Western Front ( Soviet Union ) The Western Front was a Front of the Red Army , one of the Red Army Front s during the Second World War . This sense of the term is different from the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime , although a Soviet Front usually operates within designated boundaries . The Western Front was created on June 22 , 1941 from the Western Special Military District ( which before July 1940 was known as Belorussian Special Military District ) . The first Front Commander was Dmitry Pavlov ( continuing from his position as District Commander since June 1940 ) . The western boundary of the Front in June 1941 was 470 km long , from the southern border of Lithuania to the Pripyat River and the town of Włodawa . It connected with the adjacent North - Western Front , which extended from the Lithuanian border to the Baltic Sea , and the Southwestern Front in the Ukraine . Operational history . Front dispositions 22 June 1941 . The 1939 partition of Poland according to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact established a new western border with no permanent defense installations , and the army deployment within the Front created weak flanks . At the outbreak of war with Germany , the Western Special Military District was , in accordance with Soviet pre - war planning , immediately converted into the Western Front , under the District ' s commander , Army General Dmitry Grigorevich Pavlov . The main forces of the Western Front were concentrated forward along the frontier , organized in three armies . To defend the Białystok salient , the front fielded the 10th Army , under Lieutenant General Konstantin Dmitrievich Golubev , supported by the 6th Mechanized Corps and 13th Mechanised Corps , under Major Generals Mikhail Georgievich Khatskilevich and Petr Nikolaevich Akhliustin . On 10th Army ' s left flank was 4th Army , under Lieutenant General Aleksander Andreevich Korobkov , supported by the 14th Mechanised Corps , under Major General Stepan Ilich Oborin ; and on the right the 3rd Army , under Lieutenant General Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov supported by the 11th Mechanized Corps , under Major General Dmitry Karpovich Mostovenko . To the rear were 13th Army , under Lieutenant General Petr Mikhailovich Filatov . This army initially existed as a headquarters unit only , with no assigned combat forces . Among forces of Frontal designation were the 2nd Rifle Corps ( 100th , 161st Rifle Division s ) , 21st Rifle Corps ( 17th , 24th , 37th Rifle Division ) , 44th Rifle Corps ( 64th , 108th Rifle Divisions ) , 47th Rifle Corps ( 55 , 121 , 143rd Rifle Divisions ) , 50th Rifle Division , 4th Airborne Corps ( 7th , 8th , 214th Airborne Brigades ) Aleksei Semenovich Zhadov at Minsk , and the 58 ( Себежский ) , 61 ( Полоцкий ) , 63rd ( Minsk - Slutsky ) , 64th ( Замбровский ) and 65th ( Мозырский ) Fortified Regions . Mechanised forces in reserve included the 20th Mechanized Corps under Major Generals Andrei Grigorevich Nikitin at Minsk and the 17th Mechanized Corps , under Major General Mikhail Petrovich Petrov , slightly further forward at Slonim . Altogether , on 22 June the Western Special Military District fielded 671 165 men , 14 171 guns and mortars , 2 900 tanks and 1 812 combat aircraft . The Western Front was on the main axis of attack by the German Army Group Centre , commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock . German plans for Operation Barbarossa called for Army Group Centre ' s Second Panzer Group , under Colonel General Heinz Guderian , to attack south of Brest , advance through Slonim and Baranovichi , turning north - east towards Minsk were it would be met by Colonel General Hermann Hoth ' s Third Panzer Group , which would attack Vilnius , to the north of the Białystok salient , and then turn south - east . In addition to the two panzer groups . Army Group Centre also included Field Marshal Günther von Kluge ' s Fourth Army and Colonel General Adolf Strauss ' Ninth Army . Air support was provided by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring ' s Luftflotte 2 which contained more than half the German aircraft committed to the attack on the Soviet Union . Defeat on the Frontiers 22 – 28 June . The war started disastrously for the Western Front with the Battle of Białystok - Minsk . The German Ninth and Fourth Armies of Army Group Centre penetrated the border north and south of the Białystok salient . The Front ' s tanks and aviation at airfields were annihilated by German air strikes . Soviet command and control suffered almost complete breakdown , worst hit was 4th Army which failed to establish communications both with headquarters above and below it . Attempts to launch a counter - attack with 10th Army on 23 June were unsuccessful . That same day the German Third Panzer Group captured Vilnius after outflanking 3rd Army . On 24 June Pavlov again attempted to organize a counter - attack , assigning his deputy Lieutenant General Ivan Vasilevich Boldin the command of 6th and 11th Mechanized Corps and 6th Cavalry Corps , commanded by Major General Ivan Semenovich Nikitin . With this mobile force Boldin was to attack northward from the Białystok region towards Grodno to prevent encirclement of Soviet forces in the salient . This attempted counter - attack was also fruitless . Almost without any interference from Soviet fighters , Fliegerkorps VIII ' s close support aircraft were able to break the backbone of Western Front ' s counter - attack at Grodno . 6th Cavalry Corps was so badly mauled by this aerial onslaught against its columns that it was unable to deploy for attack . Jagdgeschwader 53 ' s Hermann Neuhoff recalled : Of 6th Mechanized Corps ' 1212 tanks , only about 200 reached their assembly areas due to air attacks and mechanical breakdowns , and even they ran out of fuel by the end of the day . The same fate awaited the 243 tanks of 11th Mechanized Corps , ordered to attack towards Grodno on 25 June . 6th Cavalry Corps suffered 50 % casualties and its commander , Nikitin , was captured . The attempted attack allowed many Soviet forces to escape from the Białystok region towards Minsk , but this brought only temporary relief . With both the German Second and Third Panzer Groups racing towards Minsk on Western Front ' s southern and northern flanks , a new encirclement threatened . In the evening of 25 June , the German 47th Panzer Corps cut between Slonim and Vawkavysk , forcing the attempted withdrawal of troops in the salient to avoid encirclement and opening the southern approaches to Minsk . Pavlov dispatched orders to disengage and withdraw into new defences behind the Shchara River , but the few units receiving the orders were unable to break contact with the enemy . Hounded by constant air attacks , Pavlov ' s forces fled eastward on foot . The bridges over the Shchara destroyed by air attacks , most of 10th Army was not able to cross the river . Further east 13th Army , which had received orders to assemble various withdrawing forces into the defence of Minsk , had its headquarters ambushed by German spearheads and its defence plans captured . Pavlov then ordered his 20th Mechanized and 4th Airborne Corps , until then held in reserve , to halt the Germans at Slutsk . However 20th Mechanized Corps had only 93 older tanks and 4th Airborne had to deploy on foot from lack of aircraft . Neither proved any threat to the advancing Second Panzer Group . On 27 June 1941 , German Second and Third Panzer Groups striking from south and north linked up near Minsk , surrounding and eventually destroying the Soviet 3rd , 10th and 13th Armies , and portions of the 4th Army , in total about 20 divisions , while the remainder of the 4th Army fell back eastwards toward the Berezina River . On 28 June 1941 , the Ninth and Fourth German Armies linked east of Białystok splitting the encircled Soviet forces into two pockets : a larger Białystok pocket containing the Soviet 10th Army and a smaller Navahrudak pocket . In the first 18 days of the war , Western Front had suffered 417 790 casualties , lost 9 427 guns and mortars , 4 799 tanks and 1 777 combat aircraft , and practically ceased to exist as a military force . The Front commander , General of the Army Dmitri G . Pavlov , and the Front Staff were recalled to Moscow . There they were accused of intentional disorganization of defense and retreat without battle , sentenced as traitors , and executed . The families of the traitors were repressed according to NKVD Order no . 00486 . This order dealt with families of traitors of Motherland . ( They were rehabilitated in 1956 . ) Western Front reorganized 28 June - 2 July . Furious over the loss of Minsk on 28 June , Stalin replaced the disgraced Pavlov with Colonel General Andrey Ivanovich Yeryomenko as commander of Western Front . Arriving at Front headquarters at Mogilev on morning 29 June , Yeryomenko was faced with the daunting task of restoring order to the Western Front ' s defences . To accomplish this task he had initially only the remnants of 4th and 13th Armies , of which the former had been reduced to the equivalent of a division in strength . On 1 July he ordered 13th Army to fall back to the Berezina River and defend the sectors between the towns of Kholkolnitza , Borisov and Brodets . Further south 4th Army were to defend the Berezina from Brodets through Svisloch to Bobruisk . To reinforce the Front ' s defences the elite 1st Moscow Motor Rifle Division was rushed from Moscow Military District to Borisov . This division , commanded by Colonel Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer , was at full strength with two motorized regiments , one tank regiments and 229 tanks . However by that date Yeryomenko ' s defense line on the Berezina had already been rendered obsolete by Guderian ' s Panzer Divisions . on 29 June 3rd Panzer Division captured a bridgehead at Bobruisk from 4th Army ' s 47th Rifle Corps and on 30 June 4th Panzer Division seized the railroad bridge at Svisloch from 4th Airborne Corps , cutting off one that corps ' three brigades and most of the 20th Mechanized Corps . Then on 2 July Stalin appointed Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko , Marshal of the Soviet Union and People ' s Commissar for Defence , to command the Western Front , with Yeryomenko and Marshal Semyon Budyonny as his deputies . At the same time Stalin transferred four armies , 19th Army , 20th Army , 21st Army and 22nd Army , from Marshal Budyonny ' s Group of Reserve Armies to Western Front . After a telephone conversation with Timoshenko , Stalin added a fifth reserve army , the weak 16th Army , as well . Timoshenko ' s orders were to defend the Western Dvina River - Dniepr River line . To this end the front deployed on its northern flank 22nd Army , under Lieutenant General Filipp Afansasevich Ershakov , to defend the sector from Sebezh southward to the Western Dvina and then south along that river from north of Polotsk to Beshenkovichi . South of 22nd Army the 20th Army , under Lieutenant General Pavel Alekseyevich Kurochkin , was to defend the gap between the rivers from Beshenkovichi on the Western Dvina to Shklov on the Dnepr , supported by 5th Mechanized Corps , under Major General Ilia Prokofevich , and 7th Mechanized Corps , under Major General Vasilii Ivanovich Vinogradov . 19th Army , under Lieutenant General Ivan Stepanovich Konev , that time regrouping northward from the Kiev region , was to defend the Vitebsk region to the rear of 22nd and 20th Armies . 19th Army included 23rd Mechanized Corps under Major General Mikhail Akimovich Miasnikov . On the front ' s southern flank 21st Army , under Lieutnenant General Vasilii Filippovich Gerasimenko , including 25th Mechanized Corps under Major General Semen Moiseevich Krivoshein , was to defend the sector from Rogachev to Rechitsa . The remnants of 4th and 13th Armies were to fall back and regroup at the Sozh River in 21st Army ' s rear . In early July Stalin relieved Korobkov , the commander of 4th Army , and had him executed for treason . He was replaced by Colonel Leonid Mikhaylovich Sandalov Finally the 16th Army , under Lieutenant General Mikhail Fedorovich Lukin , was kept in reserve in the Smolensk region . German advance to the Dniepr 2 – 9 July . The Western Front had been given a brief respite to erect new defences while the Germans reduced the pockets created during the Białystok - Minsk battles . With the Minsk pocket nearly digested , the German Panzer Groups resumed their offensive against Western Front on 2 July . On the Front ' s northern flank the advance of Hoth ' s forces were hampered by poor weather . LVII Motorised Corps made the best progress , but encountered heavy resistance from Soviet 22nd Army ' s 62nd Rifle Corps on the approaches to Polotsk , which led the German corps commander , Adolf - Friedrich Kuntzen , to reroute his 19th Panzer Division northward to Disna on the southern bank of the Western Dvina . XXXIX Motorised Corps , hindered by poor road conditions and resistance from Soviet 20th Army and 5th and 7th Mechanized Corps , in two days only advanced as far as Lepel . Further south Borisov , defended by the remnants of 13th Army and the Borisov Tank School , fell to 18th Panzer Division of 2nd Panzer Group ' s XXXXVII Motorised Corps on 2 July , the Germans capturing the road bridge intact despite Yeryomenko ' s personal instructions that it be destroyed . Timoshenko was instructed by the Stavka ( the Soviet High Command ) to restore the situation with Kreizer ' s 1st Moscow Motor Rifle Division . XXXXVI Motorised Corps also captured a bridgehead across the Berezina on 2 July when the SS Motorized Division " Das Reich " captured Pogost , but were then for two days hindered by 13th Army and 4th Army ' s 4th Airborne and 20th Mechanized Corps . On the southern flank the remnants of 4th Army ' s Rifle Divisions were only able to offer light resistance to the German XXIV Motorised Corps , instead the attackers were repeatedly halted by destroyed bridges at the Berezina , Ola , Dobosna and Drut Rivers . Kreizer launched his counter - attack against the German bridgehead at Borisov on 3 July , but the defenders had been forewarned by radio intercepts and air reconnaissance , and with their superior tactics beat back this isolated Soviet attack . Defeated , Kreizer accordingly withdrew behind the Nacha River and fought a fighting withdrawal towards Orsha were it was aided by the arrival of 20th Army . Also on 3 July the spearheads of XXIV Motorised Corps reached the rain swollen Dniepr , with the 3rd Panzer Division arriving at the river north of Rogachev and 4th Panzer Division advancing to Bykhov . By nightfall Western Front could report that remnants of 4th and 13th Armies had been able to retreat across the Dniepr , however hardly anything of 3rd and 10th Armies remained . Moreover , parts of 13th Army and 17th Mechanized Corps were still west of the Dniepr . Accordingly Timoshenko ordered his 21st Army to shore up its defences along the river and help the withdrawal by sending out forces to spoil the German advance . On 4 July 19 Panzer Division seized a bridgehead across the Western Dvina at Disna from the defending 51st Rifle Corps of Soviet 22nd Army , where it was reinforced by the German 18th Motorised Division . The Smolensk pocket . The Front took part in the fierce Battle of Smolensk ( 1941 ) , which managed to disrupt the German " blitzkrieg " for two months . The Germans successfully encircled and destroyed large parts of Soviet 16th , 19th , and 20th Armies . During July the Western Front ' s area of responsibility was reduced by the formation of the new Central and Reserve Front s . Stiffening Soviet resistance in the centre , convinced Hitler to put a temporary halt to the advance towards Moscow and divert Army Group Centre ' s armour towards Leningrad and Kiev . The Soviet Dukhovshchina Offensive . On 17 August Western Front launched an offensive towards Dukhovshchina as part of a larger Soviet attempt to counter - attack . However despite some local successes , the offensive failed to breach the German defenses and the offensive was called off 10 September . Newly promoted Colonel General Ivan Konev took over command in September when Timoshenko was transferred south to restore the situation in the then ongoing Battle of Kiev . The Vyazma pocket . On 2 October German forces resumed their advance on Moscow with the launch of Operation Typhoon . The Western Front again suffered immense losses when large parts of its forces were encircled near Vyazma . Assault on Moscow . When Zhukov took over on 10 October , the Soviet Reserve Front had just been disbanded and its forces incorporated into Western Front , but given the pounding that Soviet forces had suffered , the force numbered only 90 , 000 men . 16th Army ( Soviet Union ) under Konstantin Rokossovsky held at Volokolamsk , and General L . A . Govorov had 5th Army , recently raised from 1st Guards Rifle Corps , and soon to include the 32nd Rifle Division at Mozhaisk . The 43rd Army was under General K . D . Golubev at Maloyaroslavets , and the 49th Army was near Kaluga under General I . G . Zakharin . 49th Army had been formed in August 1941 and initially assigned to Reserve Front . On 1 September 1941 , 49th Army comprised 194th , 220th , and 248th Rifle Divisions , and 4th Division of People ' s Militia . Meanwhile 33rd Army was forming at Naro - Fominsk under General Lieutenant M . G . Yefremov , and was to be assigned to Zhukov ' s command . The Soviets just managed to halt the German advance in the Battle of Moscow , leading to further furious fighting in the Battles of Rzhev just to the west . In May 1942 the Front ' s air forces became the 1st Air Army . Later operations in World War 2 . The Front appears to have controlled the three armies - the 5th Army , 33rd Army , and 10th Guards Army - which formed the assault force in the Battle of Smolensk ( 1943 ) . On 1 August 1943 the 70th Rifle Corps was listed on the Soviet order of battle , as a headquarters with no troops assigned , directly subordinate to the front . On 24 April 1944 , the Front was divided into the 2nd Belorussian Front and 3rd Belorussian Front . Status Today . The Russian Ground Troops continue the Soviet Army ' s organizational arrangement of having Military Districts that have both a wartime territorial administration role and the capability to generate formation headquarters ( HQs ) to command Fronts . This was emphasized by reports of a Moscow Military District exercise in April 2001 , when the district ' s units were to be divided into two groups , ‘ one operating for the western front and the other for the wartime military district ’ . It appears likely that the Western Front is still an active formation held within the Headquarters of the Moscow Military District . Plans probably call for it to be mobilised as part of the Russia - Belarus Regional Grouping of Troops ( Forces ) .