The 70th Army was a Soviet field army during World War II. It was the highest-numbered combined arms army to be formed by the Stavka during the war. It was active at the Battle of Kursk, the Lublin–Brest Offensive, and the Berlin Strategic Offensive, among other actions.
Formation
The army began forming in October 1942 near Sverdlovsk in Siberia as a separate NKVD Army of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Stavka Reserve). It was recruited primarily from NKVD border guards, with other redundant manpower from lines of communications troops and GULAG personnel.
In a decree signed by Gen. G.K. Zhukov the army became part of the Red Army: The reinforcing and support units included the 27th Separate Tank Regiment and 378th Anti-Tank Regiment.
70th Army was assigned to the re-deploying Don Front (soon re-designated Central Front) under command of Gen. K.K. Rokossovsky. It was some time before Rokossovsky could knock it into shape as a front-line formation, forcing him to remove many senior, ex-NKVD officers. From 28 February the 70th Army took part in both offensive and defensive operations to the northwest of Kursk. Central Front exploited a gap between the weak Second German Army and the Second Panzer Army, but was brought to a halt by the spring rasputitsa, German reserves released by their evacuation of the Rzhev Salient, and the German counter-offensive to the south. The Front's armies created defenses in depth during the lull in operations during the spring.
Battle of Kursk
During the Battle of Kursk the 70th Army fought on the left flank of the 2nd Tank Army and played a role in stopping the German 9th Army that was trying to break through to Kursk from the north. During the subsequent Red Army counterattack, the 70th Army took part in Operation Kutuzov and attacked Trosna to the south of the town of Kromy. On 5 Aug., its units reached the region southwest of Kromy, and on 17 Aug., they reached the German "Hagen" defense line near Domakha.
After the end of this operation, the field headquarters of the 70th Army was transferred to the Reserve of the Central Front and on 1 Feb. to STAVKA Reserve, where it received new units.
Lublin-Brest operation
During the second half of February 1944, the 70th Army was transferred to the front at the Turya River north of Kovel. On 25 Feb., it was subordinated to the Belorussian Front and on 16 Apr. it joined that formation, which had been re-designated 1st Belorussian Front. In June, prior to the outbreak of the Soviet summer offensive, the Army was still in the vicinity of Kovel, and its order of battle was as follows: 96th Rifle Corps (38th Guards and 1st Rifle Divisions) 114th Rifle Corps (76th Guards and 160th Rifle Divisions) 376th Anti-tank Artillery Regt., 581st Anti-Aircraft Regt., 136th Guards Mortar Regt., 148th Gun Artillery Brigade, and supporting units. With just four rifle divisions, this was a small army by Soviet standards. It also contained the 3rd Sniper Battalion.
During the Lublin–Brest Offensive (18 July – 2 August), its units, along with units of the 61st Army and the 26th Army, surrounded Brest from the south-east and destroyed up to four German divisions to the west of Brest.
Poland
After a short period assigned to the front reserves, on 10 Aug. the 70th Army attacked a region to the north of Warsaw. By the end of August, it reached the Narew River near the town of Serock. As of 26 Aug. was reduced to just the 72nd Rifle Corps. On 29 Oct., the 70th Army was back again as reserves of the 1st Belorussian Front and on 19 Nov. as reserves of the 2nd Belorussian Front.