in Stavropol in 1939. In May 1941, he was appointed chief of staff of the Danube fortified area on the southern section of the Soviet-Romanian border in the Odessa Military District. World War II Eastern Front Following the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Krylov led the fight against Romanian troops who tried unsuccessfully to cross the Soviet border. When the threat of enemy occupation loomed, the Soviet troops were withdrawn from the border and Krylov became the deputy chief of the coastal army's operational department in July 1941. Since there was a lack of commanders in the besieged Odessa, he became chief of the operational department of the army on August 11 and the chief of staff of the coastal army on August 21. He remained in this position from the beginning to the end of the defense of Odessa and Sevastopol. During a visit outside the dugout with two others, the Germans fired off mortar rounds, killing one of the men and severely wounding Krylov on 8 January 1942. He would suffer from this injury for the rest of his life. On 27 December 1941, he was appointed major general and was evacuated from the city in the last days of its defense by a Soviet Navy submarine. He was in the reserve for more than a month, during which time he wrote a report on the defense of Sevastopol. In August 1942, Krylov was appointed Chief of Staff of the 1st Guards Army. Just a few days later, he was urgently summoned to Stalingrad and appointed chief of staff of the 62nd Army, which fought many months of street battles in the city during the battle of Stalingrad. Until the arrival of the new commander-in-chief Vasily Chuikov, he commanded the army in the battle for the city for more than a month. There he became a close friend with Chuikov and was also member of the Military Council of the Front led by Nikita Khrushchev, who was his superior. After the victory at Stalingrad, General Krylov was appointed commander of the 3rd Reserve Army of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in May 1943. From July 1943, he served as commander of the 21st and 5th Armies of the Western Front. During this time, his armies participated in the Orsha and Vitebsk offensives in 1943. Krylov's army was transferred to 3rd Belorussian Front. Commanding this