Kalininer Front

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The Kalininer Front ( Russian Калининский фронт ) was a military formation of the Red Army during the Second World War . It was formed from the right wing of the Western Front with the 22nd , 29th and 30th Army after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the instructions of the Stawka on October 17, 1941 . On October 10, 1943, the front was renamed the 1st Baltic Front .

Kalininer Front

Colonel General IS Konew

On October 2, 1941, the German Army Group Center began the battle for Moscow , encircling large parts of the Soviet Western Front (Colonel General IS Konew ) and the Reserve Front ( Marshal of the Soviet Union S.M. Budjonny ) and wiping them out (→ double battle at Vyasma and Bryansk ). In order to reorganize the defense, the reserve front and the reserves were annexed to the western front (October 10th) and on October 12th Army General G.K. Subordinate to Zhukov . The removed Gen. Ost. Konew initially remained Shukov's deputy before sending him to Kalinin . The place was away from the main operation area, so that Zhukov wanted to set up a "branch" of the front command there.

When the Wehrmacht took Kalinin on October 14th, the Soviet troops of the western front in this area, the 22nd, 29th and 30th Army and the Watutin group , were placed under Konev's unified command on October 17th. Chief of Staff was II Ivanov and member of the War Council of Corps Commissioner DS Leonov. The newly established 10th Army had to surrender the staff. The front received additional reinforcement through the addition of 5 rifle divisions from the northwest front and from reserves of the Stawka. The Kalinin Front was thus formed and the armies mentioned were eliminated from the Western Front . On October 23, the 31st Army also transferred under the command of the Kalinin Front . The order of the front was to be the reconquest of Kalinin, which only succeeded during the Battle of Moscow on December 16, 1941.

Troops from the Kalinin Front attacked, February 1942

The front, together with the Western Front, was involved in attack operations in the context of the Battle of Rzhev in late 1941 / early 1942 and in the winter offensive of 1942/43 against Rzhev in November 1942 ( Operation Mars ). Her right wing fought the Battle of Velikiye Luki at this time . For this purpose, the 3rd Shock Army of the Kalinin Front was subordinated, which attacked the 3rd Panzer Army at Velikiye Luki on November 24th . The next day units of the Kalinin Front and the Western Front stormed the German positions in the entire Rzhev sector. The 41st , 22nd, 39th , 31st , 20th and 29th armies on both fronts took part in the offensive .

In the second half of 1943 the front participated in the Smolensk operation . On October 20, 1943, it was renamed the 1st Baltic Front .

1. Baltic Front

1szy nadbałtycki.jpg

The troops of the 1st Baltic Front , led by Army General Hovhannes Baghramjan , advanced about 80 km south of this city during the Neveler offensive on December 24, 1943 , captured Gorodok and interrupted the railway line between Vitebsk and Polotsk . The troops at the front were instrumental in the success of Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944 . According to the Soviet plan, the front was supposed to secure the northern flank against Army Group North . Together with the 3rd Belarusian Front , the 4th Shock Army , the 6th Guards Army , the 43rd and 39th Armies advanced in the direction of Vitebsk on June 22, 1944 to encircle the city extensively, which they succeeded. The German LIII. Army corps , which was supposed to defend Vitebsk, was almost completely destroyed in the course of the fighting.

In autumn 1944 the front took part in the Baltic Operation . Parts of the front besieged Memel in the winter of 1944/45 , while others took part in the battles of Courland . The front was disbanded on February 24, 1945; Most of the subordinate units were subordinated to the command of the 3rd Belarusian Front as the Samland Group of the Armed Forces , the rest were distributed to other fronts.

Front command

Kalininer Front

1. Baltic Front

  • Army General Andrei Ivanovich Jerjomenko (October – November 1943)
  • Army General Hovhannes Baghramjan (November 1943 to February 1945)
  • Lieutenant General DS Leonow (Member of the Military Council, October 1943 to November 1944)
  • Lieutenant General MW Rudakow (Member of the Military Council, 1944 to February 1945)
  • Lieutenant General WW Kurasow (Chief of Staff, October 1943 to February 1945)

Outline 1944

Front commander: Army General Hovhannes Baghramjan

literature

  • John Erickson: The Road to Stalingrad , London 2003.
  • David Glantz: Colossus Reborn - The Red Army at War 1941–43 , Kansas 2005.
  • Steven Zaloga : Bagration 1944 , London 1996.

Individual evidence

  1. Joachim Hoffmann: The warfare from the perspective of the Soviet Union , in: Horst Boog, Jürgen Förster, Joachim Hoffmann , Ernst Klink, Rolf-Dieter Müller , Gerd R. Ueberschär : The attack on the Soviet Union (= Military History Research Office [Hrsg.]: the German Reich and the Second world war . band 4 ). 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-421-06098-3 , pp. 763 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ GK Schukow: Thoughts and Memories , Stuttgart 1969, p. 320.
  3. ^ PN Pospelow (ed.): History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union . Vol. 2, Berlin (East) 1963, p. 294.
  4. Klaus Reinhardt: The turn before Moscow - The failure of Hitler's strategy in the winter of 1941/42 , Stuttgart 1972, p. 80, fn. 220.