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M60A3TTS -> RE: The Zhukov-less Memoirs - GC41-45 M60 vs smokindave redux (1/6/2016 12:13:49 PM)
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Breakout
24-30 August 1944 (167th week of the war)
Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin had commanded the 31st Army of the Kalinin Front in the early days of the war. In mid December 1942, General Maior Tolbukhin was transferred to the Stalingrad Front to assume command of the then 63rd Army. By mid March of 1943 he had been promoted to General Leitenant for his work in the Stalingrad area of operations. Three months later, the 63rd Army was awarded the title of the 6th Guards Army in recognition of the Stalingrad Offensive. Tolbukhin's 6th Guards Army fought well during the Summer 1943 campaign, and he was promoted to General Polkovnik in mid-November. During the drive to the Dnepr, his army continued to battle the Germans to such effect that in late March of 1944 he was promoted General Armii.
Tolbukhin had been passed over for assignment to a front command mainly due to the need for expert commanders of rifle armies, of which there were few. He had accepted his situation without complaint as he now found himself in the hot summer of 1944 advancing in Galicia north of the Dukla Pass which served as the far left wing of Hungary's Carpathian Mountain defensive network.
On the 24th of August, Tolbukhin turned his army towards the pass and encountered surprisingly little resistance. Only two Hungarian divisions were assigned to this area, the 7th and 121st Divisions. Within two days, the Hungarians were forced from the Dukla Pass, and the entire 2nd Ukrainian Front quickly followed. With news of this success, Vasilevsky quickly gained Stalin's approval to supplement the advance with Pavel Rybalko's 4th Shock and Aleksei Rodin's 5th Guards Tank Armies. Hundreds of T-34s raced through the pass, over the River Tisa and across the eastern Hungarian plains. On August 29, the 4th Tank Corps of 5th Gds Tank Army captured the city of Nyiregyhasa. (enables the surrender threshold for Hungary. The escape routes of almost all the Axis forces in the Carpathians by way of the Hungarian rail network were soon severed.
Panic gripped Budapest. The Carpathian Mountains which were to have been a bulwark of defense against the Slavic hordes had been completely outflanked in the north. In the south, the Transcaucasus Front of General Kirponos was advancing to link up with Rodin's troops. The bulwark was about to become a giant trap, with almost the entire Hungarian Army and a half dozen German divisions threatened by encirclement.
To the north, and south of Warsaw, the Germans abandon the Vistula defense around Sandomierz, thus formally ending the Lvov Sandomierz Strategic Offensive. STAVKA planners now worked on the next phase in this area, the Vistula Oder Strategic Offensive
The Carpathian Line
[image]http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae272/eacarter2/sd3%20t167%20units%20being%20encircled_zpsiik49u2c.jpg[/image]
The breakout
[image]http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae272/eacarter2/sd3%20T167%20center%20south_zpskkddpitm.jpg[/image]
Rumania
[image]http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae272/eacarter2/sd3%20T167%20Rumania%202_zpsok0gcici.jpg[/image]
Over the Vistula
[image]http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae272/eacarter2/sd3%20T167%20center%20north_zpsph5tos7o.jpg[/image]
OOB
[image]http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/ae272/eacarter2/sd3%20T167%20OOB_zps9mdpx9po.jpg[/image]
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