12th Army (Soviet Union)
| 12th Army | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1919–1920,1939–1943 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch |  Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
The 12th Army was a field army of the Red Army formed multiple times during the Russian Civil War and World War II.
Civil War & Polish-Soviet War
The 12th Army (Russian Civil War 1st Formation) of the Soviet Red Army was first formed from Soviet forces in the north-eastern Caucasus in 1918.
The 12th Army (
Simon Aralov was chief of intelligence with this unit. it was disbanded in 1920.[1]
Second World War
The 12th Army (1st Formation) (RKKA) of the Soviet Red Army was formed from the Southern (Cavalry-Mechanised) Army Group of the Kiev Special Military District during 1939–40.[2]
It was then involved in the
Soviet Southwestern Front
, comprising the
- 192nd Rifle Divisions)
- 17th Rifle Corps (60th Mountain, 69th Mountain, and 164th Rifle Divisions),
- 16th Mechanised Corps (15th, 39th Tank Divisions, 240th Mechanised Division)
- 10th, 11th and 12th Fortified Regions, and artillery, engineering and other units.[3]
It participated in the frontier battle to the west of
6th Army
. Thus the army's headquarters was disbanded on 10 August 1941, after the battle.
The 12th Army was reformed in August 1941 as part of the
11th Tank Division, 268th and 374th Corps Artillery Regiments, 64th and 181st Fighter Aviation Regiments, and a number of separate formations.[4]
The Army defended the left bank of the
Barvenkovo–Lozovaya Offensive operations, in the subsequent conducted defensive fights in Donbas and on Northern Caucasus (part of the Battle of the Caucasus). In the middle of April 1942 the 261st Rifle Division under Colonel A.M. Ilyin, the 4th Rifle Division (Colonel Ivan Rosly), the 74th Rifle Division
under General F.E.Sheverdin, the 176th Rifle Division (General Vladimir Martsinkevich) and 54th Tank Brigade under Colonel K.S. Minarov were assigned to the Army.
It was later in 1942 reorganised as a defensive zone HQ, but then reformed again by conversion of the previous
350th Rifle Divisions
and other formations. In April – July the Army was in Front reserve, and then participated in the Donbas and Zaporozhye offensive operations. In November the army HQ was disbanded, with its forces transferred to other armies.
Commanders
First formation
- Komandarm Ivan Tyulenev (September 1939)
- Komkor Filipp Parusinov (October 1939 – 10 March 1941)
- Major General Pavel Ponedelin (11 March – 10 August 1941) POW
Second formation
- Major General Ivan Galanin (25 August 1941 – 16 October 1941)
- Major General Konstantin Koroteyev (17 October 1941 – 5 April 1942)
- Major General Andrei Grechko (5 April – 3 September 1942)
- Colonel Aleksandr Sokolski (4–13 September 1942)
- Lieutenant General Nikolai Kirichenko (13–20 September 1942)
Third formation
- Lieutenant-General Ivan Shlemin(20 April – 19 May 1943)
- Major-General Alexei Danilov (20 May – 30 October 1943).
References
- ^ Центральный государственный архив Советской армии [Central State Archives of the Soviet Army] (in Russian). Vol. 1. 1991.
- ^ a b http://victory.mil.ru/rkka/units/03/26.html Archived 8 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine 12th Army (Russian)
- ^ Niehorster, Dr. Leo. "12th Army, Kiev Special Military District, Red Army, 22.06.41". niehorster.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
- Combat composition of the Soviet Army, 1 September 1941
- ^ Glantz, 2005, p.231, Poirier and Conner, p.38
- Grechko A., " fight for Caucasus ", 2nd edition, Moscow, 1973
- Grechko A., " years of war ", Moscow, 1976
- Arshanyan, " Operations of 12th army in an initial stage of war ", Military-Historical Journal, 1973, No. 6
- http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a12/arm.html
| Armies |
|
|---|---|
| Guards | |
| Tank/Mechanized | |
| Guards Tank/Mechanized | |
| Shock | |
| Cavalry |
|
| Sapper |
|
| Reserve Army |
|
.svg){kind=small}