Skupina vojsk pod velením generálmajora Rokossovského jarcevského směru [1941-1941]

The Troop Group under the command of Major General Rokossovsky of the Yartsevo Direction (hereafter referred to as the Troop Group) was formed on 17 July 1941 from units of the 7th Mechanized Corps, with the mission of stopping, or at least holding back, enemy troops on the road from Yartsevo to Moscow. An able commander, Major-General K.K. Rokossovsky was appointed as the group's commander, who chose his closest associate, Colonel M.S. Malinin. The two became inseparable friends during the war, and in all the units in which Rokossovsky later commanded, Malinin was his chief of staff.


Rokossovsky, meanwhile, had no reason at all to rejoice in the task entrusted to him. He had at his disposal to handle it, according to his recollections, about a thousand former encircled soldiers; four or five hundred soldiers sent by the Western Front Command; no more than four thousand soldiers of the 38th Rifle Division. Altogether he had thus not more than five to five and a half thousand bayonets at his disposal. In addition, two dozen guns (several batteries of light artillery). There were no air units or anti-tank artillery in his group at all, and he also had no tanks at first...


The main fighting force of the group was the troops of the 44th Rifle Corps under the command of komdiva V.A. Yushkevich, promoted during the fighting to major-general. The tenacity of the fighting is evidenced, for example, by the fact that from 22 July to 2 August, the Yarcevo railway station changed hands eight times, eventually remaining in the hands of the soldiers of the 38th Rifle Division.


As a result of the stubborn defence of the undermanned and under-equipped Soviet troops, Adolf Hitler was forced to sign Directive No. 34 on the transition of German troops in the central sector of the Eastern Front to the defensive on the morning of 30 July 1941. Many years later, military historian and founder of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation V.A. Anfilov aptly emphasized the importance of the activities of the group of troops. "On July 30 (1941), Hitler was forced to order Army Group Center to go on the defensive. He was forced to take such a step for the first time after the invasion of the Soviet Union".


For historical accuracy, it should be added that this was not only the merit of the troop group, but also of other military groupings and ad hoc formed troop groups (troop groups under the command of Generals V.J. Kachalov, V.A. Khomenko, S.A. Kalinin or I.I. Maslennikov)


On August 10, 1941, on the basis of group of troops, the 16th Army (Second Formation) was formed.

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