4th Panzer Army (Red Army)

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4th Panzer Army
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GCB

National badge of the armed forces of the USSR
active July to October 1942
(1st line-up)
July 1943 to April 1957
(2nd line-up and 4th Armored Guard Army)
Country Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Soviet Union
Armed forces Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Red Army
Armed forces Land Forces
Type army

The 4th Panzer Army was a large armored unit of the Red Army in World War II . First deployed from the 28th Army in the summer of 1942 to take part in the defense of Stalingrad , it was transformed back into the 65th Army in October 1942 . Re-erected in July 1943 from the Stawka reserve, it served in the Oryol Operation , the Dnepr-Carpathian Operation , the Lviv-Sandomierz Operation , the Vistula-Oder Operation , the Lower Silesian and Upper Silesian Operations before entering the Guards status raised and henceforth called the 4th Guards Armored Army . As such, she took part in the Battle of Berlin and the Prague Operation .

After the war it was stationed as part of the group of Soviet occupation troops in Germany in the Soviet Zone , was transformed into the 4th Mechanized Guard Army in 1949 and the 20th Guard Army in 1960. The latter withdrew from the reunified Germany in 1993.

history

Second World War

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

  • 4th Panzer Army , in short: 4th PR (January 1, 1942, first formation, July 15, 1943, second formation)
  • 4th Panzer Guard Army (March 17, 1945)
  • 4th Guard Armored Division (1946-1949, status)
  • 4. Mechanized Guard Army (1949–1957/1960)
  • 20th Guard Army (1960)
  • 20th Guards Panzer Army (1993, in Voronezh Russia)
  • 20th Guard Army (2015)

1. Setup

By order of the Stawka on July 22, 1942, the 4th Panzer Army was formed from the High Command of the 28th Army on August 1st at the Stalingrad Front . At the time of its formation it comprised an armored corps (22nd), two rifle divisions and other units. It was thrown almost immediately to the front at Kalatsch in order to prevent the German advance on Stalingrad together with the 1st Panzer Army . When the Stalingrad Front was divided at the beginning of August, it remained in its existence; when the Don Front was formed at the end of September, it was added to it. It was disbanded on October 22nd and its parts were used to form the 65th Army .

2. Setup

The 4th Panzer Army was formed for the second time on July 1, 1943 on the instructions of the Stawka on June 26 and based on the 19th Cavalry Corps in the Moscow Military District:

Structure on July 1, 1943
11th Panzer Corps Major General Nikolai Nikolayevich Radkewitsch 20th, 36th and 65th tank brigade and 12th motorized rifle brigade
30th Panzer Corps Lieutenant General Georgi Semjonowitsch Rodin 197th, 243rd and 244th tank brigade and 30th motorized rifle brigade
6th Guards Mechanized Corps Major General Alexander Ivanovich Akimov 16th and 17th Guards Mechanized Brigade and 49th Mechanized Brigade

From the end of July it was deployed on the West and Brjansk Fronts in the Oryol Operation . Subsequently, at the end of August 1943, the 11th Panzer Corps was withdrawn. At the end of September 1943 she was released from the Bryansk Front and assigned to the Stavka reserve in the Karachev area.

In mid-February 1944, during the Dnepr-Carpathian operation , she was assigned to the reserve of the 1st Ukrainian Front and took part in the Proskurov-Chernivtsi operation against the German 1st Panzer Army from the beginning of March (→  Kamenez-Podolski Kesselschlacht ). In mid-April it reached the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains . It was then moved to the Ternopil area to refresh .

From July 13, 1944, the 4th Panzer Army was deployed together with the 1st Panzer Army and the 3rd Guards Armored Army in the Lviv-Sandomierz operation , in which they liberated Lemberg . In the subsequent pursuit of the retreating German troops, she crossed the Polish border and was involved in the fighting over the Sandomierz bridgehead .

In January 1945 it was used with the 3rd Armored Guard Army when they broke out of this bridgehead and pursued them in the direction of Silesia . Proceeding via Kielce , Radomsko and Trebnitz , it reached the Oder southeast of Glogau by the end of January and formed a bridgehead over the river. As part of the Lower Silesian Operation from the beginning of February, she advanced from her bridgehead to the Neisse , which she reached in the Forst area at the end of the month . She was then transferred to Upper Silesia, where she was involved in the Upper Silesian operation from mid-March to the end of March . On March 17, the People's Commissariat for Defense issued an order to rename the 4th Panzer Army the 4th Guards Armored Army .

From mid-April the 4th Armored Guard Army took part in the operations from the Spree bridgehead near Groß Döbbern that led to the encirclement of Berlin in the Battle of Berlin . Parts of the army closed the siege ring near Ketzin and Brandenburg an der Havel by meeting units of the parts of the 1st Belarusian Front that had advanced north around Berlin and stopped the advance of the " Wenck Army " to relieve Berlin. Other parts of the army (10th Panzer Corps) advanced via Michendorf - Saarmund to Potsdam and took part in the assault on the southwestern parts of Berlin.

After Berlin surrendered on May 2, the army was moved south to take part in the Prague Operation , the Soviet Army's last strategic offensive in Europe. On May 5th it crossed the Elbe near Torgau and reached Freiberg on May 6th . Via Frauenstein - Saida they advanced over the Ore Mountains and took Teplice and on May 8th Žatec . On the night of May 9th, a tank brigade of the army reached Prague , and most of the army entered the city the following day. Parts of the army met with the Americans ( 2nd Infantry Division of the 3rd US Army ) near Říčany east of Pilsen on May 9th .

post war period

After the war the 4th Guards Armored Army belongs to the group of Soviet occupation troops in Germany . In the summer of 1946 it was renamed the 4th Guards Mechanized Army and reduced to a cadre division at the end of October 1946. In March 1950 it was enlarged again and renamed the 4th Guards Mechanized Army . At the end of April 1957 it was renamed the 20th Guard Army again . The latter remained in the GDR until it was withdrawn in the course of German reunification due to the two-plus-four treaty in 1991.

Commander in World War II

1. Setup

2. Setup

4th Guards Armored Army

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