Western Front (Soviet Union)
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Western Front | |
---|---|
Battle of Smolensk (1943) | |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Dmitry Pavlov, Andrey Yeryomenko, Semyon Timoshenko, Ivan Konev, Georgy Zhukov, Vasily Sokolovsky |
The Western Front was a
The Western Front was created on 22 June 1941 from the Western Special Military District (which before July 1940 was known as
The western boundary of the Front in June 1941 was 470 km (290 mi) long, from the southern border of
Operational history
Front dispositions 22 June 1941
The 1939 partition of Poland according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact established a new western border with no permanent defense installations, and the army deployment within the Front created weak flanks.
At the outbreak of war with Germany, the Western Special Military District was, in accordance with Soviet pre-war planning, immediately converted into the Western Front, under the District's commander, Army General Dmitry Pavlov. The main forces of the Western Front were concentrated forward along the frontier, organized in three armies. To defend the
Among forces of Frontal designation were the
The Western Front was on the main axis of attack by the German
Defeat on the Frontiers 22–28 June
The war started disastrously for the Western Front with the
Soviet command and control suffered almost complete breakdown. Worst hit was the 4th Army, which failed to establish communications with headquarters both above and below it. Attempts to launch a counter-attack with the 10th Army on 23 June were unsuccessful. That same day the German Third Panzer Group captured Vilnius after outflanking the 3rd Army.[4] On 24 June, Pavlov again attempted to organize a counter-attack, assigning his deputy Lieutenant General Ivan Boldin the command of the 6th and 11th Mechanized Corps and the 6th Cavalry Corps, commanded by Major General Ivan Semenovich Nikitin. With this mobile force Boldin was to attack northward from the Białystok region towards Grodno to prevent encirclement of Soviet forces in the salient.[5]
This attempted counter-attack was also fruitless. Almost without any interference from Soviet fighters, the close support aircraft of Germany's
We found the main roads in the area heavily congested with Russian vehicles of all kinds, but no fighter opposition and very little flak. We made one firing pass after another and caused terrible destruction on the ground. Literally everything was ablaze by the time we turned for home. This air operation continued until nightfall on 24th June, resulting in 105 tanks reportedly destroyed by German aircraft. Particularly successful attacks were made by the Dornier Do 17's of KG 2. In effect Pavlov's counter-attack was completely routed.[6]
Of the 6th Mechanized Corps' 1,212 tanks, only about 200 reached their assembly areas due to air attacks and mechanical breakdowns, and even they ran out of fuel by the end of the day. The same fate awaited the 243 tanks of the 11th Mechanized Corps, ordered to attack towards Grodno on 25 June.[7] The 6th Cavalry Corps suffered 50% casualties and its commander, Nikitin, was captured. The attempted attack allowed many Soviet forces to escape from the Białystok region towards Minsk, but this brought only temporary relief. With both the German Second and Third Panzer Groups racing towards Minsk on the Western Front's southern and northern flanks, a new encirclement threatened.[8]
In the evening of 25 June, the German 47th Panzer Corps cut between Slonim and Vawkavysk, forcing the attempted withdrawal of troops in the salient to avoid encirclement and opening the southern approaches to Minsk.
Pavlov dispatched orders to disengage and withdraw into new defences behind the
On 27 June 1941, the German Second and Third Panzer Groups striking from south and north linked up near Minsk, surrounding and eventually destroying the Soviet 3rd, 10th and 13th Armies, and portions of the 4th Army, in total about 20 divisions, while the remainder of the 4th Army fell back eastwards toward the
In the first 18 days of the war, the Western Front had suffered 417,790 casualties, lost 9,427 guns and mortars, 4,799 tanks and 1,777 combat aircraft, and practically ceased to exist as a military force.[10]
The Front commander,
Western Front reorganized 28 June – 2 July
Furious over the loss of Minsk on 28 June, Stalin replaced the disgraced Pavlov with Colonel General
Then on 2 July Stalin appointed Semyon Timoshenko, Marshal of the Soviet Union and People's Commissar for Defence, to command the Western Front, with Yeryomenko and Marshal Semyon Budyonny as his deputies. At the same time Stalin transferred four armies, the 19th Army, 20th Army, 21st Army and 22nd Army, from Marshal Budyonny's Group of Reserve Armies to the Western Front. After a telephone conversation with Timoshenko, Stalin added a fifth reserve army, the weak 16th Army, as well.[13]
Timoshenko's orders were to defend the
German advance to the Dniepr 2–9 July
The Western Front had been given a brief respite to erect new defences while the Germans reduced the pockets created during the Białystok-Minsk battles. With the Minsk pocket nearly disintegrated, the German Panzer Groups resumed their offensive against the Western Front on 2 July. On the Front's northern flank, the advance of Hoth's forces was hampered by poor weather. The
Kreizer launched his counter-attack against the German bridgehead at Borisov on 3 July, but the defenders had been forewarned by radio intercepts and air reconnaissance, and with their superior tactics beat back this isolated Soviet attack. Defeated, Kreizer accordingly retreated behind the
The Smolensk pocket
The Front took part in the fierce Battle of Smolensk (1941), which managed to disrupt the German blitzkrieg for two months. The Germans successfully encircled and destroyed large parts of the Soviet 16th, 19th, and 20th Armies.
During July the Western Front's area of responsibility was reduced by the formation of the new
Stiffening Soviet resistance in the centre convinced Hitler to put a temporary halt to the advance towards Moscow and divert the Army Group Centre's armour towards Leningrad and Kiev.
The Soviet Dukhovshchina Offensive
On 17 August, the Western Front launched an offensive towards Dukhovshchina as part of a larger Soviet attempt to counter-attack. However, despite some local successes, the offensive failed to breach the German defenses and the offensive was called off 10 September.
Newly promoted Colonel General Ivan Konev took over command in September when Timoshenko was transferred south to restore the situation in the then ongoing Battle of Kiev.
The Vyazma pocket
On 2 October, German forces resumed their advance on Moscow with the launch of Operation Typhoon. The Western Front again suffered immense losses when large parts of its forces were encircled near Vyazma.
Assault on Moscow
When Zhukov took over on 10 October, the
The Soviets just managed to halt the German advance in the Battle of Moscow, leading to further furious fighting in the Battles of Rzhev just to the west. In May 1942 the Front's air forces became the 1st Air Army.
Later operations in World War II
The Front appears to have controlled the three armies - the
On 24 April 1944, the Front was divided into the 2nd Belorussian Front and 3rd Belorussian Front.
Status today
Russian ground troops continue the Soviet Army's organizational arrangement of having military districts that have both a wartime territorial administration role and the capability to generate formation headquarters (HQs) to command fronts. This was emphasized by reports of a Moscow Military District exercise in April 2001, when the district's units were to be divided into two groups, "one operating for the western front and the other for the wartime military district".[25]
Commanders
- General of the Army Dmitri G. Pavlov (to 28 June 1941; executed)
- Andrey Yeryomenko (28 June – 2 July 1941)
- Marshal Semyon K. Timoshenko (2 July – September, 1941)
- Lt. General Ivan S. Konev [promoted to Colonel General in September 1941] (September–October 1941; August 1942 – February 1943)
- General Georgy K. Zhukov (October 1941 – August 1942)
- Colonel General V. D. Sokolovsky [promoted to full General in August 1943] (February 1943 – April 1944)
References
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 29–31.
- ^ "Боевой состав Советской Армии на 22 июня 1941 г. (eng trans:The combat composition of the Soviet Army on June 22, 1941)" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 28 November 2009.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 37n30.
- ^ a b Glantz 2010, p. 29.
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Barbarossa - The Air Battle: July–December 1941 by Christer Bergstrom, 2007 pp. 20-23.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 37n34.
- ^ a b Glantz 2010, p. 32.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 38n39.
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 56–57.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 60.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 58.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 59.
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 65.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 67.
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Glantz 2010, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 68.
- ^ Glantz 2010, p. 64.
- ISBN 9781781592915.
- ^ Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, 1975, p. 218
- ^ "Боевой состав Советской Армии на 1 сентября 1941 г. (Eng. trans: The combat composition of the Soviet Army on September 1, 1941)" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 26 February 2010.
- ^ AVN Military News Agency 16 April 2001, via BBC Monitoring Global Newsline FSU Political File 17 April 2001.
- Glantz, David (2010). Barbarossa Derailed: The Battle For Smolensk. Vol. 1. Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1-906033-72-9.
- Steven J. Main "The Belarusian Armed Forces: a Military-Political Analysis 1991-2003", G126, Conflict Studies Research Centre, October 2003, available via CSRC website