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Demyansk Offensive
The Battle of Demyansk was part of the Soviet offensive Operation Polar Star against Axis forces which took place in Demyansk from 15 to 28 February 1943. The Northwestern Front and Mikhail Khozin Special Group engaged the 16th Army of Army Group North in an operation for control of Demyansk and to destroy Axis forces in the region. As a result of the Demyansk Offensive, the Northwestern Front eliminated the Demyansk salient, but the original plan of envelopment failed. Background At the beginning of 1942, the troops of the Northwestern Front, advancing in the direction of Staraya Russa, had achieved considerable success in encircling the 16th Army in the area of Demyansk. However, they failed to destroy the 16th Army. On 21 April, Kampfgruppe Seydlitz was reopen supply lines to the pocket by opening the Ramushevo Corridor. Soviet troops repeatedly tried to cut the corridor, but the attacks were unsuccessful. In October, Stavka replaced Pavel Kurochkin in command of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demyansk
Demyansk (russian: Демя́нск) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Demyansky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located along the Yavon River. Municipally, it is incorporated as Demyanskoye Urban Settlement, the only urban settlement in the district. Population: History Demyansk was first mentioned in a chronicle in 1406 as Demon. The area was a part of Derevskaya Pyatina of Novgorod. Demon was a fortress protecting a waterway from Lake Ilmen upstream the Pola and the Yavon to Lake Seliger. The fortress was located close to the boundary between the Novgorod Republic and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and it was at least twice sieged by Muscovite troops. In 1441, the Muscovites did not manage to conquer Demon, but in the 1470s they conquered and destroyed the fortress. After the subsequent fall of Novgorod, Demon was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In the 17th century, Demon went into decline, and a new settlement was founded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army Group North
Army Group North (german: Heeresgruppe Nord) was a German strategic formation, commanding a grouping of field armies during World War II. The German Army Group was subordinated to the ''Oberkommando des Heeres'' (OKH), the German army high command, and coordinated the operations of attached separate army corps, reserve formations, rear services and logistics, including the Army Group North Rear Area. Operational history The Army Group North was created on the 2 September 1939 by reorganization of the 2nd Army Headquarters. Commander in Chief as of 27 August 1939 was Field Marshal Fedor von Bock. Invasion of Poland The first employment of Army Group North was in the invasion of Poland of 1939, where in September it controlled: * 3rd Army * 4th Army * a reserve of four divisions ** 10th Panzer Division ** 73rd Infantry Division ** 206th Infantry Division ** 208th Infantry Division. The Army Group was commanded by Fedor von Bock for the operation. After the end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
68th Army (Soviet Union)
The 68th Army was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army. It was formed in February 1943 from the headquarters of the 57th Army and fought in the Battle of Demyansk (1943) and the Staraya-Russa Offensive (1943), part of Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda. After spending several months in reserve, the army fought in the Battle of Smolensk (1943) between August and October. The army was disbanded in November and its troops became part of the 5th Army. History Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda The 68th Army was formed on 1 February 1943 based on a Stavka directive dated 30 January, from the headquarters of the 57th Army. It consisted of the 37th Rifle Division, the 1st Guards, 5th Guards, 7th Guards, 8th Guards, and 10th Guards Airborne Divisions, the 32nd, 33rd, and 137th Rifle Brigades, the 26th Ski Brigade and other units. After the formation of the army under command of Fyodor Tolbukhin it became part of Group Khozin. In mid-February, it concentrated south of Zaluchye to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
27th Army (Soviet Union)
The 27th Army was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which fought in World War II. First formation The 27th Army was formed in May 1941, under the command of Major General Nikolai Berzarin. On 22 June 1941 it consisted of the 22nd and 24th Territorial Rifle Corps, the 16th and 67th Rifle Divisions, 3rd Separate Rifle Brigade, two artillery regiments, and two anti-tank regiments. It became part of the Northwestern Front on the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa, fighting in the Soviet defense of the Baltic, known in Soviet historiography as the Baltic Strategic Defensive Operation. From June to October 1941 the 27th Army fought on the Dvina River, during the Staraya Russa Offensive, and at Kholm and Demyansk. By 1 November 1941 the army's forces had been reduced to the 23rd and 33rd Rifle Divisions, the 613th Artillery Regiment of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (RVGK), the 28th Tank Division, and three Battalions of engineers. In December 1941 the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volkhov Front
The Volkhov Front (russian: Волховский фронт) was a major formation of the Red Army during the first period of the Second World War. It was formed as an expediency of an early attempt to halt the advance of the Wehrmacht Army Group North in its offensive thrust towards Leningrad. Initially the front operated to the south of Leningrad, with its flank on Lake Ladoga. First formation The Volkhov Front was formed on 17 December 1941 from the left wing of the Leningrad Front and elements of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (''Stavka'' Reserve) during the conduct of the Tikhvin Offensive operation under the command of the Army General Kirill Meretskov, with General Grigory Stelmakh (former commander of the 4th Army) as Chief of Staff and Army Commissar of 1st rank A.I.Zaporozhets.Meretskov, On the service of the nation, Ch.6 Initially Sokolov's 26th Army (later 2nd Shock Army) and Galanin's 59th Armies were allocated to the Front's formation. The Front also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leningrad Front
The Leningrad Front (russian: Ленинградский фронт) was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front The Karelian Front russian: Карельский фронт) was a front (a formation of Army Group size) of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, and operated in Karelia. Wartime The Karelian Front was created in August 1941 when ... on August 27, 1941. History The Leningrad Front was immediately given the task of containing the German drive towards Leningrad and defending the city from the approaching Army Group North. By September 1941, German forces to the south were effectively stopped on the outskirts of Leningrad, initiating the two-and-a-half-year-long siege of Leningrad. Although Finnish Army, Finnish forces to the north stopped at the old Finnish–Soviet border, the Leningrad front suffered severe losses on the Continuation War, F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Iskra
Operation Iskra (russian: операция Искра , translation = Operation Spark), a Soviet military operation in January 1943 during World War II, aimed to break the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shortly after the failure of the Sinyavino Offensive. The German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 had weakened the German front. By January 1943, Soviet forces were planning or conducting offensive operations across the entire German-Soviet Front, especially in southern Russia; Iskra formed the northern part of the wider Soviet 1942–1943 winter counteroffensive.Glantz p. 259 The operation was conducted by the Red Army's Leningrad Front, Volkhov Front, and the Baltic Fleet from 12 to 30 January 1943 with the aim of creating a land connection to Leningrad. Soviet forces linked up on 18 January, and by 22 January, the front line had stabilised. The operation successfully opened a land corridor wide to the city. A railroad was swif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
53rd Army (Soviet Union)
The 53rd Army was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army which was formed in August 1941, disbanded in December 1941, and reformed in May 1942. It fought throughout World War II before again being disbanded after the war in October 1945. The army was first formed for the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran and was disbanded there in December 1941. The army reformed in May 1942. It fought in the Demyansk Pocket, the Battle of Kursk, the Battle of Belgorod, the Battle of the Dnieper, the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket, the Uman–Botoșani Offensive, the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, the Battle of Debrecen, the Budapest Offensive, and the Prague Offensive. At the end of the war in Europe it was moved to the Far East and fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. The army was disbanded in October 1945. History First formation The 53rd Army was created by a Stavka directive on August 23, 1941. Its immediate task was to occupy Iran in conjunction with the Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
34th Army (Soviet Union)
The 34th Army was part of the Red Army during the Second World War. The army was formed on 16 July 1941 in the Moscow Military District. Combat history 1941 On 18 July the army was assigned to the Moscow line of defense occupying positions west of Maloyaroslavets where it was assigned troops. On 25 July the army became part of the backup for Lieutenant General Bagdanov, which on 30 July was designated as the Reserve Front the army headquarters located in Lüübnitsa, Russia (now Estonia). On 6 August the army was reassigned to the Northwestern Front. Composition on 1 August 1941: : 245th Rifle Division : 257th Rifle Division : 259th Rifle Division : 262nd Rifle Division : 25th Cavalry Division : 54th Cavalry Division :171st Antitank Artillery Regiment :759th Antitank Artillery Regiment :16th Armored Train :59th Armored Train The army was tasked to defend the eastern bank of the Lovat River from Kholm to Kulakovo south of the German-held city of Staraya Russa. STAVKA Direct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
11th Army (Soviet Union)
The 11th Army was an army of the Red Army, formed four times. The first formation was a unit of the then newly created Soviet armed forces. It was formed by the Bolsheviks on October 3, 1918, from the Red Northern Caucasus Army. In February 1919 it was dissolved and was again deployed in March 1919 as a subdivision of the Caspian-Caucasian Front. It took a prominent part in the sovietization of the three republics of the southern Caucasus in 1920–21, when Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia were brought within the orbit of Soviet Russia. In 1939 the 11th Army (2nd formation) was formed in the Belarusian Special Military District (BSMD) from the former Minsk Army Group. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Baltic Operation, the Demyansk Pocket, and the Battle of Kursk. The army disbanded in December 1943. Russian Civil War World War Two In 1939 the 11th Army (2nd formation) was formed in the Belarusian Special Military District (BSMD) from the former Minsk Army Gro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st Shock Army
The 1st Shock Army (russian: 1-я ударная армия) was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. The 1st Shock Army was created in late 1941 and fought in the northern areas of Russia and the Baltic States until the surrender of Germany in 1945. The Army was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to 'overcome difficult defensive dispositions in order to create a tactical penetration of sufficient breadth and depth to permit the commitment of mobile formations for deeper exploitation.' However, as the war went on, Shock Armies lost this specific role and reverted, in general, to ordinary frontline formations. History The 1st Shock Army was formed as part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (RVGK, the Stavka reserve) at Zagorsk (now Sergiyev Posad) in the Moscow Military District in November 1941. Taking part in the Battle of Moscow in December 1941, on 1 December the Army consisted of the 133r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pavel Kurochkin
Pavel Alekseyevich Kurochkin (russian: Па́вел Алексе́евич Ку́рочкин; – 28 December 1989) was a Soviet army commander. Military career Pavel Kurochkin was born in the village of Gornevo, Smolensk Governorate. He joined the Red Army in 1918. Kurochkin completed cavalry courses in Petrograd in 1920, the year when he also joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He graduated from the Red Army High Cavalry school in 1923, the Frunze Military Academy in 1932 and the General Staff Academy in 1940. Russian Civil War During the Civil War, Kurochkin saw action against General Pyotr Krasnov near Gatchina, the British-American intervention in the north and General Nikolai Yudenich in 1919. He commanded a cavalry regiment in the Polish-Soviet war and was involved in the suppression of the Tambov Rebellion in 1921. Inter-war period In 1935 he was promoted to chief commander of a cavalry division. After the Soviet-Finnish war broke out, he t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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