Mechanised corps (Soviet Union)

A mechanised corps was a Soviet armoured formation used prior to the beginning of World War II.

Contents

Pre-war development of Soviet mechanised forces

In Soviet Russia, the term armored forces (thus calledBronevyye sily) preceded the mechanised corps. They consisted of the autonomous armored units (avtobroneotryady) made of armored vehicles and armored trains. The country did not have its own tanks during the Civil War of 1918-1920.

In January 1918, the Russian Red Army established the Soviet of Armored Units (Sovet bronevykh chastey, or Tsentrobron’), later renamed to Central Armored Directorate and then once again to Chief Armored Directorate (Glavnoye bronevoye upravleniye). In December 1920, the Red Army received its first light tanks, assembled at the Sormovo Factory. In 1928, it began the production of the MS-1 tanks (Malyy Soprovozhdeniya 1, 'Small Convoy 1'). In 1929, it established the Central Directorate for Mechanisation and Motorisation of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. Tanks became a part of the mechanised corps at this point.

During this time, and based on the experience of the Civil War with its sweeping movements of horse-mobile formations, Soviet military theorists such as Vladimir Triandafillov born in Pontus of Greek parents and Konstantin Kalinovsky elaborated the principles of combat use of armored units, which envisioned a large-scale use of tanks in different situations in cooperation with various army units. In the mid-1930s, these ideas found their reflection in the so called deep operation and deep combat theories. From the second half of the 1920s, tank warfare development took place at Kazan, where the German Reichswehr was allowed to participate.

In 1930, the First Mechanised Brigade had its own tank regiment of 110 tanks. In 1932, the First Mechanised Corps had over 500 tanks, and it was probably the first armoured unit of operational significance anywhere in the world. That same year, the Red Army established the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (today’s Military Academy of Armored Units named after Rodion Malinovsky).

In 1931-1935, the Red Army adopted light, medium, and later heavy tanks of different types. By the beginning of the 1936, it already had four mechanised corps, six separate mechanised brigades, six separate tank regiments, fifteen mechanised regiments within cavalry divisions and considerable number of tank battalions and companies. The creation of mechanised and tank units marked the dawn of a new branch of armed forces, which would be called armored forces. In 1937, the Central Directorate of Mechanization and Motorization was renamed to Directorate of Automated Armored Units (Avtobronetankovoye upravleniye) and then to Chief Directorate of Automated Armored Units (Glavnoye avtobronetankovoye upravleniye), headed by Dmitry Pavlov. Soviet armored units gained some combat experience during the Battle of Lake Khasan (1938), Battle of Khalkhin Gol (1939) and the Winter War with Finland (1939–1940).

However, experiences in these operations, and also the experiences from the Spanish Civil War, led the Red Army command to the conclusion that the mechanised corps formations were too cumbersome, and a decision was taken to disband them in November 1939, and to distribute their units among infantry. This was a mistake, as the success of German panzer divisions in France had shown, and in late 1940 the decision was reversed. However, there was not enough time before the German attack in June 1941 to reform the mechanised corps units fully and for them to reach their former efficiency [1] [2].

Besides the operational armoured and mechanised formations, there were independent tank battalions within rifle divisions. These were meant to reinforce rifle units for the purpose of breaching enemy defences. They had to act in co-operation with the infantry without breaking away from it and were called tanks for immediate infantry support (tanki neposredstvennoy podderzhki pekhoty).

Period 1940-1941

In June 1941 there were twenty-nine[1] mechanised corps in various stages of formation. The plan was for each of them to have about 36,000 men and 1,000 tanks, and a few approached that strength level by the time war with Germany broke out [3]. Of this number, two formations especially stood out: 4th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) and 6th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union).[2] In 22 June 1941 each of these was fully formed, armed with more than 900 operational tanks, and stationed not further than 100-300 kilometers from the border.[2] Considering the armor qualities, each of these formations had a substantial concentration of the T-34 and KV-1 tanks.[2] Both of these formations, having more than 350 of the T-34 plus KV-1, could be reasonably expected to break through any German Panzer Corps of the time, not to say Army Corps.[2] Such estimation is based on sheer number of concentrated tanks, their main armament, the thickness of their armor,[3] their actual failure rate, the eventual losses to aircraft, and normal scheduled maintenance.[2] What it does not count are human-related factors.[2]

That being said, during the war against the Axis, all mechanised corps were destroyed during the early phase of the invasion of the Soviet Union (including 4th and 6th), and less than a month after the attack, the Red Army formally abolished the Mechanised Corps as a formation type. Remaining tanks were concentrated in smaller formations that were easier to handle.

Period 1942-1946

In September 1942, the General Headquarters (Stavka) authorized the formation of a new type of mechanised corps which was to become the main operational mechanised formation for the remainder of the war. They were about the same size as a German panzer division, and designed as a true combined-arms formation with a good balance of armor, infantry, and artillery. Mechanised corps were not to be used in breakthrough battles, but only in the exploitation phase of an operation. They shared with the new Tank Corps a four manouvre brigade structure - three mechanised brigades and one tank brigade, plus an anti-tank regiment, artillery, and other support units. The new tank corps had three tank brigades and one mechanised brigade.[4]

A total of thirteen mechanised corps were formed during the war against the Axis nations, nine of them becoming guards mechanised corps. A further corps, the 10th Mechanised Corps, was formed in June 1945 and saw action during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. The 1st, 3rd, and 9th Guards Mechanised Corps were equipped with Lend Lease tanks, Sherman M4A2. The mechanised corps were converted to mechanised divisions relatively quickly after the war - by 1946 in most cases.[5]

Composition of a mechanised corps (1940)

Total

1,108 Tanks (420 T-34s, 126 KVs, 560 Light tanks)
37,200 personnel
5 Tank Regiments with 20 Tank Battalions
4 Motorized Rifle Regiments with 12 Motorized Rifle Battalions
2 Motorized Artillery/Howitzer Regiments with 4 Artillery Battalions

The formation was seen as very tank-heavy, lacking sufficient infantry or artillery to support the tank formations. The 1942 order of battle was much more flexible.

Composition of a mechanised corps (1944)

Total[6]:

246 Armored Fighting Vehicles (183 T-34, 21 SU-76, 21 ISU-122, 21 ISU-152)
16,438 personnel
3 Tank Regiments and 3 Tank Battalions
9 Motorised Rifle Battalions and 1 Motorised Submachine Gun Battalion
3 Motorised Artillery Battalions

List of Soviet Mechanised Corps

The listing and data here are drawn from Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse: Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005, and V.I. Feskov et al., The Soviet Army during the Period of the Cold War, Tomsk University Press, Tomsk, 2004 (mostly pages 71–75).

References

  1. ^ Martínez. Soviet Army Order of Battle in WWII June to December 1941. pp. 7–8. ISBN 9781446191804. http://books.google.com/books?id=wQCfpjr4TUkC&lpg=PA89&dq=T-34%20%22mechanized%20corps%22%20June&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f Mark Solonin (2007) (in Polish). 22 czerwca 1941 czyli Jak zaczęła się Wielka Wojna ojczyźniana (1 ed.). Poznań, Poland: Dom Wydawniczy Rebis. pp. 94–150, 166–170, 528–529. ISBN 9788375101300.  (the only English translations of Solonin's works seem to be, as of June 2011, these online chapters)
  3. ^ The 37 mm cannon found in majority of German tanks and majority of German infantry divisions could not be reasonably expected to penetrate either T-34 or KV-1 front or side armor in combat conditions. To attempt to inflict any damage on these Soviet tanks, cannon larger than 37 mm was needed; in German Army Corps, 2 larger guns were assigned to some infantry regiments; the newest Panzer III and Panzer IV models also had larger guns, with 60–207 tanks assigned to each German Panzer Corps. Solonin, 2007, pp. 102–103, 528–529.
  4. ^ Keith E. Bonn (ed), Slaughterhouse: Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, 2005, p.428, 430
  5. ^ Feskov et al., 2004, p.48
  6. ^ Red Army Handbook, pp. 81, 86, and 89.
  7. ^ 2nd Mechanised Corps 1941
  8. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1 July 1941
  9. ^ John Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, Cassel Military Paperbacks 2003 edition, p.148
  10. ^ Niehorster listing of Mechanised Corps on 22 June 1941
  11. ^ Bonn, 2005, p.351
  12. ^ Craig Crofoot, 'Group of Soviet Forces Germany,' manuscript available at www.microarmormayhem.com, 2007

Further reading

External links