Soviet Central Front

The Central Front was the Soviet formation responsible for the northern face of the Kursk salient in 1943, formed in February of that year under Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky and covering the sector from the Orel salient down towards Belgorod. Over the spring and summer it prepared and then held a deep system of defences in the Orel direction, comprising successive belts of minefields, anti-tank ditchworks, rifle belts and strongpoints extending for several hundred kilometres, with reserves positioned to seal gaps. The screen proved effective: the northern thrust of Operation Citadel by the German 9th Army made little progress, and the Soviet command gained the time required to concentrate its own reserves for the counter-offensive. After the German attack was checked, the front took part in the Soviet counter-offensive around Orel in July and August 1943 and subsequently participated in the great summer offensive of 1944 that destroyed Army Group Centre and opened the road into Poland. Commanders, dates and dispositions follow standard published accounts; recorded positions are schematic. Rokossovsky's caution in committing the front's reserves was deliberate: the front had to hold while the Stavka concentrated forces for the counter-offensive, and the delay imposed on the German timetable was the precondition for its success. The front was renamed the 1st Belorussian Front in the summer of 1944.