- 26th Army (Soviet Union)
The 26th Army was a
field army of the Soviet Union'sRed Army , active from 1941.Operational history
26th Army was a part of the
Southwestern Front (Soviet Union) and defended the Soviet-German border betweenPrzemyśl andCarpathian Mountains in June 1941. The Army was located on the eastern bank ofSan river manning the 8th Fortified District. The 26th Army commander was Lt.Gen. F.Ya. Kostenko who was an Ukrainian. Its opponent was the German Seventeenth Army under command of General von Stũlpnagel.The Germans attacked the junction between 6th Army and 26th Army. On 23rd June General Kirponos ordered 26th Army armour troops (8th Mechanized Corps) to move to Brody out of the command of Kostenko [Erickson, John. "The Road to Stalingrad". Cassell, 2003, page 163] . Meanwhile German assault created a twenty-mile breach on 24th June [Erickson, page 164] . During the night from 26th to 27th June, 6th and 26th retreated from frontier fortifications [Nowakowski Tomasz, Skotnicki Mariusz Kijów 1941 Altair Warszawa 1995 page 20] . The 26th Army and 12th Army now held a line from
Ostropol to Bar. [Erickson, page 168] On 10th July Kostenko's Army together with 6th Army and 12th Army became threathened by south eastern swing of Kleist's1st Panzer Group , [Erickson, page 169] which could cut them off fromDnieper river. [Nowakowski, Tomasz. "Skotnicki Mariusz" page 25] On 20th July two Rifle Corps of 26th Army attacked in northern direction towards the Dnieper. [Nowakowski, Tomasz. "Skotnicki Mariusz" page 27] Only small part of the 26th Army with its commander reached the Dnieper. Most of its units were destroyed or captured by Germans. The 6th Army and 26th Army were split apart.The 26th Army was quickly rebuilt by subsequent reinforcments and now defended the Dnieper river at
Kaniev andRzhishchev south-west of Kiev. 6th and 12th Army ended up inUman Pocket. 26th Army tried to relieve those armies and attacked in theBoguslav -Zwenigorodka direction. It didn't work. [Erickson John page 203] In September 26 Army itself became surrounded inKiev Pocket. The Soviets tried to break out, 26th Army was supposed to attack onLubny . [Nowakowski, Tomasz, "Skotnicki Mariusz" page 46] General Kostenko escaped from the encirclement with quite a large group of his soldiers. [Fugate, Bryan, "Lev Dvoriecki Blitzkrieg nad Dnieprem Bellona" Warszawa 2001 page 226]26th Army organisation on 22 June 1941
Commander: Lieutenant General F.Ya. Kostenko
"Headquarters:" Borislav
"Subordinate Units:"
Infantry:
"8th Rifle Corps:"
173th Rifle Division
72nd Mountain Rifle Division
8th Fortified District
Artillery:
2nd Anti-Tank Brigade
233rd Corps Artillery Regiment
236th Corps Artillery Regiment
28th Independent Anti-Aircraft Squadron
Armour Troops:
8th Mechanized Corps
12th Tank Division
34th Tank Division
7th Mechanized Division
Engineer Troops:
17 Pontoon-Bridge Regiment
References
ee also
* Boevoi Sostav Sovietskoi Armii czast I juni-dekabr 1941 goda Moskva 1966
* http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schematische_Kriegsgliederung_der_Roten_Armee_am...
* http://docs.vif2.ru/
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