18th Army (Soviet Union)
Encyclopedia
The 18th Army of the Soviet Union
's Red Army
was formed on 21 June 1941 on the basis of HQ Kharkov
Military District
and armies of the Kiev
Special Military District.
The Army's commander in 1941 was General-Leitenant Andrew Kirilovych Smirnov. The Army composition on the beginning of the war was:
It was caught soon after the start of Operation Barbarossa
in 1941 in a huge encirclement south of Kiev along with the Sixth Soviet Army
and 12th Army
. This encirclement was part of the Battle of Uman
. A further formation was shattered during the Battle of the Sea of Azov in September-October 1941.
Within the structure of Southern, North-Caucasian, Transcaucasian Front
, and the 1st and 4th Ukrainian Front
s the 18th Army conducted defensive operations in right-bank Ukraine, participated in Donbass, the Rostov defensive and offensive operations, and in the fight for Caucasus. Based on the experience of the Kerch - Eltigen landing operation
, the Army was uniquely identified as 18th Desant Army for amphibious operations, between 15 February and 5 April 1944 around Malaya Zemlya
.
For this operation the Army included:
The Army reverted to its previous designation for the clearing of right-bank Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. For much of this period the 24th Rifle Division
served with 18th Army, and the Division was still serving with the Army in May 1945, along with the 17th Rifle Corps (8th
and 138th Rifle Divisions) and a Fortified Region.
After World War II
, the 18th Army was transformed into a Mountain Army in the territory of the Carpathian Military District
and Northern Bukovina
. This army was disbanded in May 1946. Some of its elements, along with parts of the 52nd Army were used to form the 8th Mechanised Army. Parts of the 8th Mechanised Army participated in the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The 8th Mechanised Army was redesignated the 8th Red Star
Tank Army in 1957.
18th Army should not be confused with the 18th Guards
Army which was formed from the 3rd Guards Tank Army
postwar in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
, but was withdrawn to the Belarussian Military District and disbanded circa 1979.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
was formed on 21 June 1941 on the basis of HQ Kharkov
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
Military District
Military district
Military districts are formations of a state's armed forces which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and in countries with conscript forces, often handle parts of the conscription cycle.Navies have also used...
and armies of the Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
Special Military District.
The Army's commander in 1941 was General-Leitenant Andrew Kirilovych Smirnov. The Army composition on the beginning of the war was:
- 16th Mechanised Corps
- 15th Tank division, 39th Tank division, 240th Mechanised division, 64th Fighter Air Division and 45th Mixed Air Division
- 17th Rifle Corps
- 96th Mountain Rifle Division, 60th Mountain Rifle Division, 164th Rifle Division
- 18th Mechanised Corps
- 47th Tank division, 218th Mechanised Division
- 55th Rifle Corps
- 130th Rifle Division, 160th Rifle Division, 189th Rifle division, 4th Independent Tank Brigade
It was caught soon after the start of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
in 1941 in a huge encirclement south of Kiev along with the Sixth Soviet Army
6th Army (Soviet Union)
The 6th Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army formed four times during World War II and active with the Russian Ground Forces up until 1998...
and 12th Army
12th Army (Soviet Union)
The Soviet Union's 12th Army was a field army formed multiple times during the Russian Civil War and World War II.-Civil War & Polish-Soviet War:...
. This encirclement was part of the Battle of Uman
Battle of Uman
The Battle of Uman was the German and allied encirclement of the 6th and 12th The Battle of Uman (15 July–8 August 1941) was the German and allied encirclement of the 6th (General Lieutenant I.N. Muzyrchenko) and 12th The Battle of Uman (15 July–8 August 1941) was the German and allied...
. A further formation was shattered during the Battle of the Sea of Azov in September-October 1941.
Within the structure of Southern, North-Caucasian, Transcaucasian Front
Transcaucasian Front
Transcaucasian Front or Transcaucasus Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. This sense of the term is not identical with the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front may operate within designated...
, and the 1st and 4th Ukrainian Front
4th Ukrainian Front
The 4th Ukrainian Front was a front of the Red Army during World War II...
s the 18th Army conducted defensive operations in right-bank Ukraine, participated in Donbass, the Rostov defensive and offensive operations, and in the fight for Caucasus. Based on the experience of the Kerch - Eltigen landing operation
Kerch-Eltigen Operation
The Kerch–Eltigen Operation was a World War II amphibious offensive made in November 1943 by the Red Army as a precursor to the Crimean Offensive with the object of defeating and forcing the withdrawal of the German forces from the Crimea...
, the Army was uniquely identified as 18th Desant Army for amphibious operations, between 15 February and 5 April 1944 around Malaya Zemlya
Malaya Zemlya
Malaya Zemlya was a Soviet uphill outpost on Cape Myskhako that was recaptured after fierce, bloody battles with the Germans during the Battle of Caucasus, on the night of 4 February 1943...
.
For this operation the Army included:
- 10th Guards Rifle Corps
- 16th Riffle Corps
- 176th Rifle Division
- 318th Rifle Division
- 5th Guards Tank Brigade
- also two artillery regiments of the High Command Reserve, a regiment of Guards mortars (multiple rocket launchers), desant detachment of Major Kunikov, and elements of the 255th and 83rd Naval Infantry Brigades, elements of 107th and 165th Rifle Brigades, 31st Desant Regiment, machine gun battalion and 29th Tank Destroyer Regiment, all under command of Army Operational Group Grechkin (commanding officer General-Major А.А. Grechkin).
The Army reverted to its previous designation for the clearing of right-bank Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. For much of this period the 24th Rifle Division
24th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"| The 24th Samaro-Ulyanovsk Division was a rifle, then a motor-rifle division of the Red Army of the USSR...
served with 18th Army, and the Division was still serving with the Army in May 1945, along with the 17th Rifle Corps (8th
8th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 8th Rifle Division was a military formation of the Soviet Union's Red Army in the Winter War, the Soviet invasion of Poland, and World War II...
and 138th Rifle Divisions) and a Fortified Region.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the 18th Army was transformed into a Mountain Army in the territory of the Carpathian Military District
Carpathian Military District
The Carpathian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1945 after the conclusion of the Second World War to 1990-91. It became part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 1991 and was disbanded by being redesignated the Western Operational Command later in the 1990s.Two...
and Northern Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
. This army was disbanded in May 1946. Some of its elements, along with parts of the 52nd Army were used to form the 8th Mechanised Army. Parts of the 8th Mechanised Army participated in the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The 8th Mechanised Army was redesignated the 8th Red Star
Order of the Red Star
Established on 6 April 1930, the Order of the Red Star was an order of the Soviet Union, given to Red Army and Soviet Navy personnel for "exceptional service in the cause of the defense of the Soviet Union in both war and peace". It was established by Resolution of the Presidium of the CEC of the...
Tank Army in 1957.
18th Army should not be confused with the 18th Guards
Russian Guards
Guards or Guards units were and are elite military units in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to the retinue of a knyaz of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streltsy, the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550...
Army which was formed from the 3rd Guards Tank Army
3rd Guards Tank Army (Soviet Union)
The 3rd Guards Tank Army was a tank army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. The 3rd Tank Army was created in 1942 and fought in the southern areas of the Soviet Union, Poland, Germany, and Czechoslovakia until the defeat of Germany in 1945...
postwar in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany , also known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany and the Western Group of Forces were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany....
, but was withdrawn to the Belarussian Military District and disbanded circa 1979.
Commanders
- A. K. Smirnov (June - October 1941), Lieutenant General
- V. Ya. Kolpakchi (October - November 1941), Major General
- F. V. Kamkov (November 1941 - February 1942 and April - October, 19th 1942), Major General
- I. K. Smirnov (February - April 1942), Lieutenant General
- Andrei GrechkoAndrei GrechkoAndrei Antonovich Grechko was a Soviet general, Marshal of the Soviet Union and Minister of Defense.-Biography:Born in a small town near Rostov-on-Don, the son of Ukrainian peasants, he joined the Red Army in 1919, where he was a part of the legendary “Budyonny Cavalry”...
(October 1942 - January, 5th 1943), Major General - A. I. Ryzhov (January - February, 11th 1943), Major General
- K. A. Koroteyev (February - March, 16th 1943), Major General
- Konstantin LeselidzeKonstantin LeselidzeKonstantin Nikolaevich Leselidze , was a Soviet Colonel-General of Georgian origin and a Hero of the Soviet Union.-Military career:...
(March 1943 - on February, 6th 1944), Lieutenant General promoted to Colonel General in October 1943 - Ye. P. Zhuravlyov (February - November 1944), Lieutenant General
- A. I. Gastilovich (November 1944 - May 1945), Major General, since January 1945 Lieutenant General
Sources and references
- http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a18/arm.html
- Feskov et al., The Soviet Army in the Period of Cold War, 2004, Tomsk University Press, TomskTomskTomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
- Ukrainian Book of Memory, Vol VIII, http://memory.dag.com.ua/browse?1270
- Victory site http://victory.mil.ru/ by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation