9th Army (Soviet Union)
9th Army | |
---|---|
Active | 1939–1943 |
Country | Soviet Union |
Branch | Soviet Army |
Type | Field army |
Engagements | Winter War
|
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Vasily Chuikov
Ivan Boldin Konstantin Koroteev Vasily Glagolev |
The 9th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a Soviet field army, active from 1939 to 1943.
History
First formation
It was active during the
Second formation
In 1940 the Army was created to take part in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. It was disbanded on 10 July 1940.
Third formation
By 1941 the Army was designated the 9th Separate Army (briefly) and included the 14th, 35th and 48th Rifle Corps (the last under then General Major Rodion Malinovsky), 2nd Cavalry Corps, 2nd and 18th Mechanised Corps, 80th, 81st, 82nd, 84th, 86th Fortified Regions and a number of other units – the biggest army on the Soviet border before the German Operation Barbarossa began. However, it was more an administrative than an operational formation on 22 June 1941.[3] With General Major M.V. Zakharov as chief of staff,[4] it was tasked to cover the Bălți, Chisinau, and Odesa approaches as part of General Ivan Tyulenev's Southern Front.
The first engagement came when Von Schobert's
By early August, 9th Army was falling back to Mykolaiv under repeated German blows, and by 17 August across the River Ingulets and over to the eastern bank of the Dnieper. The 'Coastal Group' was meanwhile falling back on Odesa. By early 9 October Army was falling back on Taganrog, after a failed attempt by Southern Front's three armies to hold a line between Pavlograd and the Sea of Azov had been shattered by an outflanking maneuver by Von Kleist's newly renamed First Panzer Army.[6] The resulting Battle of the Sea of Azov shattered 9th Army, virtually destroying it.
The Soviets' next move was a planned offensive orchestrated by Timoshenko, GlavKom Southwest. After still more retreats and the loss of
Still with Southern Front, 9th Army was then allotted a subsidiary part in the Kharkov offensive – the
Later, as part of the
In November 1943 the army headquarters was disbanded, and its formations and units transferred to other armies.
Commanders
- Komkor Mikhail Dukhanov (21 November – 22 December 1939)
- Komkor Vasily Chuikov (22 December 1939 – 5 April 1940)
- Lieutenant General Ivan Boldin (20 June – 10 July 1940)
- Colonel General Yakov Cherevichenko (22 June – 9 September 1941)
- Major General Fyodor Kharitonov (9 September 1941 – 20 May 1942)
- Major General Pyotr Kozlov (20 May – 18 June 1942)
- Major General Dmitry Nikishov (18–24 June 1942)
- Lieutenant General Anton Lopatin (24 June – 17 July 1942)
- Major General Feofan Parkhomenko (14 July – 7 August 1942)
- Major General Vladimir Marcinkiewicz (8–28 August 1942)
- Major General (Lieutenant General April 1943) Konstantin Koroteev(September 1942 – February 1943)
- Major General Vasily Glagolev (11 February – 22 March 1943)
- Lieutenant General Konstantin Koroteev (March–May 1943)
- Major General (Lieutenant General October 1943) Aleksei Grechkin (June–November 1943)
Order of Battle, 22 June 1941
Note: This order of battle disagrees in the matter of the 150th Rifle Division with material from
- 14th Rifle Corps (General Major D. G. Jegerov)
- 25th Rifle Division
- 51st Rifle Division
- 35th Rifle Corps (brigadier I. F. Daschitschew)
- 48th Rifle Corps (major general Rodion Malinovsky)
- 30th Mountain Rifle Division
- 74th Rifle Division
- 150th Rifle Division
- 2nd Cavalry Corps (General Major P. A. Belov)
- 5th Cavalry Division
- 9th Cavalry Division
- 2nd Mechanised Corps (General Major J. W. Nowosetski)
- 11th Tank Division
- 16th Tank Division
- 15th Motorised Division
- 18th Mechanised Corps (Generalmajor P. V. Woloch)
- 44th Tank Division
- 47th Tank Division
- 218th Motorised Division
1 July 1942 (Southwest Front)
- 51st, 81st, 106th, 140th, 255th, 296th, 318th, 333rd Rifle Divisions
- 5th Cavalry Corps (30th, 34th, 60th Cavalry Divisions)
- 12th Tank Brigade
1 February 1943 (North Caucasus Front)
- 9th Rifle Corps (43rd, 157th, 256th Rifle Brigades)
- 11th Guards Rifle Corps (7th, 34th, 57th. Rifle Brigades, 8. Guards Rifle Brigade)
- 11th Rifle Corps (19th, 84th, 131st Rifle Brigades)
- 207th Tank Brigade
1 July 1943 (North Caucasus Front)
- 9th Rifle Corps (34th, 43rd, 157th, 256th Rifle Brigades)
- 11th Rifle Corps (19th, 57th, 84th, 131st Rifle Brigades)
- 276th, 351st Rifle Divisions
Sources
- ^ 9th Army, Red Army, 30.11.1939
- ISBN 9780811710886.
- ^ John Erickson (historian), The Road to Stalingrad, 2003 Cassel Military Paperbacks edition, p. 141
- ^ "Biography of Marshal of Soviet Union Matvei Vasilevich Zakharov – (Матвей Васильевич Захаров) (1898 – 1972), Soviet Union". generals.dk. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
- ^ Erickson, 2003, p. 168
- ^ Erickson, 2003, pp. 255–6, 265
- ^ Erickson, 2003, pp. 328–9
- ^ Erickson, 2003, pp. 346–7
- Robert Kirchubel: Unternehmen Barbarossa, Oxford 2003.
- from http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a09/arm.html:
- Grechko A., " fight for Caucasus ", 2 изд., Moscow, 1973
- Oreshkin A., " Defensive operation of 9-th army (October – November 1941) ", Moscow, 1960
- Administrative Order of Battle, 9th Army, 22 June 1941