The
Don Front was a front of the
Soviet Union Red Army during the Second World War, which existed between September 1942 and February 1943, and was commanded during its entire existence by Konstantin Rokossovsky. The name refers to Don River, Russia.
Formation
The front was created by order of the
STAVKA of the Supreme High Command on Sept. 28, 1942 in order to form a more cohesive command structure to the much-reinforced Soviet forces fighting in and around
Stalingrad. On that date the
STAVKA ordered:
The initial composition of the Don Front was as follows:
-
1st Guards Army - Kirill Moskalenko,
-
21st Army - Nikolay Krylov,
-
24th Army - Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov,
-
63rd Army - Vasily Kuznetsov,
-
66th Army - Rodion Malinovsky,
-
4th Tank Army - Vasily Kryuchenkin,
-
16th Air Army - Sergei Rudenko.
The command cadre of the new front came almost entirely from Rokossovsky's Bryansk Front, leaders that he trusted and would follow him until he was ordered to take command of 2nd Belorussian Front in late 1944.[Dr. Boris Sokolov, Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky. Helloin & Company, Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, pp 188-89]
On the basis of the STAVKA directive of February 5, 1943, the Don Front was transformed into the Central Front on February 15, 1943.
