Pavel Ivanovich Batov

The Early Years

Pavel Batov was born on the 1st of June 1897 in the village of Filisovo in the Yaroslavl Province, where he grew up and received his education. In 1915 he enlisted in the Russian Army and was sent to the Russo-German Front. There he served in an infantry Regiment of the Life Guards and during his service he twice received the George Medal for bravery. In 1917 he was wounded and following his convalescence he was assigned to the NCO school in Petrograd. He continued to serve in the Red Army during the Civil War and by 1926 had risen quickly through the ranks to command an infantry Company. That same year he attended the Vystrel Officers school near Moscow, where he met many other prominent young officers such as Vasilevsky and Katukov. Following his graduation in 1927 he was appointed as a Battalion commander in the prestigious 1st Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division. In 1929 he became the chief of staff of the Divisions 3rd Regiment and then in 1933 its Regimental Commander. Batov turned the Regiment into the finest in the Division and a report on its combat effectiveness by the Divisional commander read, 'In the course of comrade Batov's command, the Regiment has occupied first place in the Division in all categories of combat and political training. I have trust in the 3rd Regiment and I have faith in its commander, comrade Batov, who will do everything to fulfill the order is carried out'.
In 1935 he attended a course at the Frunze Military Academy and following its completion the following year he was chosen for service as an advisor to communist forces fighting in the Spanish Civil War. During this service he was wounded three times and received the Orders of Lenin and of the Red Banner. After returning to Russia in 1937 he was promoted and given command of the 10th Rifle Corps at Voronezh. In 1938 his command changed to the 3rd Rifle Corps at Ivanovo.
In 1939, his Corps was redeployed to Belorussia and took part in the occupation of Eastern Poland. Following the conclusion of the Polish operation his Corps was sent to the Finnish Front and took part in the later phases of the Winter War during 1940, as part of 13th Army. For his service in Finland, Batov was awarded another order of Lenin and promoted to Lieutenent General.

A Time of Change

In June 1941 he was given command of the 9th Rifle Corps in the Crimea, where he helped prepare the peninsula for its defence and following the commencement of operation Barbarossa supported the forces besieged in Odessa. In August 1941 he became Deputy Commander of 51st Army and in September he was given command of an operational Group consisting of three Divisions, tasked with defending the Sivash and Chongar sectors on the approaches to the Crimea. Batov's Group had difficulty redeploying to meet the German attack into the Crimea, which came across the Perekop Isthmus. Following a futile defensive battle the Group conducted a fighting withdrawal into the fortress city of Sevastapol. In November, Batov left the city by sea to retake command of the 9th Rifle Corps defending the Kerch Peninsula. Despite his efforts there, the Corps was forced to abandon the peninsula and withdraw to the Kuban Region.
On the 27th of December, he was summoned to Moscow to report to Stalin on the events in the Crimea. Despite the Red Army's poor performance, he was cleared of any blame and was appointed to command the 3rd Army, at that time attached to the Bryansk Front. In late February he was promoted again and appointed as Deputy Commander of the Front. Rokossovsky, the Front commander praised Batov in his memoirs saying, 'Batov was a fine old combatant officer, with good organizational abilities. However I saw from the outset that he was not happy in his job. A man of such ebullient energy found it hard to fulfill the inactive life of a Staff Officer'.
In October 1942 he was given command of the 4th Tank Army, following its defeat on the west bank of the River Don. Again Rokossovsky recalled the event in his memoirs, 'The new commander of the Army was Batov, a man of great combat experience and bold initiative, with whom I had seen service on the Bryansk Front'. The remnants of the Army fought on the approaches to Stalingrad until late October, when it was converted to a Rifle Army and renumbered the 65th. In November it comprised the principal shock Group of the Don Front during operation Uranus. Batov played a key part in the planning of the operation and was instrumental in destroying the elements of 4th Panzer Army caught in the encirclement.
Following the German surrender at Stalingrad, 65th Army was moved to reinforce the Central Front in readiness for the operation in the Kursk salient. As the German offensive in the salient ground to a halt, Batov's Army spearheaded the Fronts Chernigov-Pripet operation. It captured the town of Sevsk and seized a bridgehead over the River Sev, through which the 2nd Tank Army exploited the breakthrough. Batov's Army then advanced 125km, crossing the River Desna, repelling several German counter attacks in the process, eventually reaching Gomel and crossing the Sozh River there.
In October 1943, after extensive refitting, the Army seized a bridgehead over the Dnepr River near Love and then in November took part in the Gomel-Rechitsa operation as part of the Belorussian Front. Batov's skillful expansion of the Dnepr bridgehead and imaginative use of the 1st Tank Corps to capture the city of Rechitsa, despite having to traverse difficult wooded and swampy terrain helped to ensure the success of the operation. For his efforts in the Dnepr operations he was awarded the honour 'Hero of the Soviet Union'.

The Road to Berlin

In June 1944, the Army, now part of the 1st Belorussian Front, participated in operation Bagration, the liberation of Belorussia. During the Bobruisk operation the Army again successfully traversed difficult wooded and swampy terrain to encircle and destroy the German 9th Army in the city. The operation also saw him employ the double artillery barrage, the first Russian commander to do so. Following the conclusion of the operation he was rewarded with promotion to Colonel General. In July, as part of the Lublin-Brest operation, his Army seized crossings of the Bug River at Belostok and hold them, despite several heavy German counter attacks. In August the Army resumed its advance, reaching the River Narew by the beginning of September and holding the crossings, again in the face of heavy German counter attacks, for over two months.
January 1945 saw the Army transferred to the 2nd Belorussian Front to participate in the East Prussian operation, reaching and securing crossings over the Vistula River in early February. The Army's final operation of the war saw it spearhead the 3rd Belorussian Fronts crossing of the Oder River and then cooperated with the 3rd Belorussian Front clearing German forces from Pomerania.

The Post War Years

Following the German surrender, Batov was appointed to command the 7th Mechanized Army, stationed in Poland. In 1947, he was re-appointed to command 11th Guards Army as part of the Baltic Military District. In 1949 came another change of command as Deputy Commander of Soviet Forces Germany and in 1950 he attended the Voroshilov General Staff Academy. Following his graduation from the academy in 1955, he was appointed as Commander of the Carpathia Military District and the following year took part in the suppression of the Hungarian revolt.
In 1958 he moved again, this time to command the Baltic Military District and then again in 1961, returning to Eastern Europe to command Soviet Group of Forces in Hungary. In 1963 he was re-appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Soviet Army and then in 1964 as Chief of Staff Warsaw Pact Forces. During his distinguished military career Batov received many awards including being twice honoured Hero of the Soviet Union, seven Orders of Lenin, three Red Banners, three Orders of Suvorov and two signs of Honour. In 1965 he entered virtual retirement, but retained a presence in the Defence Ministry Inspectorate. While in the inspectorate Batov wrote his memoirs entitled 'In Campaigns and Battles' and numerous other works on various military subjects, primarily river crossings, of which he gained extensive experience during the war. During his career Batov was highly respected by his peers and trusted by his subordinates who he treated with respect. Batov was fond of saying, 'One must beat the enemy artfully, and that means with shedding little blood'. He often visited the front and conversed with his men, and his great energy, foresight and level headedness inspired them greatly. Batov died in April 1985 and was buried with full military honors in Moscow's prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery.