9th Army (Soviet Union)
Encyclopedia
The 9th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army
was a Soviet field army
, active from 1939 – 43, and then after the war from 1966 to 1989.
It was active during the Winter War
against Finland as part of the Leningrad Military District
, beginning operations at the end of November 1939 under ComKor M.P. Duhanov with the 49th and Special Rifle Corps
as well as assigned aviation units. Two divisions attached to the army, the 44th
and 163rd Rifle Divisions, were defeated by the Finns during the Battle of Suomussalmi
.
In 1940 the Army took part in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. 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. With General Major M.V. Zakharov in command, it was tasked to cover the Beltsa, Kishinev, and Odessa
approaches as part of General Ivan Tyulenev
’s Southern Front.
The first engagement came when Von Schobert’s Eleventh Army crashed into the juncture of 9th and 18th
Armies. North of Jassy, the German assault fell on the 48th Rifle Corps which was covering Beltsa. Tyulenev ordered a counterattack, and soon 48th Rifle and 2nd Cavalry Corps plus 2nd Mechanised Corps from Southern Front reserve were engaged at Beltsa and Stefanesti. Tyulenev then drew off 25th
, 51st, and 150th Rifle Division
s from two of Zakharov’s rifle corps to form a new ‘Coastal Group’ to cover the eastern bank of the Prut River, the northern bank of the Danube
and the Black Sea coast. (This group later became the Separate Coastal Army
).
By early August, 9th Army was falling back to Nikolayev 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 Odessa
. 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. 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 Rostov
, 9th Army stepped off on 17 November as part of an assault by both Southern and Southwestern Fronts, and by 29 November, 9th Army in conjunction with 56th Army and other units had cleared Rostov and the city was back in Soviet hands. 9th Army then joined Timoshenko’s strategic reserve, to join the battle again when the Barvenkovo – Lozovaia offensive operation began. 9th Army joined this assault in January 1942 when it broke into the German front on the northern Donets along with 6th and 57th Armies, reaching the line Balakleya-Lozovaia-Slavyansk before being halted by repeated German counterattacks.
Still with Southern Front, 9th Army was then allotted a subsidiary part in the Kharkov offensive – the Second Battle of Kharkov
– which kicked off in May 1942. Along with 57th Army, 9th Army was tasked to secure the southern part of the Izyum bulge in the front. While being in a secondary sector, 9th Army took much of the force of the German response, Operation Fridericus. Eight hours into the German counterstroke, at noon on 17 May, elements of the First Panzer and Seventeenth Armies were ten miles into 9th Army’s positions and threatening the neighbouring 57th Army’s rear. Commander, Southern Front, General Lieutenant R. Ya. Malinovskii, at once drew 5th Cavalry Corps, a rifle division, and a tank brigade out of reserve in an attempt to halt Von Kleist. However discussions and decisions at Stavka
about breaking off the Kharkov offensive in response did not come quickly enough, and 6th and 57th Armies were surrounded in the Izyum pocket with the loss of 200,000 plus men in casualties alone.
Later, as part of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts, the Army fought on the big bend of the river Don (in the summer of 1942), and participated in the Battle of the Caucasus
.
In November, 1943 the army headquarters was disbanded, and its formations and units transferred to other armies.
The Ninth Army was active after the war in the Transcaucasus Military District from 1966, with its headquarters at Kutaisi
in the Georgian SSR. (The headquarters’ designation was originally been the 76th Rifle Corps, which became the 31st Army Corps in 1955). It had four motor rifle divisions: the 10th Guards
, 145th, 147th, and 152nd (the former 10th Guards, 89th, 414th, and 402nd Rifle Divisions). About 1989 it was disbanded by being redesignated 31st Army Corps. In the July 1993 issue of Jane's Intelligence Review it was reported that the 31st Army Corps was to leave Kutaisi (presumably for Russia) by the end of July 1993.
, Stumbling Colossus
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 a Soviet field army
Field army
A Field Army, or Area Army, usually referred to simply as an Army, is a term used by many national military forces for a military formation superior to a corps and beneath an army group....
, active from 1939 – 43, and then after the war from 1966 to 1989.
It was active during the Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
against Finland as part of the Leningrad Military District
Leningrad Military District
The Leningrad Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District.-History:...
, beginning operations at the end of November 1939 under ComKor M.P. Duhanov with the 49th and Special Rifle Corps
Rifle corps (Soviet)
A rifle corps was a Soviet military organization of the mid-twentieth century. Rifle corps were made up of a varying number of rifle divisions, although the allocation of three rifle divisions to a rifle corps was common during the latter part of World War II.Unlike army corps formed by Germany...
as well as assigned aviation units. Two divisions attached to the army, the 44th
44th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 44th Kievskaya of the Red Banner Rifle Division of Nikolay Shchors, or 44th Kievskaya for short, was an elite military formation of the Soviet Union....
and 163rd Rifle Divisions, were defeated by the Finns during the Battle of Suomussalmi
Battle of Suomussalmi
The Battle of Suomussalmi [suo.mus.sal.mi] was fought between Finnish and Soviet forces in the Winter War. The action took place from around December 7, 1939 to January 8, 1940.The outcome was a major Finnish victory against vastly superior forces...
.
In 1940 the Army took part in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. 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
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He contributed to the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest...
), 2nd Cavalry Corps, 2nd
2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.Initially formed in June 1940 in response the German victories of 1940 it was attached to the Odessa Military District, & attached to the 9th Army in the Odessa fortified region in Soviet Union It was under...
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
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...
began. However, it was more an administrative than an operational formation on 22 June 1941. With General Major M.V. Zakharov in command, it was tasked to cover the Beltsa, Kishinev, and Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
approaches as part of General Ivan Tyulenev
Ivan Tyulenev
Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev was a Soviet military commander, one of the first to be promoted Soviet General of the Army in 1940.- Biography :...
’s Southern Front.
The first engagement came when Von Schobert’s Eleventh Army crashed into the juncture of 9th and 18th
18th Army (Soviet Union)
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...
Armies. North of Jassy, the German assault fell on the 48th Rifle Corps which was covering Beltsa. Tyulenev ordered a counterattack, and soon 48th Rifle and 2nd Cavalry Corps plus 2nd Mechanised Corps from Southern Front reserve were engaged at Beltsa and Stefanesti. Tyulenev then drew off 25th
25th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 25th Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya was a Russian, and later Soviet, Red Army formation formed during the Russian Civil War. It was named after its civil war commander, Vasily Chapayev...
, 51st, and 150th Rifle Division
150th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 150th Rifle 'Idritskaya' Division was a formation in the Red Army fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 to 1945. It gained most fame as the formation whose soldiers famously raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag near the end of the war.The nickname ‘Idritskaya’ was given...
s from two of Zakharov’s rifle corps to form a new ‘Coastal Group’ to cover the eastern bank of the Prut River, the northern bank of the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and the Black Sea coast. (This group later became the Separate Coastal Army
Separate Coastal Army
The Separate Coastal Army was an army-level unit in the Red Army that fought in the World War II. It was ordered to be established on July 18, 1941 by the order of the Southern Front from the forces of 9th Army’s Coastal Group and was stood up on July 20, 1941....
).
By early August, 9th Army was falling back to Nikolayev 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 Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. By early 9 October Army was falling back on Taganrog
Taganrog
Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of 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. 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 Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
, 9th Army stepped off on 17 November as part of an assault by both Southern and Southwestern Fronts, and by 29 November, 9th Army in conjunction with 56th Army and other units had cleared Rostov and the city was back in Soviet hands. 9th Army then joined Timoshenko’s strategic reserve, to join the battle again when the Barvenkovo – Lozovaia offensive operation began. 9th Army joined this assault in January 1942 when it broke into the German front on the northern Donets along with 6th and 57th Armies, reaching the line Balakleya-Lozovaia-Slavyansk before being halted by repeated German counterattacks.
Still with Southern Front, 9th Army was then allotted a subsidiary part in the Kharkov offensive – the Second Battle of Kharkov
Second Battle of Kharkov
The Second Battle of Kharkov, so named by Wilhelm Keitel, was an Axis counter-offensive against the Red Army Izium bridgehead offensive conducted from 12 May to 28 May 1942, on the Eastern Front during World War II. Its objective was to eliminate the Izium bridgehead over Seversky Donets, or the...
– which kicked off in May 1942. Along with 57th Army, 9th Army was tasked to secure the southern part of the Izyum bulge in the front. While being in a secondary sector, 9th Army took much of the force of the German response, Operation Fridericus. Eight hours into the German counterstroke, at noon on 17 May, elements of the First Panzer and Seventeenth Armies were ten miles into 9th Army’s positions and threatening the neighbouring 57th Army’s rear. Commander, Southern Front, General Lieutenant R. Ya. Malinovskii, at once drew 5th Cavalry Corps, a rifle division, and a tank brigade out of reserve in an attempt to halt Von Kleist. However discussions and decisions at Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
about breaking off the Kharkov offensive in response did not come quickly enough, and 6th and 57th Armies were surrounded in the Izyum pocket with the loss of 200,000 plus men in casualties alone.
Later, as part of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts, the Army fought on the big bend of the river Don (in the summer of 1942), and participated in the Battle of the Caucasus
Battle of the Caucasus
The Battle of Caucasus is a name given to a series of German and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area during the Soviet-German War.-1941 operations:...
.
In November, 1943 the army headquarters was disbanded, and its formations and units transferred to other armies.
The Ninth Army was active after the war in the Transcaucasus Military District from 1966, with its headquarters at Kutaisi
Kutaisi
Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...
in the Georgian SSR. (The headquarters’ designation was originally been the 76th Rifle Corps, which became the 31st Army Corps in 1955). It had four motor rifle divisions: the 10th Guards
10th Guards Motor Rifle Division
The 10th Guards Motor Rifle Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces. The full name of its predecessor division was the "10th Guards Rifle Pechengskii twice Red Banner, Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Red Star division"...
, 145th, 147th, and 152nd (the former 10th Guards, 89th, 414th, and 402nd Rifle Divisions). About 1989 it was disbanded by being redesignated 31st Army Corps. In the July 1993 issue of Jane's Intelligence Review it was reported that the 31st Army Corps was to leave Kutaisi (presumably for Russia) by the end of July 1993.
Commanders
- General Major M.V. Zakharov (June 41 –) (Erickson 1975)
- General Major Kharitonov F. (September 1941 - May 1942)
- ? (May-June 1942), the general-major
- Lopatin And. (June - July 1942), the general-lieutenant
- Parkhomenko F. (июль-till August, 7th 1942), the general-major
- Марцинкевич Century (till August, 29th 1942), the general-major
- Koroteyev To. (September 1942 11.02.1943 and март-12.05.1943), the general-major
- Glagolev of Century (till March, 22nd 1943), the general-major
- ? (till June, 19th 1943), the general-major
- Grechkin A. (till November, 1st 1943), General Major, since October 1943 general-lieutenant
Order of Battle, 22 June 1941
Note: This order of battle disagrees in the matter of the 150th Rifle Division with material from David GlantzDavid Glantz
David M. Glantz is an American military historian and the editor of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies....
, Stumbling Colossus
- 14th Rifle Corps (General Major D.G. Jegerov)
- 25th Rifle Division25th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)The 25th Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya was a Russian, and later Soviet, Red Army formation formed during the Russian Civil War. It was named after its civil war commander, Vasily Chapayev...
- 51st Rifle Division
- 25th Rifle Division
- 35th Rifle Corps (brigadier I.F. Daschitschew)
- 95th Rifle Division
- 176th Rifle Division
- 48th Rifle Corps (major general Rodion MalinovskyRodion MalinovskyRodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He contributed to the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest...
)- 30th Mountain Rifle Division30th Rifle DivisionThe 30th Rifle Division was a military formation of the USSR from 1918 to c.1945.Its final full name was the 30th Rifle Irkutsk Order of Lenin, three times the Red Banner, Order of Red Banner of Labor Division of the name of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR...
- 74th Rifle Division
- 150th Rifle Division
- 30th Mountain Rifle Division
- 2nd Cavalry Corps (General Major P.A. Belov)
- 5th Cavalry Division
- 9th Cavalry Division
- 2nd Mechanised Corps2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.Initially formed in June 1940 in response the German victories of 1940 it was attached to the Odessa Military District, & attached to the 9th Army in the Odessa fortified region in Soviet Union It was under...
(General Major J.W. Nowosetski)- 11th Tank Division
- 16th Tank Division
- 15th Motorised Division15th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)The 15th Rifle Division was a military formation of the Red Army formed by renaming the Red Army's Inzensk Revolutionary Division on 30 April 1919...
- 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
- 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