5. tanková armáda [1942-1943]

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5th Tank Army (Second Formation)

(5-я танковая армия)


The 5th Panzer Army was formed for the second time on 3 September 1942 based on Directiveof the Headquarters of the Supreme Command № 994176 dated 30 August 1942. The staff of the original 5th Panzer Army (First Formation), which had been retained in reserve by the Headquarters Tent since mid-July 1942, served as its base. The 1st, 22nd and 26th Tank Corps, 119th Rifle Division and other separate units became part of the army.


On 22 September 1942, the army was transferred to the Bryansk Front and simultaneously reinforced with 154th Rifle Division, 105th Tank Brigade and 8. On 29 October, another change took place, when the army was assigned to the Southwestern Front, in whose composition it took part in the Battle of Stalingrad.


The composition of the army, at the moment of the counterattack of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad, consisted of six rifle divisions (14th Guards, 47th Guards, 119th, 124th, 159th, 159th, 124th, and 159th), and 159th and 346th Rifle Division), two tank corps (1st and 26th), 8th. Cavalry Corps,8th Independent Guards Tank Brigade, the 8th Motorcycle Regiment and two flame-thrower tank battalions. Nine artillery regiments, ten fighter anti-tank regiments, three Guards mortar regiments, five regiments of anti-aircraft artillery, and other support units were added to the army from the General Command Reserve as reinforcement units. Thus, at the beginning of the Stalingrad Operation, which bore the codename Uranus, the army had over one hundred thousand soldiers and officers, 378 tanks (70 of the KV type, 153 of the T-34 type, and 155 light tanks of the T-70 type), and 1,500 guns and mortars. For the air support of the army, 444 aircraft were allocated from the front's air force.


At the beginning of the Stalingrad Offensive Strategic Operation, the 5th Panzer Army, as part of the South-Western Front, was one of the so-called first-strength units. Already on the first day of Operation Uranus (19 November 1942), four of its rifle divisions broke the front held by the 3rd Romanian Army, while in the second half of the day a mobile army group (tank and cavalry corps, motorcycle regiment) was led into the breach created. The advance army forces advanced rapidly along the German-Romanian rear and on the morning of 23 November captured the town of Kalac on the Don, in the area of which they joined up with the 4th Mechanized Corps, which was advancing towards them from the south. This completed the encirclement of the Stalingrad Enemy Group, formed by the German 6. Army, under the command of General of Panzer Troops Friedrich Paulus, and the main force of the German 4th Panzer Army, under the command of Colonel-General Hermann Hoth.


From 16 December 1942, the army took part in the Mid-Don Offensive Operation (codenamed Little Saturn), carrying out a supporting attack in the direction of Morozovsk, Tacinskaya. In this operation, the Italian Army's defenses in Russia were broken, with the Panzer Corps advancing 100-200 kilometers in eight days. At the end of the operation, due to a sharp conflict with the front commander, N. F. Vatutin was removed from the post of Army Commander on 27 December 1942 by Lieutenant General Romanenko and the Army Commander was appointed Lieutenant General M. M. Popov.


In the following Miller-Voroshilovgrad offensive operation in the months of January-February 1943, advancing in the direction of the Donbas, the army units participated in the liberation of the towns of Morozovsk (5 January), Tatsinskaya (15 January), Kamensk-Shakhtinsky (13 February) and Krasnyi Sulin (14 February). By the end of February, the army troops advanced to the Mius River in the area of the town of Krasnyi Luch, where they went on the defensive. By the end of February 1943, the enemy, by a series of counterattacks, pushed the severely weakened army units in several directions.


The army was disbanded on 20 April 1943, its headquarters reorganized into the headquarters of the newly formed 12th Army (Fourth Formation).

Ivlev, I.I.: Vsje tankovyje i mechanizirovannye armii SSSR i Rossii 1924-2021, Litres, Samizdat 2021 (Ивлев И. I.: All tank and mechanized armies of the USSR and Russia 1942-2021, Litres, Samizdat 2021)
pamyat-naroda.ru
http://tankfront.ru/ussr/ta/ta5.html
ru.wikipedia.org