The first version was created on July 24, 1941, from the right wing of the forces in the
Western Front, including a new designation of the
3rd Army and the headquarters of the (disbanded)
4th Army, whose former HQ formed the Front headquarters.
Colonel General Fyodor I. Kuznetsov took command. The Front was a combination of the 13th and
21st Armies. • The
13th Army (
Konstantin Golubev) had under command • in the area of
Mogilev, the •
61st Rifle Corps, •
20th Mechanised Corps, • in the area of
Krichevsky, the •
45th Rifle corps, •
20th Rifle Corps. • The
21st Army, under Lieutenant General
Mikhail Yefremov, was the other initial component of the Front: •
25th Mechanised Corps, •
66th Rifle Corps, •
63rd Rifle Corps, •
21st Rifle Corps, •
67th Rifle Corps. The new Front's air component was 136 aircraft (75 patched and repaired) under the command of Major General (Aviation)
Grigory Vorozheikin. The Central Front thus became the first new Front formed after the German invasion. At the time the Front was created its boundary with the Western front was along the
Bryansk-
Roslavl-
Shklov-
Minsk line (all inclusive for the Western front), and the main operational direction of the front was along the
Gomel–
Bobruisk–
Volkovysk axis. On August 1,
3rd Army joined the Front, and on August 7 Kuznetsov was recalled to Moscow to be given a new assignment. The command was transferred to
General Mikhail Yefremov. On August 8, Heinz Guderian's
Panzergruppe 2 began its attack along the 13th Army sector. Four days later the German
Second Army joined the attack. On August 17, the 63rd Rifle Corps was routed at the village of Skepnya (20 km to the east of
Zhlobin), and two days later elements of the Second Army occupied
Gomel. On August 22, the
3rd Army fell back from
Mozyr. Under these blows the Front was eventually encircled and destroyed near
Chernigov, and was formally disbanded on August 25, 1941. The surviving forces transferred to the first version of the
Bryansk Front. == Second formation ==