Mikhail Efimovich Katukov
Mikhail Katukov ( Russian Михаил Ефимович Катуков * 4 . Jul / 17th September 1900 greg. In Bolshoye uvarovo , † 8. June 1976 in Moscow ) was a Soviet army general of the Red Army in World War II .
Life
Early military career
Katukov took part in the October Revolution in Petrograd in 1917 . In 1919 he joined the Red Army in Kolomna and was assigned to the 484th Rifle Regiment of the 54th Rifle Division. He was involved in the fight against the Don Cossacks in the Kuban region during the civil war . As part of the 57th and 4th Rifle Divisions, he fought in the Soviet-Polish War on the Western Front in 1920 . In December 1920 Katukov was commanded to Mogilew and attended a leadership course at an infantry school. From 1922 he served in the 27th Rifle Division and commanded a rifle battalion there. In December 1931 he became chief of staff of the 80th Rifle Regiment, and in 1932 he joined the CPSU . In June 1932 Katukov switched to the mechanized troops and became Chief of Staff of the 5th Mechanized Brigade in Borisov . In September 1933 he became commander of the training battalion in the same unit. In October 1934 he was appointed chief of the operations division of the 134th Mechanized Brigade (45th Mechanized Corps) in the Kiev Military District. In 1935 he completed a mechanical troop leadership course at the military academy. From September 1937 he was Chief of Staff of the 135th Rifle Brigade and on February 17, 1938 he was appointed Colonel . From April 1938 he was Chief of Staff of the 45th Mechanized Corps and in October 1938 he took over the 5th Panzer Brigade of the 25th Panzer Corps. In July 1940 he switched to the 38th Panzer Brigade as commander. In November 1938 he was then given command of the 20th Panzer Division stationed in Shepetovka.
Commands in World War II
After the start of Operation Barbarossa , he led the 20th Panzer Division in the Association of the 9th Mechanical Corps in the tank battle near Dubno-Lutsk-Rivne . In August 1941 he became the commander of the 4th tank brigade, which deployed in the Mtsensk and Volokolamsk areas . Colonel Katukov's troops stood out on the southern wing of the Battle of Moscow from October 1941 , his tank brigade helped to stop the advance of the German 2nd Tank Army in the Tula area in the tank battle near Mtsensk . For these services, Katukov's 4th Panzer Brigade was renamed the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, and on November 10, 1941, he himself received the rank of major general . In April 1942 Katukov was appointed commander of the 1st Panzer Corps defending near Voronezh , and from September 1942 he had taken over the command of the 3rd mechanized corps at the Kalinin Front .
On January 18, 1943, Katukov was promoted to lieutenant general. On January 30th, until the end of the war, he was given supreme command of the 1st Panzer Army , which was renamed the 1st Guard Armored Army on April 25, 1944 . In July 1943, the 1st Panzer Army took part in the Battle of Kursk . Katukov's troops led the defensive battles against the German XXXXVIII in the Obojan area together with the 6th Guard Army . Panzer Corps . In the autumn of 1943 he fought during the Belgorod-Kharkov operation and in late December in the Zhitomir-Berdichev operation.
In the spring of 1944 the 1st Panzer Army successfully participated in the Proskurov-Czernowitz operation . On April 10, 1944 Katukov was appointed Colonel-General conveyed. As part of the 1st Ukrainian Front , his troops took part in the Lviv-Sandomierz operation in the summer and autumn of 1944 . Katukow was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on September 23, 1944 for leading this offensive. As part of the 1st Belorussian Front , the 1st Armored Guard Army advanced in January 1945 in the Vistula-Oder operation from the Magnuszew bridgehead via Łódź and Gniezno to the Oder . In February and March 1945 his troops took part in the occupation of East Pomerania and penetrated to the Baltic Sea via Kolberg . On April 6, he was honored twice as Hero of the Soviet Union . Katukov's army returned to the 1st Belarusian Front and took part in the Berlin operation in mid-April . After the breakthrough in the Battle of the Seelow Heights on April 19, Katukov's troops bypassed the German defense and were able to advance into the city center of Berlin together with the 8th Guard Army .
post war period
After the war, Katukov married the field shearwoman Yekaterina Sergejewna Lebedewa , who had worked at his side during the war. In the summer of 1945 he was appointed head of the Soviet Military Administration (SMA) in Saxony, based in Dresden . He stayed there until 1947 and then held posts in the Red Army. In 1955 Katukov was appointed Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. On October 5, 1959, he was appointed Marshal of the Armored Forces .
His grave is in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow , Russia's most famous honorary cemetery .
Awards (selection)
- Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (twice)
- Order of Lenin (four times)
- Order of the Red Banner (three times)
- Order “For Service to the Fatherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR” , 2nd class
Honors
Katukow was granted honorary citizenship of Berlin on May 8, 1965 in East Berlin on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the liberation. It was revoked on September 29, 1992.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan Foitzik (ed.): Soviet commanderships and German administration in the Soviet occupation zone and early GDR , p. 47. ( Online at Google Books ).
- ^ MK Barbier: The battle in the Kursker Bogen , Tosa Verlag Vienna 2000, pp. 126, 146.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Katukow, Mikhail Efimovich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Катуков, Михаил Ефимович (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | soviet general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th September 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bolshoye Uvarovo |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 8, 1976 |
| Place of death | Moscow |