16th Air Army
The 16th Red Banner Air Army () was the most important formation of the Special Purpose Command. Initially formed during the Second World War as a part of the Soviet Air Force, it was from its 2002 reformation to its 2009 disbandment the tactical air force component of the Moscow Military District. The 16th Air Army took part in the Battle of Berlin with 28 Aviation divisions and 7 Separate aviation regiments, and was located with the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, GSFG in East Germany until 1994. Withdrawn to Kubinka (air base), Kubinka in that year, the army was disbanded and reformed as a corps in 1998. From 1949 to 1968, it was designated as the 24th Air Army. World War II The army began forming on 8 August 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad and originally included the 220th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) and 228th Assault Aviation Division (ShAD) of the 8th Air Army, as well as two separate aviation regiments. Around the end of August and the beginning of September, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet Union, it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country by area, extending across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and sharing Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors, borders with twelve countries, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of Republics of the Soviet Union, national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, Government of the Soviet Union, its government and Economy of the Soviet Union, economy were Soviet-type economic planning, highly centralized. As a one-party state go ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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8th Air Army
The 8th Air Army was a military formation of the Soviet Air Forces, active from around 1942 to 1949. It was formed June 13, 1942, by order of the State Defence Committee (NKO) Number 00119 dated June 9, 1942, on the basis of the Air Forces of the Southwestern Front. Since its formation it was part of the South-Western Front. During the Battle of Stalingrad, it was a part of the South-Eastern, then (from July 12, 1942) Stalingrad Front. Later, as part of the Southern Front (October 20, 1943, it renamed 4th Ukrainian). During the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation it was part of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The VVS Southwestern Front was reorganised as the 8th Air Army on 9 June 1942. Most units (including the 8th Assault Aviation Corps and the 10th Fighter Aviation Corps, and the 321st Bomber Aviation Division) were transferred to the Air Forces (VVS) of the Kiev Military District in April 1946. On 9 April 1946 it was renamed 2nd Air Army DA, and transferred to Vinnytsia, Vinnytsia Oblast ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Group Of Soviet Occupation Forces In Germany
The Western Group of Forces (WGF), previously known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOFG) and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG), were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. The Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was formed after the end of World War II in Europe from units of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts. The group helped suppress the East German uprising of 1953. After the end of occupation functions in 1954 the group was renamed the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The group represented Soviet interests in East Germany during the Cold War. Before changes in Soviet foreign policy during the early 1990s, the group shifted to a more offensive role and in 1989 became the Western Group of Forces. Russian forces remained in the eastern part of Germany after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification until 1994. History The Group of Soviet Occupation Forces, Germany was formed after the end of World War ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1st Belorussian Front
The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. Alongside the 1st Ukrainian Front, it was the largest and most powerful among all Soviet fronts, as their main effort was to capture Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Creation and initial operations Initially, the Belorussian Front was created on 20 October 1943 as the new designation of the existing Central Front. It was placed under the command of General Konstantin K. Rokossovsky, who had been commanding the Central Front. It launched the Gomel-Rechitsa Offensive in 1943 and then the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr Offensive in 1944. Redesignation and 1944 operations It was then renamed the 1st Belorussian Front (1BF) on 17 February 1944 following the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive. A few days lat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stavka
The ''Stavka'' ( Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка, ) is a name of the high command of the armed forces used formerly in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrative staff, and to the General Headquarters in the late 19th-century Imperial Russian armed forces and subsequently in the Soviet Union. In Western literature it is sometimes written in uppercase (''STAVKA''), although it is not an acronym. ''Stavka'' may refer to its members, as well as to the headquarters location (its original meaning from the old Russian word '' ставка'', 'tent'). Stavka of the Supreme Commander during World War I The commander-in-chief of the Russian army at the beginning of World War I was Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. Appointed at the last minute in August 1914, he played no part in formulating the military plans in use at the beginning of the war. Nikolai Yanushke ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Belorussian Front
The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. Alongside the 1st Ukrainian Front, it was the largest and most powerful among all Soviet fronts, as their main effort was to capture Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Creation and initial operations Initially, the Belorussian Front was created on 20 October 1943 as the new designation of the existing Central Front. It was placed under the command of General Konstantin K. Rokossovsky, who had been commanding the Central Front. It launched the Gomel-Rechitsa Offensive in 1943 and then the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr Offensive in 1944. Redesignation and 1944 operations It was then renamed the 1st Belorussian Front (1BF) on 17 February 1944 following the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive. A few days la ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major 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 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 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 house-to-house fighting and hand-to-hand combat. The battle began with the launch of the German offensive Operation Citadel (), on 5 July, which had the objective of pinching off the Kursk salient with attacks on the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Don Front
The Don Front was a front of the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War, which existed between September 1942 and February 1943, and was commanded during its entire existence by Konstantin Rokossovsky. The name refers to Don River, Russia. Formation The front was created by order of the ''STAVKA'' of the Supreme High Command on Sept. 28, 1942 in order to form a more cohesive command structure to the much-reinforced Soviet forces fighting in and around Stalingrad. On that date the ''STAVKA'' ordered: The initial composition of the Don Front was as follows: * 1st Guards Army - Kirill Moskalenko, * 21st Army - Nikolay Krylov, * 24th Army - Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov, * 63rd Army - Vasily Kuznetsov, * 66th Army - Rodion Malinovsky, * 4th Tank Army - Vasily Kryuchenkin, *16th Air Army - Sergei Rudenko. The command cadre of the new front came almost entirely from Rokossovsky's Bryansk Front, leaders that he trusted and would follow him until he was ordered to take command ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus () was a Soviet 19–23 November 1942 strategic operation on the Eastern Front of World War II which led to the encirclement of Axis forces in the vicinity of Stalingrad: the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The Red Army carried out the operation at roughly the midpoint of the five-month long Battle of Stalingrad, aiming to destroy German forces in and around Stalingrad. Planning for Operation Uranus had commenced in September 1942, and developed simultaneously with plans to envelop and destroy German Army Group Center ( Operation Mars) and German forces in the Caucasus. Due to the length of the front lines created by the German 1942 summer offensive, which had aimed at taking the Caucasus oil fields and the city of Stalingrad, German and other Axis forces were over-extended. The German decision to transfer several mechanized divisions from the Soviet Union to Western Europe exa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Petlyakov Pe-2
The Petlyakov Pe-2 ( — nickname «Пешка» (Pawn); NATO reporting name: Buck) was a Soviet Union, Soviet twin-engine dive bomber used during World War II. One of the outstanding tactical attack aircraft of the war,Ethell 1996, p. 152. it also proved successful as a heavy fighter, as a night fighter (Petlyakov Pe-3, Pe-3 variant) and as a reconnaissance aircraft.Angelucci and Matricardi 1978, p. 234. The Pe-2 was, numerically, the most important Soviet bomber of World War II, at their peak comprising 75% of the Soviet twin-engine bomber force.Smith 2003, pp. 155. The Soviets manufactured Pe-2s in greater numbers (11,430 built) during the war than any other twin-engine combat aircraft except for the German Junkers Ju 88 and the British Vickers Wellington.Guston 1980, p. 173. Several Soviet bloc air forces flew the type after the war, when it became known by the NATO reporting name ''Buck''. Development In 1937, Vladimir Petlyakov was the leader of the Heavy Aircraft Brigade ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ilyushin Il-2
The Ilyushin Il-2 ( Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term for a ground-attack aircraft, became a synecdoche for the Il-2 in English sources, where it is commonly rendered Shturmovik, StormovikStapfer, 1995 and Sturmovik.Rastrenin, 2008 To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was known by the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was called the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was Bark.Gunston 1995, p. 106. During the war, 36,183 units of the Il-2 were produced, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330Jane's 1989, p. 529. were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |