North Caucasus Front
North Caucasus Front | |
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Active | May 20, 1942 - September 1, 1942 January 24, 1943 - November 20, 1943 |
Country | Ivan Yefimovich Petrov |
The North Caucasus Front, also translated as North Caucasian Front, was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War.
The North Caucasus Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war.
First Creation
The first formation was created on May 20, 1942 and was commanded by Marshal Semyon M. Budenny throughout its existence.
The Front incorporated forces from the (disbanded) Crimean Front and received additional forces from the (disbanded) Southern Front on July 28, 1942. The Front was composed of
- Ivan Yefimovich Petrov),
- 47th Soviet Army (Grigory Kotov),
- 51st Soviet Army (Nikolai Kirichenko and Trofim Kolomiets).
The
The Front also had operational control over
- the Sevastopol Defence Region,
- the Ivan Yefimovich Petrov),
- the Black Sea Fleet,
- the Azov Flotilla.
The task of the North Caucasus Front was to keep the Sevastopol defensive area and to defend the border of the Don River and the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas.
The isolated city of Sebastopol fell on July 4, 1942. From July 25 to August 5, 1942, the front troops fought heavy defensive battles in the lower reaches of the Don, and then in the Stavropol and Krasnodar area's. In August–September 1942, the front troops conducted the Armavir-Maikop and Novorossiysk operations, but were unable to prevent the enemy from breaking in the Caucasus along the Black Sea.
On September 1, 1942 the Front was reorganized as the
Second Creation
.
The second formation of this Front was created on January 24, 1943 from the
During the long series of engagements known as the Battle of the Caucasus, the North Caucasian Front included the
- Black Sea Group of Forces consisting of the
- 46th Army (Konstantin Leselidze),
- Alexander Ryzhov),
- 47th Army (Fyodor Kamkov),
- 56th Army (Andrei Grechko),
- 5th Air Army (Sergei Goryunov),
- 13th Separate Rifle Corps
- 16th Separate Rifle Corps.
- The Northern Group of Forces commanded the
- 37th Army (Pyotr Kozlov,
- Konstantin Koroteev),
- 58th Army (Kondrat Melnik),
- 44th Army (Vasily Khomenko),
- 4th Air Army (Nikolai Naumenko),
- 10th Separate Rifle Corps.
Additionally it commanded the Black Sea Fleet and the Baku Army of PVO.
The fighting remained reasonably static from February until September 1943 when the Germans ordered fresh withdrawals from the Kuban bridgehead, which effectively ended the period of fighting in the Caucasus. The Front was reorganized into the