Karelian Front
The Karelian Front ( Russian Карельский фронт ) was a military formation of the Red Army during the Second World War . The front used opposite the Finnish border was formed in August 1941 and existed until November 15, 1944, when the headquarters of the front was relocated to the Far East and there formed the coastal group, which later became the 1st Far Eastern Front .
history
The front was formed on August 23, 1941 when the northern front was divided into the Karelian and Leningrad fronts . This took into account the fact that conditions in the Leningrad area differed fundamentally from those beyond the Arctic Circle.
The main task of the front was the defense of the section north of Lake Ladoga and the Swir river to the Arctic coast near Murmansk . It was confronted by Finnish and German troops who tried to interrupt the strategically important Murman Railway . The front line between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega was achieved in the phase of the trench warfare of the independent 7th Army defended.
In the course of 1944 the front, along with the Leningrad Front, took part in the offensive against Finland , which in October 1944 brought about the armistice. In the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation , troops from the front conquered areas in northern Finland and liberated Norwegian Finnmark from German occupation.
Almost uniquely in modern military history, the Karelian Front conducted major military operations in arctic conditions. The expertise in conducting the operation, particularly in terms of rearward services and resupply, was of considerable use in conducting Operation August Storm , the Red Army's offensive against the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria , and many higher officers were transferred from the Karelian Front to the war zone on Lake Baikal .
Front command
- Colonel General Valerian Alexandrovich Frolov (September 1941 - February 1944)
- Colonel General Kirill Afanassjewitsch Merezkow (February 1944 - November 1944)
- Corps Commissioner AS Scheltow ( Member of the Military Council , September 1941 - July 1942)
- Brigade Commissar GN Kupriyanov (July - November 1942)
- Division Commissioner PK Batrakow (November 1942 - February 1944)
- Colonel LS Skwirski (Chief of Staff, September 1941 - May 1943)
- Major General BA Pigarevich (Chief of Staff, May 1943 - August 1944)
- Lieutenant General AN Krutikow (Chief of Staff, August - November 1944)
Structure of the Karelian Front (July 1942)
Front commander: Lieutenant General WA Frolov
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32nd Army
- 176th Rifle Division
- 289th Rifle Division
- 313rd Rifle Division
- 26th Army
- 19th Army
- 14th Army
- 7th Army
- IV Corps
- XXXVII. Guard Corps
- IC. corps
- 368th Rifle Division
Operations
- July - August 1944: Swir-Petrozavodsk operation against Finland
- October 1944: Petsamo-Kirkenes operation against the Wehrmacht
swell
- Merezkow 'In the service of the people'
- Chudalow 'On the Edge of the Continent'
- The Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation - Leavenworth Paper No. 17 english