40th Army (Red Army)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

40th Army

active November 1941-1945, 1979 to 1990
Country Soviet UnionSoviet Union Soviet Union
Armed forces : Red Army
Soviet Army
Armed forces Land Forces
Type army
Butcher Second World War
Battle for Kiev (1941)
Battle for Kiev (1943)
Operation Jassy-Kishinev
Battle of the Dnieper
Battle for Kursk

War in Afghanistan

The 40th Army ( Russian 40-я армия ) was a major unit of the Red Army from 1941 to 1945 and the Soviet Army from 1979 to around 1990 . The army took part in World War II and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan .

history

Second World War

After the German attack on the Soviet Union , the army was formed for the first time in August 1941 on the Bryansk Front and the Southwest Front from parts of the 26th Army and the 37th Army. Their commander was major general later lieutenant general Kuzma Petrovich Podlas . On August 25, 1941, the Army was assigned the 135th and 293rd Rifle Divisions, the 2nd Paratrooper Corps, the 10th Armored Division and the 5th Anti-Tank Brigade. The army took part in the Battle of Kiev , where it was thrown back in combat with Panzer Group 2 across the Sejm section to the south on Romny. The 10th Panzer Division had only 20 tanks at the end of the operation.

After the operation, the army was assigned to the Southwest Front under Marshal Tymoshenko , where it was surprised by Operation Blau in June 1942 . In the course of the company, the 24th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht overran the headquarters of the army, which had to retreat to Kastornoje near Kursk to Voronezh .

In the association of the Voronezh Front (General Golikow ) the army took part in Operation Ostrogoschsk-Rossosh (January 13-27, 1943), together with the 3rd Panzer Army and the independent 18th Rifle Corps (General Sykow ) led the troops on On January 18, the Hungarian 2nd Army was surrounded and the city of Ostrogoshsk was liberated on January 20 . In the following Voronezh-Kastornoje operation (January 24 to February 2, 1943), the army pushed the enemy back to the Oskol sector and, in cooperation with the 13th and 60th Army, cut large parts of the German 2nd Army (Salmuth) in the Kastornoje area. During the Kharkov operation (February 2 to March 3, 1943), army troops liberated Stary Oskol on February 5 , Belgorod on February 9, and on February 16 in cooperation with the 3rd Panzer Army and 69. Army the city of Kharkov . In the fight with the Army Detachment Kempf was Akhtyrka (February 23) and Gadatsch (26 February), liberated.

General Moskalenko had established his headquarters in Graivoron when a German counter-offensive managed to retake Kharkov. In the Battle of Kharkov (1943) the 40th Army was pushed back north to Obojan by the end of March . During the Battle of Kursk , the army was part of the Voronezh Front and had to surrender some of its units to the 6th Guard Army and the 38th Army .

From August to September 1943 she took part in the Belgorod-Kharkov Operation (August 3 to 23): The 52nd Rifle Corps liberated Lebedin on August 19 in cooperation with the 2nd Mechanical Corps (Major General AF Popov). The 47th Rifle Corps (Major General SA Grjasnow) was already threatening the approaches to Gadatsch . The 40th Army then followed the advance of Rybalko's armored forces to Pereyaslav on the Dnieper. On September 24, 1943, the river crossing began to strengthen a bridgehead in the area of ​​the village of Rzhishchew near Kanew . During the fighting in the Bukrin bridgehead on October 20, the superior Voronezh Front was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Front . In early November 1943 to January 1944, the 40th Army participated in the Kiev offensive (November 3 to 13) and in the Zhitomir-Berdychev operation (December 24, 1943 to January 14, 1944).

Army organization in February 1944

  • 47th Rifle Corps (74th, 167th and 359th Rifle Divisions)
  • 104th Rifle Corps (58th, 133rd and 136th Rifle Divisions)
  • 50th Rifle Corps (4th Airborne Guard Division, 38th, 240th and 340th Rifle Divisions)
  • 51st Rifle Corps (42nd Guards, 163rd and 232nd Rifle Divisions)

The 38th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front managed to cross the Southern Bug near Vinnitsa on March 15, 1944 and to build a bridgehead south of it. This success made it easier for the 40th Army advancing to the south to advance across the river during the Uman-Botosan operation . In August 1944, the 40th Army took part in the Kischiev Kessel Battle as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Army General Malinovsky ) and in October 1944 with five divisions in the Debrecen operation . In the spring of 1945 the army reached the Hron sector with the Plijew cavalry group during the Battle of Budapest and last fought in the Bratislava-Brno operation . After the war ended, the 40th Army was disbanded in July 1945.

Soviet-Afghan War

In May 1979, the army was reorganized in the Turkestan Military District to protect the border with Afghanistan. With the 5th Guards Motorized Rifle Division and the 108th and 68th Motorized Rifle Divisions, the army received three motorized infantry divisions.

On December 26, 1979, the army crossed the border with Afghanistan without the 68th Motorized Rifle Division and, together with Operation Storm-333, opened the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan .

The limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan (official name; Russian Ограниченный контингент советских войск в Афганистане, ОКСВА, the 56th Airborne Guards Brigade and Motorized Brigade 860th Airborne Division 36th Mixed Air Corps. In January 1980, the 201st and 58th Motorized Rifle Divisions and other smaller units were added.

The contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was combined in an army headquarters (similar to an army high command ). Its commander was General Igor Rodionov , who later became Russian Defense Minister , from 1985 to 1986 .

After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the 40th Army was downsized and converted into the 59th Army Corps . On June 4, 1991, however, it was renamed again to the 32nd Army with headquarters in Semipalatinsk . After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the association became part of the Army of Kazakhstan and was named 1st Army Corps .

Commanders

Rank at that time Surname period of service
1941-1945
Lieutenant General Kuzma Petrovich Podlas August 1941 - February 1942
Lieutenant General Mikhail Artemyevich Parsegov March - July 1942
Lieutenant General Markian Michailowitsch Popow July - October 1942
Colonel General Kirill Semjonowitsch Moskalenko October 1942 - October 1943
Lieutenant General Filipp Feodossjewitsch Schmachenko October 1943 - end of the war
1979-1989
Lieutenant General Yuri Vladimirovich Tukharinov Re-establishment - September 23, 1980
Lieutenant General Boris Ivanovich Tkach September 23, 1980 - May 7, 1982
Lieutenant General Viktor Fyodorovich Yermakov May 7, 1982 - November 4, 1983
Lieutenant General Leonid Yevstafievich Generalov November 4, 1983 - April 19, 1985
Lieutenant General Igor Nikolaevich Rodionov April 19, 1985 - April 30, 1986
Lieutenant General Viktor Petrovich Dubynin April 30, 1986 - June 1, 1987
Lieutenant General Boris Gromov June 1, 1987 - February 15, 1989

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Erickson: The Road to Stalingrad . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2002, ISBN 1-84212-426-9 , pp. 202 (English).
  2. ^ John Erickson, 2002, pp. 207, 210.
  3. ↑ John Erickson, 2002, pp. 356-358.
  4. ^ Walter S. Dunn Jr .: Kursk: Hitler's Gamble 1943 . Praeger Publishers, Westport, Conn. 1997, ISBN 0-275-95733-0 , Chapter 9: Cracking the Second Defensive Line ( questia.com [accessed August 2, 2009]).