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60th Army (Soviet Union)

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60th Army
General of the Army Ivan Chernyakhovsky
ActiveOctober–December 1941
10 July 1942 – August 1945
CountrySoviet Union
BranchRed Army
TypeInfantry
Part ofMoscow Military District
Voronezh Front
Kursk Front
Central Front
1st Ukrainian Front
4th Ukrainian Front
EngagementsBattle of Voronezh (1942)
Voronezh-Kastornoye offensive
Battle of Kursk
Lower Dnieper Offensive
Battle of Kiev (1943)
Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive
Vistula-Oder Operation
Moravian-Ostrava Offensive
Prague Offensive
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Ivan Chernyakhovsky
Maksim Antoniuk

TheRed Army's60th Armywas a Sovietfield armyduring theSecond World War.It was first formed in reserve in the Moscow Military District in October 1941, but soon was disbanded. It was formed a second time in July 1942, and continued in service until postwar. The 60th Army was commanded by Gen.Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovskyfor much of the war, and it was while in this command that he proved himself worthy to be promoted to the rank of General of the Army and command of a Front at the age of 38 years. Elements of the army went on to, among other things, liberate theAuschwitz concentration camp.

First Formation

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The 60th Army was first formed in October 1941, as a reserve formation of theMoscow Military District.It comprised the334th,336th,348th,358th,and360th Rifle Divisions[1]and the11th Cavalry Division.[2]All these divisions had been formed in theVolga Military Districtin the preceding months. The army was under the command of Lt. Gen.M.A. Purkayev.In December the rifle divisions were reassigned as follows: 334th, 358th and 360th to the4th Shock Army,336th to5th Army,and 348th to30th Army,[3]while the 11th Cavalry joined the7th Cavalry Corpsin January. Purkayev's headquarters group had already been used to create the command cadre for the new3rd Shock Army,and 60th Army was disbanded on Dec. 25.[4]

Second Formation

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In April and May 1942,STAVKAbegan forming a total of ten new combined-arms reserve armies in preparation for the expected German summer offensive.STAVKAexpected this to be directed at Moscow, while the German plans were, in fact, for adrive to the southeast.On July 2, after disastrous losses further west, 3rd Reserve Army was released to take up positions north of Voronezh. The army was under command of Lt. Gen. M.A. Antoniuk.[5]As late as July 5, the Soviet command believed the new German offensive was a prelude to an advance on Moscow, but shortly thereafter they understood the true intent.[6]The 3rd Reserve Army was directed to deploy toVoronezh Front,in the immediate environs of that eponymous city, and was renamed 60th Army on July 10.[7]At that time its order of battle was as follows:

On July 25, Maj. Gen. I. D. Chernyakhovsky was appointed to the command of the army, a command he would hold until mid-April 1944.[9]

During the summer and autumn the 60th Army was engaged in an active defense of Voronezh and its approaches. German4th Panzer Armyarrived at the outskirts of the city on July 7 andbegan fightingto clear it of its40th Armydefenders. Counterattacks by 60th Army tied down these German mobile forces, leading to street fighting similar to what was to be seen in Stalingrad a few months later. The panzers were relieved by the infantry of6th Army,and fighting continued until July 24 when the final Soviet defenders were cleared from the west bank sector of the city. The army continued to probe the German front in the weeks following in an attempt to deflect enemy forces from the fighting in Stalingrad; this cost significant losses in men and equipment and several of the divisions had to be taken out of the line for rebuilding.[citation needed]

In the wake ofOperation UranusandOperation Little Saturn,the remaining Soviet forces on the southern half of the front joined in the winter counteroffensive. On January 24, 1943, forces of Voronezh andBryansk Fronts,including 60th Army, began theVoronezh-Kastornoye offensiveagainst German2nd Army,which was by now in a deep salient. Flanking and frontal attacks soon drove the remnants of that army westward in disorder towardsKurskandBelgorod.[10]The former city became the new objective, and it fell to the 60th on Feb. 8. Gen. Kuznetsov of Front headquarters reported:

"The city of Kursk was taken by our forces at 1500 hours on 8 February 1943. The 60th Army. The forces of the army fought intensely for possession of Kursk... The enemy offered stubborn resistance with the remnants of82nd Infantry Division,the340th Infantry Division,and the4th Panzer Division,which approached from theOrelregion, while counterattacking our units from the vicinity of Kursk with a force of up to a regiment of infantry. "[11]

Following this the army staged another offensive aimed atL'govandRyl'skfrom Feb. 12 - 20, exploiting the gap that had opened between German 2nd and2nd Panzer Armies.Chernyakhovsky's attempt to take L'gov off the march was frustrated on Feb. 20; he then set out to envelop the town and eventually succeeded.[12]On March 19, 60th and38th Armiesformed the short-livedKursk Front.Five days later this was renamedOryol Front,and the 60th was reassigned to Gen.K.K. Rokossovsky'sCentral Front.As the Germans regained their balance and the offensives ground to a halt, 60th Army found itself in the deepest, westernmost sector of the Kursk Salient, where it would remain through the following months.[13]

Battle of Kursk

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On July 5, 1943, the order of battle of the army was as follows:

24th Rifle Corps,with:

30th Rifle Corps,with:

Separate Division:

Other units:

  • 248th Rifle Brigade
  • 150th Tank Brigade
  • 58th Armored Train Battalion
  • 1156th Cannon Regiment
  • 1178th Antitank Regiment
  • 128th, 138th and 497th Mortar Regiments
  • 98thGuards MortarRegiment
  • 286th Separate Guards Mortar Battalion
  • 221st Guards, 217th Antiaircraft Regiments
  • 59th Engineer-Sapper Brigade
  • 317th Separate Engineer Battalion[14]

The sector of the salient occupied by the 60th was considerably west of where German9th Armyattempted to penetrate Central Front's lines, and the army saw little combat during the German offensive. It also remained largely inactive when the Front went over to thecounteroffensive towards Oryol.[citation needed]In August the army was reinforced by the 1st Guards Artillery Division. This unit would remain with 60th Army until after the transfer to 1st Ukrainian Front in October.[15]

Finally on August 26 Central Front renewed its offensive against Army Group Center.65th Army,along with the weakened2nd Tank Army,struck 2nd Army's center atSevsk,which was liberated on that first day.48th Armyflanked this drive on the right, while 60th operated on the left. The Germans counterattacked northwest of Sevsk on August 29, halting the main drive, but the 60th was able to break through on its sector, which the Germans had weakened in favor of Sevsk. By the end of the day Cherniakhovsky's forces had liberatedGlukhov,and he continued to exploit using forward detachments.[16]Rokossovsky changed his original plan and regrouped his13thand 2nd Tank Armies to his left flank to exploit the gap. The Germans lost track of these mobile forces until Rokossovsky threw them against 2nd Army's flank and smashed it in.[17]60th Army liberatedKonotopon September 6,Bakhmachon the 9th, andNezhinon the 15th. By September 22, 13th, 60th and61st Armies,with armored support, were closing on theDniepr Rivernorth ofKiev.[18]

Battle of the Dniepr

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At this point Central Front had advanced 100-120km farther than Voronezh Front, and in spite of having very extended flanks, appeared to have a real chance to liberate the Ukrainian capital from the march. Rokossovsky wrote:

"I visited Cherniakhovsky after his troops had liberated Nezhin. The soldiers and officers were filled with unprecedented enthusiasm. They had forgotten their fatigue and were plunging forward. Everyone had the same dream -- to take part in the liberation of the Ukraine's capital. Of course, Cherniakhovsky also felt the same way. All his actions were filled with the desire to reach Kiev more quickly."

Political calculations deemed otherwise. Stalin was keen to have the Ukrainian capital liberated by Ukrainians; Gen.N.F. Vatutinand his Military Council memberN.S. Khrushchevof Voronezh Front (soon to be renamed1st Ukrainian Front) fit the bill. The boundary lines between the two Fronts were altered and Central Front (soon to be Belorussian, then1st Belorussian Front) was directed atChernigov.[19]

By the end of September, the 60th had a bridgehead over the Dniepr north of Kiev with a depth of 12-15km and a width of 20km. Rokossovsky ordered an attack to the west and southwest, past Kiev. Instead, Cherniakhovsky pushed southwards along the river; Kiev seemed to be "attracting the army commander just like a magnet." As this was the most heavily defended sector, the attack failed. On October 5, in a major reshuffle of the Fronts, 60th Army was moved to the (soon to be) 1st Ukrainian Front, where it continued to serve until the last weeks of the war.[20]

Clearing Western Ukraine

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Kyiv was finally liberatedon Nov. 6. Over the following weeks see-saw battles took place west of the city, but by Dec. 26 the army had joined a new offensive against4th Panzer ArmytowardsZhitomir.[21]Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, 1944, the 13th and 60th Armies joined with the1st Guards Cavalry Corpsand6th Guards Cavalry Corpsto drive through the overextended German flank on the southern fringe of thePripiat Marshes,unhinging their defenses, liberatingRovnoandLutsk,and taking favorable positions to continue operations into Army Group South's rear.[22]

On March 5, Cherniakhovsky was promoted to the rank of Colonel General, and on Apr. 15 he took command of3rd Belorussian Front,at the age of 38 the youngest man to reach that level of command. He remained in this command until he was mortally wounded in action in East Prussia on Feb. 18, 1945.[9]Col. Gen.P.A. Kurochkintook over command of the army and held it for the duration.[23]At about this time the 1827th SU Regiment (ISU-152s) was assigned as a support unit to the army, where it remained (redesignated as 368th Guards SU Reg't. in July) until April 1945.[24]

On the sector of 60th Army, directly east ofLvov,theLvov-Sandomierz Offensivebegan on July 14, with it and38th Armyhitting the left flank of1st Panzer Army.That army had two panzer divisions in reserve close to the front; their counterattack the next day stopped the 38th and even won back some ground, but the 60th opened a breach in the line farther north. The next day, MarshalKonevordered the3rd Guards Tank Armyinto this gap. The Germans tried to pull their flanks back to a switch position called thePrinz Eugenline, but the Soviet forces continued to make penetrations. On the 18th their armored spearheads met on theBug River50km west of Lvov and the GermanXIII Army Corps(five German divisions and theSS Division Galicia) was encircled. By July 22 the gap in the German front was 50km wide and Soviet forward detachments were racing for theSanandVistula Rivers.On that same day XIII Corps attempted to break out, but of its 30,000 men only about 5,000 escaped.[25]During the following months the 60th Army took up positions on the southern flank in the Sandomierz bridgehead and rebuilt in anticipation of the coming winter offensive.[citation needed]

Into Germany

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At the end of December 1944, the order of battle of 60th Army was as follows:

15th Rifle Corps,with:

28th Rifle Corps,with:

106th Rifle Corps,with:

The 1st Ukrainian Front kicked off the Vistula-Oder Operation on Jan. 12, 1945, eight days earlier than originally planned, due to a request for assistance from the western Allies during the later stages of theBattle of the Bulge.60th Army was tasked to provide protection on the south side of the main penetration force. By 1400 hours the two tank armies of the Front passed through the attacking infantry; by the end of the day the German defenses had been breached on a 35km frontage to a depth of 20km. Twenty-four hours later the penetration was 60km wide and 40km deep, and by Jan. 18 the Front was five days ahead of schedule.[27]

On January 27, 1945, as the 60th continued on its flanking mission, the 322nd Rifle Division liberated the survivors of theAuschwitz concentration camp.[28]

In the last weeks of the war, 60th Army was transferred to4th Ukrainian Front,and ended the war nearPrague.[29]On 30 July 1945 the army's headquarters became the staff of the Kuban Military District atKrasnodar.On 4 February 1946 the district became the Kuban Territorial Military District, and became part of theNorth Caucasus Military District.The Kuban Territorial Military District was disbanded on 6 May.[30]

Commanders

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References

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  1. ^Charles C. Sharp,"Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX,1996, pp 80, 81, 87, 92, 93
  2. ^Sharp,"Red Sabers", Soviet Cavalry Corps, Divisions, and Brigades 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. V,1995, p 41
  3. ^Walter S. Dunn, Jr.,Stalin's Keys to Victory,Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p 79
  4. ^David M. Glantz andJonathan House,When Titans Clashed,University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1995, p 70
  5. ^Glantz,To the Gates of Stalingrad,University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, p 139
  6. ^Glantz & House, p 117
  7. ^Glantz & House, p 113
  8. ^Keith E. Bonn, ed.,Slaughterhouse,The Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005, p 329. Note that this source also includes the 167th Rifle Division, but according to Charles S. Sharp inRed Swarm,p 67, this division did not reach the front in 60th Army.
  9. ^ab"Biography of Army General Ivan Danilovich Cherniakhovskii - (Иван Данилович Черняховский) (1906 – 1945), Soviet Union".generals.dk.Retrieved2016-08-28.
  10. ^Glantz,After Stalingrad,Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009, pp 19-20, 34
  11. ^Glantz,After Stalingrad,p 243
  12. ^Glantz,After Stalingrad,pp 278-80
  13. ^Glantz,After Stalingrad,pp 370-73
  14. ^http:// cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/943RGCC.PDFArchived2016-03-04 at theWayback Machine,pp 40-41
  15. ^Sharp,"Red Thunder", Soviet Artillery Corps, Divisions and Brigades 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VI,Nafziger, 1995, p 38
  16. ^Dr. Boris Sokolov,Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky,trans. and ed. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, p 270-71
  17. ^Earl F. Ziemke,Stalingrad to Berlin,Center of Military History, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C., 1968, p 159
  18. ^Glantz & House, p 171
  19. ^Sokolov, pp 271-72
  20. ^Sokolov, p 273
  21. ^Ziemke, pp 218-20
  22. ^Glantz & House, p 188
  23. ^Glantz & House, p 240
  24. ^Sharp,"Red Hammers", Soviet Self-Propelled Artillery and Lend Lease Armor 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. XII,Nafziger, 1995, pp 36, 86
  25. ^Ziemke, pp 332-33
  26. ^http:// cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/944RLAA.pdfArchived2015-11-22 at theWayback Machine,pp 1-2
  27. ^Glantz & House, pp 240-44
  28. ^Rawson 2015,p. 114.
  29. ^Sharp,"Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X,1996, pp 113, 114
  30. ^Feskov et al 2013,p. 516.
  • Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013).Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской[The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing.ISBN9785895035306.
  • Rawson, Andrew (2015).Auschwitz: The Nazi Solution.Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword.ISBN9781473827981.
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