Central Front (Soviet Union)

The Central Front was a Front (i.e. a military formation of roughly Army Group size) of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. This sense of the term is not identical with the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front may operate within designated boundaries.

The Central Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first version was created on July 24, 1941 from the right wing of the forces in the Western Front, including a new designation of the Third Army and the headquarters of the (disbanded) 4th Army, whose former HQ formed the Front headquarters. Colonel General Fyodor I. Kuznetsov took command.

The Front was a combination of the 13th and 21st Armies. 13th Army, in the area of Mogilyov, had under command the 61st Rifle and 20th mechanized Corps and in the Krichevsky direction the 45th and 20th Rifle Corps. The other initial component of the Front was 21st Army, under General Lieutenant Mikhail Efremov, with 25th Mechanised Corps, and 66th, 63rd, 21st and 67th Rifle Corps. The new Front's air component was 136 aircraft (75 patched and repaired) under the command of Major General (Aviation) G.A. Vorozheikin. [John Erickson, 'The Road to Stalingrad' (1975), 2003 CAssel Military Paperbacks edition, p.197] The Central Front thus became the first new Front formed after the German invasion.At the time the Front was created its boundary with the Western front was along the Bryansk-Roslavl-Shklov-Minsk line (all inclusive for the Western front), and the main operational direction of the front was along the Gomel-Bobruisk-Волковыск axis.

On August 1, 3rd Army joined the Front, and on August 7 Kuznetsov was recalled to Moscow to be given a new assignment. Command was transferred to General Efremov. On August 8, Heinz Guderian's Panzergruppe 2 began its attack along the 13th Army sector. Four days later the German Second Army joined the attack. On August 17, the 63rd Rifle Corps was routed at the village of Skepnya (20 km to the east of Zhlobin), and two days later elements of the Second Army occupied Gomel. On August 22 3rd Army fell back from Mozyr. Under these blows the Front was eventually encircled and destroyed near Chernigov, and was formally disbanded on August 25, 1941. The surviving forces transferred to the first version of the Bryansk Front.

The second version of this Front was created on February 15, 1943. Then Colonel General Konstantin K. Rokossovsky took command, though he was promoted to full General in April 1943. General Lieutenant M. S.Malinin was named as Front Chief of Staff while general-major K.F.Telegin was made the member of the Front's Military Council. It incorporated the headquarters and forces of the Don Front, plus additional armies; the 2nd Tank, 21st, 65th, and 70th (originally formed from NKVD forces) were made part of the Front, along with the 16th Air Army under General Lieutenant S.I.Rudenko. The Front's headquarters was established around 10 km to the east of Yelets.

It was renamed the 1st Belorussian Front on October 20, 1943.

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* via machine translation