The 3rd Ukrainian Front (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Третий Украинский фронт) was a Front of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Guards Army, 6th, 12th, and 46th Armies and 17th Air Army. Later it included 5th Shock, 4th and

9th Guards Army The 9th Guards Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II, which fought in the Vienna Offensive and the Prague Offensive at the end of the war. The army was formed in January 1945 and included airborne divisions converted into infant ...

, 26th,

27th 27 (twenty-seven; Roman numeral XXVII) is the natural number following 26 and preceding 28. In mathematics * Twenty-seven is a cube of 3: 3^3=3\times 3\times 3. 27 is also 23 (see tetration). There are exactly 27 straight lines on a smooth ...

28th 28 (twenty-eight) is the natural number following 27 and preceding 29. In mathematics It is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14. Twenty-eight is the second perfect number - it is the sum of its proper diviso ...

, 37th, 57th Army,

6th Guards Tank Army The 6th Guards Order of Red Banner Tank Army was a tank army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first formed in January 1944 as the 6th Tank Army,Glantz (Companion), p. 66. and disbanded in Ukraine in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet Un ...

, and the Bulgarian

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, Second and Fourth Armies. The Danube Flotilla was assigned to the Front's operational control. This included the 83rd Naval Infantry Brigade.

Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk offensive operations

In the first half of October 1943, Southwestern Front (3rd Ukrainian Front from 20 October) commanded by Army General

Rodion Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (russian: Родио́н Я́ковлевич Малино́вский, ukr, Родіо́н Я́кович Малино́вський ; – 31 March 1967) was a Soviet military commander. He was Marshal of the Sov ...

was tasked with attacking the German Panther-Wotan line, and later securing the bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and ...

on the

Izyum Izium or Izyum ( uk, Ізюм, ; russian: Изюм) is a city on the Donets River in Kharkiv Oblast ( province) of eastern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Izium Raion (district). Izium hosts the administration of Izium urban ...

- Dnipropetrovsk axis during the

Battle of the Lower Dnieper The Battle of the Dnieper was a military campaign that took place in 1943 in Ukraine on the Eastern Front of World War II. One of the largest operations of the war, it involved almost 4,000,000 troops at a time stretched on a front. Over four m ...

. But the first attempt to establish bridgeheads failed. Three infantry armies: 8th Guards, 3rd Guards and the 12th Army, and two corps, 1st Guards Mechanized and 23rd Tank with 17th Air Army providing air support were assembled for the new assault. On 10 October 1943 Chuikov's 8th Guards launched the attack, with the tank corps being inserted on the 13 October; the 12th Army attacked from the north, and 3rd Guards from the south of

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populat ...

. Germans retreated from Zaporizhzhia, destroying the railway bridge over Dnieper behind themselves. On 23 October Malinovsky, who wanted to take Dnipropetrovsk, and trap the

First Panzer Army The 1st Panzer Army (german: 1. Panzerarmee) was a German tank army that was a large armoured formation of the Wehrmacht during World War II. When originally formed on 1 March 1940, the predecessor of the 1st Panzer Army was named Panzer Group ...

in the eastern reaches of the Dnieper bend, inserted the newly arrived 46th Army into combat. Together with 8th Guards it was trying to trap German forces against the western bank of Dnieper between Dnipropetrovsk and Dniprodzerzhynsk, the site of the huge

Dnieper Hydroelectric Station The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station ( uk, ДніпроГЕС, DniproHES; russian: ДнепроГЭС, DneproGES), also known as Dneprostroi Dam, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is the largest hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper river. ...

. The 46th Army units tried to get to the station in time to prevent the destruction of the dam by retreating German troops. On 25 October Dnipropetrovsk was taken, but the installations and the Dam were partly destroyed. At the same time the Koniev's

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front (2-й Украинский фронт), was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. History On October 20, 1943 the Steppe Front was renamed the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During the Second Jassy–Kishinev ...

was attacking towards the

Kryvyi Rih Kryvyi Rih ( uk, Криви́й Ріг , lit. "Curved Bend" or "Crooked Horn"), also known as Krivoy Rog (Russian: Кривой Рог) is the largest city in central Ukraine, the 7th most populous city in Ukraine and the 2nd largest by area. K ...

from the north with the 7th Guards Army, but the 1st Panzer Army was saved for the moment as Koniev's assault on Kryvyi Rih stalled at Ingulets river north of Kherson. However,

Vatutin Vatutin (russian: Ватутин) is a Russian masculine surname, its feminine counterpart is Vatutina. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexey Vatutin Alexey Vatutin (russian: Алексе́й Дми́триевич Вату́тин; ...

commanding the 1st Ukrainian Front located north of Poltava sent the 5th Guards Tank Army which penetrated north of Kryvyi Rih, and was only halted by the stubborn German defence and length of its own logistic tail. On conclusion, both operations allowed the two Fronts to create a single Krementchug-Dnipropetrovsk bridgehead expanded to Zaporizhzhia due to the breaching of the Wotan Line by the Southern Front. Later, units of the 6th Army seized

bridgehead In military strategy, a bridgehead (or bridge-head) is the strategically important area of ground around the end of a bridge or other place of possible crossing over a body of water which at time of conflict is sought to be defended or taken over ...

s south of

, and by the end of December, along with

held on the Dnieper major strategic stronghold. After the liberation of right-bank Ukraine by troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, in collaboration with

4th Ukrainian Front The 4th Ukrainian Front (Russian: Четвёртый Украинский фронт) was the name of two distinct Red Army strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The front was first formed on 20 October 1943, ...

by making Nikopol-Krivoy Rog Operation 1944, the took to the district Ingulets, where in March–April launched an offensive at the Nikolayev-Odessa area. After carrying out the Bereznegovatoye–Snigirevka Offensive operation, the front readied itself for an attack on Odessa. Before the Odessa Offensive 3rd Ukrainian received substantial reinforcements. It now fielded seven Armies: 5th Shock Army, 6th Army, 8th Guards Army, 28th Army, 37th Army, 46th Army and 57th Army. Malinowsky also formed a cavalry-mechanized group consisting of 4th Guards Cavalry Corps and 4th Mechanized Corps under Lt. Gen. Pliev. The target was port Nikolayev and large Black Sea port Odessa. The attack opened on 6 March 1944 when Soviet troops forced the Ingulets, the Visun and the Ingul rivers. They assisted the Black Sea Fleet completing the liberation of southern Ukraine, and liberated a large part of the

Moldavian SSR The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic ( ro, Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească, Moldovan Cyrillic: ) was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1940 to 1991. The republic was formed on 2 August 194 ...

and moved to

Dniester The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

and, seizing bridgeheads on its right bank, including Kitskansky bridgehead.

Romania and Bulgaria

In August 1944 the 3rd Ukrainian Front engaged in the Iassy-Kishinev Offensive, which resulted in the release of all the Moldavian SSR, and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

declaring war on Germany. On 8 September, after breaking diplomatic ties and declaring war on Bulgaria, Soviet troops entered the territory of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and by the end of the month occupied the country. From 28 September - 20 October 1944 3rd Ukrainian Front in collaboration with the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia with the participation of troops of the Fatherland Front in Bulgaria carried out the Belgrade Offensive, which resulted in the liberation of the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, and most of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

. In October 1944 - February 1945, the 3rd Ukrainian Front had forces involved in the

Siege of Budapest The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budape ...

, including 46th Army. Its troops crossed the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

and seized a bridgehead on its right bank. In January 1945, they repelled the enemy counter-attacks, trying to relieve the forces surrounded in Budapest, and in March, during the German

Operation Frühlingserwachen Operation Spring Awakening (german: Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen) was the last major German offensive of World War II. The operation was referred to in Germany as the Plattensee offensive and in the Soviet Union as the Balaton defensive oper ...

, a counter-offensive broke the German troops in the area of

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and ...

. The successful completion of this battle made possible the beginning of the

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street f ...

on 16 March, in conjunction with the left wing

. Thereafter the front's forces completed the liberation of Hungary, expelled the enemy from the eastern part of Austria and took its capital,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The Front included 57th Army from October to December 1944. On 15 June 1945, the on the basis of a Stavka directive on May 29, 1945, the front was disbanded, and reorganised as the

Southern Group of Forces Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

. 26th Army was grouped with 37th Army into the SGF.

3rd Ukrainian Front in October 1943 during Zaporizhzhia–Dnipropetrovsk operation

Front Commander: General of Army

1st Guards Army :'' 6th Guards Rifle Corps'' :: 20th Guards Rifle Division :: 152nd Rifle Division :''

34th Rifle Corps The 34th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 19th Army. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. Organization * 129th Rifle Division * 158th Rifle Division * 171st Rifle Division Commanders * Divisional comm ...

'' :: 6th Rifle Division :: 24th Rifle Division :: 228th Rifle Division :: 195th Rifle Division

3rd Guards Army The 3rd Guards Army () was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The army fought in the Battle of Berlin, during which it mopped up German resistance around Cottbus. 1942 to 1945 It was formed o ...

: :'' 34th Guards Rifle Corps'' ::

59th Guards Rifle Division The 59th Quartermaster Company is a bulk petroleum company designed to provide semi-portable storage for of fuel and to provide distribution of fuel to military units within a specified geographic area while deployed overseas. Its secondary missi ...

61st Guards Rifle Division The 61st Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 159th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The divisio ...

279th Rifle Division The 279th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed twice. The division was first formed in the summer of 1941 and was in the Bryansk pocket. The division was reformed in June 1942 and s ...

(Unit listed twice) :''

32nd Rifle Corps The 32nd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice. Each formation was a distinct unit, unrelated to the other. First formation The corps headquarters formed in the Transbaikal Military District in September 1939 ...

'' :: 259th Rifle Division ::

266th Rifle Division The 266th Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. The 266th was formed three times during the war. It was first formed in July 1941 from an NKVD division and destroyed during the later stages of the Battle ...

(Unit listed twice) 8th Guards Army: :'' 28th Guards Rifle Corps'' :: 39th Guards Rifle Division :: 79th Guards Rifle Division :: 88th Guards Rifle Division :''

29th Guards Rifle Corps 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

'' ::

27th Guards Rifle Division 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, ...

74th Guards Rifle Division The 74th Guards Rifle Division was a Guards infantry division of the Red Army during the Second World War. Its full formal name was the 74th Guards Nizhnedneprovskiy Order of Lenin twice Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Rifle Division. It w ...

:: 82nd Guards Rifle Division :'' 33rd Rifle Corps'' ::

50th Rifle Division The 50th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army from 1936 to 1946. The division took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland and the Winter War. After Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the 50th fought in the Battle of Moscow, ...

78th Rifle Division The 78th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Red Army, formed in 1932, in Novosibirsk, in the Siberian Military District. After being used to provide cadres for new divisions, in September 1939 the division was reformed for the secon ...

'' 6th Army:'' :

4th Guards Rifle Corps Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

47th Guards Rifle Division 47th may refer to: Chicago Transit Authority stations * 47th station (CTA Green Line), on the Green Line * 47th station (CTA Red Line) 47th is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system, serving the Red Line. The station is loca ...

:: 57th Guards Rifle Division :'' 26th Guards Rifle Corps'' ::

25th Guards Rifle Division The 25th Guards Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya' was a division of the Soviet Red Army. The division was reorganised and reformed several times until the collapse of the Soviet Union, when it entered service in the Ukrainian Army as the 25th Mechanis ...

35th Guards Rifle Division The 35th Guards Rifle Division () was a division of the Soviet Red Army in World War II. Formed from an airborne corps in the summer of 1942, the division fought in the Battle of Stalingrad with the 62nd Army, then served through the war with t ...

12th Army :''

66th Rifle Corps The 66th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 21st Army. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. Organization * 61st Rifle Division * 117th Rifle Division * 154th Rifle Division Commanders * Major General Fyo ...

'' ::

203rd Rifle Division The 203rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army. World War II The division was formed in the Kuban near Labinsk, Kurgan and Mikhailovka from February to 20 May 1942. During the second half of May the division l ...

:: 333rd Rifle Division ::

60th Guards Rifle Division The 60th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 278th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The division ...

:: 244th Rifle Division ''

1st Guards Mechanized Corps The 1st Guards 'Vienna' Order of Lenin Order of Kutuzov Mechanized Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. After the war it continued to serve with Soviet occupation forces in Central E ...

'' :1st Guards Mechanized Brigade :2nd Guards Mechanized Brigade :3rd Guards Mechanized Brigade :9th Guards Tank Brigade '' 23rd Tank Corps'' :3rd Tank Brigade :39th Tank Brigade :135th Tank Brigade :56th Motorized Rifle Brigade ''

17th Air Army The 17th Air Army () was an Air army of the Red Air Force and Soviet Air Forces from 1942. World War II It was formed in October (Bonn et al.: November) 1942 on the basis of the Air Forces of the Southwestern Front. Bonn et al. say that it inc ...

'' :1st Guards Mixed Aviation Corps :1st Mixed Aviation Corps :9th Mixed Aviation CorpsBoevoi Sostav Sovietskoi Armii czast III januar-dekabr 1943 page 253 in the BSSA Front is listed under South Western Front name but it changed name in October to 3rd Ukrainian Front from November 1943 it is listed under name of 3rd Ukrainian Front

Command

Commanders: * General of the Army

(Oct. 1943 – May 1944); * General of the Army, in September 1944, Marshal of the Soviet Union

Fyodor Tolbukhin Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin (russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Толбу́хин; 16 June 1894 – 17 October 1949) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. Early life and military career Tolbukhin was born into ...

(May 1944 – end of the war). Member of the Military Council: * Lieutenant-General in September 1944, Colonel-General A. Zheltov (whole period). Chief of Staff: * Lieutenant-General

Theodosius K. Korzhenevich Theodosius ( Latinized from the Greek "Θεοδόσιος", Theodosios, "given by god") is a given name. It may take the form Teodósio, Teodosie, Teodosije etc. Theodosia is a feminine version of the name. Emperors of ancient Rome and Byzantium ...

(Oct. 1943 – May 1944); * Lieutenant-General in May 1944, Colonel-General

Sergey Biryuzov Sergey Semyonovich Biryuzov (; 21 August 1904 – 19 October 1964) was a Marshal of the Soviet Union and Chief of the General Staff. Early life and prewar service Biryuzov was born in Skopin, in the Ryazan Governorate of the Russian Empire, in ...

(May–October 1944); * Lieutenant-General in April 1945, Colonel-General Simon P. Ivanov (October 1944 – end of the war).

Notes

External links

FrontAll fronts of the Great Patriotic War
{{DEFAULTSORT:3rd Ukrainian Front U de:Südwestfront (Rote Armee)#3. Ukrainische Front