Arkady Nikolayevich Yermakov

Arkady Nikolayevich Yermakov

Arkady Nikolayevich Yermakov (Russian: Аркадий Николаевич Ермаков ; born September 10 ^{. Jul} / 22. September  1899 ^greg. In Mtsensk; † 25. October 1957 in Moscow ) was in the Second World War, Lieutenant General (1944) of the Red Army .

Life

In the civil war

In August 1918 he joined the Red Army and joined the 2nd Orlovsk Regiment. He fought on the eastern and southern fronts during the Russian Civil War and participated in the suppression of insurgents in the Voronezh area and in 1921 in the Soviet-Georgian War. At the end of 1918 he served first in a reserve battalion in the Orjol military district, and from January 1919 in a separate battalion of the 2nd Rifle Division. From August 1919 he fought as a machine gunner against the White Cossacks under AI Dutow in the Orenburg region with the 49th Rifle Division and from December 1919 with the 4th Rifle Division. In January 1920 he was appointed deputy commander of the machine gun company of the 2nd Rifle Regiment in the 8th Army. From September 1920 he was part of the 1st Rifle Regiment in the 7th Army.

In the interwar period

After the wars he became the commander of an infantry fighting vehicle in the 277th rifle regiment and from 1921 he was deputy commander of a machine gun company in the 192nd rifle regiment of the 22nd rifle division and then in the same position in the 39th rifle regiment of the 13th rifle division. In 1924 he graduated from the Kiev Infantry School. In September 1924 he led a training group in the 135th Rifle Regiment, from October 1925 he was again commander of a machine gun company and from October 1929 commander of a training company of the 45th Rifle Division. In 1931 he completed courses for commanders at the higher rifle training facility of the Comintern "Wystrel", in 1932 a course to improve the command staff of the new armored weapon. In 1937 he completed a course at the Military Academy for Mechanization and Motorization. In October 1931 he became commander of a battalion of the 135th Rifle Regiment and from September 1932 he led a separate motorized rifle battalion of the 135th Rifle Brigade. In March 1933 he was commander of a training battalion of the motorized troops and in 1935 promoted to major . In November 1936 he was given command of the 299th Infantry Regiment of the 100th Rifle Division, in June 1938 he was himself commander of this division and promoted to colonel on August 16, 1938 .

At the beginning of the Second World War

In mid-September 1939, his 299th Division took part in the 16th Rifle Corps in the 11th Army (General Medvedev) of the Belarusian Front ( Army General M. P. Kovalev ) in the hostilities in eastern Poland. After his promotion to Brigadier General, which took place on February 10, 1939, he took part in the Soviet-Finnish War with his division from December 16, 1939 . During the breakthrough on the Mannerheim Line , however, his division was in the 7th Army reserve . In February 1940, his troops participated in the main attack of the 50th Rifle Corps in the fortified region of Suma Hawtin, between Lake Summajarvi and Summajoki River. In March 1940, the 100th Rifle Division advanced as part of the 34th Rifle Corps northeast of the city of Vyborg in the direction of Koivikhovi Tammjsuo - Sementtivalimo and Häyrju. On April 4, 1940, Yermakov was promoted to major general and commanded his division during the occupation of Bessarabia during the invasion of northern Bukovina . On July 29, 1940, he took over the leadership of the 2nd Rifle Corps of the Baltic Special Military District, which was then renamed the Special Military District West.

In the Great Patriotic War

At the beginning of the Patriotic War (June 1941) the 2nd Rifle Corps (100th and 161st Rifle Divisions) was in reserve on the Western Front (Army General Pavlov), but then became part of the 13th Army during the Battle of Minsk . At the end of June 1941, AN Yermakov's corps and the 44th Rifle Corps were sent to the fortified area of Minsk to stop the advance of German Panzer Group 3 . The Yermakov group had to retreat to Borisov behind the Berezina river and then to move south across the Dnieper river to Novy Bychow. From July 10, 1941, Yermakov commanded the unsuccessful counterattacks of the 2nd Rifle Corps in the Battle of Smolensk . On July 24th, the superior 13th Army was transferred to the Central Front and from August 15 to the Brjansk Front , in the course of which the defensive battles on the rivers Sosch , Sudost and Desna were carried out. On August 20, 1941, the 2nd Rifle Corps was disbanded.

On August 16, 1941, the first formation of the Bryansk Front was formed, at the same time Major General AN Yermakov was appointed Deputy Commander of the Front and at the same time Commander of the Mobile Task Force (108th Panzer Division, 141st Tank Brigade, 4th Cavalry Division). At the beginning of the Roslavl-Novosybkov operation, this group carried out counterattacks against German Panzer Group 2 ( Guderian ), which prevented the defeat and the disorganized retreat of the 13th Army. From September to October 1941, Yermakov commanded the mobile task force of the Bryansk Front (consisting of the 21st and 52nd cavalry divisions, the 121st and 150th tank brigades, and the 283rd rifle division, later also the 127th rifle division, and from 18 September - 2nd Guards and 160th Rifle Divisions). The Yermakov group coordinated targeted counterattacks on the front line between Lgow and Gluchow .

On October 13, 1941, Major General Yermakov was appointed commander of the remains of the trapped 50th Army on the Western Front , the remains of which broke out in the disastrous Oryol Bryansk operation . The Yermakov group was mentioned publicly more than once in connection with the fighting for Bryansk and when breaking out of the encirclement. The former commander of the Bryansk Front, Army General AI Yeremenko later recalled: "Under incredibly difficult conditions, General Yermakov showed great initiative and perseverance, both as a talented commander and as a man with great personal courage." The Yermakov group also carried out the following defensive actions the battle for Tula . The German Panzer Group 2, which had been detained in the Mtsensk area for over a week at the beginning of October , resumed the offensive in order to bypass the city of Tula from the south. Under pressure from the German armed forces, the Soviet troops were forced to withdraw in a north-easterly direction towards Tula. On October 29, 1941, the southern combat detachment of the city of Tula was formed under the leadership of Major Kravchenko, which opposed the vanguard of Panzer Group 2 the following day. Attempts by the German troops to conquer Tula head-on and also to bypass it from the north were repulsed by the Soviet troops with the active participation of the garrison and the Tula labor regiment. At the end of November, with the support of aviation, German troops broke through the army's defenses towards Dedilowo and began to develop an offensive against the cities of Stalinogorsk and Wenew. In order to delay the further advance of the enemy, Yermakov strengthened the anti-tank defense in this direction with the help of newly arrived anti-tank guns.

On November 22nd, enemy tank formations managed to penetrate the city of Stalinogorsk, threatening the Moscow protective position from the southeast. On the same day, Major General AN Yermakov was dismissed from his post on the orders of the Western Front Commander GK Zhukov , and on December 19 he was arrested by a military tribunal and brought before a court martial. While the German troops occupied Stalinogorsk on November 22nd, Yermakov was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in forced labor camps. The judgment of the Military College of the Supreme Court of the USSR also deprived him of rank and honor. But on January 29, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ordered the pardon and the restitution of his titles and awards. Since February 1942, Yermakov was again at the disposal of the main department of the NGO - and from March in the Fuehrer's reserve at the disposal of the western military district.

In June 1942 he was appointed Deputy Commander of the 20th Army on the Western Front, which took part in the defense of the Volga bridgehead at Rzhev and the Rzhev-Vyazma operation. Then he became deputy commander of the 49th Army and finally from March 20 to September 15, 1943 commander of the 20th Army , which was deployed in the second season of the Western Front and defended the line southwest of the city of Vyazma . On September 18, 1943, Yermakov was appointed commander of the 60th Rifle Corps of the 4th Shock Army at the Kalinin Front (from October 20, 1943 - 1st Baltic Front). The corps soon participated in the successful Newel-Gorodok operation . Yermakov was promoted to lieutenant general on February 22, 1944 and on April 7 took command of the 23rd Guards Rifle Corps, which were successively part of the 6th Guards Army, the 51st, 22nd, 42nd, 1st Shock Army and the 67th Guards Army 3rd Army and operated on the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts. Yermakov's guard troops took part in Operation Bagration in July 1944 and fought near Vitebsk , Orsha , Polotsk , Schaulen and near Riga .

After the Memel operation was over, the Yermakov Corps took on the task of fighting the Kurland German Army Group . For the leadership and his bravery in the attempt to break through the enemy defenses on July 3, 1944 on the Daugava , he was proposed by the commander of the 6th Guard Army , Colonel General Tschistjakow for the title Hero of the Soviet Union , which, however, only with the Award of the Order of Lenin , which Yermakov received through the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on July 22, 1944.

post war period

After the war, AN Yermakov continued to command the 23rd Guards Rifle Corps and, from May 1948, the 36th Guards Rifle Corps in the military district of Leningrad and the Baltic States. In 1950 he completed the higher academic courses at the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy and from June 1950 he commanded the 2nd Guard Rifle Corps. In July 1953, he became senior military adviser to the commandant of the East China Military Region of the People's Liberation Army . From April 1957 he was at the disposal of the Commander in Chief of the Land Forces of the USSR. Yermakov died in Moscow in October 1957 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Web links

• https://encyclopedia.mil.ru/encyclopedia/heroes/USSR/more.htm?id=12109353@morfHeroes
• http://pomnipro.ru/memorypage54106/biography

Individual evidence

1. ^ AI Yeremenko: At the beginning of the war, Moscow 1965. p. 320