Top Battlefields to Visit ?

A recent article posted the following as the top 5 Battlefield Sites to visit 
(According to Virtual Tourist)

I beg to differ. What would you rate the top sites to be ?
Maybe wargamers and history buffs may  have a different take. Maybe we should rather go by century?

I would not rate Hiroshima as a battle site though.
Historical yes, catastrophic yes, significant yes, but not a battle site in the true sense.

I am also just a little removed geographically from US history, having grown up just a tad euro-and afri-centric, being from the Colonies, what, old chap!

Battle sites I've been to:

1. Waterloo

2. Somme/Marne - WW 1 Western front

3. Bridges at Arnhem and other WW 2 sites throughout Western Europe

4. Gates of Vienna 

5. KwaZulu Natal  - Valley of a Thousand Hills (Rorke's Drift, Isandlwana and Blood River)

6.  Tienanmen Square and Beijing (Notable, but maybe also not really a battle, as it was one-sided)

Ones I'd like to visit:

1. Beaches and Bocage of Normandy

2. Bannockburn

3. Gettysburg

4. Midway Island/Truk Lagoon - would love to dive here (one of my other passions)

5. Kursk and Prokhorovka

Philosopher George Santayana once said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

With this in mind, members of travel website VirtualTourist.com shared five locations of historical conflicts that they believe even the most modest history buff should visit if they want to learn from the past as well as be inspired to build a more peaceful future.

1. Battle of Bosworth (Wars of the Roses), Leicestershire, United Kingdom

On the afternoon of August, 22, 1485, the course of English history changed.

The Battle of Bosworth was the major turning point, for it was during this battle that King Richard III was killed and his place as monarch taken by a Welsh prince, Henry Tudor.

Richard's troops are said to have camped near the village of Sutton Cheney, and Richard himself prayed in the tiny church of St. James the night before the battle. You can visit this beautiful little church most days, and see for yourself where Richard spent his last few hours.

Each year, there is a re-enactment of the Battle of Bosworth with traditional jousting, soldiers in armour charging each other and of course the charge led by King Richard against Henry Tudor which ultimately led to his death.

2. Battle of Gettysburg (American Civil War), in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought between Union and Confederate forces July 1 -3, 1863, turned the tide of the American Civil War against the Confederacy.

The "battlefield" is actually a series of locations now part of the US National Park Service, with the town and houses intermixed with the fields, over which tens of thousands of men fought.

On the tour provided by the National Park Service, visitors learn that decades after the war, there were reunions of Union and later Confederate troops at the battle.

Because of this, they know where each unit was during the three days, and as a result, monuments have been erected for individual Union and Confederate units on the site where the unit fought.

As one VitualTourist member puts it, it's sobering to drive and walk through the area and see what a vast space it was. This battle is also what led to President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, one of the most powerful speeches in the history of the United States.

3. Bombing of Hiroshima (World War II), Hiroshima, Japan

During World War II, on August 6, 1945, the world's first deployed atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, killing approximately 80,000 people.

Its target was the Aioi Bridge but it missed and exploded almost directly above a building, which was at the time an exhibition hall known as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.

Because the blast was felt from immediately above, hitting the structure vertically, a surprising amount remained intact, even though everyone inside was killed instantly.

For some years after the war, the skeleton of the building remained as it was. There were some who felt it should be pulled down and the site redeveloped, while others argued for its restoration and yet others for its preservation as a ruin, to stand as a memorial to what had happened and to those who had lost their lives.

The latter group won the day, and in 1966 the city council declared that it intended to preserve the building, undertaking only the minimal work necessary to ensuring its stability.

In December 1996 the Atomic Bomb Dome was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its listing was based on its survival from a destructive force, the first use of nuclear weapons on human population, and most importantly its representation as a symbol of peace.

The Atomic Bomb Dome is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

4. The Battlefields of the Western Front (World War I), in the province of Flanders, Belgium and Northern France

Stretching through 724 kilometres of the Belgian province of Flanders and regions of northern and eastern France, the fighting on the Western Front started in 1914 when Germany invaded Luxembourg and Belgium on its way to France.

It ended in 1918 with the collapse of the German Empire and the Treaty of Versailles. It is estimated that more than 13 million soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or missing during this time.

While there are numerous preserved sites and monuments to visit along the coastal stretch, one of the most moving sites is the Notre Dame de Lorette Cemetery in Ablain, France.

Also known as Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, it was the site of three battles and is now the location of the world's largest French military cemetery, holding the remains of 40,000 casualties, most from the First World War.

5. Battle of San Jacinto (Texas Revolution), La Porte, Texas, United States

On April 21, 1836, General Sam Houston led his troops to battle against superior forces led by Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

Houston's troops were eager for revenge over the devastation and fall of the Alamo. In a surprise attack, the Texans were able to overtake the Mexican camp in a battle that lasted only 18 minutes. Although only nine Texans died during the battle, a monument was erected dedicated to all the heroes of the Battle of San Jacinto and to honour all others who contributed to the creation of the independent Republic of Texas.

The 570-foot-tall monument is the world's tallest memorial column and is topped with a 34-foot star symbolizing the Lone Star Republic. The Battleship Texas (BB-35) is moored in the Houston Ship Channel less than a mile away, the first battleship memorial museum in the US.

What do you thing should be on this list?

Crimea in the spotlight: History repeating itself ? Two opinions

Is Putin taking a page out of Hitler's book? Two opinions

Two opinions reposted:

Richard Cohen, Washington Post:

Putin forces us to reconsider poor Neville Chamberlain

Pardon the cliche, but I think we have come upon a teachable moment. I am referring to the crisis in Ukraine and what it teaches us, not just about the future but also about the past. Vladimir Putin has turned us all into Neville Chamberlain. The umbrella, please.

Chamberlain is famous for the Munich Agreement and his statement that, by acquiescing to Hitler’s demands, he had brought Britain and Europe “peace for our time.” He and the French gave Hitler the Sudetenland, which was the name applied to the substantially German areas of what was then Czechoslovakia. Hitler was a monster, but in this case his argument had a superficial appeal: Germans, he contended, ought to be in Germany.

What complicates matters is that we now know — indeed, we soon learned — that for Hitler the Sudetenland represented mere batting practice. He was soon to invade Poland and much of the rest of Europe, faltering only when he disregarded the bitter lesson Napoleon learned and plunged into Russia. It was a very cold winter.

Putin is demanding for Crimea more or less what Hitler wanted for the Sudetenland: Russians ought to be in Russia. No doubt the Crimean Russians agree and, come Sunday, will vote accordingly. That would place a patina of democracy — or at least self-determination — over what is essentially a power grab, but it will be hard to argue that the Crimean Russians aren’t getting the government they want, if not the one they deserve.

So we can see — can’t we? — that Chamberlain was not such a noodle after all. He certainly appeased Hitler. But the Western world — needing Russian gas for Germany, Russian rubles for London flats — over time probably will do the same with Putin. Just as we — especially our European brethren — can see the logic of Putin’s demands, so could Chamberlain appreciate that the Sudeten Germans might be on the wrong side of the border. Hitler’s homicidal anti-Semitism, among other character blemishes, bothered them not a bit. No one’s perfect, after all.

The fly in my Sudeten ointment is that, as with Chamberlain in 1938, we are not sure with whom we are dealing. Hitler soon announced himself, making Chamberlain appear the fool then and forevermore. But what of Putin? Will he stop at Crimea or, after a pause, plunge into the rest of eastern Ukraine, which has many Russian speakers? And then, what next? Will he endeavor to protect ethnic Russians in, say, Estonia? Almost 25 percent of that country is ethnic Russian. How about Latvia, which is about 27 percent Russian. These are healthy numbers; if these Russian minorities become endangered — or are merely said to be — a Russian ruler has an obligation to act, da?

Hitler made things easy. By 1938, he had already purged (murdered) the hierarchy of his vaunted brown shirts, instituted the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws and, a bit more than a month after he signed the Munich Agreement, launched the vast pogrom known as Kristallnacht. By then, too, he had ruthlessly suppressed all dissent, created the first of many concentration camps and lit the German night with bonfires of unacceptable books.

Putin is no angel, but he has concentrated power without widespread violence or murder. While the gulag remains mostly a memory, he has sent his opponents to labor camps, such as YaG-14, where the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was eventually sentenced. Putin is autocratic and kleptomaniacal, but he is not Hitler or Stalin. He has a keen ear for the 24-hour news cycle and must have noticed that the Ukraine story has slipped off Page 1 and, on TV, is not as important as the weather.

It would be wrong to allow Putin’s seizure of Crimea to fall into some sort of memory hole. Putin got away with the seizure of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008 (George W. Bush was president then) and now he seems poised to retain Crimea — at the very least. In the long term, he knows we are short-term thinkers.

This teachable moment has many students. Around the world, there are nations that suffer the grievous loss of this or that strip of land, even worthless rocky islands in the middle of nowhere. What have they learned? I hope it’s not that the rest of us have learned nothing.

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal:

It's Too Early to Say Putin Is Using Hitler's Playbook

Crimea is not Sudetenland, Putin is not Hitler, and Obama is not Chamberlain.

"I believe it is peace for our time," Neville Chamberlain said, standing outside 10 Downing Street on Sept. 30, 1938, upon returning from a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Those infamous words by the British prime minister, which followed a deal to give Nazi Germany a part of Czechoslovakia in return for a promise of no war, have been repeated for more than 75 years as the example of appeasing to a dictator in modern history.

And now, a growing choir of politicians and pundits, warning of the consequences of Russian aggression in Ukraine, are using it too.

 On the same day that Hillary Clinton said that Vladimir Putin's claims of protecting ethnic Russians was "reminiscent" of Hitler's claims for ethnic Germans living in Sudetenland, Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, told the House floor that the world was acting like Chamberlain "as Russia continues to gobble up sovereign states."

Comparisons to Hitler are overdone and often inappropriate. The man did kill 6 million Jews and brought the world to war. But in this case, those on the left and right seem to be comfortable suggesting that Crimea is the new Sudetenland.

So, what actually happened in that slice of the former Czechoslovakia in 1938?

Sudetenland is a thin region in the northwestern, western, and southwestern parts of what's now the Czech Republic, bordering Germany. At the time, it was mostly inhabited by German speakers who were particularly vulnerable to unemployment and poverty during the 1930s—making it easier for some to cling to political extremism.

As Hitler expanded his reach in Europe, annexing Austria and looking to enlarge the Third Reich, he started coordinating with the local Nazi Party to pressure the Czechoslovakian government for more minority rights for ethnic Germans. Those rights were granted, but Hitler pushed further. He wanted to annex Sudetenland, and he threatened to go to war to secure the region.

Fearing a second major conflict in their lifetimes, Britain and France met with Germany and Italy to find a solution. Czechoslovakia was not included in the meetings. After several rounds of negotiation and threats of military force from Hitler, the four parties met in Munich to agree to a solution that would let Germany annex Sudetenland and immediately occupy the territory militarily. Later, this would make Germany's invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia five months later easier, because Hitler had taken away any sort of border defense.

Chamberlain, Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement on Sept. 30, 1938, labeled as a victory for peace.

Right now, it's fair to say that Vladimir Putin is making similar claims of protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea. Crimea, like that region of Czechoslovakia, is also strategic militarily and plagued by a weak central government.

But the position that the world finds itself in now is completely and utterly different than in 1938. Putin is not Hitler, in neither intentions nor actions. Ukrainian government leaders are at the table and involved in international discussions. And Western leaders have not signed Crimea over to Russia for a promise of peace.

Could Crimea for Putin, like Sudetenland for Hitler, be "batting practice," as The Washington Post's Richard Cohen said in a Tuesday column? Will Putin now go after countries in the region with large Russian populations like Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania, as Hitler did in Czechoslovakia and Poland? Or is this an isolated instance?

There are similarities between that infamous moment in modern history and what we face today, and leaders should want to prevent such atrocities again. But these questions remain unanswered. It is just too early to call Putin Hitler and Obama Chamberlain.

Sabres in the Crimea (again?)

So the Sabres are rattling in the Crimea again:

Vladimir Putin has decided that it would be good idea to take back Sebastopol and the Crimea from The Ukraine. The Crimea has been a hotbed of contention for centuries, holding a key position on the Black Sea.

The retoric smacks of Adolf Hitler though: " Lets reunite all the German (read Russian in this context) speaking people of this area." -  Sounds a little like Rhineland, Austria or Sudetenland, doesn't it? 

So I've had a little look at the history of the area:

Crimea is an eastern Ukrainian peninsula (click to map) located on the Black Sea. It’s connected to the rest of the country by a small strip of land. Out of its 2 million residents, about 60 percent identify as Russian. That’s the highest concentration of Russian speakers in Ukraine. Although the territory belongs to Ukraine, Russia stationed part of its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol as part of a pre-existing agreement between the two countries.

 Crimea hasn’t always been part of Ukraine. Here’s a summary of what’s happened in the region since the Ottoman Empire used the peninsula as a hub for slave trade.

1783: Russia annexed Crimea.

1853: The Crimean War began, lasting three years. Russia lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Sardinia. Crimea remained part of Russia. Charge of the Light Brigade, ouch:

( Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan, overall commander of the British forces, had intended to send the Light Brigade to pursue and harry a retreating Russian artillery battery, a task well suited to light cavalry. Due to mis-communication in the chain of command, the Light Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault against a different artillery battery, one well-prepared with excellent fields of defensive fire.Although the Light Brigade reached the battery under withering direct fire and scattered some of the gunners, the badly-mauled brigade was forced to retreat immediately. Thus, the assault ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains.)

1917: Crimea briefly became a sovereign state before becoming a base for the White Army of anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russian War.

1921: The peninsula, now called the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, became part of the Soviet Union.

1942: Nazi Germany took control of Crimea:

The Crimea Campaign was an eight-month long campaign by Axis forces to conquer the Crimea peninsula, and was the scene of some of the bloodiest battles on the Eastern Front during World War II. The German, Romanian, and defending Soviet troops suffered heavy casualties as the Axis forces tried to advance through the Isthmus of Perekop linking the Crimean peninsula to the mainland at Perekop, from summer of 1941 through to the first half of 1942.

From the 26 September 1941 the German 11th Army and troops from the Romanian Third Army and Fourth Army were involved in the fighting, opposed by the Red Army's 51st Army and elements of the Black Sea Fleet. After the campaign, the peninsula was occupied by Army Group A with the 17th Army as its major subordinate formation.

Once the Axis (German and Romanian troops) broke through, they occupied most of Crimea, with the exception of the city of Sevastopol, which was given the title of Hero City for its resistance, and Kerch, which was recaptured by the Soviets during an amphibious operation near the end of 1941 and then taken once again by the Germans during Operation Bustard Hunt on 8 May. The Siege of Sevastopol lasted 250 days from 30 October 1941 until 4 July 1942, when the Axis finally captured the city.

Sevastapol, the main object of the campaign, was surrounded by German forces and assaulted on 30 October 1941. German troops were repulsed by a Soviet counterattack. Later, many troops evacuated from Odessa contributed to the defense of Sevastopol. The Germans then began an encirclement of the city.

Other attacks on 11 November and 30 November, in the eastern and southern sections of the city, failed.German forces were then reinforced by several artillery regiments, one of which included the railway gun Schwerer Gustav. Another attack on 17 December was repulsed at the last moment with the help of reinforcements, and Soviet troops landed on the Kerch peninsula the day after Christmas, to relieve Sevastopol. The Soviet forces remained on the peninsula until a 9 April German counterattack. They held on for another month before being eliminated on 18 May. With the distraction removed, German forces renewed their assault on Sevastopol, penetrating the inner defensive lines on 29 June. Soviet commanders had been flown out or evacuated by submarine towards the end of the siege, and the city surrendered on 4 July 1942, although some Soviet troops held out in caves outside of the city until the 9th.

In 1944, the Crimea was recaptured by troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front during the Crimean Offensive (8 April 1944 – 12 May 1944) and its three sub-operations:

• Kerch–Eltigen Operation (31 October 1943 – 11 December 1943)
• Perekop–Sevastopol Offensive Operation (8 April 1944 – 12 May 1944)
• Kerch–Sevastopol Offensive Operation (11 April 1944 – 12 May 1944)

1944: Joseph Stalin forcibly deported all Muslim Tatars, a group of 300,000 who had lived on the peninsula for centuries, due to members’ alleged cooperation with Germany during World War II. Many returned to Crimea in the 1980s and 1990s.

1945: After World War II, the autonomous Soviet republic was dissolved and Crimea became a province of the Soviet Union called the Crimean Oblast.

1954: Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine. It’s often reported that it was a gesture of goodwill from Khrushchev, who had Ukrainian roots.

1991: The Soviet Union collapsed. Many expected President Boris Yeltsin, the new president of the Russian Federation, to take Crimea for Russia. But he didn’t bring it up during negotiations with Ukraine.

1997: Ukraine and Russia signed a treaty that allowed Russia to keep its fleet in Sevastopol. The agreement’s since been extended, so the fleet is set to remain there until at least 2042.

Though Khrushchev’s gesture had unclear motives, it didn’t seem like a problem for Russia at the time, only garnering a one-sentence write-up in the official Soviet newspaper. It became a bigger issue in the region once the Soviet Union collapsed decades later.

So the story of the Crimean Peninsula is long and complicated, to say the least. 

And there could be more news to come as war threatens Eastern Europe. Today, Crimea’s residents are divided on the issue of Russia’s military intervention. Generally speaking, ethnic Russians support Russia’s involvement in the region, while Tatars and Ukrainians express pro-Ukrainian sentiments.

 About 60 percent of people living in Crimea identify themselves as Russian. 

Kursk Order of Battle: Protagonists Part 2: The Russians

Kursk Protagonists Part 2: Soviet Forces 

Western Front 

(Vasily Sokolovsky)

50th Army (Ivan Boldin)

11th Guards Army (Ivan Bagramyan)

1st Air Army (Mikhail Gromov)

Bryansk Front 

(Markian Popov)

3rd Army (Alexander Gorbatov)

61st Army (Pavel Belov)

63rd Army (Vladimir Kolpakchi)

15th Air Army (Nikolai Naumenko)

Central Front 

(Konstantin Rokossovsky)

13th Army (Nikolay Pukhov)

48th Army (Prokofy Romanenko)

60th Army (Ivan Chernyakhovsky)

65th Army (Pavel Batov)

70th Army (Ivan Galanin)

2nd Tank Army (Alexei Rodin)

16th Air Army (Sergei Rudenko)

Voronezh Front 

(Nikolai Vatutin)

6th Guards Army (Ivan Chistiakov)

7th Guards Army (Mikhail Shumilov)

38th Army (Nikandr Chibisov)

40th Army (Kirill Moskalenko)

69th Army (Vasily Kriuchenkin)

1st Tank Army (Mikhail Katukov)

2nd Air Army (Stepan Kravsovsky)

Steppe Front 

(Ivan Konev)

5th Guards Army (Alexei Zhadov)

5th Guards Tank Army (Pavel Rotmistrov)

5th Air Army (Sergei Goriunov)

 Composition of forces: 

1. Western Front 

(Vasily Sokolovsky)

50th Army (Ivan Boldin)

 38th Rifle Corps (Alexei Tereshkov)

17th Rifle Division

326th Rifle Division

413th Rifle Division

49th Rifle Division

64th Rifle Division

212th Rifle Division

324th Rifle Division

11th Guards Army 

(Ivan Bagramyan)

8th Guards Rifle Corps

11th Guards Rifle Division

26th Guards Rifle Division

83rd Guards Rifle Division

16th Guards Rifle Corps

1st Guards Rifle Division

16th Guards Rifle Division

31st Guards Rifle Division

169th Rifle Division

36th Guards Rifle Corps

5th Guards Rifle Division

18th Guards Rifle Division

84th Guards Rifle Division

108th Rifle Division

217th Rifle Division

1st Air Army (Mikhail Gromov)

2nd Assault Air Corps

2nd Fighter Air Corps

8th Fighter Air Corps

1st Independent Tank Corps (Vasily Butkov)

5th Independent Tank Corps (Mikhail Sakhno)

2. Bryansk Front (Markian Popov)

3rd Army (Alexander Gorbatov)

41st Rifle Corps (Viktor Urbanovich)

235th Rifle Division

308th Rifle Division

380th Rifle Division

269th Rifle Division

283rd Rifle Division

342nd Rifle Division

61st Army (Pavel Belov)

9th Guards Rifle Corps (Arkady Boreiko)

12th Guards Rifle Division
76th Guards Rifle Division
77th Guards Rifle Division
97th Rifle Division
110th Rifle Division
336th Rifle Division
356th Rifle Division
415th Rifle Division

63rd Army (Vladimir Kolpakchi)

5th Rifle Division

41st Rifle Division

129th Rifle Division

250th Rifle Division

287th Rifle Division

348th Rifle Division

397th Rifle Division

15th Air Army (Nikolai Naumenko)

1st Guards Fighter Air Corps

3rd Assault Air Corps

 25th Rifle Corps

186th Rifle Division

283rd Rifle Division

362nd Rifle Division

1st Independent Guards Tank Corps

3. Central Front (Konstantin Rokossovsky)

17th Guards Rifle Corps (Andrei Bondarev)

6th Guards Rifle Division

70th Guards Rifle Division

75th Guards Rifle Division

18th Guards Rifle Corps (Ivan Afonin)

2nd Guards Airborne Division

3rd Guards Airborne Division

4th Guards Airborne Division

15th Rifle Corps (Ivan Liudnikov)

8th Rifle Division

74th Rifle Division

148th Rifle Division

29th Rifle Corps (Afanasy Slyshkin)

15th Rifle Division

81st Rifle Division

307th Rifle Division

48th Army (Prokofy Romanenko)

42nd Rifle Corps (Konstantin Kolganov)

16th Rifle Division

202nd Rifle Division

399th Rifle Division

73rd Rifle Division

137th Rifle Division

143rd Rifle Division

170th Rifle Division

60th Army (Ivan Chernyakhovsky)

24th Rifle Corps

42nd Rifle Division

112th Rifle Division

30th Rifle Corps

121st Rifle Division

141st Rifle Division

322nd Rifle Division

Independent 55th Rifle Division

65th Army (Pavel Batov)

18th Rifle Corps

69th Rifle Division

149th Rifle Division

246th Rifle Division

27th Rifle Corps

60th Rifle Division

193rd Rifle Division

37th Guards Rifle Division

181st Rifle Division

194th Rifle Division

354th Rifle Division

70th Army (Ivan Galanin)

28th Rifle Corps (Aleksandr Nechaev)

132nd Rifle Division

211th Rifle Division

280th Rifle Division

102nd Rifle Division

106th Rifle Division

140th Rifle Division

162nd Rifle Division

354th Rifle Division

2nd Tank Army (Alexei Rodin)

3rd Tank Corps

16th Tank Corps

16th Air Army (Sergei Rudenko)

3rd Bombing Air Corps

6th Mixed Air Corps

6th Fighter Air Corps

Independent 9th Tank Corps

Independent 19th Tank Corps

4. Voronezh Front (Nikolai Vatutin)

6th Guards Army (Ivan Chistiakov)

22nd Guards Rifle Corps

67th Guards Rifle Division

71st Guards Rifle Division

90th Guards Rifle Division

23rd Guards Rifle Corps

51st Guards Rifle Division

52nd Guards Rifle Division

375th Rifle Division

Independent 89th Guards Rifle Division

7th Guards Army (Mikhail Shumilov)

24th Guards Rifle Corps (Nikolai Vasilev)

15th Guards Rifle Division

36th Guards Rifle Division

72nd Guards Rifle Division

25th Guards Rifle Corps (Gany Safiulin)

73rd Guards Rifle Division

78th Guards Rifle Division

81st Guards Rifle Division

Independent 213th Rifle Division

38th Army (Nikandr Chibisov)

50th Rifle Corps

167th Rifle Division

232nd Rifle Division

340th Rifle Division

51st Rifle Corps (Petr Avdeenko)

180th Rifle Division

240th Rifle Division

Independent 204th Rifle Division

40th Army (Kirill Moskalenko)

47th Rifle Corps

161st Rifle Division

206th Rifle Division

237th Rifle Division

52nd Rifle Corps (Frants Perkhorovich)

100th Rifle Division

219th Rifle Division

309th Rifle Division

Independent 184th Rifle Division

69th Army (Vasily Kriuchenkin)

48th Rifle Corps (Zinovy Rogozny)

107th Rifle Division

183rd Rifle Division

307th Rifle Division

49th Rifle Corps

111th Rifle Division

270th Rifle Division

1st Tank Army (Mikhail Katukov)

6th Tank Corps (Andrey Getman)

31st Tank Corps

3rd Mechanized Corps

2nd Air Army (Stepan Kravsovsky)

1st Bombing Air Corps

1st Assault Air Corps

4th Fighter Air Corps

5th Fighter Air Corps

35th Guards Rifle Corps

92nd Guards Rifle Division

93rd Guards Rifle Division

94th Guards Rifle Division

Independent 2nd Guards Tank Corps

Independent 3rd Guards Tank Corps

Steppe Front (Ivan Konev)

This order of battle does not show the complete composition of the Steppe Front.

 In addition to the units listed below, there are also 

the 4th Guards, 27th, 47th and 53rd Armies.

5th Guards Army (Alexei Zhadov)

32nd Guards Rifle Corps (Aleksandr Rodimtsev)

13th Guards Rifle Division

66th Guards Rifle Division

6th Airborne Guards Rifle Division

33rd Guards Rifle Corps (Iosif Popov)

95th Guards Rifle Division

97th Guards Rifle Division

9th Airborne Guards Rifle Division

Independent 42nd Guards Rifle Division

Independent 10th Tank Corps

5th Guards Tank Army (Pavel Rotmistrov)

5th Guards Mechanized Corps

29th Tank Corps

5th Air Army (Sergei Goriunov)

7th Mixed Air Corps

8th Mixed Air Corps

3rd Fighter Air Corps

7th Fighter Air Corps