Andrei Grigoryevich Kravchenko
Andrei Grigoryevich Kravchenko ( Russian Андрей Григорьевич Кравченко , Ukrainian Андрій Григорович Кравченко / Andriy Kravchenko Hryhorowytsch * 18 . Jul / the 30th November 1899 greg. In the village Sulimin , Poltava Governorate , † 18 October 1963 in Moscow ) was a colonel general of the armored troops and two-time Hero of the Soviet Union in World War II .
Life
Kravchenko was born in 1899 to a Ukrainian peasant family in the village of Sulimin (Sulimowka, today Sulymiwka, Jahotyn district , Kiev Oblast ) in the Poltava governorate. He went to a village school and as a teenager worked in a Kiev office as a temporary worker.
Early military career
In November 1918 he voluntarily joined the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and was assigned to the 1st Rifle Regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Division (renamed Rifle Regiment 391, 44th Rifle Division in 1919). In March 1920 he moved to the Rifle Regiment 60 of the 7th Rifle Division (garrison in Vladimir ) and fought on the southwest and western front against Ukrainian nationalists under S. Petlyura and Belarusian forces under General AI Denikin . In 1920 he took part in the Soviet-Polish War with the troops of the Western Front . In April 1921 he served as a cadet in Rifle Regiment 29, which was later renamed Rifle Regiment 14 (Garrison in Poltava ). In August 1923 he was appointed to the 2nd intelligence battalion of the Caucasian Red Banner Army in Tbilisi , where he served as a platoon leader. Since 1925 he was officially a member of the CPSU . From September 1925 he studied at the Frunze Military Academy and after graduating in July 1928 was appointed Chief of Staff of the 21st Rifle Regiment of the 7th Rifle Division in Chernigov . From October 1930 he taught tactics at the armored forces school in Leningrad . From May to November 1931 he held further refresher courses for tactical organization there, and from February 1932 he was the study director of the technical courses held there for the armored forces. In November 1933 he held courses in Kazan for the upper level of the technical management cadre. In February 1935 he took on a teaching position for the Rotbanner Panzer Troop School in Saratow , where he was given the position of senior tactics teacher. From February 1938 he was director of the general army school in Saratov and was promoted to colonel in January 1939 . Since May 1939 he acted as an advisory officer for special tasks in the headquarters of the Volga military district. In August 1939 he was appointed chief of staff of the 61st Rifle Division. Since December 1939 he was Chief of Staff of the 173rd Motorized Rifle Division, in this capacity he took part in the Soviet-Finnish Winter War. In the summer of 1940 his troops were transferred to the Prut . From June 1940 he was chief of staff of the 16th Panzer Division of the 2nd mechanized corps in the Odessa military district and from March 1941 chief of staff of the 18th mechanized corps.
In the German-Soviet War
At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa , the 18th Mechanized Corps (Major General BW Woloch) was part of the southern front and conducted defensive battles on the eastern bank of the Prut in July 1941 . Colonel Kravchenko was soon recalled to the Western Front and on 9 September 1941 took command of the 31st tank brigade of the 20th Army . Under his command, his troops distinguished themselves in the Battle of Moscow in December 1941 in the counter-offensive towards Solnnogorsk . In February 1942, he was appointed commander of the 61st Mechanical Brigade. From March 31 to July 1, 1942, he was Chief of Staff of the 1st Panzer Corps. On July 21, 1942 he was promoted to major general of the armored forces. From July 2 to September 13, 1942, he commanded the 2nd Panzer Corps. On September 18, he took command of the 4th Panzer Corps (renamed 5th Guards Panzer Corps on February 7, 1943), which carried out successful counterattacks at Stalingrad ( Operation Uranus ) and Voronezh . On June 7, 1943 he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General of the Armored Forces. In the summer of 1943 his corps was subordinated to the 6th Guards Army and took part in the Battle of Kursk . In the tank battle near Prokhorovka on July 12, 1943, his tank units together with the 51st Guards Rifle Division prevented the breakthrough of German armored forces. In the autumn of 1943, his tank units distinguished themselves as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the liberation of the cities of Kharkov , Trostyanets and Akhtyrka . In the winter of the same year, the 5th Guards Panzer Corps distinguished itself in the Battle of Kiev and participated in the liberation of Kiev and Zhitomir .
From January 25, 1944 until the end of the war, Kravchenko commanded the 6th Panzer Army , which in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation (January 24 - February 17) finally overcame the Dnepr section and after the Uman-Botosan operation back to the old one Border with Romania advanced. At the end of August 1944, during the Jassy-Kishinewer operation in the area of the 2nd Ukrainian Front , his units broke through the German-Romanian defense to the south and swung west into Transylvania . On September 13, 1944 he was appointed colonel general of the armored forces. His troops distinguished themselves in the advance through Hungary in October 1944 in the tank battle near Debrecen and in the enclosure of Budapest (December 1944). After the German Balaton offensive had been repulsed , the Vienna operation succeeded in conquering the capital of Austria in April 1945 . In May 1945 the advance to the north-east followed in order to successfully push the still intact German Army Group Center from the south into the southern flank in the Bratislava-Brno operation .
After the victory of the Red Army in Central Europe , the 6th Guards Panzer Army was relocated to Mongolia , where in August 1945 it had to lead Operation Auguststurm in the Transbaikal Front . During the Chingan-Mukden offensive, Kravchenko's troops stormed ahead in the first season and at the end of the third day of the attack achieved the operational breakthrough into the Manchurian plain. The separation of the Kwantung Army into two groups contributed decisively to the rapid surrender of the Japanese army in the Far East. Kravchenko had been awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union twice during the war, on October 1, 1944 for his victorious run in Romania and on September 8, 1945 for his breakthrough in Manchuria.
post war period
Colonel-General Kravchenko was appointed commander of all armored and mechanized forces in the Transbaikalia military district in June 1947. In 1949 he made up for the missing higher general staff courses at the Voroshilov Military Academy and in the same year took over the command of all tanks and mechanized forces in the Far East military district . From January 1954 he remained deputy commander of the armored forces in the Far Eastern Military District before he was recalled to Moscow in August 1954 at the disposal of the Minister of Defense. In October 1955 he resigned from military positions for health reasons, but held the position of member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR . He died in Moscow in 1963 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.
literature
- VP Jakovlew / VP Ustyuzhanin: General Kravchenko , Chelyabinsk 1976
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kravchenko, Andrei Grigoryevich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Кравченко, Андрей Григорьевич (Russian); Кравченко, Андрій Григорович; Kravchenko, Andrij Hryhorowytsch (Ukrainian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | soviet colonel general of the armored forces |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sulimin , Poltava Governorate |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 18, 1963 |
| Place of death | Moscow |