Pavel Batov

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Pavel Ivanovich Batov
Cross of St. George
Other workChief of the Soviet Veterans Committee (1970-1981)

Pavel Ivanovich Batov (

65th Army. Postwar, Batov commanded the Carpathian Military District.[2]

Early military career

Born in Filisovo in 1897, Batov began his military career during

Bolshevik movement.[3]

Pavel Batov in 1916

Batov served for four years in the Red Army during the civil war, initially as a machine gunner, and also as assistant military chief of the Rybinsk Military Committee, his first staff work. He was given command of a company in 1926, and was chosen to attend the Vystrel Officer's School the same year, where he met many future senior officers of the wartime Red Army. He joined the Communist Party in 1929.[4]

In 1927, Batov was promoted to command a battalion of the prestigious

1st Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division
. He would serve in this unit for the next nine years, rising to command of the 3rd Regiment. His divisional commander in 1936 wrote:

Comrade Batov has commanded a regiment for more than three years. In the course of that time, the regiment has occupied first place in the division in all categories of combat and political training. In tactical training, the regiment stands out as superb; I always sent the regiment out on the main axis.[5]

Batov soon received the "Sign of Honour" medal, and completed the

Frunze Academy by correspondence course.[6]

Spanish Civil War

Batov was selected to "volunteer" for service in the

A.I Rodimtsev, at the Guadalajara and on the Aragon front, where he was wounded again.[7]

Occupation of Poland and the Winter War

Returning to the Soviet Union in December 1937, Batov successively commanded the

Transcaucasus Military District. The outbreak of war with Germany would find him deep in the south of the USSR.[8]

World War II

In June 1941, Batov was in command of the

51st Army, and following the evacuation of that army from the Kerch Peninsula he rose again to full command. Although the Crimea had been lost, Batov was exonerated by Stalin.[11]

In January 1942, he joined the

K. K. Rokossovski. Rokossovski noted that Batov preferred active command to "sit[ing] in the headquarters", and that his current role was "a burden" to him.[12] Batov and Rokossovski formed a professional and personal bond that would last beyond the latter's death in 1968, and Batov would continue to serve under Rokossovski's command until the end of the war.[13]

On October 22, 1942, Batov was moved to command of the

Stalingrad, replacing Mjr. Gen. V.D. Kryuchenkin. This army, soon renamed the 65th Army, formed part of Rokossovski's Don Front. Batov remained in command of 65th Army for the duration. He helped to plan the Soviet counteroffensive, Operation Uranus, providing key intelligence to Gen. Zhukov regarding the boundaries between German and Romanian forces. His army formed a key strike force in this offensive, and the subsequent Operation Ring
, which reduced and defeated the encircled Axis forces. Rokossovski later wrote:

[He] displayed fine initiative with an improvised mobile task force... By striking at the enemy's flank and rear, the task force ensured the swift advance of the other units.[14]

Following this victory 65th Army was moved to the northwest, rejoining Rokossovski as part of his new

Dnieper, earning Batov and his army a formidable reputation in river-crossing operations.[15]

Rokossovski's command was first renamed as Belorussian Front, and later as

Ninth Army was encircled and mostly destroyed. For his performance, Batov was promoted to Colonel General.[17]

The 65th Army crossed the

Narev River, north of Warsaw, by September 4. Operation Bagration had run out of steam, but Batov's army held off strong German counterattacks against the Narev bridgehead for more than two months.[18] Following this, Rokossovski's command was renamed 2nd Belorussian Front
, and forces were built up in the bridgehead for an offensive to be launched in January.

During the new offensive, 65th Army forced a crossing of the

Vistula River
in early February. Rokossovski later noted:

I had been with 65th Army since Stalingrad and had had ample opportunity to observe the splendid combat qualities of its men, commanders, and, of course, Pavel Batov, a brave and talented soldier.[19]

The winter offensive propelled Batov's army into eastern Germany, finally to the

Oder River, near Stettin-an-Oder, where it once again forced a difficult river crossing in April 1945. Officials of the city surrendered to Batov's 193rd Rifle Division on April 26.[20]

Following the War

Army General Pavel Batov

After the war, Batov held various senior commands. In the summer of 1945, he was appointed to command the 7th Mechanized Army in Poland, and as force levels decreased, the

Voroshilov General Staff Academy. During this time he also became a prolific writer on military theory. His treatise on river-crossing operations is still consulted to this day.[21]

Batov became the commander of the

1956 Hungarian Revolt.[22] He was transferred to command the Baltic Military District (1958-1959), the Southern Group of Forces (1960-1962), and finally Deputy Chief of Staff of Warsaw Pact Forces (1962-1965), replacing the deceased General A. I. Antonov. Batov resigned as an active Soviet Army officer in 1965, but continued to work in the Defense Ministry Inspectorate, and from 1970 to 1981 as Chief of the Soviet Veterans Committee. He wrote his memoirs during this time.[23] He remained a close personal friend of Rokossovski until the latter's death in 1968, and was entrusted with the task of editing and publishing his former commander's memoirs.[24]

Although mostly unknown to the general public, Batov had a well-deserved reputation of competence and takes place among the myriad of the talented generals who, after surviving the first part of the Soviet-Nazi war, greatly contributed to the final victory over the Nazis. He was fond of saying, "One must beat the enemy artfully, and that means with little blood." A post-war Western intelligence assessment summed him up as follows:

During World War II, Batov enjoyed much confidence and great respect from the troops because he was one of the few senior officers who went to the front lines during battles and conversed with the soldiers. He was much admired by the soldiers for this very fact. He proved himself a capable and talented military leader and teacher of troops during the war.[25]

Batov died on April 19, 1985, in Moscow and was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.

Awards and honors

Soviet
Foreign

References

  1. David Glantz
    , "Pavel Ivanovich Batov", in Stalin's Generals, (Harold Shukman, Ed.), Phoenix Press, 2001, pp 35 & 42
  2. ^ "Pavel Batov". Герои страны ("Heroes of the Country") (in Russian).
  3. ^ Glantz, p 35
  4. ^ Glantz, p 36
  5. ^ Glantz, p 36
  6. ^ Glantz, p 36
  7. ^ Glantz, pp 36-37
  8. ^ Glantz, p 37
  9. ^ Robert Forczyk, Where The Iron Crosses Grow, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2014, p 34
  10. ^ Glantz, p 37
  11. ^ Glantz, p 38
  12. ^ Dr. Boris Sokolov, Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky, trans. and edited by Stuart Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, p 187
  13. ^ Glantz, pp 38 - 39
  14. ^ Glantz, p 39
  15. ^ Glantz, p 40
  16. ^ Earl F. Ziemke, The Soviet Juggernaut, Time-Life Books, Chicago, 1980, pp 127 - 29
  17. ^ Glantz, p 41
  18. ^ Glantz, p 41
  19. ^ Glantz, p 41
  20. ^ Nikolai Litvin, 800 Days on the Eastern Front, University Press of Kansas, 2007, p 104
  21. ^ Glantz, p 41, 42
  22. ISBN 9781598849486
    .
  23. ^ Glantz, p 42
  24. ^ Richard Woff, "Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky", in Stalin's Generals, (Harold Shukman, Ed.), Phoenix Press, 2001, p 196
  25. ^ Glantz, p 43

External links

  • Pavel Ivanovich Batov
  • David Glantz, "Pavel Ivanovich Batov", in Stalin's Generals, (Harold Shukman, Ed.), Phoenix Press, 2001
  • K. K. Rokossovski, "A Soldier's Duty", Moscow, 1988
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