First Army (Soviet Union)

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The Soviet First Army (also called First Red Banner Army) was a Soviet field army of World War II that served in the Russian Far East.

The First Army was created in July 1938 under the name of the First Coastal Army. Its first commander was the later Marshal of the Soviet Union, Andrei Yeremenko. It was immediately allocated to the far east, where it was a key element of the Soviet Pacific Fleet. Several border skirmishes between the Red Army and the Imperial Japanese Army, such as the Battle of Halhin Gol took place until, in July 1940, two years after its formation, the First Coastal Army was transformed into the First Independent Red Banner Army in the far east.

Until the war's end in 1945, the First Army covered some of the long far eastern borders of the Soviet Union. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and the Soviet Far East Front attacked into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, as part of Operation August Storm, led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky. The First Army took part in the victorious offensive along with other armies, including the Soviet Second Army. The First Army's attack was aimed at northern Manchukuo.