The Soviet 21st Army (Russian: 21-я армия) was a field army of the Red Army during World War II.
Operational history
June–September 1941
21st Army was a part of the Second Operational Echelon of the Red Army. It was formed from the forces of the Volga Military District in May 1941 and was initially based on 63rd Rifle Corps (53rd, 148th, and 167th Rifle Divisions) and 66th Rifle Corps. The army was under the command of Lieutenant-General Vasily Gerasimenko, and its chief of staff was Major-General Vasily Gordov. The commander of 63rd Rifle Corps was Lieutenant-General Leonid Petrovsky and the commander of 66th Rifle Corps was Major-General Fyodor Sudakov. In early June the army was moved to the eastern fringes of the Pripyat Marshes south of Homel. At the outbreak of hostilities on 22 June, the army was redeployed north to defend the right bank of the Dnepr between Rybchev and Stary-Bykhov. At the same time 25th Mechanized Corps, under the command of Major-General Semyon Krivoshein, was assigned to 21st Army from the Kharkov Military District.
On 27 June 1941, it was proposed to Joseph Stalin that the Soviet armies (13th Army, 19th Army, 20th Army, 21st, 22nd Army) would defend the line going through the Daugava-Polotsk-Vitebsk-Orsha-Mogilev-Mazyr.Fugate Bryan, Dvoriecki Lev Blitzkrieg and Dnieperm Warszawa 2001 page 130 On 2 July, 21st Army was subordinated to the command of Western Front. On 4 July, the 3rd Panzer Division crossed the Dnepr and established a bridgehead on the east bank near Rahachow. Relentless assaults made by 63rd Rifle Corps from 21st Army forced the Germans to evacuate the bridgehead two days later.Fugate Bryan, Dvoriecki Lev page 133 On 6 July a battle-group from the 21st Army (led by the 117th Rifle Division) crossed the Dnepr at Zhlobin south of Rahachow and attacked in direction of Babruysk. The Soviet attack was repelled by the German 10th Motorized Division with help from 3rd Panzer DivisionFugate Bryan, Dvoriecki Lev page 131 as German forces closed to the Dnepr, taking Rahachow and Zhlobin by 7 July and isolating 66th Rifle Corps' 117th Rifle Division in the eastern fringes of the Pripyat Marshes.
On 13 July, 21st Army, by this time under the command of Colonel-General Fyodor Kuznetsov, and reinforced with 67th Rifle Corps (commanded by Colonel Filipp Zhmachenko) and a cavalry group under the command of Colonel-General Oka Gorodovikov, went on the offensive again. Its 63rd Rifle Corps crossed Dnepr on pontoon bridges and recaptured Rahachow and Zhlobin, the first large towns to be retaken from German forces since the start of the invasion. Further south 232nd Rifle Division from 66th Rifle Corps under cover of woods, and with Gorodovikov's cavalry forces advancing off its left flank, gained 80 kilometres due west and took a bridgehead on Berezina river.Fugate Bryan, Dvoriecki Lev page 176 The advance of 21st Army was brought to a halt after a few days by fresh German forces from the German Second Army moving east from Minsk after the final surrender of the Soviet frontier armies in western Belorussia. During the second half of July the frontline stabilised from southeast of Babruysk to the Dnepr north of Rahachow and along the Sozh.
On 24 July, 21st Army came under command of the newly formed Central Front. Fedor Kuznetsov was assigned to the command of this new Front, and Lieutenant-General Mikhail Eframov was assigned as the new commander of 21st Army. Subsequently, 3rd Army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Vasilii Kuznetsov, was assigned to the frontline off the left flank of 21st Army in the Pripyat Marshes. By early August, 21st Army's defences were beginning to crumble against increasing pressure from Second Army. On 7 August Eframov moved to the command of Central Front and Gordov assumed command of 21st Army.
When on 12 August Krychaw was taken by the Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group, the 21st Army with its right flank severed began to withdraw to the east. Its new defensive position was to be on the line of river Desna. Zhlobin fell to Second Army on 14 August and the bridges over the Dnepr to the east of the town, though damaged, were taken in usable condition. Rahachow was taken by Second Army the next day and a sizable Soviet force, predominantly from 63 Rifle Corps, became trapped in the resultant pocket. The advance of Second Army towards Homel was slowed by counterattacks from 21st Army, but Gordov's army was being threatened with encirclement by the southward advance of 2nd Panzer Group from Krychaw. Homel was taken by forces from Second Army on 20 August but not before the bridges over the Sozh had been destroyed. On 25 August Central Front was disbanded; 21st Army and 3rd Army were merged, assigned to the newly created Bryansk Front, and, though the combined force was still designated 21st Army, Vasilii Kuznetsov was appointed to its command.
On 26 August German 2nd Panzer Group secured a bridgehead on the Desna's eastern bank near Novhorod-Siverskyi which threatened the eastern flank of 21st Army. Kuznetsov ordered a withdrawal over the river Desna. Unfortunately Kuznetsov did not inform the neighbouring Soviet units about his decision. Because of that 40th Army was forced to abort its attack on the German bridgehead near Novhorod-Siverskyi and the army commander, Major-General Kuzma Podlas, ordered a retreat to the southeast. Thus 21st Army, between South Western Front's 40th and 5th Armies was cut off from the forces of Bryansk Front. Kuznetsov can't be blamed for that decision because his army was at that point already beaten by German forces and in full retreat. In this situation on 6 September Kuznetsov's army was placed under the command of Southwestern Front. By then the advance by 2nd Panzer Group had forced a gap between South Western Front and Bryansk Front,Fugate Bryan, Dvoriecki Lev page 213 and 21st Army, continuing to retreat to the south, became caught up in a vast encirclement that became the Battle of Kiev (1941). During the second week of September a significant portion of 21st Army was able to escape eastwards through gaps in 2nd Panzer Group's lines between Priluki and Piriatin, but the bulk of the army found itself, together with the rest of South Western Front, in a tightening encirclement east of Kiev. Only a few thousand soldiers, mainly from 21st Army and 5th Army, together with 500 men from Kuznetsov's headquarters staff, escaped from the final encirclement of South Western Front in the second half of September.Fugate Bryan, Dvoriecki Lev page 226
October 1941 – May 1942 On 26 September, Colonel-General Yakov Cherevichenko was appointed to the command of the residual forces of 21st Army that had escaped encirclement at Kiev. The army grew rapidly in strength as reserves were fed into Ukraine from the Soviet strategic reserve, so that by the beginning of October the army included three rifle divisions and five cavalry divisions. On 5 October Fyodor Kuznetsov briefly resumed command of 21st Army. By then it had become clear to Soviet high command that the main thrust of the German autumn offensive would not be directed at the Kharkov – Belgorod axis, the defence of which was assigned to South Western Front. On 15 October command of 21st Army reverted once again to Vasiliy Gordov, and Major-General Aleksei Danilov was appointed as the army's chief of staff. During October, under constant pressure from the German Sixth Army, 21st Army withdrew steadily to the east on the Belgorod axis north of Kharkov towards the upper Donets. Since the German mechanised forces had been directed towards Moscow and Rostov, Gordov's forces easily avoided encirclement by the slow-moving infantry divisions of Sixth Army, and by early November the frontline had begun to stabilise along the upper Donets.
On 1 January 1942, 21st Army, which by then included six rifle divisions, launched an offensive towards Oboyan against part of the German Sixth Army. This was part of a wider offensive by South Western Front and Southern Front to retake Kursk, Kharkov and the Donbas; the offensive in Ukraine, being part of a general winter offensive by the Red Army that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. By 3 January, the 21st Army, in conjunction with 40th Army further north, was involved in heavy fighting on the line of the Seym River, and the next day Gordov's forces cut the Belgorod – Kursk road and began to close in on Oboyan. However, by 5 January the progress of 21st Army had stalled after a series of counterattacks by Sixth Army. On 10 January Sixth Army attacked 21st Army's right flank north of Oboyan and also attacked the army's positions south of the town. Gordov could not prevent German forces from breaking through his lines and threatening the rear of his forward units. This German counterattack brought South Western Front's offensive north of Kharkov to an end and placed 21st Army on the defensive along the upper Donets for the rest of the winter and spring.
On 12 May 1942 South Western Front launched a renewed offensive to take Kharkov. 21st Army was to be part of the northern arm of an attempt to encircle the city from north and south. In conjunction with 28th Army on its left, Gordov's forces attacked XVII Army Corps of the German Sixth Army. For several days it seemed that a breakthrough against XVII Army Corps might be possible, but a reserve Soviet cavalry corps was not available in time to support the offensive and the Soviet advance stalled short of Kharkov in the face of effective German defences.
June 1942 – April 1943
By late June 1942, 21st Army, with nine rifle divisions and a tank corps, occupied the northern flank of Southwestern Front along 100 kilometres of frontline east of Belgorod. Gordov's army, facing the left flank of the German Sixth Army and the right flank of the newly introduced Hungarian Second Army, was still flanked on its right by 40th Army, but 40th Army at this time constituted the southern wing of Bryansk Front which was responsible for the defence of the Voronezh axis.Glantz&House When Titans clashed Page 118 – Map 8 On 28 June the main German strategic offensive of 1942, Case Blue, began. The initial German objectives were to break through the left wing of Bryansk Front in an advance to the Don at Voronezh, and, further south, to then break through the left wing of 21st Army in an advance towards Stary Oskol that would encircle 21st Army and 40th Army. Subsequently, German mechanised forces would advance down the right bank of the Don in order to encircle South Western Front, and would develop the offensive into the great bend of the Don and across the lower Don in order to encircle Southern Front, interdict the Volga river traffic at Stalingrad and secure the oilfields at Maykop. Within days of the opening of the German offensive, the right wing and centre of 40th Army had disintegrated and German mechanised forces were advancing rapidly towards Voronezh. On 30 June, XL Panzer Corps, subordinated to the German Sixth Army, struck 21st Army's left flank 40 kilometres southeast of Belgorod. At the same time German mechanised forces that had broken through the centre of 40th Army began to move towards Stary Oskol. On 1 July, with XL Panzer Corps breaking through 21st Army's lines and rendering the left wing of 40th Army and the bulk of 21st Army at risk of encirclement, Gordov was given permission to withdraw to the east. Making effective use of rearguards, Gordov and his staff managed to slow the German advance sufficiently to enable the bulk of 21st Army to reach the Don in the Liski area, and to withdraw to the relative safety of the left bank of the river.