The Red Army's 60th Army (Russian: 60-я армия) was a Soviet field army during the Second 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 Chernyakhovsky for 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 the Auschwitz concentration camp.
First Formation The 60th Army was first formed in October 1941, as a reserve formation of the Moscow Military District. It comprised the 334th, 336th, 348th, 358th, and 360th Rifle DivisionsCharles 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 and the 11th Cavalry Division.Sharp, "Red Sabers", Soviet Cavalry Corps, Divisions, and Brigades 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. V, 1995, p 41 All these divisions had been formed in the Volga Military District in 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 the 4th Shock Army, 336th to 5th Army, and 348th to 30th Army,Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p 79 while the 11th Cavalry joined the 7th Cavalry Corps in January. Purkayev's headquarters group had already been used to create the command cadre for the new 3rd Shock Army, and 60th Army was disbanded on Dec. 25.David M. Glantz and Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1995, p 70
Second Formation In April and May 1942, STAVKA began forming a total of ten new combined-arms reserve armies in preparation for the expected German summer offensive. STAVKA expected this to be directed at Moscow, while the German plans were, in fact, for a drive 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.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, p 139 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.Glantz & House, p 117 The 3rd Reserve Army was directed to deploy to Voronezh Front, in the immediate environs of that eponymous city, and was renamed 60th Army on July 10.Glantz & House, p 113 At that time its order of battle was as follows: 107th Rifle Division 121st Rifle Division 161st Rifle Division 195th Rifle Division 232nd Rifle Division 237th Rifle Division 303rd Rifle DivisionKeith 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 in Red Swarm, p 67, this division did not reach the front in 60th Army. 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.
During the summer and autumn the 60th Army was engaged in an active defense of Voronezh and its approaches. German 4th Panzer Army arrived at the outskirts of the city on July 7 and began fighting to clear it of its 40th Army defenders. 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 of 6th 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.
In the wake of Operation Uranus and Operation 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 and Bryansk Fronts, including 60th Army, began the Voronezh-Kastornoye offensive against German 2nd Army, which was by now in a deep salient. Flanking and frontal attacks soon drove the remnants of that army westward in disorder towards Kursk and Belgorod.Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009, pp 19-20, 34 The former city became the new objective, and it fell to the 60th on Feb. 8. Gen. Kuznetsov of Front headquarters reported: Following this the army staged another offensive aimed at L'gov and Ryl'sk from Feb. 12 - 20, exploiting the gap that had opened between German 2nd and 2nd 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.Glantz, After Stalingrad, pp 278-80 On March 19, 60th and 38th Armies formed the short-lived Kursk Front. Five days later this was renamed Oryol Front, and the 60th was reassigned to Gen. K.K. Rokossovsky's Central 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.Glantz, After Stalingrad, pp 370-73
Battle of Kursk On July 5, 1943, the order of battle of the army was as follows:
24th Rifle Corps, with: 112th Rifle Division 42nd Rifle Brigade 129th Rifle Brigade 30th Rifle Corps, with: 121st Rifle Division 141st Rifle Division 322nd Rifle Division Separate Division: 55th Rifle 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 98th Guards Mortar Regiment 286th Separate Guards Mortar Battalion 221st Guards, 217th Antiaircraft Regiments 59th Engineer-Sapper Brigade 317th Separate Engineer Battalionhttp://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/943RGCC.PDF , pp 40-41 The sector of the salient occupied by the 60th was considerably west of where German 9th Army attempted 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 the counteroffensive towards Oryol. 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.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
Finally on August 26 Central Front renewed its offensive against Army Group Center. 65th Army, along with the weakened 2nd Tank Army, struck 2nd Army's center at Sevsk, which was liberated on that first day. 48th Army flanked 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 liberated Glukhov, and he continued to exploit using forward detachments.Dr. Boris Sokolov, Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky, trans. and ed. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, p 270-71 Rokossovsky changed his original plan and regrouped his 13th and 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.Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, Center of Military History, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C., 1968, p 159 60th Army liberated Konotop on September 6, Bakhmach on the 9th, and Nezhin on the 15th. By September 22, 13th, 60th and 61st Armies, with armored support, were closing on the Dniepr River north of Kiev.Glantz & House, p 171
Battle of the Dniepr 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: Political calculations deemed otherwise. Stalin was keen to have the Ukrainian capital liberated by Ukrainians; Gen. N.F. Vatutin and his Military Council member N.S. Khrushchev of Voronezh Front (soon to be renamed 1st Ukrainian Front) fit the bill. The boundary lines between the two Fronts were altered and Central Front (soon to be Belorussian, then 1st Belorussian Front) was directed at Chernigov.Sokolov, pp 271-72
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.Sokolov, p 273
Clearing Western Ukraine Kiev was finally liberated on 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 against 4th Panzer Army towards Zhitomir.Ziemke, pp 218-20 Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, 1944, the 13th and 60th Armies joined with the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps to drive through the overextended German flank on the southern fringe of the Pripiat Marshes, unhinging their defenses, liberating Rovno and Lutsk, and taking favorable positions to continue operations into Army Group South's rear.Glantz & House, p 188
On March 5, Cherniakhovsky was promoted to the rank of Colonel General, and on Apr. 15 he took command of 3rd 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. Col. Gen. P.A. Kurochkin took over command of the army and held it for the duration.Glantz & House, p 240 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.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