Southwestern Front (Soviet Union)

The Southwestern Front was on the main axis of attack by the German Army Group South during Operation Barbarossa. At the outbreak of war with Germany, the Front was commanded by Mikhail Kirponos and contained the Soviet 5th, 6th, 26th, and 12th Armies along the frontier. 16th and 19th Armies were in reserve behind the forward forces. These forces took part in the tank battles in western Ukraine and were surrounded and destroyed at the Battle of Uman and the Battle of Kiev (1941) in August and September 1941. Kirponos himself was killed during the Battle of Kiev.

The Front was immediately re-established with new forces. During the period of the Battle of Moscow it was under the command of Marshal Timoshenko, and included from north to south the 40th, 21st, 38th and 6th Armies. It was formally disbanded on July 12, 1942 and the forces transferred to the Stalingrad Front and Southern Front.

The Front was reformed from reserve armies on October 22, 1942. It was renamed the 3rd Ukrainian Front on October 20, 1943. 3rd Ukrainian Front's first operations were the Battle of the Dnieper and the Battle of Kiev (1943).

• Colonel General Mikhail P. Kirponos (June 1941 – September 1941: killed in action)
• Marshal Semyon K. Timoshenko (September 1941 – December 1941; April–July 1942)
• Lieutenant General Fyodor Kostenko (December 1941 – April 1942)
• Lieutenant General Nikolai F. Vatutin [promoted to Colonel General in December 1942] (October 1942 – March 1943)
• Colonel General Rodion Ia. Malinovsky (March 1943 – October 1943)

• Boevoi Sostav Sovietskoi Armii Czast I 1941 goda juni–dekabr 1941 Moskva 1966 (Combat composition of the Soviet Army)
• Solonin, Mark, 22 June 1941 Bocka i obruci czili Kogda naczalas Vielikaja Oteczestvennaja vojna 2004
• Erickson, John, The Road to Stalingrad, Cassell Military Paperback, 2003
• Fugate, Bryan & Dvoriecki, Lev, Thunder on the Dnepr Presidio Press