The Kalinin Front was a
major formation of the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
active in the
Eastern Front of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, named for the city of
Kalinin. It was formally established by
Stavka directive on 17 October 1941 and allocated three armies:
22nd,
29th Army and
30th.
In May 1942, the Air Forces of the Kalinin Front were reorganised as the
3rd Air Army, comprising three fighter, two ground attack, and one bomber division.
In November 1942 the Kalinin Front, along with the
Western Front, launched
Operation Mars against the German defenses in the
Rzhev/Vyaz'ma salient. The
3rd Shock Army, now allocated to Kalinin Front, started the operation on 24 November by attacking Third Panzer Army at
Velikiye Luki, and the next day the Kalinin and Western Fronts assaulted the entire perimeter of the Rzhev salient.
The offensive involved the
41st,
22nd,
39th,
31st,
20th, and
29th Armies from both Fronts. The Front was then involved in the
Battle of Velikiye Luki in January–March 1943. The 3rd Air Army supported both the Rzhev/Sychevka and the Velikiye Luki operations, but then appears to have been shifted to
Northwestern Front briefly to cover the Demyansk bridgehead.
During the
Nevel-
Haradok operation, from 6 October—31 December 1943, the Front (which changed names halfway through) consisted of
3rd and
4th Shock,
11th Guards and
43rd Armies, plus the 3rd Air Army. Its initial strength was 198,000 men. The losses amounted to 43,551 dead and missing and 125,351 wounded and sick.
[G. F. Krivosheev, Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study, (in Russian), via axishistoryforum a]
It was renamed the
1st Baltic Front in October 1943.
Commanders
*Colonel-General
Ivan Konev (October 1941 - August 1942)
*Lieutenant-General, from November 1942, Colonel-General
Maksim Purkayev (August 1942 - April 1943)
*Colonel-General, since August 1943, Army General
Andrey Yeryomenko (April - October 1943)
References
{{Fronts of the Red Army in World War II
Soviet fronts
Military units and formations established in 1941
Military units and formations disestablished in 1943