Donfront

The Don Front ( Russian Донской фронт ) was a formation of the Red Army and was formed on September 30, 1942 by order of the Soviet High Command on September 28, 1942 in the southwest direction by renaming the Stalingrad Front .

The Don Front included the 1st Guard, 21st, 24th, 63rd and 66th Army (from October 22nd also the 65th Army), 4th Panzer Army and 16th Air Army, from January 1, 1943 The 57th, 62nd and 64th Armies also came to the front. At the beginning of the Stalingrad Strategic Assault Operation, the strength of the front was 307,500 men, 161 tanks, 4,177 artillery pieces and 202 aircraft. In October and the first half of November 1942, as part of Operation Uranus , the front carried out attack and defense operations against the Romanian 3rd Army north of Stalingrad, which forced the enemy to move part of its forces to the north and thus the To weaken the attack on the new Stalingrad front formed from the south-eastern front. From November 19, 1942, the Don Front supported the Stalingrad Strategic Offensive Operation of the Southwest and the Stalingrad Front, which resulted in the inclusion of a 330,000-strong opposing group. In the course of Operation Kolzo ("Ring"), between January 10 and February 2, 1943, the German 6th Army was destroyed in the Stalingrad pocket.

On February 15, 1943, the Don Front was renamed the Central Front by order of the Soviet High Command of February 5, 1943 .

High command

• Lieutenant General KK Rokossowski (from January 1943 Colonel General)
• Corps Commissioner AS Scheltow ( Member of the Military Council , September - October 1942)
• Brigade Commissar AI Kirichenko (Member of the Military Council, October - December 1942)
• Major General KF Telegin (Member of the Military Council, December 1942 - February 1943).
• Major General MS Malinin (Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General from December 1942).

Remarks

1. ↑ Боевой состав Советской Армии на 1 декабря 1942 г.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ GF Kriwoschejew , Grif sekretnosti snjat. Poteri Vooružennych Sil SSSR v vojnach, boevych dejstvijach i voennych konfliktach. Statističeskoe issledovanie. Voenno Izdat, Moscow 1993, ISBN 5-203-01400-0 ;
   Rokossovsky, Velikaya pobeda na Volga. Moscow 1965.
3. ↑ Glantz, When Titans clashed. Lawrence 1995, p. 145.