Pavel Alexejewitsch Below

Pawel Alexejewitsch Below , ( Russian Павел Алексеевич Белов ; * 6 February ^July / 18 February  1897 ^greg. 1897 in Schuja ; † December 3, 1962 in Moscow ) was a Soviet Colonel General and 1944 Hero of the Soviet Union .

Life

Pawel Below was born in what was then Vladimir Voivodeship (now Ivanovo Oblast ) as the son of a factory worker. He later worked as a telegraph operator at the Ivanovo station in Voznesensk .

In the war year 1916 he was drafted into the Russian army and fought in a hussar regiment. In 1918 he joined the Red Army and from July 1919 took part in the Russian Civil War. From March 1920 - he was commander of a platoon in the 1st Reserve Cavalry Regiment of the Southern Front, from September 1920 then adjutant, from October 1920 squadron commander and from November 1920 deputy commander of this regiment. From April 1922 to 1926 he was in command of the 81st Cavalry Regiment of the 14th Cavalry Division. In 1927 he completed an advanced training course for officers and in the same year was appointed commander of a separate cavalry squadron. In 1930 he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Moscow Military District. Since June 1931 he was a member of the war council and commissioner for special tasks and from August 1932 he worked in the Red Army as assistant to the inspector of the cavalry. In 1933 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy , was appointed deputy commander in January 1934 and from July 1935 commander of the 7th Cavalry Division. On November 26, 1935, he received the rank of brigade commander. In April 1936 he was reappointed deputy commander and in January 1937 again commander of this division. From July 1937 to October 1940 he held the position of Chief of Staff of the 5th Cavalry Corps in the Leningrad Military District, and in July 1939 his corps was transferred to the Kiev Military District.

At the beginning of World War II , he took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland with his 5th Cavalry Corps in September 1939 and was promoted to major general on June 4, 1940 . From October 1940 he commanded the 96th Mountain Division. In March 1941 he was appointed commander of the 2nd Cavalry Corps. At the beginning of the Patriotic War , his cavalry corps was part of the southern front . During the Munich Operation his cavalry secured the retreat of the 9th and 18th Armies from the Tiraspol area across the Dniester . Later the cavalry corps was moved from Moscow to the central sector of the Bryansk Front for defense . In November and December 1941 he led a successful defensive battle against the German attackers in the Battle of Tula , for which his units were awarded the title of 1st "Guard" Cavalry Corps. On January 2, 1942, he was appointed lieutenant general. During the Rzhev-Vyazma Operation (1942), he fought deep behind enemy lines for more than 5 months. Together with partisans and parachute troops, the "Group Below" cut through and threatened the two lifelines of the 4 armies of Army Group Center . On the taxiway Roslavl - Juchnow and the Smolensk - Vyazma road , supplies had to be fought through in a convoy system in a grueling battle that lasted for months. To destroy this group, the Wehrmacht carried out the "Hanover I" (May 24 to May 30, 1942) and "Hanover II" (June 3 to June 16, 1942), in which Below's troops escaped several times and in the end it did Split managed to strike back through the front line to their own troops. Chief of Staff Franz Halder noted on June 16, 1941:

"At H.Gr. In the middle, Below broke out again in the direction of Kirow. Not an honor sheet for us! "

The two companies deployed 20,000 men and 7 divisions against belows. It was the XXXXVI. Panzer Corps ( 23rd Infantry Division , 197th Infantry Division , 5th Panzer Division ), the XXXXIII. Corps ( 34th Infantry Division , 19th Panzer Division ) and the XII. Army Corps ( 131st Infantry Division ) and the 221st Security Division . Halder noted on June 17, 1942:

“The Below Cavalry Corps is now haunted west of Kirov. After all, the man set a total of 7 German divisions in motion. "

Hitler's adjutant Nicolaus von Below reports that Hitler had warned him several times that he "should finally bring my 'cousin' to reason!"

In June 1942 Below was appointed commander of the 61st Army , which was used in the new formation of the Brjansk Front. As a result of the victory in the Oryol operation, his troops penetrated through Chernigov to the east of Mosyr . In the period from 26 September to 1 October 1943 forced his army units north of Kiev the transition of Dnejpr what near Ljutesch established a bridgehead on the right bank of the river. On January 15, 1944, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and on July 26, 1944, he was given the rank of Colonel General. At the end of the war in 1945, his troops fought their way to East Pomerania via Warsaw and Posen . His 61st Army was finally used in the Berlin operation as part of the 1st Belarusian Front .

After the war, Colonel General Below was appointed commander of the Don Military District from 1945 to 1946, then he commanded the North Caucasian Military District until 1948 and finally the South Urals Military District until 1955. In 1949 he completed the Higher Academic Courses at the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy. In May 1955 he became chairman of the central committee of the DOSAAF . In the end he became a member of the Supreme Council of the USSR. He retired at the end of September 1960, died in 1962 and was buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.

Web links

• http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1074

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Philippi , Ferdinand Heim : The campaign against Soviet Russia 1941 to 1945. An operational overview . Stuttgart 1962, p. 110.
2. ^ Franz Halder : War diary. Daily records of the Chief of the Army General Staff 1939–1942 . Stuttgart 1962, Volume 3, p. 457.
3. ↑ Bernd Wegner : The war against the Soviet Union 1942/43 . In: MGFA (Hrsg.): The German Reich and the Second World War . Stuttgart 1990, Volume 6, p. 865.
4. ^ Halder, War Diary, p. 458.
5. ↑ Nicolaus von Below : As Hitler's adjutant 1937-45 . Selent 1999, p. 319.