4th Shock Army

4th Shock Army was a Combined Arms Army of the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II.

The Army was formed from the 27th Army on 25 December 1941 (1st formation) within the Northwestern Front. On 1 October 1942 it included the 249th, 332nd, 334th, 358th and 360th Rifle Divisions, 21st Rifle Brigade, a number of separate tank battalions, the 66th, 67th, 68th, and 69th separate ski battalions, artillery and other subunits.

History

• Army defended the frontier along the eastern shore of lakes Velye, Seliger.
• January - February 1942 - participated in the Toropets–Kholm Offensive.

comprising 249th, 332nd, 334th, 358th and 360th Rifle Divisions, 21, 39, 48 and 51st rifle brigades, two tank battalions, 2 rocket launcher battalions (batteries), 2 RGK artillery regiments

• 22 January 1942, reassigned to the Kalinin Front (20 October 1943, the 1st Baltic Front).
• Participated in the following operations of the Byelorussian Strategic Offensive (1943):
  • Nevel Offensive
  • Gorodok Offensive
  • Pololsk-Vitebsk Offensive
• The second half of 1944 reassigned to the 2nd Baltic (4 July), and 1st Baltic (from 8 August) fronts, participating in the
  • Rezhitsk-Dvina Offensive
  • Riga Offensive
  • Memel Offensive
  • culminating combat operations in the Courland blockade.
• 9 February 1945, the army was reassigned to the 2nd Baltic Front.
• 1 April 1945, the Army is included in the Leningrad Front.
• From the Baltic in the summer of 1945, the army was dispatched to northern Kazakhstan, where its headquarters formed the basis of the new Steppe Military District (on 9 May 1945? - source Ruwiki). Two rifle corps and six rifle divisions arrived alongside the army.^[1]

Battle composition

4th Shock Army separate reserve battalion airfield services (4 March 1942 to 28 April 1942). Reformed as the 832th separate battalion airfield services 28 April 1942.^[2]

• 320 separate ski-destroyer battalion
• 262 - 266 separate ski battalions (February to May 1942) ^[3]

Commanders

• Colonel-General Andrey Yeryomenko (December 1941 - February 1942)
• Lieutenant General Filipp Golikov (February - March 1942)
• Major-General, in May 1942, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Kurasov (March 1942 - April 1943)
• Major General Dmitry Seleznev (April - May 1943)
• Major-General, to October 1943, Lieutenant-General Vasily Shevtsov - May - December 1943
• Lieutenant General Pyotr Malyshev - (December 1943-September 1945)^[4]

The members of the Military Council

• Brigadier Commissioner Rudakov, Mikhail - December 1941 - November 1942
• Major General Tevchenkov, Alexander - November 1942 - April 1943
• Colonel, in September 1943, Major General Belik Trofim Ya - April 1943 - until the end of the war.

Chiefs of Staff

• Major General Kurasov, Vladimir V. - December 1941 - March 1942
• Colonel Portugal VK - March–May 1942
• Major General Glinsky, Peter Yevstigneyevich - May 1942 - June 1943
• Major General Kudryashov, Alexander - June 1943 - before the end of the war.

References

• Dudarenko ML, lists G., Eliseev T. et al. | title = liberation of the city: A Guide to the liberation of the city during World War II
• Еременко, Андрей Иванович, В начале войны (Eremenko, Andrei Ivanovich, In the beginning of the war)