Southern Group of Forces
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The Southern Group of Forces was a Soviet Army formation formed twice following the Second World War, most notably around the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Following the Iassy-Kishinev Operation, on June 15, 1945, the 26th and 37th Armies (from 3rd Ukrainian Front) in Romania and Bulgaria, plus a division which had reached Yugoslavia, were grouped into the Southern Group of Forces (YUGV). A year later, the 37th Army became the 10th Mechanised Army. After the signing of the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947, the SGF disbanded, along with HQ 26th Army, and passed on its functions to the 10th Mechanised Army, which had now been redesignated the Special Mechanized Army.
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[edit] Second Formation
The Group was re-created for a second time with its staff in Budapest seemingly during September 1955 (though former Soviet sources disagree; Feskov et al say it was created on November 24, 1956). Lenskii says that it was re-created in 1955 to control the Soviet troops in Hungary following the disbandment of the former Central Group of Forces which had controlled troops in Austria and Hungary from 1945 to 1955, and the Soviet withdrawal from Austria. Under its command were the 2nd Guards 'Nikolayevsk-Budapest' Mechanised Division, the 17th Guards 'Yenakievskiy-Danube' Mechanised Division, two air divisions, and other troops. Lenskii says their function was 'to cover the boundary with neutral Austria and to guarantee communications in the case of the advancement of troops from the USSR'.
[edit] Hungarian Revolution
On October 24, 1956 the 33rd Guard Kherson Mechanized Division, previously stationed in Romania near the Romanian-Hungarian border, and two divisions from the Carpathian Military District, the 11th Guards 'Rovenskaya' Mechanized and 128th Guards Rifle Division, entered Hungary under the control of a Rifle Corps. The forces already in Hungary and those entering totalled 31,500 men. The 33rd Guards Mechanised Division took the lead role in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest, and lost, according to Soviet sources, 14 tanks and assault guns as well as 9 armoured personnel carriers. Seven months afterward, on May 28, 1957, an agreement on the status of Soviet troops, comprising the Southern Group of Forces, was made between the USSR and Hungary.
The 11th Guards Mechanised and 128th Guards Rifle Divisions returned to the Carpathian Military District and were replaced by the 21st Guards 'Poltava' Tank Division and the 27th 'Cherkass' Motor Rifle Division, both under the command of the Carpathian Military District's 38th Army. 2nd Guards Mechanised Division was re-formed into the 19th Guards Tank Division, and the 17th Guards Mechanised Division was re-formed into the 17th Guard Motor Rifle Division and withdrawn to the USSR. The 33rd Guards Mechanised Division was then replaced by the 35th Guards 'Kharkov' Mechanised Division.
Later, either in 1957 or 1965, three of the four divisions in the Group were redesignated, and toward the end of the 1980s the Group comprised:
- 13th Guards Tank Poltava Division (former 21st Tank, and carrying the lineage of the wartime 13th Guards Rifle Division) - in Veszprém;
- 19th Guards Tank Nikolayevsk-Budapest Division - in Esztergom;
- 93rd Guards Motor Rifle Kharkov Division (former 35th Guards)(now 93rd Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine))
- 254th 'Cherkass' Motor Rifle Division (former 27th) - in Szekesfehervar.
- 36th Air Army
The removal of Soviet troops from Hungary began during May 1989, with the withdrawal and disbandment of 13th Guards Tank Division. Later the 19th Guards Tank Division was withdrawn to the Belorussian Military District and the 254th Motor Rifle Division to the Kiev Military District. The 93rd Guards Motor Rifle Division was withdrawn in early 1991 to the Kiev Military District and the Group finally disbanded on 16 June 1991.
[edit] See also
- Soviet occupation of Romania
- Central Group of Forces
- Northern Group of Forces
- Western Group of Forces
[edit] Sources
- A.G. Lenskii, M.M. Tsybin, The Soviet Ground Forces in the last years of the USSR, St Petersburg, 1991
- Feskov et al, The Soviet Army in the years of the Cold War 1945-1991, Tomsk University Press, 2004
