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Battle Of Kiev (1941)
The First Battle of Kiev was the German name for the operation that resulted in a huge encirclement of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev during World War II. This encirclement is considered the largest encirclement in the history of warfare (by number of troops). The operation ran from 7 July to 26 September 1941, as part of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. Much of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army (commanded by Mikhail Kirponos) was encircled, but small groups of Red Army troops managed to escape the pocket days after the German panzers met east of the city, including the headquarters of Marshal Semyon Budyonny, Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and Commissar Nikita Khrushchev. Kirponos was trapped behind German lines and was killed while trying to break out. The battle was an unprecedented defeat for the Red Army, exceeding even the Battle of Białystok–Minsk of June–July 1941. The encirclement trapped 452,700 soldiers, 2,642 guns and mort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), a 12th-century Holy Roman emperor and German king, put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with Germans. The German aimed to use some of the conquered people as forced labour for the Axis war effort while acquiring the oil reserves of the Caucasus as well as the agricultural resources of various Soviet territories. Their ultimate goal was to create more (living space) for Germany, and the eventual extermination of the indigenous Slavic peoples by mass deportation to Siberia, Germanisation, enslavement, and genocide. In the two years leading up to the invasion, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed political and economic pacts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encirclement
Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces. The situation is highly dangerous for the encircled force. At the strategic level, it cannot receive supplies or reinforcements, and on the tactical level, the units in the force can be subject to an attack from several sides. Lastly, since the force cannot retreat, unless it is relieved or can break out, it must fight to the death or surrender. A special kind of encirclement is the siege. In that case, the encircled forces are enveloped in a fortified position in which long-lasting supplies and strong defences are in place, allowing them to withstand attacks. Sieges have taken place in almost all eras of warfare. History Encirclement has been used throughout the centuries by military leaders, including generals such as Spartacus, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Khalid bin Waleed, Hannibal, Sun Tzu, Yi Sun Shin, Shaka Zulu, von Wall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
40th Army (Soviet Union)
The 40th Army (, ''40-ya obshchevoyskovaya armiya'', "40th Combined Arms Army") of the Soviet Ground Forces was an army-level command that participated in World War II from 1941 to 1945 and was reformed specifically for the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979 to circa 1990. The Army became the land forces arm of the Soviet occupational force in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan ( :ru:Ограниченный контингент советских войск в Афганистане). First formation (World War II) It was first formed, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had commenced, from elements of the 26th and 37th Armies under the command of Major General Kuzma Petrovich Podlas in August 1941 at the boundary of the Bryansk Front and the Soviet Southwestern Front. By 25 August 1941 the 135th and 293rd Rifle Divisions, 2nd Airborne Corps, 10th Tank Division, and 5th Anti-Tank Brigade had been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
38th Army (Soviet Union)
The 38th Red Banner Army was a field army of the Soviet Union that existed between 1941 and 1991. August 1941 to January 1942 The 38th Army was formed on 4 August 1941 after a large Soviet force had been surrounded by Axis forces in the area of Uman in the western Ukraine. Under the command of Lieutenant-General Dmitry Ryabyshev, 38th Army was based on the forces and headquarters of the 8th Mechanised Corps and incorporated other Soviet units then in the Cherkassy area. The army was subordinated to the Soviet Southwestern Front command, and Riabyshev's task was to defend the line of the Dnepr upriver from Kremenchuk, a task that became more urgent after the Soviet forces at Uman surrendered on 12 August and German forces began to close up to the Dnepr. On 30 August Riabyshev was assigned to command Soviet forces further south and Major-General Nikolay Feklenko was appointed to the command of 38th Army. By then 38th Army (based on seven rifle divisions, four cavalry divisions a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
21st Army (Soviet Union)
The Soviet 21st Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II. Operational history June–September 1941 21st Army was a part of the Second Operational Echelon of the Red Army. It was formed from the forces of the Volga Military District in May 1941 and was initially based on 63rd Rifle Corps ( 53rd, 148th, and 167th Rifle Divisions) and 66th Rifle Corps. The army was under the command of Lieutenant-General Vasily Gerasimenko, and its chief of staff was Major-General Vasily Gordov. The commander of 63rd Rifle Corps was Lieutenant-General Leonid Petrovsky and the commander of 66th Rifle Corps was Major-General Fyodor Sudakov. In early June the army was moved to the eastern fringes of the Pripyat Marshes south of Homel. At the outbreak of hostilities on 22 June the army was redeployed north to defend the right bank of the Dnepr between Rybchev and Stary-Bykhov. At the same time 25th Mechanized Corps, under the command of Major-General Semyon Krivoshein, was assigned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
26th Army (Soviet Union)
The 26th Army ( Russian: 26-я армия ''26-ya armiya'') was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, active from 1941. Operational history First Formation 26th Army was a part of the Southwestern Front (Soviet Union) and defended the Soviet-German border between Przemyśl and the Carpathian Mountains in June 1941. The Army was located on the eastern bank of San river manning the 8th Fortified District. The 26th Army commander was Lt. Gen. Fyodor Kostenko who was a Ukrainian. Its opponent was the German Seventeenth Army under command of General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. The 26th Army consisted of the 8th Rifle Corps, with the 99th Rifle Division, 173rd Rifle Division, and the 72nd Mountain Rifle Division, the 8th Fortified District, a number of artillery units (the 2nd Anti-Tank Brigade, 233rd Corps Artillery Regiment, 236th Corps Artillery Regiment, and the 28th Independent Anti-Aircraft Squadron, the 8th Mechanised Corps with the 12th Tank Division, 34th Tank Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
37th Army (Soviet Union)
The 37th Army was an Army-level formation of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The army was formed twice during the war. The army was part of the Southern Group of Forces in Romania and Bulgaria. First formation The 37th Army first formed on 10 August 1941 in the Southwestern Front with the command group from the Kiev Fortified Region and other reserves in front reserves. Upon formation, the army took up defensive positions to the west of Kiev and on the left bank of the Dnieper River. During the defense of Kiev the army suffered severe losses against superior German forces. The army was surrounded in the city of Kiev and was ordered to break out on 19 September. Individual units of the army were able to break out and join forces with the front. Many of the other units of the army were destroyed. The army was disbanded on 25 September 1941. Composition The army had the following units assigned when formed: : 147th Rifle Division : 171st Rifle Division : 175th Rif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
5th Army (Soviet Union)
The 5th Combined Arms Red Banner Army (5-я общевойсковая армия) is a Russian Ground Forces formation in the Eastern Military District. It was formed in 1939, served during the Soviet invasion of Poland that year, and was deployed in the southern sector of the Soviet defences when Adolf Hitler's Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 during World War II. In the disastrous first months of Barbarossa, the 5th Army was encircled and destroyed around Kiev. Reformed under Lelyushenko and Govorov, it played a part in the last-ditch defence of Moscow, and then in the string of offensive and defensive campaigns that eventually saw the Soviet armies retake all of Soviet territory and push west into Poland and beyond into Germany itself. The 5th Army itself only advanced as far as East Prussia before it was moved east to take part in the Soviet attack on Japan. Since 1945, under the Soviet and now Russian flag it has formed part of the Far East Military District keep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Białystok–Minsk
The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Wehrmacht's Army Group Centre under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock during the penetration of the Soviet border region in the opening stage of Operation Barbarossa, lasting from 22 June to 9 July 1941. The Army Group's 2nd Panzer Group under Colonel General Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Group under Colonel General Hermann Hoth decimated the Soviet frontier defenses, defeated all Soviet counter-attacks and encircled four Soviet Armies of the Red Army's Western Front near Białystok and Minsk by 30 June. The majority of the Western Front was enclosed within, and the pockets were liquidated by 9 July. The Red Army lost 420,000 men against Wehrmacht casualties of over 12,157. The Germans destroyed the Soviet Western Front in 18 days and advanced 460 kilometers into the Soviet Union, causing many to believe that the Germans had effectively won the war against the Soviet Union. Prelude Commanded b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev stunned the communist world with his denunciation of his predecessor Joseph Stalin's crimes, and embarked on a policy of de-Stalinization with his key ally Anastas Mikoyan. He sponsored the early Soviet space program, and enactment of moderate reforms in domestic policy. After some false starts, and a narrowly avoided nuclear war over Cuba, he conducted successful negotiations with the United States to reduce Cold War tensions. In 1964, the Kremlin leadership stripped him of power, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Khrushchev was born in 1894 in a village in western Russia. He was employed as a metal worker during his youth, and he was a political commissar during the Russian Civil Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pocket (military)
A pocket is a group of combat forces that have been isolated by opposing forces from their logistical base and other friendly forces. In mobile warfare, such as blitzkrieg, salients were more likely to be cut off into pockets, which became the focus of battles of annihilation. The term ''pocket'' carries connotations that the encirclement was not intentionally allowed by the encircled forces, as it may have been when defending a fortified position, which is usually called a siege. That is a similar distinction to that made between a skirmish and pitched battle. Implementation Soviet military doctrine Soviet military doctrine distinguishes several sizes of encirclement: * Cauldron or kettle (russian: котёл, translit=kotyol or ''kotyel''; ua, котел, translit=kotel): a very large, strategic-level concentration of trapped enemy forces * Sack (russian: мешок, translit=meshok; ua, мішок, translit=mishok): an operational-level trapped enemy force * Nest (russia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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