Central Front

Central Front
Active	July 24 – August 25, 1941 February 15 – October 20, 1943
Country	Mikhail Yefremov Konstantin Rokossovsky

The Central Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War formed on July 24, 1941.^[1]

The Central Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first entity existed for just a month during the German invasion of 1941, before it was annihilated. A year and a half later, the name was revived for the second creation, which existed for about eight months in 1943, until it was incorporated into the Belorussian group of Fronts and renamed accordingly.

First formation

The first version was created on July 24, 1941, from the right wing of the forces in the

The Front was a combination of the 13th and 21st Armies.

• The 13th Army (Konstantin Golubev) had under command
  • in the area of Mogilev, the
    • 61st Rifle Corps,
    • 20th Mechanised Corps,
  • in the area of Krichevsky, the
    • 45th Rifle corps,
    • 20th Rifle Corps.
• The
  Mikhail Yefremov
  , was the other initial component of the Front:
  • 25th Mechanised Corps,
  • 66th Rifle Corps,
  • 63rd Rifle Corps,
  • 21st Rifle Corps,
  • 67th Rifle Corps.

The new Front's air component was 136 aircraft (75 patched and repaired) under the command of Major General (Aviation) Grigory Vorozheikin.^[2] The Central Front thus became the first new Front formed after the German invasion.

At the time the Front was created its boundary with the Western front was along the

On August 8, Heinz Guderian's

The second version of this Front was created on February 15, 1943, from the Don Front. Then Colonel General Konstantin K. Rokossovsky took command, and was promoted to full General in April 1943. Lieutenant General Mikhail Malinin was named as Front Chief of Staff, while Major General K.F.Telegin was made the member of the Front's Military Council.

The Front incorporated the headquarters and forces of the Don Front, plus additional armies were made part of the Front :

• Alexey Rodin
  ,
• 21st Army - Ivan Chistyakov,
• 65th Army - Pavel Batov
  ,
• 70th Army (originally formed from NKVD forces) - German Tarasov
• 16th Air Army - General Lieutenant Sergei Rudenko.

The Front's headquarters was established around 10 km to the east of Yelets.

As part of Stavka's general move to integrate and rationalise its Army Groups, the Front was renamed the 1st Belorussian Front on October 20, 1943.

Sources and references