Researching Red Army/Navy Units

[Dave]

Eddie-

Thanks for all the information!

Here are some pictures that I was sent from the town that has a memorial to the Colonel whose award I have.

First, the Colonels of the 130th Lativan Rifle Corps. My fellow is 1st on the left. He would be dead two weeks later.

[Dave]

A photo of the Colonel, taken around the same time (a few days later)

[Dave]

Here is a picture of his memorial in the town of Jekabpils, Latvia.

[Taz]

Viking,
All of these Books give the Russian 5th Guards Tank Corps a mention, maybe they can help.

Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis - Niklas Zetterling, and Anders Frankson
Kursk :Hitler's Gamble, 1943, - Walter Dunn
Decision in the Ukraine - George Nipe
The Battle of Kursk - David Glantz and Jonathan House
The Battle for Kursk, 1943 - from the Soviet General Staff.

Zetterling and Frankson. Kursk 1943
-------------------------------------
"Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank Army reported that it had lost 222 T-34, 89 T-70, 12 Churchill and 11 assault guns up to 16 July. These were total write-offs. This gives a total of 334 destroyed Soviet tanks and assault guns".

Walter Dunn. Kursk :Hitler's Gamble, 1943,
--------------------------------------
"Both sides had suffered heavy losses. The SS Panzer Corps claimed 249 Soviet tanks destroyed or captured on July 12.... A total of 200 tanks were lost by the 5th Guards Tank Army. General Pavel A. Rotmistrov estimated that each side lost 300 tanks, probably accurate for the Russians and high for the Germans".

George Nipe.Decision in the Ukraine
----------------------------------
"However, Rotmistrov's army lost approximately 600-650 tanks on 12 July in actions against II. SS Panzerkorps as well as Breith's divisions [of III Panzerkorps].... "

the Soviet General Staff. The Battle for Kursk, 1943
---------------------------------------------------
"By the beginning of combat operations the 2d Guards Tatsinskaia Tank Corps and the 2d Tank Corps, which had a total of no more than 200 tanks...were subordinated to the 5th Guards Tank Army.... Thus the 5th Guards Tank Army had 793 tanks, including 501 T-34 tanks, 261 T-70s, and 31 'Churchills', and therefore, with respect to the number of tanks, the correlation of forces was approximately equal, although the enemy had qualitative superiority, especially in heavy tanks and self-propelled 'Ferdinand' guns".

Niklas Zetterling, and Anders Frankson. Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Now the Red Army had a tank whose armament had no difficulties with the side armour of even the German heavy tanks. However, the frontal armour of the Tiger could be penetrated except at ranges above 1,200 metres. In this situation the Panther clearly was the preferred tank".

Eddie.

[Taz]

Redesignated as 62nd Army: 10 July 1942

Key Commanders: General Major V. Ya. Kolpakchy, 1942

General Lieutenant, Alkesandr I. Lopatin, 12 September 1942

General Lieutenant Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, 12 Sep 1942-16 April 1943. (General (later Marshal) Chuikov went on to command the 8th Guards Army until 1945

Units :
---------
(July 1942): 33 Guards, 147, 181, 184, 192, 196 Rifle Divisions. 42, 115, 124, 149, 160 Special Brigades, 84, 137, 189 Tank Brigades and 10 NKVD Rifle Division.

November 1942): 13 (Siberian - General Alexandr Rodimtsev), 37, 39 Guards, 45, 95, 112, 138, 193, 284, 308 Rifle Divisions, 92nd Naval Rifle Brigade

(October, 1943): 27, 39, 50, 74, 78, 79, 82, 88 Guards Rifle Divisions

(January, 1944): 4 Guards Rifle Corps (inc. 35, 47, 157 Guards Rifle Divisions)

28 Guards Rifle Corps (inc. 39, 79, 88 Guards Rifle Divisions)

29 Guards Rifle Corps (inc. 27, 74, 82 Guards Rifle Divisions)

(Same units remained until end of the war)

Major Actions:
---------------
Kletskaya, July, 1942

Battle of Stalingrad, July, 1942 - February, 1943

Kursk, July, 1943

Captured Port of Odessa, April, 1944

Vistula breakthrough army, January, 1945

Poznan, Feb, 1945

Berlin, main attack army, April, 1945 (General Chuikov accepted the German surrender in Berlin on May 2, 1945)

Eddie.

[vikingraider1]

Taz, that is great. Thanks for taking the time to do this post.

[Taz]

Viking,
Here is a bit of additional info for you just in case you don't have it already.

5th Gds Mech Corps:
------------------------------------------------------

10 Gds Mech brig (1,2,3 rifle bns,51 Gds Tank regt): 32 T34, 16 T70
11 Gds Mech brig (1,2,3 rifle bns,54 Gds Tank regt): 32 T34, 16 T70
12 Gds Mech brig (1,2,3 rifle bns,55 Gds Tank regt): 32 T34, 16 T70
24 Gds Tank brig (1,2 Tank bns, 24 Gds mot rifle bn): 63 T34
1447 SU regt: 16 SU122
104 Gds AT regt: 20 76mm AT guns
285 Mortar regt: 36 120mm Mortars
4 Gds armoured car bn
2 Gds motorcycle bn
737 AT bn: 12 85mm AT guns
409 Gds Mortar bn: 8 BM-13
68 Gds sapper bn
388 signal bn
46 medical bn
86 repair bn

18th Tank Corps:
----------------------------------------------------

110 Tank brig (311, 312 Tank bns, 110 mot rifle bn): 32 T34, 21 T70
170 Tank brig (372, 373 Tank bns, 170 mot rifle bn): 32 T34, 21 T70
181 Tank brig (394, 395 Tank bns, 181 mot rifle bn): 32 T34, 21 T70
32 mot rifle brig
36 Gds heavy tank regt: 31 Churchill IV
1000 AT regt: 24 76 mm AT guns
292 Mortar regt: 36 120mm Mortars
1694 AA regt: 16 37mm AA guns
736 AT bn: 12 85mm AT guns
115 sapper bn
419 signal bn

29th Tank Corps:
---------------------------------------------------

25 Tank brig (25, 362 Tank bns, 25 mot rifle bn): 32 T34, 21 T70
31 Tank brig (194, 195 Tank bns, 31 mot rifle bn): 32 T34, 21 T70
32 Tank brig (141, 142 Tank bns, 32 mot rifle bn): 53 T34
53 mot rifle brig
1446 SU regt: 16 SU122
108 AT regt: 24 76 mm AT guns
271 Mortar regt: 36 120mm Mortars
38 armoured car bn
75 motorcycle bn
747 AT bn: 12 85mm AT guns
193 sapper bn

Army troops:
----------------------------------------------

53 Gds heavy tank regt: 32 T34, 7 T70
1549 Heavy SU regt: 12 SU152
1 Gds motorcycle regt
687 Howitzer regt: 24 or 28 122mm howitzers
689 AT regt: 20 or 24 76mm AT guns
76 Gds mortar regt: 24 BM13-16 or BM8-36 or BM8-48
6 AA div (146, 366, 516, 1062 AA regts)
377 separate engineer bn

Eddie.

[otlichnik]

Eddie,

Just to clarify that is the details of the 62nd Army your posted. The 42nd Special (or Independent Rifle) Brigade was only with them for three months (10-12/1942).

Shawn

[Taz]

Shawn Thanks,
Yes I think your totaly right, the one thing that was bugging me was the little sentence in brackets (Same units remained until end of the war). I wasn't sure if that was for all of the units from top to bottom or not.

Eddie.

[Taz]

BTW I forgot to mention that I am reading Marshal Chuikov's book called The end of the Third Reich at the moment which covers the 62nd Army through its reorganisation into the 8th guards army in 1943.
If I find anything of interest I'll post it here.

Eddie.