Grigory Oriol

Oriol joined the Red Army in 1924. At the mid-1930s, he attended the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization (now part of the Combined Arms Academy), where he became close friends with General Sergei Shtemenko.[1] After graduation, he was assigned to the 22nd Maxim Gorky Cavalry Division, commanding the mechanized regiment and later the armored regiment.[2]

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he headed the Armoured Automobiles department in the General Staff, and later became the commander of the armored and mechanized divisions in the 16th Army, under General Rokossovsky.[3] As such, he took part in the battle of Moscow.[4][5] Oriol remained the commander of Rokossovsky's tanks, and headed the Mechanized and Armored Formations of the Bryansk Front, which later was re-formed as the Don Front.[6] While stationed in the Don Front, he participated in the Battle of Stalingrad.[7] On 17 November 1942, he was given the rank of a major general.[8] After the Don Front was renamed Central Front, Oriol supervised its armored units during the Battle of Kursk.[9] Oriol remained in his post as the Central Front became the 1st Belorussian Front.[10] At 5 November 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant general.[8] When Marshal Georgy Zhukov replaced Rokossovsky, Oriol headed the tank formations under his command during Vistula-Oder Offensive and the Battle of Berlin.[11][12]

After the war, Oriol was appointed inspector-general the armored and mechanized forces stationed in all the USSR's Military Districts. At 1961, he became an inspector in the Ministry of Defense and was given his final promotion to Colonel-General on 1962. He retired from the Armed Forces during 1969.[13]