Stavka STANDING BARRAGE When artillery bombarded an enemy position according to a fire plan gunners were sometimes ordered to “stand” the shelling over the same position rather than move it forward as they would in a creeping barrage or rolling barrage STAR See POLAR STAR STARK, HAROLD (1880–1972) See Pearl Harbor U.S admiral STARKEY See COCKADE STATO MAGGIORE GENERALE See Comando Supremo STAUFFENBERG, CLAUS VON (1907–1944) See July Plot; Schwartz Kapelle STAVKA “Stavka Glavnogo Komandovaniyaor” or “Main Command of the Armed Forces.” The GHQ of the Red Army This Soviet High Command was located in Moscow from the date of its creation on June 23, 1941, one day after the BARBAROSSA invasion was launched The Stavka was a revival of a tsarist military GHQ but on a much grander plane Marshal Semyon Timoshenko was originally appointed to lead it From July 10, 1941, it was headed by Joseph Stalin under his title “Verkhovnyi” or “VKG,” or “Main Commander in Chief.” The Stavka did not meet formally as a body and was not equivalent to the Chiefs of Staff Committee in Britain For one thing, the Soviet Navy was not represented from 1941 to 1945, while the Red Army Air Force (VVS) was never seated Stavka appointees served as principal military advisors to generalissimo Stalin, but membership was not always reflective of who had real planning or war policy influence with the VKG From mid-1942 senior officers served as “Stavka representatives” with all Fronts, planning and overseeing major operations This was an important reform of hitherto ineffective command and control systems in the Red Army, which had been based on designated theater commands Large reserves, including multiple tank and air armies, were kept under direct Stavka control once they were rebuilt following the catastrophes of 1941 and 1942 The Stavka gained new influence over operations after failure at the First Battle of Kharkov (May 12–29, 1942) revealed basic problems of command and control in the Red Army In the final campaign of the war, the Manchurian offensive operation in August 1945, the Stavka relinquished direct operational control to a “Far Eastern Command” that coordinated fighting by three Fronts under a newly formed Direction See also specific named battles and operations, and Antonov, Alexei A.; blocking detachments; Budyonny, Semyon; General Staff; Vasilevsky, Alexander; Voronov, Nikolai; Voroshilov, Kliment; Zhukov, Georgi 1041