3rd Guards Army (Soviet Union)

3rd Guards Army (Soviet Union)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=3rd Guards Army


caption=
country=Soviet Union
type=
branch=Red Army, Soviet Army
dates=December 1942 - 1945
command_structure= 1st Ukrainian Front, others
size=two or more Rifle corps
garrison=
battles=Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive Battle of Berlin others
notable_commanders=

The 3rd Guards Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II, notably in 1945.

It was created in December 1942, as part of the Southwestern Front (as a result of renaming 1st Guards Army of 2nd formation), according to the order of the Supreme High Command on formation of the 3rd Guards Army (5.12.1942). General Lieutenant Dmitri Lelyushenko was appointed to command the formation, and held the reins until March 1943 (and subsequently from August 1943 to February 1944). General Major I.Khetagurov held command from March to August 1943. Up to the middle of December the army comprised the 14th Rifle Corps, 50th Guards, 197th, 203rd and 278th Rifle Divisions, 90th and 94th Separate Rifle Brigades, the Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, the 22nd Motor-Rifle Brigade and other units.

3rd Guards Army was assigned in succession to the Soviet Southwestern Front, 3rd, 4th and since March 1944 the First Ukrainian Front led by Marshal Ivan Koniev. After a brief stint under the command of General-Lieutenant D.I. Ryabyshev in February and March 1944, from April 1944 to the end of the war in Europe General Colonel N. Gordov was in command. The Army participated in the Middle Don and Voroshilovgrad offensive operations, the defensive battles on the northern Donets River, in the Donbass and Zaporozhye offensive operations, in the liquidation of the Germans' Nikopol bridgehead, in the Nikopol - Krivoi Rog and Proskurov - Chernovits operations, the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, Sandomir-Silesia, and then took part in the attack on Berlin.

Berlin

In the First Ukrainian Front's attack from the Neisse River into Saxony and the Brandenburg area, the 3rd Guards Army attacked north of Cottbus into the Spree River. Part of it also attacked Cottbus and captured it. However, the 3rd Guards Army did not head north into the southern suburbs of Berlin. Koniev had angled the 5th Guards Army left towards Spremberg and the 3rd Guards Army to the right to force the German troops back into Cottbus. A few days after the great Soviet offensive of April 16, the 3rd Guards Army kept the pressure on the Germans around Cottbus.

Koniev was warned of the mass of German troops in the Spreewald. He expedited the 28th Army's advance that was intended to seal the gap between the 3rd Guards Army, effectively finishing off the Germans in the Cottbus area, and the 3rd Guards Tank Army. On April 25, when the First Belorussian Front was fighting the Battle of Berlin, the 3rd Guards Army was rushed into positions close to the Berlin-Dresden autobahn "to block all the forest roads leading from east to west." Gordov's troops chopped down tall pine trees to form tank barriers. However, the 3rd Guards Army did not manage to occupy the southern part of its sector, which meant that there was a gap between it and the 28th Army. However, that did not matter that much since German resistance in eastern Germany was now very limited, as the Ninth and Twelfth Armies were retreating towards the Elbe River, and resistance was limited to small pockets of concentration.

After the Berlin operation, the Army formed part of the Soviet force for the Prague Offensive. All formations of this army (except 76th Rifle Corps with the 287th and 389th Rifle Divisions) were disbanded in the summer of 1945, and the Army HQ was reorganised as part of the Volga Military District.

References

* Beevor, Antony. "The Fall of Berlin 1945". New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
* Keith E. Bonn (ed), Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005
* Feskov et al, The Soviet Army in the period of Cold War, Tomsk University, 2004
* http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/ag03/arm.html


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • 3rd Shock Army (Soviet Union) — The 3rd Shock Army ( ru. Третья ударная армия) was a field army of the Red Army formed during the Second World War. The Shock armies were created with the specific structure to engage and destroy significant enemy forces, and were reinforced with …   Wikipedia

  • 2nd Guards Army (Soviet Union) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=2nd Guards Army caption= country=Soviet Union type= branch=Red Army, dates=1942 1945? command structure= size=two or more Rifle corps garrison= battles=Operation Little Saturn others notable commanders=The 2nd… …   Wikipedia

  • 4th Guards Army (Soviet Union) — The Fourth Guards Army was an elite army headquarters of the Soviet Union during World War II and the postwar era.Formed on the basis of the 24th Army on April 16, 1943, the Fourth Guards Army fought in decisive actions such as the Battle of… …   Wikipedia

  • 3rd Mechanised Corps (Soviet Union) — The 3rd Mechanised Corps was a formation of the Red Army, now a part of the Russian Ground Forces as the 20th Motor Rifle Division.The Corps was first formed before World War II, and on 22 June 1941 was stationed at Vilnius in the Baltic Military …   Wikipedia

  • 3rd Guards Tank Army (Soviet Union) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=3rd Guards Tank Army 3rd Guards Mechanised Army (1946 57) 3rd Guards Tank Army (1957 67 18th Guards Army (1967 79) caption= dates=1942 1979 country=Soviet Union allegiance= branch=Armoured Forces type=Field army… …   Wikipedia

  • 3rd Army (Soviet Union) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=3rd Army caption= country=Soviet Union type= branch=Red Army, Soviet Army dates=1939 1945? command structure= Western Front, others size=two or more Rifle corps garrison= battles=Battle of Kursk East Prussian… …   Wikipedia

  • 5th Army (Soviet Union) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=5th Army caption= country=Soviet Union, Russia type= Field army branch=Red Army, Soviet Army, Russian Ground Forces dates=1939 ndash;current command structure= size= World War II: usually several corps ( 10… …   Wikipedia

  • 9th Army (Soviet Union) — The 9th Army of the Soviet Union s Red Army was a Soviet field army, active from 1939 – 43, and then after the war from 1966 to 1989. It was active during the Winter War against Finland as part of the Leningrad Military District, beginning… …   Wikipedia

  • 2nd Guards Tank Army (Soviet Union) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=2nd Tank Army (1943 1944) 2nd Guards Tank Army (1944 present) caption= dates=1943 1998, 2001 country=Soviet Union, Russia allegiance= branch=Armoured Forces type=Field army role=Breakthrough and Exploitation in… …   Wikipedia

  • 1st Guards Tank Army (Soviet Union) — Infobox Military Unit unit name=1st Tank Army (1942 April 1944) 1st Guards Tank Army (1944 1998) caption= dates=1942 1998 country=Soviet Union, Russia allegiance= branch=Armoured Forces type=Field army role=Breakthrough and Exploitation in Deep… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”