Raids into the Rear of Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group

This article examines the formation, redeployment, and initial combat operations of the 50th Separate Cavalry Division of the Red Army from July 18 to August 8, 1941, in the Western Front. Based on an analysis of archival documents from the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (CAMD), as well as memoirs and German war diaries, the article examines the key stages of the division’s participation in the border battle on the approaches to Smolensk. It also examines the role of Cossack formations in the North Caucasus in replacing the losses of the active army in the summer of 1941. Particular attention is paid to the tactical actions of the division under the command of Colonel I.A. Pliev in the rear communications of Army Group Center. The causes of combat failures and the factors that enabled the cavalry units to maintain combat effectiveness despite enemy superiority in aviation, artillery, and mobility are identified. The chronological framework of the study covers the period from the formation of the unit in Armavir to its withdrawal to the line of Lake Emlen

Adversary · Battle · Christian ministry · German · Infantry · Memoir · Spanish Civil War · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Soviet and Russian History · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact