five areas, which were reorganized as 8th Army : from the Bryansk, Kursk, and Voronezh regions of screen forces, on the Yevstratovka and Kalach directions, 9th Army : units on the Povorino and Balashov directions, 10th Army : units on the Kamyshin and Tsaritsyn directions, 11th Army : units of the Western region of the North Caucasus, 12th Army : units of the Eastern region of the North Caucasus, when the Red Army formed numbered field armies. Tsaritsyn and advance into the North Caucasus Between September and November, it defended against Don Cossack attacks on Tsaritsyn and Kamyshin, in the area of the Povorino-Tsaritsyn railway, and towards Voronezh. Due to the 11th and 12th Armies in the North Caucasus being cut off by White advances from the rest of the front, on 2 November, the two armies were subordinated to the Caspian-Caucasian Section of the Southern Front. It launched a failed offensive in November, which resulted in the replacement of Sytin with Latvian Rifleman Pēteris Slavens on 9 November. On 8 December, the Caspian-Caucasian Section became the independent Caspian-Caucasian Front. The Group of Forces on the Kursk direction, formed on 18 November, was subordinated to the front on 19 December. The front achieved success in a January 1919 offensive against the Don Army, advancing along the Tsaritsyn-Velikoknyazheskaya railway and reaching the Don. On 24 January, Vladimir Gittis replaced Slavens. The Group of Forces on the Kursk direction was renamed the Donetsk Group of Forces on 15 February, and was expanded into the 13th Army on 5 March. On 13 March, the Don River Flotilla was operationally subordinated the front, remaining with it until its disbandment on 28 June. Between March and June, the front fought to suppress the Vyoshenskaya uprising of the Don Cossacks in stanitsas on the Upper Don. By April, it had taken Rostov-on-Don, crossed the Manych River, and advanced towards Bataysk and Tikhoretsk. On 27 April the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army joined the front; it became the 14th Army on 4 June. Retreat from Ukraine In May, the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) launched an offensive, which forced the front to retreat from the Don Host Oblast, the Donbas, Kharkov, Belgorod, Balashov and Tsaritsyn. On 21 May, the 11th Separate Army and Astrakhan-Caspian Flotilla were subordinated to the front; the former disbanded on 4 June with its 34th Rifle Division and 7th Cavalry Division being transferred