New Army

Joseph Stalin sent a new Red Army into battle this winter. Moscow communiques and dispatches, making this fact plain last week, also told more about the Red Army's command and methods than the outer world had ever known before.

Zhukov for Timoshenko. The vast reserves of men and weapons available for the Red Army's winter offensives (see p. 23) showed that the retreats of last summer and fall had been triumphs of military thrift. Stalin and the Red Army Command had sacrificed Russian cities, resources and territory rather than risk the Soviet reserves. But there was evidence that not all of the retreats were planned that way.

Commanders who failed have been relieved or shot. The Army's own Red Star has repeatedly complained that the Germans still outgeneraled the Russians. Last week Moscow announced that one of its famous generals--Marshal Semion Timoshenko (TIME, July 22), commander on the southern front when the Germans broke through and drove to Stalingrad--had been replaced.

In his stead, directing the Red Army's counteroffensives to relieve Stalingrad, was aggressive, 48-year-old Army General Gregory Zhukov, who also had much to do with planning the offensive on the central front (TIME, Dec. 14). London reported that Marshal Timoshenko was still in high favor, helping Stalin prepare a final blow against the Germans. But, in a unique communique, Moscow announced a long list of generals who had distinguished themselves this winter and the name of Timoshenko did not appear among them. This unprecedented list personalized the Red Army with new names, new faces (see cuts) like those of the Don commander, Lieut. General K. Rokossovsky, and Lieut. General M. M. Popov, one of ten officers whose troops "particularly distinguished themselves."

The Big Shots. The Supreme Command of the Red Army not only plans Soviet campaigns, but directs their execution. Its representatives have responsibility for "general leadership" of the field commanders. Listed first among these representatives was General Zhukov (with Colonel Generals Alexander Vassilevsky and N. N. Voronov). Soviet airmen also have full representation on the Supreme

Command: Lieut. Generals of Aviation Novikov and Talaleyev directed the Red Air Force in the southern offensives.

Motomechanizirovannyia. Last week the full extent of a tank revolution in the Red Army could be seen.

Stalin's honors list included no less than ten tank leaders with ranks indicating that they commanded armored corps and armored armies. Previously the biggest tank organizations in the Red Army were brigades, and these usually were broken up for auxiliary service with infantry.

The new army's motomechanizirovannyia chasti (motorized, tank and mechanized units) also include light, self-propelled 45-mm. guns, slightly larger than those on U.S. light tanks, and bigger (76-mm.) mobile field guns to blast heavily defended enemy points before the tanks attack.

Three of the new corps received the highest honor the Red Army can give its units. They were designated "Guards Corps," entitled to the extra pay of Russia's elite troops.

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