Tank corps (Soviet Union)

A tank corps (Russian: танковый корпус) was a Soviet armoured formation used during World War II.

Pre-War Development of Soviet Mechanised Forces

In Soviet Russia, the so-called armored forces (броневые силы) preceded the Tank Corps. They consisted of the motorised armored units (автобронеотряды) 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 Red Army established the Soviet of Armored Units (Совет броневых частей, or Центробронь), later renamed to Central Armored Directorate and then once again to Chief Armored Directorate (Главное броневое управление). In December 1920, the Red Army received its first light tanks, assembled at the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory. In 1928, it began the production of the MS-1 tanks (Малый Сопровождения -1, where M stands for "small" and S – for "convoy"). In 1929, it established the Central Directorate for Mechanization and Motorization 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 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 Mechanisation and Motorisation of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (which became the Malinovskiy Mechanised Force Academy and is today part of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation).

In 1931–1935, the Red Army adopted light, medium, and later heavy tanks of different types. By the beginning of the 1936, it had 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 Mechanisation and Motorisation was renamed to Directorate of Automated Armored Units (Автобронетанковое управление) and then to Chief Directorate of Automated Armored Units (Главное автобронетанковое управление, Габту, GABTU). Soviet armored units gained some combat experience during the Battle of Lake Khasan (1938), Battle of Khalkhin Gol (1939) and Winter War with Finland (1939–1940).

Besides the operational armoured and mechanised formations, separate tank battalions within rifle divisions existed. These were meant to reinforce rifle units for the purpose of breaching enemy defenses. They had to act in cooperation with the infantry without breaking away from it and were called tanks for immediate infantry support (танки непосредственной поддержки пехоты).

Eastern Front of World War II

Tank Corps were reformed in March 1942 on a smaller scale than the pre-war Tank Corps. At first they consisted of two Tank Brigades and a motorised rifle brigade, with some Corps elements such as reconnaissance, anti-tank, or pioneers added in. This made them essentially a division size formation with ca. 120 to 180 tanks. The formation was slightly weaker than a German Panzer division at this stage in the war. It was determined that this was too weak, and a third tank brigade was added to increase the offensive power. The final organisation as published in 1944 included an additional heavy tank or heavy self-propelled gun regiment, plus a medium and a light self-propelled gun regiment.

A total of 31 tank corps were formed during the war, with 12 of them earning the designation of a Guards Tank Corps. Due to the destruction of the 21st Tank Corps at the Second Battle of Kharkov and the use of some tank corps to form mechanised corps, no more than 24 of them actually saw combat.

The tank corps were the basic building block of the Tank Armies (see List of Soviet armies#Tank Armies).

Most tank corps were converted to Tank Divisions in 1945-6. See List of Soviet Army divisions 1989-91.

List of Tank Corps

Guards Tank Corps

Composition of a Tank Corps

See also

Mechanized Corps (Soviet)

References

  1. ↑ John Erickson, Road to Berlin, 1982, p.130
  2. ↑ Sharp Charles C., Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Volume II
  3. 1 2 Craig Crofoot, Group of Soviet Forces Germany, V3.0.0, 2007, manuscript available via www.microarmormayhem.com
  4. ↑ Sharp, Soviet Order of Battle, World War II, vol. II or III, via http://www.dupuyinstitute.org/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000040.html
  5. 1 2 3 4 Graham H. Turbiville, 'Restructuring the Soviet Ground Forces: Reduction, Mobilization, Force Generation,' Military Review, December 1989
  6. ↑ For an order of battle for 29th Tank Corps, see http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=38744

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