3rd Guards Mechanized Corps
The 4th Mechanized Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. Operation Barbarossa Initially formed in January 1941, it served with the 6th Army, Kiev Special Military District, under the command of General Major Andrey Vlasov when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941. On 22 June 1941 4th Mechanised Corps consisted of 28,098 soldiers and 979 tanks. It initially comprised the 8th and 32nd Tank Divisions, the 81st Mechanised Division, the 3rd Motorcycle Regiment, and other, smaller units. It fought in the Battle of Brody, and was destroyed in the Uman Pocket in August 1941 with the 6th Army and was disbanded shortly after. The second formation in 1942 The corps was reformed in September 1942. It was commanded by General Vasily Volsky during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. The corps entered the sector south of Stalingrad as part of Operation Uranus. The plan was to attack through the 51st Army's sector to break through the Roma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Corps
Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered General Jean Victor Marie Moreau to divide his command into four corps. The size of a corps varies greatly, but two to five divisions and anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 are the numbers stated by the US Department of Defense. Within military terminology a corps may be: *an military organization, operational formation, sometimes known as a field corps, which consists of two or more division (military), divisions, such as the I Corps (Grande Armée), , later known as ("First Corps") of Napoleon I's ); *an administrative corps (or Muster (military), mustering) – that is a #Administrative corps, specialized branch of a military service (such as an artillery corps, an armoured corps, a signal corps, a medical corps, a marine corps, or a corps of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, beginning when Nazi Germany and its Axis allies attacked and became locked in a protracted struggle with the Soviet Union for control over the Soviet city of Stalingrad (now known as Volgograd) in southern Russia. The battle was characterized by fierce close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in aerial raids; the battle epitomized urban warfare, being the single largest and costliest urban battle in military history. It was the bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entirety of World War II—and arguably in all of human history—as both sides suffered tremendous casualties amidst ferocious fighting in and around the city. The battle is commonly regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of World War II, as Germany ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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IS-2 Heavy Tank
The IS-2 (, sometimes romanized as JS-2The series name is an abbreviation of the name Joseph Stalin (); IS-2 is a direct transliteration of the Russian abbreviation, while JS-2 is an abbreviation of the English or German form of Stalin's name.) is a Soviet heavy tank, the second of the IS tank series named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. It was developed and saw combat during World War II and saw service in other Soviet allied countries after the war. Design and production Object 237 KV-85 and IS-85/IS-1 The KV-1 was criticized by its crews for its poor mobility and the lack of a larger caliber gun than the T-34 medium tank. It was much more expensive than the T-34, without having greater combat performance. Moscow ordered some KV-1 assembly lines to shift to T-34 production, leading to fears that KV-1 production would be halted, and the SKB-2 design bureau, led by Kotin, closed. In 1942, this problem was partially addressed by the KV-1S tank, which had thinner arm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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39th Army (Soviet Union)
The 39th Army was a Field Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II and of the Soviet Army during the Cold War. Formation and Kalinin Offensive It was first formed on 15 November 1941 in the Arkhangelsk Military District, in accordance with a directive issued by the Stavka (command headquarters) on 2 November 1941. The army was directly subordinate to the Stavka. On 1 December 1941 the army was listed by the Soviet General Staff's official order of battle listings as including seven rifle divisions and two cavalry divisions ( 355th, 357th, 361st, 369th, 373rd, 377th, and 381st Rifle Divisions, plus 76th and 94th Cavalry Divisions. On 1 December 1941 the army was tasked to build defense lines along the eastern bank of the river Sheksna. After regrouping in the area of Torzhok it was sent to the Kalinin Front on 22 December, where the 39th Army took part in the Kalinin Offensive Operation. The Kalinin Offensive Operation had begun on 5 December 1941 an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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5th Army (Soviet Union)
The 5th Guards Combined Arms Red Banner Order of Zhukov Army (5-я гвардейская общевойсковая Краснознамённая, ордена Жукова 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 Dmitry Lelyushenko, Lelyushenko and Leonid Govorov, 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 i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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3rd Belorussian Front
The 3rd Belorussian Front () was a Front of the Red Army during the Second World War. The 3rd Belorussian Front was created on 24 April 1944 from forces previously assigned to the Western Front. Over 381 days in combat, the 3rd Belorussian Front suffered 166,838 killed, 9,292 missing, and 667,297 wounded, sick, and frostbitten personnel while advancing from the region some 50 kilometers southeast of Vitebsk in Russia to Königsberg in East Prussia. Operations the 3rd Belorussian Front took part in include the Belorussian Offensive Operation, the Baltic Offensive Operation, and the East Prussian Offensive Operation. Although costly, the advance of the 3rd Belorussian Front was in great part victorious, with one of the few defeats occurring during the Gumbinnen Operation in October 1944. 3rd Belorussian Front was formally disbanded on 15 August 1945.David Glantz, ''Companion to Colossus Reborn'', p. 36, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005 Commanders * Colonel G ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steppe Front
The Steppe Front () was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War which existed from July to October 1943. History On 9 July 1943, Stavka designated a new Reserve Front in the Voronezh region, that had been effective since 30 April.Great Patriotic War 1941–1945, Moscow 1977 It consisted of the command component of the 2nd Reserve Army (augmented by several officer and NCO courses), the 27th, 52nd, 53rd, 46th, 47th, 4th Guards Tank, 5th Air Army and eight mobile corps (Tank, Guards Tank, and Mechanised). Most of these armies had been reassigned from the Northwestern Front, North Caucasus Front, or the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (''Stavka'' reserve, or the RVGK). On 13 April 1943 the Front was renamed the Steppe Military District, to be effective 15 April. The Steppe Military District was redesignated the Steppe Front on July 9, 1943. It incorporated forces from the Soviet rear areas to the West of Kursk salient along the line Tula- Yelets-Stary ... [...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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Russian Guards
Guards () or Guards units (, ''gvardeyskiye chasti'') were elite military units of Imperial Russia prior to 1917–18. The designation of Guards was subsequently adopted as a distinction for various units and formations of the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to a chieftain's ''druzhina'' of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streletskoye voysko (Стрелецкое Войско), the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550. The exact meaning of the term "Guards" varied over time. Russian Imperial Guard In the Russian Empire, Russian Imperial Guard units (also or ''life-guard'', ), derived from German ''Leibgarde'' (en: lifeguard or life-guard), were intended to ensure the security of the sovereign, initially, that of Peter the Great in the 1690s. These were based on the Prussian Royal Life Guards. During the 19th century the Imperial Russian Guard regiments were not exclusively composed of Russian troops, but also i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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6th Army (Wehrmacht)
The 6th Army () was a field army of the German Army during World War II. It is widely known for its defeat by and subsequent surrender to the Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad on 2 February 1943. It committed war crimes at Babi Yar while under the command of Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau during Operation Barbarossa. The 6th Army was reformed in March 1943, and participated in fighting in Ukraine and later Romania, before being almost completely destroyed in the Second Jassy-Kishinev Offensive in August 1944. Following this it would fight in Hungary, attempting to relieve Budapest, and subsequently retreating into Austria in the Spring of 1945. 6th Army surrendered to US Army forces on 9 May 1945. Western campaigns The 6th Army was formed on 10 October 1939 with General Walther von Reichenau in command through the redesignation of the 10th Army that had fought during the Invasion of Poland. During the invasion of the Low Countries the 6th Army saw active service ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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302nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 302nd Rifle Division began service as a specialized Red Army mountain rifle division, which saw service in the disastrous operations in the Crimea in early 1942. It was later converted to serve for the balance of the war as a standard rifle division. The division played a leading role in the 51st Army's breakthrough south of Stalingrad in the opening stages of Operation Uranus, and then in the exploitation following this success; however, it was badly battered and routed in the initial stage of the German Operation Winter Storm. After recovering from this, the division continued to turn in a creditable record of service in the southern sectors of the Soviet-German front for the duration, and was especially recognized for its role in the liberation of the city of Ternopol, for which it received that city's name as an honorific. 1st Formation The division originally began forming on July 18, 1941 at Krasnodar in the North Caucasus Military District as a mountain rifle divisio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |