Voronezh Front

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The Voronezh Front ( Воронежский Фронт wiss. Transliteration Voronežskij Front ) was a military formation of the Red Army at the time of World War II . The front was formed at the end of June 1942 when German troops as part of the Blue Company reached Voronezh. In October 1943 it was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Front .

Voronezh Front 1942–1943

After being set up, the front took part in the battle for the eponymous city of Voronezh . In December 1942 they carried out the Middle Don Operation together with the Southwest Front , during which the Italian 8th Army was crushed. In January 1943, the front also smashed the Hungarian 2nd Army as part of the Voronezh-Kharkiv operation , and in February retook Kursk , Belgorod and Kharkov as part of Operation Stern . This operation culminated in the Third Battle of Kharkov in March , in which large parts of the previous territorial gains were lost again.

In August 1943 the front was one of the troops concentrated in the Kursk front arc. In the course of the Battle of Kursk , she defended to the south and led the Battle of Prokhorovka . During Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev , which began on August 3, 1943, the Voronezh Front was able to retake both Belgorod and Kharkov. In the further course the front participated in the liberation of eastern Ukraine through the Battle of the Dnieper . On October 20, 1943, it was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Front .

Operations of the 1st Ukrainian Front 1943–1945

1szy ukraiński.jpg

structure

Operation star
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
1st Ukrainian Front

Front command

Voronezh Front
1st Ukrainian Front

Ethnic composition of the troops

Contrary to what the Polish Foreign Minister Schetyna claimed in the context of the Ukraine crisis in January 2015 , the 1st Ukrainian Front did not consist primarily of Ukrainians, but of people from all the peoples of the Soviet Union (mainly Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Georgians, etc.), the proportion of Ukrainians was not above average.

literature

  • John Erickson: Road to Stalingrad. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1975, ISBN 0-297-76877-8 ( Stalin's war with Germany 1).
  • John Erickson: Road to Berlin. Continuing the History of Stalin's war with Germany. Westview Press, Boulder CO 1983, ISBN 0-89158-795-0 .
  • David M. Glantz : From the Don to the Dnepr. Soviet Offensive Operations. December 1942 - August 1943. Frank Cass, London 1991, ISBN 0-7146-4064-6 ( Cass Series on Soviet Military Experience ).
  • István Nemeskürty: Fall of an Army. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1976 (2nd edition, ibid 1982).
  • Earl F. Ziemke: Stalingrad to Berlin. The German defeat in the East. United States Army - Office of the Chief of Military History , Washington, DC 1968 ( Army historical series. ZDB -ID 1121970-1 ), (several reprints).
  • Lajos Vollner: Voronezh, The fate of Hungarian soldiers on the Don / Russia between 1942/43. Bauer-Verlag, Thalhofen 2011, ISBN 978-3-941013-73-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ sueddeutsche.de of January 27, 2015: Russia struggles for the memory of Auschwitz - history as a weapon