Soviet tank army commanders

[Andreas]

A long time ago we were discussing the performance of Pavel Rotmistrov in this thread.

I have since started a few biographical articles on Wikipedia, in my continuing quest to make the world a bit more aware of Soviet performance, I mean beyond what they read in Guderian's memoir.

See e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Rotmistrov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Rybalko

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Katukov

Someone I can find little to nothing about is V.M. Badanov.

Some info on their careers once they were given command of a tank army.

Rotmistrov: Commanded 5th Tank/Guards Tank from 1943. Taken off command 1944, deputy commander mech forces, later commander mech forces of Soviet forces group in Germany, later deputy minister of defense. Highest rank Marshal.

Rybalko: Commanded 3rd Guards Tank Army from 1943, later commander Soviet forces group in Germany (Rotmistrov's boss), died 1948. Highest rank Marshal.

Katukov: Commanded 1st Tank/Guards Tank from 1943. Stayed in command of it post-war when it was stationed in Saxonia, facing across the Iron Curtain. Later succeeded Rotmistrov, later became inspector of the army. Highest rank Marshal.

Badanov: Commanded 4th Tank Army from 1943. Removed in 1944, given command of the armoured school of the Red Army. Highest rank Lieutenant-General.

Corrections welcome. Also, what about the other chaps commanding ?

Of the four listed, I would argue that Badanov and Rotmistrov did comparatively badly in terms of career, but I would like to see the career data for the other tank army commanders before making a final judgement.

I believe that the heavy losses suffered by Rotmistrov's command at Minsk were the final reason to get rid of him. I have read somewhere that Badanov did very badly in terms of losses in the opening of Operation Kutuzov, and would be interested in what his last major battle in command of 4th TA was, and how he fared there.

All the best

Andreas

[ May 10, 2006, 04:02 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

[Bigduke6]

Andreas,

Badanov was in charge of 4th Guards Tank until March 29 1944, after which he was replaced by LTG Dmitriy Leliushenko. 2nd Tank Army became 4th Guards on March 17 1944. As you are probably aware, prior to that Badanov was in charge of 24th Tank Corps' raid on Tatinskaya airfield during Little Saturn in early 1943. So, despite the fact the Corps was pretty much wiped out Badanov was nevertheless promoted to Tank Army command by summer, and he held the job for nine months.

The reason for Badanov's transfer out of 2TA/4GTA command was, officially, "health reasons". His replacement, Leliushenko, got the job because of a reputation "for activity and energy". (Source: Red Army Tank Commanders)

It smells to me like Stalin/Zhukov/Konev wanted to tighten up senior officer discipline prior to the summer 1944 offensives, and Badanov ran foul of them. Leliushenko was a known intriguer and could have been involved, IMO. I can't point my finger at any tactical disasters Badanov seems directly linked to, although that could be courtesy of Soviet information control.

I can also give you the bio from the Russia Ministry of Defense, but it's very dry, no info on why Badanov got canned.

The Russia Mech Corps site makes clear 4GTA was not as "ueber" as say 1GTA or 3GTA; less order nominations, less battle honors, more subordinate units not upgraded to guards, that sort of thing. Another point is that 4GTA rated only one not the standard two Tank Corps; and it was only in March '45 that the formation was filled out with a second Mech Corps (5GMC).

I tend to agree with you Badanov was demoted, however, the apex positions were clearly 1-3 GTA, plus of course front command.

[Andreas]

Ah Stefan, I was waiting for you to turn up.

Was Badanov involved in the Korsun battles? I know he was commanding the raid of 24th Tank Corps, which was of course a heroic example of determination and grit (why don't you search Wiki for it? ), and I guess that this put him in line for the tank army command. Maybe in the same way that Katukov lost much of his command in Mars, but still came out ahead considering his overall performance.

All the best

Andreas

[Bannon DC]

Badenov was canned because he was a no-goodnik. When he should have been concentrating on fighting the Germans, he instead focused on the destruction of Moose and Squirrel. His second and command, Natasha Fatale, also suffered demotion at the hands of The Fearless Leader. Oddly, they were both to resurface in the Khrushchev era and played an important role in the Cold War.

[Bigduke6]

Badanov also was suspected of involvement in the deployment of the feared Potsylvania Creeper to the U.S., an act threatening the Democratic Way of Life and inspiring a smash Broadway hit, which is not quite the same thing.

We return you now to our non-Bullwinkle-related programing.

Andreas, the answer appears to be "no". The main forces on the Red side at Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy were -

1st Ukrainian Front (40th Army and 27th Army, primarily; 3rd Guards Tank Army was under 1st Ukrainian's control but not involved)

2nd Ukrainian Front (52nd Army, 5th Guards Tanky Army, 4th Guards Army; 8th Guards Army was in the vicinity but not particularly involved)

No mention of 4GTA, and so Badanov, in the Korsun documents that I looked at.

http://www.redarmystudies.net/smhj/1984/1984_02.pdf

If you get a chance check out Vatutin's order: pretty good staffwork for untermenschen, huh?

I would add that the Soviets held up Korsun as an excellent example of how to develop an on-the-fly river crossing into a successful annihilation battle, so had Badanov been involved it would have been pretty good for his reputation, I think.