Reserve Front
The Reserve Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War.
First Formation
[edit]The Reserve Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first version was created on July 30, 1941 in a reorganization of the earlier Front of Reserve Armies. STAVKA Order No.003334, of 14 July, directed that the Front of Reserve Armies include:[1]
- 24th Army, with ten divisions, three gun, one howitzer, and three corps artillery regiments, and four anti-tank artillery regiments;
- 28th Army, with nine divisions, one gun, one howitzer, and four corps artillery regiments, and four anti-tank artillery regiments;
- 29th Army, with five divisions, five regiments of artillery, and two regiments and one squadron of aviation;
- 30th Army, with five divisions, one corps artillery regiment, and two AA artillery regiments;
- 31st Army, with six divisions, one corps artillery regiment, and two anti-tank artillery regiments; and
- 32nd Army, with seven divisions (apparently including the 8th Rifle Division), and one anti-tank artillery regiment.
This Front was encircled and destroyed at Vyazma.
The surviving forces transferred to the Western Front on October 10, 1941 under the command of Zhukov.[2]
2nd Formation
[edit]The second version of this Front was created on April 6, 1943. It incorporated the:
- 2nd Reserve Army (3rd Formation)
- 24th Army
- 53rd Army
- 66th Army
- 47th Army
- 46th Army
- 5th Guards Tank Army
- eight mobile corps
It was reorganized as the Steppe Military District on April 15, 1943 and eventually designated the Steppe Front.
Commanders
[edit]- Lieutenant General of NKVD Ivan A. Bogdanov [Front of Reserve Armies] (14–30 July, 1941)
- General Georgy K. Zhukov (August–September 1941)
- Marshal Semyon M. Budenny (September – 10 October, 1941)
- Lieutenant General Markian M. Popov (6–15 April, 1943)
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ STAVKA Order 003334, Collection of Combat Documents of the Great Patriotic War, ('SBDVOV'), Moscow, Voenizdat, 1958(?), Issue 37, p.13, cited in Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, p.215
- ^ Zhukov, Georgy (1974). Marshal of Victory, Volume II. Pen and Sword Books Ltd. p. 19. ISBN 9781781592915.
References
[edit]- David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, 1998
- David Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War 1941-43, University Press of Kansas, 2005
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