5th Panzer Army (Red Army)

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5th Panzer Army

active May to July 1942
(1st formation)
September 1942 to April 1943
(2nd formation)
March 1943 to 1991 [?]
(5th Guard Armored Army)
Country Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Soviet Union
Armed forces Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Red Army
Armed forces Land Forces
Type army

The 5th Panzer Army ( Russian 5-я танковая армия ), from 1943 5th Guards Armored Army , was a large armored unit of the Red Army in World War II . Raised in the Moscow Military District and assigned to the Bryansk Front in June 1942 , she fought in the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad Operation before its disbandment was ordered. Re-established in September 1942, the army was used in Operation Uranus in November to contain the German 6th Army fighting near Stalingrad . In the Middle Don Operation she fought on the Tschir and in the subsequent pursuit penetrated as far as the Mius . In April 1943, their high command was converted to that of the 12th Army .

The formation of the 5th Guards Armored Army in the Stawka reserve had already been ordered. This fought in the summer of 1943 in the battle of Kursk and the subsequent Belgorod-Kharkov operation . Afterwards deployed as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Lower Dnieper in the Battle of the Dnieper, it was deployed in the operations around Krivoy Rog until January 1944 . This was followed by participation in several sub-operations of the Dnepr-Carpathian operation , with the army advancing to the Prut . Subsequently handed over to the 3rd Belarusian Front , the army fought in Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944 , later in the Baltic Operation and the Battle of East Prussia . After the end of the war it was renamed the 5th Guards Mechanized Army and stationed in Belarus .

history

5th Panzer Army

The 5th Panzer Army of the 1st Formation was placed under direct control of the Stavka by order of the High Command on May 25 and 26, 1942 in the Moscow military district and placed under the command of the Bryansk Front in mid-June . Its inventory included two tank corps (2nd and 11th), an independent tank brigade, a rifle division and other units. The tank brigades were equipped with tanks of the types KW-1 , T-34 , T-60 and Matilda II . From July 6, the army intervened in the fighting for Voronezh in the course of the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad operation . The order to disband was issued on July 15, and the armored corps came under direct control of the Brjansk Front. The Army High Command was not dissolved, but kept with its intelligence units in the front line.

On August 30, 1942, the order was issued by the Stawka to set up the 5th Panzer Army again by September 3 and concentrate it in the Tula area. On September 22nd, she was transferred from the Stawka reserve to the Bryansk Front. When the south-western front was re-established on October 22, 1942, it came into existence. On November 19, as part of Operation Uranus from Serafimowitsch's Don bridgehead , they attacked the Romanian 3rd Army and, on November 22, at Kalatsch am Don, through their encounter with troops from the Stalingrad front, they closed the ring of enclosure around the German - Romanian troops at Stalingrad. Then she fought at the Tschir against the army detachment Hollidt and took part in the Middle Don operation from mid to late December. In the course of the subsequent pursuit operations, the army reached the Mius at the end of February 1943 and then switched to the defensive. On April 20, their high command was converted to that of the 12th Army .

5th Guards Armored Army

On February 22, 1943, the People's Commissariat for Defense issued an order to set up the 5th Guards Armored Army in the Millerowo area by March 24 . Its inventory included the 3rd Armored Guard Corps, the 29th Armored Corps, the 5th Mechanized Guard Corps and other units. At times it was considered to use the army in the defense of Kharkov during the Third Battle of Kharkov , for which it was ordered to the Voronezh area . At the beginning of April she was placed under the reserve front (3rd formation).

On July 9, 1943, during the Kursk battle , the army was subordinated to the Voronezh Front . Lieutenant General Rotmistrow ordered the counterattack on the evening of July 11th to prevent the German breakthrough; at that time he had 793 tanks and 57  assault guns .

Structure on July 10, 1943
18th Panzer Corps Major General Boris Sergeyevich Bacharow
  • 110th Tank Brigade (Colonel IM Kolesnikov)
  • 170th Tank Brigade (Colonel AI Kazakov)
  • 181st Tank Brigade (Colonel WA Pusyrjew)
  • 32nd Motorized Rifle Brigade (Colonel LA Strukow)
29th Panzer Corps Major General Ivan Fyodorovich Kirichenko
  • 25th Panzer Brigade (Colonel N. Volodin)
  • 31st Tank Brigade (Colonel SJ Mosjew)
  • 32nd Tank Brigade (Colonel AA Linjew)
  • 53rd Motorized Rifle Brigade (Colonel NP Lipisch)
5th Guards Mechanized Corps Major General Boris Michailowitsch Skwortzow
  • 10. mech. Guard Panzer Brigade (Colonel IB Michailow)
  • 11. mech. Guard Panzer Brigade (Colonel NW Gritschenko)
  • 12. mech. Guard Panzer Brigade (Colonel MI Letschenko)
  • 24th Guard Panzer Brigade (Colonel VP Karpov)

On the morning of July 12th, the violent counterattack on the positions of the II SS Panzer Corps began with around 600 tanks. The resulting tank battle of Prokhorovka is considered to be the largest single tank battle of the Second World War, and the losses of the 5th Guards Armored Army were severe. After the cancellation of the German offensive, the army counter-attacked as part of the Belgorod-Kharkov operation at the beginning of August , and from August 9th it was subordinate to the steppe front . On September 8, the order was issued to transfer the army in the Dergachi area to the Stawka reserve.

It was made available to the steppe front again on October 7, 1943 (from October 20: 2nd Ukrainian front ) and then took part in operations until the second week of December that were supposed to lead to the reconquest of Krivoy Rog , which was not until the beginning of 1944 succeeded. In January 1944 the army was involved in the Kirovograd operation , then in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsk operation until mid-February. In the second phase of the Dnepr-Carpathian operation , the army advanced in the course of the Uman-Botoşaner operation over the Southern Bug , crossed the Dniester at Camenca and reached the area of Iaşi .

On May 27, 1944, the General Staff issued an order to transfer the army with the 3rd Guard Armored Corps and the 29th Armored Corps by rail to the Stawka Reserve. On June 23, she was subordinated to the 3rd Belarusian Front , with which she took part in the Vitebsk-Orsha operation , the Minsk operation and the Vilnius operation as well as in parts in the Kaunas operation as part of Operation Bagration . In August 1944 it was transferred to the inventory of the 1st Baltic Front . From October 5 to 22, 1944, parts of the army took part in the offensive against Memel . She was then assigned to the Stawka Reserve.

Structure on January 12, 1945
10th Mechanized Corps Major General Mikhail Gordejewitsch Sachno
  • 178th Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Iwan Wassiljewitsch Polukarow)
  • 183rd Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Nikolai Stepanowitsch Grischin)
  • 186th Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Dmitri Gnesdilov)
3rd Guards Mechanized Corps Lieutenant General Alexei Pavlovich Panfilow
  • 3rd Guards Mechanized Brigade (Lieutenant Colonel Fedor Chrisanfovich Yegorov)
  • 18th Guards Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Cyril Osipovich Urvanov)
  • 19th Guards Mechanized Brigade (Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Kutz)
8th Mechanized Corps Lieutenant General Alexei Fyodorovich Popov
  • 58th Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Andrei Alexandrowitsch Somow)
  • 59th Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Athanasi S. Turenko)
  • 28th Mechanized Brigade (Colonel Grigory Romanowitsch Piwnew)

In January 1945, the army was subordinated to the 2nd Belarusian Front , with which it took part in the East Prussian operation that began on January 13th . They advanced via Mława on Elbing and reached the Fresh Lagoon on January 25, cutting off the route of retreat for the German 4th Army . Then she fought against them in the Battle of Heiligenbeil , where she was again subordinate to the 3rd Belarusian Front from February 10th. At the end of February she came again to the 2nd Belarusian Front, with which she fought in the mouth of the Vistula and near Danzig until the end of the war.

post war period

After the end of the war in Europe, the army was awarded the Order of the Red Banner , among other things . It was renamed the 5th Guards Mechanized Army and stationed in the Belarusian Military District with its headquarters in Bobruisk . In 1957 it was renamed again to a tank army. In 1968 she took part in the operations in Czechoslovakia to end the “ Prague Spring ”. In the course of the dissolution of the Soviet Union , it became part of the armed forces of Belarus and converted into an army corps in the early 1990s .

Commander in World War II

5th Panzer Army

5th Guards Armored Army

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