Airborne Corps (Soviet Union)

The Soviet Airborne Troops formed a number of Airborne Corps before and during the Great Patriotic War/Second World War.

Airborne corps 22 June 1941

Source soldat.ru forums.[1]

From March to July 1942 5th Airborne Corps was in Stavka reserve, training personnel, but at the beginning of August, due to the sharp deterioration of the situation in the southern sector of the Soviet-German front, the corps was immediately reformed as the 39th Guards Rifle Division (and joined the Stalingrad Front).

In the second half of 1942 under the Moscow the 5th Airborne Corps was formed again, but it did not see action, because in December 1942 it became the 7th Guards Airborne Division.

Airborne corps formed after 22 June 1941

From Summer 1942

In Summer 1942 the Stavka converted all ten airborne corps into guards rifle divisions to bolster Soviet forces in the south. Among them was the 6th Airborne Corps, which became the 40th Guards Rifle Division.

Yet:[3]

'..[T]he Stavka still foresaw the necessity of conducting actual airborne operations later during the war. To have [such a force] the Stavka created eight new airborne corps (1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th) in the fall of 1942. Beginning in December 1942, these corps became ten guards airborne divisions (two formed from the 1st Airborne Corps and the three existing separate maneuver airborne brigades).'

These divisions were numbered 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, formed from 9th Airborne Corps (2nd formation), 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Guards Airborne Division.

'After the defeat of German forces at Kursk, the bulk of the airborne divisions joined in the pursuit of German forces to the Dnepr River. Even as ten guards airborne divisions fought at the front, new airborne brigades formed in the rear areas. In April and May 1943, twenty brigades formed and trained for future airborne operations. Most of these brigades had become six new guards airborne divisions (11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th) by September 1943.[4] The Stavka however, earmarked three of these airborne brigades use in an airborne operation to cross the Dnepr River.'

However, by January 1944, some of these formations (the 15th and 16th at least) were becoming Guards Rifle Divisions (the 15th became the 100th Guards in January 1944).

Guards Airborne Corps from 1944

David Glantz wrote in 1984:[5]

In August [1944], the Stavka formed the 37th, 38th, and 39th Guards Airborne corps. By October, the newly formed corps had combined into a separate airborne army under Maj. Gen. I. I. Zatevakhin. However, because of the growing need for well-trained ground units, the new army did not endure long as an airborne unit. In December, separate airborne army the Stavka reorganized the separate airborne army into the 9th Guards Army of Col. Gen. V. V. Glagolev, and all divisions were renumbered as guards rifle divisions. As testimony to the elite nature of airborne-trained units, the Stavka held the 9th Guards Army out of defensive actions, using it only for exploitation during offensives.

From December 1944, the original VDV divisions were reconstituted as Guards Rifle formations.

There were significant reorganisations after the end of the war, and two new airborne corps (the 8th and 15th) were established. At the end of 1955 and the beginning of 1956 the 11th, 21st, 100th and 114th Airborne Divisions were disbanded as well as all the airborne corps headquarters.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Zhukov, A.E., Forum at www.soldat.ru
  2. ↑ Source for 6th, 8th, 9th Airborne Corps conversions is Bonn/Glantz, 'Slaughterhouse'.
  3. ↑ Glantz, 1984
  4. ↑ D. Sukhorukov, "Vozdushno-desantnye voiska" [Airlanding forces], Voyenno-istorichesky zhurnal (VIZh, the Military-Historical Journal), January 1982:40, cited in Glantz, 1984, 32.
  5. ↑ Glantz, The Soviet Airborne Experience, 1984, 33, 167, citing Sukhorukov, Sovetskie vozdushno, 238–239.
  6. ↑ See also ru:37-й гвардейский стрелковый корпус
  7. ↑ See also Michael Holm, 99th Guards Airborne Division, accessed December 2013.
  8. ↑ Michael Holm, 114th Guards Airborne Division, accessed December 2103.
  9. ↑ Vad777's Soviet Armed Forces site
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