Alexander Sergejewitsch Xenofontov

Alexander Sergejewitsch Xenofontow ( Russian Александр Сергеевич Ксенофонтов , born August 29, 1894 in St. Petersburg , Russian Empire , † August 23, 1966 in Moscow , Soviet Union ) was a Soviet Lieutenant General (November 14, 1943) and Hero of the Soviet Union (April 14, 1943) and Hero of the Soviet Union 1945).

Life

Xenofontov was born in St. Petersburg in 1894 in the family of a worker. After completing a two-year school, he worked as an upholsterer and cloth maker in a furniture factory in 1909.

Early military career

In 1913 he joined the Russian army and graduated from the regimental school for young officers. During the First World War he fought as a platoon leader from February 1915 to October 1917 and took part in the Brusilov offensive in Galicia . In May 1919 he joined the Red Army and took part in the suppression of the counter-revolution in Bachmatsch and Konotop . A month later he completed the 32nd Simbirsk Infantry Course and was then appointed commander of a rifle company of the 1st Simbirsk Rifle Regiment. He fought against the troops of Admiral Kolchak and fought in the association of the Special Simbirsk Rifle Regiment near Tobolsk , Omsk , Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk . From July 1921 to August 1923 he studied at the Kazan Military College. From 1923 to 1929 he served as deputy commander and then as company commander, battalion commander in the 7th rifle division of Kazan and Krasnodar . As the commander of the 508th Special Department, he participated in the suppression of the uprisings in Chechnya and Dagestan from August to October 1925 . He also acted as deputy commander of the 39th and 37th rifle regiments of the 13th rifle division. In 1929 he completed the shooting and tactics advanced training course "Wystrel", a higher infantry course of the Comintern . After completing the course, he served until 1931 as deputy commander of the 221st Infantry Regiment of the 74th Rifle Division and from April 1931 he commanded the 82nd Mountain Rifle Regiment of the 28th Rifle Division in the North Caucasian Military District. From February 1934 he was in command of the 61st Rifle Regiment of the 21st Rifle Division, from December 1936 Chief of Staff of the 66th Rifle Division. After being appointed colonel on February 17, 1936, he became commander of the 21st Rifle Division from July 1937 and from November 1937 commander of the 43rd Rifle Division (the 1st Rifle Corps of the 1st Far East Army). His troops took part in numerous battles against the Japanese on the Soviet-Manchurian border, including near Lake Chassan . Xenofontov was promoted to Kombrig (February 17, 1938), division commander (February 29, 1939) and major general (June 4, 1940).

In the Patriotic War

In the spring of 1941 Xenofontov completed further training courses for executives at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army and from June 3, 1941 commanded the 22nd Rifle Corps of the 27th Army in the Association of the Baltic Special Military District ( Northwest Front ). On the morning of June 22, 1941, the armies of the German Army Group North went on the offensive in the Battle of the Baltic States . The 22nd Rifle Corps temporarily lost contact with the 11th Army (General VI Morozov) and had to withdraw to Pskov via Kaunas and Vilna . In mid-July the German 4th Panzer Army advanced into the Schimsk and Luga area. During the 11th Army's counter-offensive from July 14th to 18th in the Utorgosch and Dno districts towards Solzy, the German troops were pushed back almost 40 kilometers to the west.

In August 1941 Xenofontov was appointed deputy commander of the 11th Army. When the German troops took Novgorod on August 15 , Ksenofontov launched another counterattack from the area south of Staraya Russa , the 60 kilometers advancing Soviet troops posed a threat to the opposing group in Novgorod. As a result of these actions, command of Army Group North was transferred additional forces from the direction of Leningrad . On September 13, 1941, Xenofontov was seriously injured and taken to hospital.

After his discharge from the hospital in December 1941, Major General Xenofontov was appointed deputy commander of the 3rd Shock Army in December 1941 , which fought on the Northwest Front. Following the 3rd Shock Army began on January 9, 1942 the area north of Seligersees the Toropets-Kholm Operation , which in the West in advanced nearly 200 km of the city led to the suburbs. On May 3, 1942 Xenofontov was appointed commander of the 53rd Army , which fought on the Northwest Front. Until November 1942, the 53rd Army held the defense east of Novgorod and thus provided the troops of other armies on the front with a stable right flank for the conduct of combat operations to remove the so-called Demjansk pocket.

Xenofontov was transferred to the Western Front in November 1942 . On November 14, he was appointed deputy commander of the 16th Army and on November 18, the 20th Army . According to the planning of Operation Mars , the aim of which was to remove the Rzhev-Vyazma front arc, the 20th Army was assigned to attack the city of Sychevka. On November 25, the offensive began against the east, north and west sides of the Rshew promontory . The 20th Army drove the enemy back to a depth of 10 km. Only parts of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps and the 6th Panzer Corps broke through the German defenses on November 27th and crossed the Rzhev-Sychevka railway, were surrounded and were able to break out of the encirclement at the end of the month. In December 1942, Ksenofontov was appointed commander of the 8th Guards Rifle Corps, which took part in the liberation of Sychevka on March 8th . In May 1943, Ksenofontov was appointed deputy commander of the 16th Army on the Western Front. In July 1943 this army was renamed the 11th Guards Army and as such the army launched an offensive against the Oryol front arc on July 12th . On the orders of the Army Commander, Colonel General Ivan Bagramjan , Major General Xenofontov took command of the 36th Guards Rifle Corps and advanced towards Bolchow towards the Wytebet River. In July 1943, the 36th Guard Corps reached the Bolchow - Chotynetz road on July 29 , while the troops of the 61st Army occupied the city of Bolchow. Then the corps took part in the fighting for the liberation of Bryansk, the units went south of Bryansk across the Desna . Xenofontov was reinstated in the post of deputy commander of the 11th Guards Army. At the beginning of October, the Brjansk Front was converted into the Baltic Front , to which the 11th Guard Army was transferred. Deployed to the 2nd Baltic Front at the end of October , the 11th Guard Army fought in the Nevel-Gorodoker Operation . The Commander-in-Chief Bagramjan transferred the 11th Guard Army to Vitebsk , where the troops tried in vain for the entire winter of 1944 to take the city.

War years 1944 and 1945

During the preparation for Operation Bagration in the spring of 1944, Xenofontov was an assistant to the commander of the 1st Baltic Front . In March 1944 he was appointed commander of the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps (9th and 46th Guards and 166th Rifle Divisions), which crossed the river Düna on June 26, 1944 and in the area in the association of the 6th Guards Army Village Bocheikowo - Chashniki, west of Vitebsk, cut off the road to Lepel . During the further offensive, the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps liberated the villages of Uschatschi, Plissa and Glubokoje and crossed the border of the Lithuanian SSR at Ignalina on July 7th . From July to August 1944 his troops liberated the cities of Utena, Kupiskis and Birsai and reached the Memel near Skaitskalne. On August 20, 1944, he was appointed commander of the 54th Rifle Corps (126th, 263rd and 346th Rifle Divisions) of the 2nd Guard Army , which had to retreat towards Schaulen during the German operation Doppelkopf near Kursenai . In the Schaulen area , Xenofontov organized a strong defense while concentrating most of the corps' artillery forward. In the Battle of Siauliai, the German tanks were decimated by Soviet artillery and infantry and put on the defensive. After defensive battles at Schaulen, the 54th Rifle Corps went back on the offensive in the direction of Kelme and Pagegjai. As a result of the advance in October 1944, the corps reached the border with East Prussia , where the offensive stagnated on the Nyemen River and off Tilsit due to the very good German defense organization . In November 1944, during preparations for the offensive in East Prussia, the 54th Rifle Corps was assigned to the 43rd Army under Lieutenant General AP Beloborodov . With the beginning of the Insterburg-Königsberg operation , the 54th Rifle Corps crossed the Nyemen and captured Tilsit and Ragnit . In continuation of the offensive, the 54th Rifle Corps captured the city of Labiau on January 29, 1945 and reached the coast of the Baltic Sea on the Curonian Lagoon . From April 6 to 13, 1945, the 54th Rifle Corps stood out in the attack on Königsberg and on the Samland peninsula . By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of April 19, 1945, he was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" and the Order of Lenin .

In August 1945 he became Deputy Commander of the 1st Red Banner Army on the Far Eastern Front. During the offensive in Manchuria, his army troops broke through the fortified area of Mishan and took part in the fighting for Mudanjiang . On August 20 he took over the command of the 87th Rifle Corps, which on August 19 was assigned the task of occupying the northern part of Hokkaido and the southern part of the Kuril Islands as far as Simushir Island . On August 22nd, the south of Sakhalin was designated as a bridgehead for this operation, and the 87th Rifle Corps was chosen to carry it out. The independent 113th Rifle Brigade, which landed in Maoka on August 20 , was also assigned to the corps. After the occupation of South Sakhalin, the landings on the southern Kuril Islands began . From August 30th, parts of the corps were transferred to the commander of the 16th Army of the 2nd Far Eastern Front. Units of the 87th Rifle Corps landed on the islands of Iturup , Kunashir , Shikotan and the atoll islands of the Lesser Kuril Islands, but they no longer encountered resistance from the Japanese armed forces.

post war period

Xenofontov continued to command the 87th Rifle Corps until September 1947 and then served in command positions in the troops of the Urals and Moscow military districts . Retired in 1953, he lived in Moscow on the Gorky Embankment and worked in public and educational work. He died in August 1966 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow .

Web links

• http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=11932