Kursk Offensive (2024–present)
The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in a Soviet victory. The Battle of Kursk is the single largest battle in the Military history, history of warfare. It ranks only behind the Battle of Stalingrad several months earlier as the most often-cited turning point in the European theatre of World War II, European theatre of the war. It was one of the costliest battles of the Second World War, the single deadliest armoured battle in history, and the opening day of the battle, 5 July, was the single costliest day in the history of aerial warfare in terms of aircraft shot down. The battle was further marked by fierce Urban warfare, house-to-house fighting and hand-to-hand combat. The battle began with the launch of the German offensive Operation Citadel (), ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies of World War II, Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltic states, Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated World War II casualties, 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of World War II, European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( 189618 June 1974) was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces under leader Joseph Stalin, and oversaw some of the Red Army's most decisive victories. He also served at various points as Chief of the General Staff (Russia)#Red Army (1921–1946), Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence (Soviet Union), Minister of Defence, and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Presidium of the Communist Party (Politburo). Born to a poor peasant family near Moscow, Zhukov was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in World War I. He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, after which he quickly rose through the ranks. In summer 1939, Zhukov commanded a Soviet army group to a decisive victory over Japanese forces at the Battle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nikolai Vatutin
Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin (; 16 December 1901 – 15 April 1944) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military commander during World War II who was responsible for many Red Army operations in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR as the commander of the Southwestern Front (Soviet Union), Southwestern Front, and of the Voronezh Front during the Battle of Kursk. During the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive, Soviet offensive to retake right-bank Ukraine, Vatutin led the 1st Ukrainian Front, which was responsible for the Red Army's offensives to the west and the southwest of Kiev and the eventual Battle of Kiev (1943), liberation of the city. He was ambushed and killed in February 1944 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Early life Vatutin was born in Vatutino, Chepukhino village in the Valuysky Uyezd, Voronezh Governorate (named Vatutino, Belgorod Oblast after him in 1968), into a peasant family of Russians, Russian ethnicity. Pre-war military service Commissioned in 1920 t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Voronezh Front
The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime The Voronezh Front was established at the end of June 1942 when tanks of the 6th Army of the German ''Wehrmacht'' reached Voronezh during the early stages of Operation Blau. It was split off the earlier Bryansk Front in order to better defend the Voronezh region. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River. The Voronezh Front participated in the Battle of Voronezh, the defensive operations on the approaches to Stalingrad, and in the December 1942 Operation Saturn, the follow-on to the encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad where it destroyed the Hungarian Second Army. Following Operation Saturn, the front was involved in Operati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pavel Batov
Pavel Ivanovich Batov (; – April 19, 1985) was a senior Red Army general during the World War II, Second World War and afterwards, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Batov fought in World War I, where he was awarded the Cross of St. George twice. After being wounded in 1917, he was sent to a school in Petrograd and joined the Bolsheviks. He fought in the Russian Civil War and became an advisor with the XII International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, Batov commanded the 51st Army (Russia), 51st Army in the Crimea. In 1942, he became the commander of the 3rd Army (Soviet Union), 3rd Army and then the 4th Tank Army, which was renamed the 65th Army (Soviet Union), 65th Army. Postwar, Batov commanded the Carpathian Military District. Early military career Born in Filisovo in 1897, Batov began his military career during World War I. In 1915, he enlisted in a student command and then served as a scout in the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Guard (Rus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ivan Chernyakhovsky
Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky (; ; – 18 February 1945) was the youngest-ever Soviet General of the army. For his leadership during World War II he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union twice. He died from wounds received outside Königsberg at age 37 while in command of the 3rd Belorussian Front. Early life Ivan Chernyakhovsky was born on 29 June 1907 in , Russian Empire (now Uman Raion, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine). His father was a railwayman who died of typhus when his son was nine. He was a railway worker until joining the Red Army in 1924. In 1928 he finished the officer school in Kiev. Due to the rapid pre-war expansion of the military and 1937–1938 military purges, he quickly rose in rank. In 1938 he became commander of the 9th Light Tank Brigade. In March 1941 he became the commander of the 28th Tank Division (Soviet Union), 28th Tank Division in the Baltic Military District. World War II Chernyakhovsky left the 28th Tank Division in late August, but ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky ( 1896 – 3 August 1968) was a Soviet and Polish general who served as a top commander in the Red Army during World War II and achieved the ranks of Marshal of the Soviet Union and Marshal of Poland. He also served as Defence Minister of Poland from 1949 to 1956. Rokossovsky was born to a Polish noble family in Warsaw in present-day Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, or according to other sources in Velikiye Luki in present-day Russia. He served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I, and in 1918, joined the Red Army and fought with distinction during the Russian Civil War. Rokossovsky rose to hold senior Red Army commands by 1937, when he fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and was branded a traitor, imprisoned and tortured. After Soviet failures in the Winter War, Rokossovsky was released from prison in 1940 and returned to command of an army corps. Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, R ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Central Front (Soviet Union)
The Central Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War formed on July 24, 1941. 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 Western Front, including a new designation of the 3rd Army and the headquarters of the (disbanded) 4th Army, whose former HQ formed the Front headquarters. Colonel General Fyodor I. Kuznetsov took command. 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, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pavel Belov
Pavel Alexeyevich Belov (Russian: Павел Алексеевич Белов; 18 February 1897 – 3 December 1963) was a Soviet Army, Soviet Army colonel Colonel general, general and a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was nicknamed the "Fox" by the German Army (1935–1945), Germans and personally led the longest successful war raid, lasting five months behind the German lines. He has earned legendary status and could be considered one of the greatest cavalry generals. Considering his accomplishments from 1941-1945, his adaptation of combining horses, tanks, artillery, and aircraft on a modern battlefield resulted in the victory against a more technologically advanced enemy, often in the most desperate parts of the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front. At the beginning of the war, Belov commanded the 2nd Cavalry Corps (Soviet Union), 2nd Cavalry Corps. During the Battle of Moscow on 26 November, it was renamed and given the honor of becoming the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps, the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alexander Gorbatov
Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov (; 21 March 1891 – 7 December 1973) was a Russian and Soviet officer who served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War and as a colonel-general in the Red Army during the Second World War, and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Following the war, Gorbatov served as a Soviet commandant in Soviet-occupied Germany and East Germany and ultimately retired as a four-star general at the rank of General of the Army. His acclaimed autobiography, entitled "''Years off My Life''" was published in 1964. First World War and aftermath Alexander Gorbatov served in the Imperial Russian Army during the course of the First World War, fighting in numerous engagements along the Eastern Front, including the Battles of Tannenburg, Galicia (Central Europe), Galicia, Przemyśl, the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, both Battles of the Masurian Lakes, the Brusilov offensive, and the Kerensky offensive.Erickson John (1984). The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Markian Popov
Markian Mikhaylovich Popov (; 15 November 1902 – 22 April 1969) was a Soviet military commander, Army general (Soviet Union), Army General (26 August 1943), and Hero of the Soviet Union (1965). Early life Markian Popov was born in 1902 in Ust-Medvediskaya in the Don Host Oblast (now Volgograd Oblast) in a family of Russians, Russian ethnicity. His father was a civil servant. Popov joined the Red Army in 1920 and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Bolshevik Party in 1921. World War II During the German–Soviet War at various times he commanded a number of Army (Soviet Army), Armies and a number of Front (Soviet Army), Fronts. His career was uneven. In June 1941 he was Commander of the Leningrad Military District, then Northern Front (Soviet Union), Northern Front (24 June – 5 September). The Germans advanced with a terrific speed, but then they were halted just before Leningrad. The army group was on 26 August renamed as the Leningrad Front. Then he participated i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bryansk Front
The Bryansk Front () was a Front (military formation), major formation of the Red Army during the World War II, Second World War. First Formation (August - November 1941) General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it first formed in mid-late August 1941, comprising, in Erickson's words, "on paper two armies, 50th Army (Soviet Union), 50th and 13th Army (Soviet Union), 13th, with eight rifle divisions each, three cavalry divisions, and one tank division but many of these formations were badly whittled down by battle losses." Two other armies from Soviet Central Front, 21st Army (Soviet Union), 21st and 3rd Army (Soviet Union), 3rd Army, which had avoided encirclement at the Battle of Smolensk (1941), were promised but also badly worn down. In late August along with the Western Front (Soviet Union) and the Reserve Front, the Bryansk Front launched a large but unsuccessful counteroffensive in the Smolensk, El'nia, and Roslavl regions to halt Army Group Cent ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |