshev (July – August 1941)
  • Major General Nikolai W. Feklenko (August – September 1941)
  • Major General VV Zyganow (September – December 1941)
  • Major General Alexei G. Maslow (December 1941 - February 1942)
  • Major General GI Scherstjuk (February - March 1942)
  • Major General KS Moskalenko (March – July 1942)
  • Colonel General NJ Tschibisow (August 1942 - October 1943)
  • Colonel General KS Moskalenko (October 1943 - until the end of the war)

Chiefs of Staff

  • Major General Alexei G. Maslow (September – December 1941)
  • Colonel Semyon P. Ivanov (December 1941 - July 1942)
  • Colonel AP Philipenko (August 1942 - January 1943)
  • Major General AG Batjun (February – April 1943)
  • Colonel AP Pilipenko (April 1943 - April 1944)
  • Lieutenant General WF Vorobjew (April 1944 - until the end of the war)

Members of the Council of War

  • Brigadierkommissar NK Popel (August - December 1941)
  • Brigadierkommissar NG Kudinow (December 1941 - June 1942)
  • Major General FN Voronin (August 1942 - June 1943)
  • Major General ID Rybinsk (June - November 1943)
  • Colonel F. Oleinik (June to September 1943)
  • Major General AA Jepischew (October 1943 -?)
  • Colonel Pavel Alexsejewitsch Usow (? - February 1944)
  • Major General David Josifowitsch Ortenberg (February 1944 - 1945)

literature

  • Kirill S. Moskalenko : In the southwest direction. Volume 2 (1943-45). Translated into German by Frank Wetzel. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin [East] 1975, DNB 800139968 .
  • MK Barbier: The Battle of the Kursk Arch, Tosa Verlag Vienna 2002
  • Справочник "Освобождение городов: Справочник по освобождению городов в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945" / М.Л.Дударенко, Ю.Г.Перечнев, В.Т.Елисеев и др. - Воениздат, Moskva 1985.

Web links