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The Southern Front was a Front - a roughly Army group sized formation - of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The Southern Front directed military operations during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940, and then was formed twice after the June 1941 German invasion, Operation Barbarossa.

During the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940, the Soviets deployed three armies (12th, 5th and 9th).^[1] Altogether the Soviet Southern Front opposing Bessarabia and Bukovina consisted of 32 (or 31) rifle divisions, 2 (or 3) motorised rifle divisions, 6 cavalry divisions, 11 tank brigades, 3 airborne brigades (one in reserve), 14 corp's artillery regiments, 16 artillery regiments of the Main Reserve Command and 4 heavy artillery divisions. In numbers this would be around 460,000 men, ca. 12,000 guns and mortars, ca. 3,000 tanks and 2,160 aircraft.

After the German invasion, the Southern Front was re-created on June 25, 1941 from the forces in the Moscow and Odessa military districts, and included the 9th Army. It was commanded by General Ivan V. Tiulenev from June 1941 to August 1941. Lieutenant General Dmitri I. Riabyshev took over in August 1941 and held command until October, when Colonel General Yakov Cherevichenko took command, until December 1941. During 1941 the Front fought in the border battles in the southern Ukraine, defended Odessa, and then conducted the defense and successful counteroffensive at Rostov-on-Don.^[2]

Lieutenant General Rodion Ia. Malinovsky arrived in December and held the reins until July 1942. In 1942 the Front took part in the Donbass, Barvenko-Lozovaia, and Voronezh-Volgograd(Stalingrad) operations. According to Glantz and Bonn, the Front then suffered a notable failure at the Second Battle of Kharkov.^[3] The Front received additional forces from the (disbanded) Southwestern Front on July 12, 1942 and was formally disbanded on July 28, 1942, with the forces transferred to the North Caucasus Front.

In July 1942, three armies (the 1st, 5th and 7th Reserve Armies) out of the Supreme High Command reserve were moved into the Stalingrad sector and redesignated the 64th, 63rd and 62nd armies respectively. They formed the core of the Stalingrad Front on 12 July. The Stalingrad Front was then divided into the Stalingrad Front, under General Lieutenant V.N. Gordov, and the Southeastern Front, under General Colonel Andrei I. Yeremenko on 7 August 1942 as the Battle of Stalingrad began. They were then transformed into the Don and Southwestern Fronts on 28 September with the Southeastern Front becoming the Stalingrad Front (Second Formation).^[4]

The Southern Front was re-formed from the Stalingrad Front on January 1, 1943, and Colonel General Andrei I. Yeremenko stayed in command, until February 1943. General Lieutenant Rodion Malinovsky [promoted to Colonel General in February 1943] then filled in until Lieutenant General Fyodor I. Tolbukhin took command in March 1943. Tolbukhin was promoted to Colonel General in April. He would command the Front into 1944. Southern Front was renamed the 4th Ukrainian Front on October 20, 1943.

The Front's first operations were the Battle of the Dnieper and the Battle of Kiev (1943). In early 1944 an offensive was launched against the German-held Crimea, resulting in the Battle of the Crimea (1944) in which 4UF, including Soviet Second Guards Army, 51st Army and the Independent Coastal Army destroyed the German Seventeenth Army which was holding out there. 5th Shock Army and 28th Army were also part of the Front at the time, but do not appear from U.S. military maps to have actually taken part in the battle.

Eighteenth Army also served with the Front in 1944 and 1945.

• 2nd Guards Army
  • 13th Guards Rifle Corps
    • 3rd Guards Rifle Division
    • 24th Guards Rifle Division
    • 87th Guards Rifle Division
  • 54th Rifle Corps
    • 126th Rifle Divisions
    • 315th Rifle Divisions
    • 387th Rifle Divisions
  • 55th Rifle Corps (87th, 347th Rifle Divisions), 116th Fortified Region
• Artillery troops:
  • 2nd Guards Breakthrough Artillery division (4th Guards Light Artillery Brigade, 114 Gun Artillery Brigade, 5th Guards Howitzer Artillery Brigade, 20th Guards High Power Howitzer Artillery Brigade, 33rd Mortar Brigade),
  • 1095th, 1101st Gun Artillery Regiments, 331st Howitzer Artillery Regiment, 315th and 317th Artillery Battalions of Special Power, 113th Guards, 14th 1250th Tank-Destroyer Artillery Regiments, 133rd Guards, 483rd Mortar Regiments, 76th AA Artillery Division (223rd, 416th, 447th AA Artillery Regiments), 591st , 1530th AA Artillery Regiments
• Tank troops: 1452nd SP Artillery Regiment, 512 Separate Tank Battalion
• Engineer troops: 43rd Special Purpose Engineer Brigade, 258th 255th Separate Engineer Battalions
• 51st Army:
  • 1st Guards Rifle Corps (33rd Guards, 91st, 346th RD),
  • 10th Rifle corps (216th, 357th, 279th Rifle Divisions),
  • 63rd Rifle Corps (263rd, 267th, 417th Rifle Divisions)
  • 77th Rifle Division, 78th Fortified Region
  • Artillery Troops: 26th Artillery Division (75th Light Artillery Brigade, 56th Gun Artillery Brigade, 77th Howitzer Brigade), 6th Guards Gun Artillery Brigade (from 2nd Guards Breakthrough Artillery Division), 105th High Power Howitzer Artillery Brigade (from 7th Breakthrough Artillery Division), 647th, 1105th Gun Artillery Regiments, 85th Guards, 1231st Howitzer Artillery Regiment, 207th Guards Howitzer Artillery Regiment (from 5th Guards Howitzer Artillery Brigade), 5th Guards, 15th, 21st Tank-destroyer Artillery Brigades, 764th 1246th Tank-destroyer Artillery Regiment, 19th Mortar Brigade, 125th Mortar Regiment.
  • AA Artillery: 2nd AA Artillery Division (1086th, 1113th, 1117th AA Artillery Regiment), 15th AA Artillery Division (281st, 342nd, 723rd , 1264th AA Artillery Regiments), 18th AA Artillery Division (160th and 166th Guards, 297th AA Artillery Regiments), 77th Guards Artillery Regiment
  • Tank Troops: 32nd Guards Tank Brigade, 22nd Guards Separate Tank Regiment, 30th and 33rd Separate Armored Train Battalions
  • Engineer Troops: 12th Assault Engineer Brigade, 63rd Engineer-Sapper Brigade, 5th Guards, 1504 Separate Engineer Battalions, 275th Separate Sapper Battalion
• Units subordinated to the Front:
  • Artillery troops: 35th Tank-destroyer Artillery Brigade, 530th Tank-Destroyer Artillery Regiment, 4th Guards Mortar Brigade (13th, 30th, 31st Guards Mortar Regiment), 2nd, 4th, 19th, 21st, 23rd, 67th Guards Mortar Regiments, 270th guards AA Artillery Regiment (from 18th AA Artillery Division), 1069th AA Artillery Regiment (from 2nd Division), 1485th AA Artillery Regiment
  • Tank troops: 19th Tank corps (79th, 101st, 202nd Tank Brigades, 26th Motorized Rifle Brigade, 867th, 875th SP Artillery Regiments, 91st Motorcycle Battalion, 1511th Tank-Destroyer Artillery Regiment, 179th Mortar Regiment, 1717th AA Artillery Regiment), 6th Guards Tank Brigade, 52nd Motorcycle Regiment, 5th Separate Armored Car Battalion, 46th and 54th Separate Armored Train Battalions
  • Engineer troops: 7th Engineer-Sapper Brigade, 2nd Pontoon-Bridge Brigade, 3rd Guards, 65th, 240th Separate Engineer Battalions, 17th Guards Mine Battalion, 102nd Pontoon-Bridge Battalion (from 5th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade)

This short section requires expansion.

1. ^ Feldgrau.net, Invasion of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
2. ^ Keith E. Bonn & David Glantz, Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, 2005, p.303
3. ^ Ibid.
4. ^ Bonn and Glantz, 2005, p.303-4
5. ^ The OOB is taken from "The combat composition of Soviet Army" handbook

• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JAP/is_2_13/ai_n15623829 - 62nd, 63rd, and 64th Armies
• http://www.berdichev.org/germany_invades_ukraine.htm