- 13th Army (Soviet Union)
The 13th Army was a
field army of theSoviet Union 'sRed Army , first created before World War II, which served from about 1939 to the 1990s.It was first formed from
Group Kozhevnikov duringRussian Civil War and fought on the Soviet Southern Front, Soviet Southwestern Front, and again Southern Fronts. It then fought with theNorth-Western Front during theWinter War against Finland in 1939-40.The Army
headquarters was reformed in May - June, 1941 in theWestern Special Military District , starting on May 5 inMogilev . The Army staff was formed in May 1941 in the Western Special Military District in accordance with the decision ofCentral Committee of the Communist Party andSovnarkom of the USSR No.1113-460cc. dated 23.04.41 [Lenskii, B&K, St. Petersburg, 2001] In the beginning of JuneGeneral-Leytenant Piyotor Filatov arrived to take command (General-Lieutenant was a two-star equivalent rank, with the Soviet Army's General-Polkovnik rank being a three-star position). From the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa the Army included the 21st Rifle Corps, 50th Rifle Division, the8th Anti-Tank Artillery Brigade and a number of other separate units. From the end of June 1941 the Army conducted defensive operations in theMinsk Fortified Region , on the Borisov direction and on theDnepr river . The formation conducted operations as part of theSoviet Western Front and theSoviet Central Front . Parts of the Army held up theWehrmacht advance for almost three weeks nearMogilyev . The 172th Rifle Division underGeneral Romanov especially distinguished itself in the combat. Parts of the Army participated in theBattle of Smolensk 10 July to 10 September 1941. During September and October 1941 the Army was operating as part of theBryansk Front and included the 6th Rifle Division.The Army fought as part of the
Soviet Central Front in theBattle of Kursk in July 1943 under General N.P.Pukhov , numbering four corps with twelve rifle divisions (including the75th Guards Rifle Division ). The Army finished its war service in Germany with the1st Ukrainian Front in 1945, consisting of the24th Rifle Corps (117th Rifle Division, 380th Rifle Division, 395th Rifle Division), 27th Rifle Corps (6th Guards Rifle Division and 121st Guards Rifle Division), 102nd Rifle Corps (147th Rifle Division and 172nd Rifle Divisions, which took part in theBattle of Halbe ), 17th Artillery Division, and many other smaller artillery and other formations. [ [http://www.tashv.nm.ru/BoevojSostavSA/1945/19450501.html Боевой состав Советской Армии на 1 мая 1945 г ] ]The Army, which was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner after the Soviet victory, was located for the entire postwar period in theL'vov andCarpathian Military District s, initially comprising three Rifle Corps with a total of 9 rifle divisions. From 1947 to 1949 it was commanded by GeneralIssa Pliyev who was a renown commander of severalCavalry-Mechanised Group s during the war. It was for much of this period headquartered atRovno . Almost all its divisions were Guards formations: the 17th, 51st, 97th (the former 40th, 15th, and 97th Rifle Divisions). Only the 24th (subsequently resubordinated to Military District control) and the 161st Rifle Division were not Guards, but both were renown combat formations.The Army is still serving with the
Ukrainian Ground Forces as the 13th Army Corps.ources, References, and See also
*
Battle of Kursk order of battle
* [http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a13/arm.html]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.