57th Army (Red Army)

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57th Army

Lineup October 1941–1945
Armed forces Red Army
Armed forces Land Forces
Type army
Butcher Second World War
Battle of Kharkov (1942)
Battle for Stalingrad
Apatin-Kaposvarer operation
Lake Balaton offensive

The 57th Army ( Russian 57-я армия ) was a large unit of the Red Army that was deployed in the south of the Eastern Front. During the Second World War, she fought mainly in southern Ukraine and in 1944 advanced to Serbia via Romania and Bulgaria . The war ended in Austria .

history

First formation

The first formation of the 57th (Reserve) Army was formed on October 27, 1941 (following instructions from the Stawka on October 22) from recruits from the North Caucasus military district in the Stalingrad region.

  • It comprised the 333rd, 335th, 337th, 341st, 349th, 351st Rifle, 60th and 79th Cavalry Divisions, as well as a number of other units.

On December 10th the assignment to the Southwest Front followed , the army initially remained in the front reserve. On January 10, 1942, the army was transferred to the southern front and used for defensive battles in the area of ​​the city of Isjum. During the Barvenkovo-Losovaya operation , the 57th Army was used in the main attack and, along with the 9th Army, participated in the liberation of Barvenkovo (January 23). During the Battle of Kharkov , the army fought heavy defensive battles south and south-east of Losovaya and was returned to the south-western front on May 20. On May 23, German troops were able to cut off the 57th Army's withdrawal route; on May 24 and 25, violent breakout battles followed by the encircled Soviet armed forces on the southwest and parts of the southern front. At the beginning of June 1942 the rescued remnants of the 57th Army were withdrawn as a front reserve in the area east of Kupjansk and Rowenky .

After the reorganization, the 57th Army was relocated to the southern front on July 12, 1942, to the Volga sector in Stalingrad . In mid-July, the troops south of Krasnoarmeisk were regrouped to cover the threatened Stalingrad in the south. Since August 7, the troops on the southeast front (since September 30, Stalingrad Front ) have been fighting heavy defensive battles for over two months, in which the attempt of the German 4th Panzer Army to advance from the south to Stalingrad was foiled. From the second half of November, the 57th Army took part in the defense of the Romanian 4th Army south of Stalingrad . From January 1, 1943, the 57th Army took part in the offensive of the Don Front (General Rokossowski ) to narrow the Stalingrad pocket . On February 1, 1942, the 57th Army was withdrawn into the Stawka Reserve, its troops were transferred to other armies and the Army Command used to set up the 68th Army.

Second formation

The second formation of the 57th Army was reorganized on April 27, 1943 (instructions from the Supreme Command of April 26) as part of the Southwest Front (2nd formation). For this purpose, the 3rd Panzer Army was disbanded and its headquarters were used to reorganize the 57th Army.

  • It included the 14th, 48th and 58th Guards and the 19th, 52nd, 113th, 303rd Rifle Divisions, as well as the 173rd and 179th Tank Brigade and other units.

The army defended on the left bank of the Donets the section between Volchansk and Chuguev . In August, as part of the southwestern steppe front from August 9 (2nd Ukrainian front from October 20) , the army took part in September in the Belgorod-Kharkov operation , which led to the liberation of the left bank of the Dnieper in Ukraine. In November it fought on another offensive towards Krivoy Rog . At the end of the month, parts of the army crossed the right bank of the Ingulez and held positions north of Krivoy Rog until February 1944. From February 22nd, the 57th Army was integrated into the 3rd Ukrainian Front . During the Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya and the Battle of Odessa , the army's troops cleared significant space between Nikolaev and Odessa. At the end of April the army forced the crossing of the Dniester and was able to form a bridgehead on the right bank of the river northwest of Bender , where it held until mid-August.

In the course of Operation Jassy-Kishinev, the newly organized 57 Army (now with the 9th, 64th, 68th Rifle Corps and 96th Panzer Brigade) broke through the German and Romanian defenses southeast of Tiraspol and worked in cooperation with the other armies of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian front with the encirclement of the German 6th Army southwest of Kishinev . After the establishment on the right bank of the Danube, the army pursued the enemy until September 5 to the Romanian-Bulgarian border. The assigned 5th Separate Motorized Guard Brigade occupied the important port of Constanta on August 29, in cooperation with naval units of the Black Sea Fleet . After that, the 57th Army participated in the full occupation of Bulgaria. At the end of September 1944, the 57th Army was regrouped to the Bulgarian-Serbian border in the Vidin , Berkowiza and Lom area and took part in the Belgrade operation . There, in cooperation with the 46th Army , units of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army and the 4th Guards Mechanical Corps (General Shdanow) as well as the Danube Flotilla, the German armed forces in Yugoslavia and the cities of Negotin (September 30), Zajecar were defeated Occupy (October 8), Smederevo (October 17) and Belgrade (October 20). In late October - early November 1944 the army gathered on the left bank of the Danube in the Sambora area.

On November 7th, she crossed the Danube in the Mohács area and fought tenaciously in the Apatin-Kaposvar operation until the end of the month to upgrade the captured bridgehead.

  • 75th Rifle Corps, Major General Adrian Z. Akimenko (74th, 233rd, 236th, 299th Rifle Division and 32nd Guards Mechanized Brigade)
  • 64th Rifle Corps, Major General IK Krawtzow (73rd Guards, 19th and 52nd Rifle Divisions, Reserve: 113th Rifle Division)
  • from November 25, 1944: 6th Guards Rifle Corps, Lieutenant General Stepan Iljitsch Morosow (10th Airborne Guard, 20th Guards and 195th Rifle Divisions)

This was followed by the advance towards Pécs , Nagykanizsa , and the troops reached the south bank of Lake Balaton on December 9th . In mid-December it approached the prepared enemy line in the Kerestur, Marcali, Nadbyom, Bartsch and Harkany sections. In the Barch area, the army corps crossed the Drava and formed a bridgehead on the left bank.

War year 1945

In the course of the Balaton operation of 1945, together with the Bulgarian 1st Army and Yugoslav units, the repeated German counter-attacks were successfully repelled and he was forced to break off the offensive.

Army structure in early March 1945

64th Rifle Corps, Major General Ivan Kondratyevich Kravtzov

  • 73rd Guards Rifle Division
  • 104th and 113th Rifle Divisions

133rd Rifle Corps Major General Pavel Alexejewitsch Artyuschenko

  • 84th, 122nd and 299th Rifle Divisions

6th Guards Rifle Corps, from March 20 under Major General NM Drejer

  • 20th and 61st Guards Rifle Divisions
  • 21st and 74th Rifle Divisions

In the following Vienna operation , the 57th Army, in cooperation with the units of the Bulgarian 1st Army, liberated Nagykanizsa , the center of the Hungarian oil economy, on April 2nd . In the course of the offensive that followed, the 57th Army reached the Austrian border and took part in the occupation of Burgenland and eastern Styria . On May 9th and 10th the divisions of the army advanced together with the 27th Army to Gleisdorf , Graz and Leibniz .

guide

  • Lieutenant General DI Ryabyshew (October 1941 - February 1942)
  • Lieutenant General KP Podlas (February – May 1942)
  • Major General AG Batjun (May – June 1942)
  • Major General DN Nikishew (June-July 1942)
  • Lieutenant General F. Tolbuchin (July 1942 - January 1943)
  • Lieutenant General PS Rybalko (April – May 1943)
  • Lieutenant General NA Gagen (May 1943 - October 1944)
  • Colonel General MN Sharochin (October 1944 - until the end of the war)

Chiefs of Staff:

  • Major General AF Anisov (October 1941 - June 1942)
  • Colonel NT Sidorow (June – November 1942)
  • Major General N. Yes. Prichidko (November 1942 - January 1943)
  • Major General DD Bachmetjew (April – May 1943)
  • Major General VD Karpuchin (May – December 1943)
  • Major General KN Derewjanko (December 1943 - March 1944)
  • Major General PM Verkholovich (March 1944 - until the end of the war)

Members of the Military Council:

  • Division Commissioner FN Voronin (October 1941 - April 1942)
  • Brigadier Commissar A. Popenko (April – May 1942)
  • Brigadier Commissar PI Kraynew (June – August 1942)
  • Brigadierkommissar N. Subbotin (August 1942 - January 1943)
  • Major General AN Melnikow (April – May 1943)
  • Colonel AK Chursin (May – July 1943)
  • Major General LP Botscharow (July 1943 - until the end of the war)

literature

  • William E. Craig: The Battle of Stalingrad. Factual report. Heyne, Munich 1991
  • Peter Gosztony : Final battle on the Danube 1944/45 , Fritz Molden Verlag, Vienna 1969
  • Mladenko Colic. Pregled operacija na jugoslovenskom ratištu: 1941–1945. - Beograd: Vojnoistorijski Institut, 1988.
  • Manfried Rauchsteiner: The War in Austria 1945 (Military Science Institute), Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1984.

Web links