The 4th Mechanized Corps was a formation in the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Operation Barbarossa

Initially formed in January 1941, it was serving with the 6th Army, Kiev Special Military District under the command of General Major

Andrey Vlasov Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (russian: Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов, – August 1, 1946) was a Soviet Red Army general and Nazi collaborator. During World War II, he fought in the Battle of Moscow and later was captured att ...

when the German

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

began in June 1941. On 22 June 1941 4th Mechanised Corps consisted of 28,098 Soldiers and 979 tanks. It initially comprised the 8th and 32nd Tank Divisions, the 81st Mechanised Division, the 3rd Motorcycle Regiment, and other smaller units. It fought in the Battle of Brody, and was destroyed in the Uman Pocket in August 1941 with 6th Army and was disbanded shortly after.

The second formation in 1942

The Corps was reformed for the second time in September 1942. It was commanded by General Vasily Volsky during the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later r ...

in 1942. The corps entered the sector south of Stalingrad as part of

Operation Uranus Operation Uranus (russian: Опера́ция «Ура́н», Operatsiya "Uran") was the codename of the Soviet Red Army's 19–23 November 1942 strategic operation on the Eastern Front of World War II which led to the encirclement of Axis ...

. The plan was to attack through the 51st Army's sector to obtain an encirclement by cutting through the Romanian Fourth Army led by Constantin Constantinescu. On 20 November 1942, the Corps started feeding its initial units into the attack, between Lake Tsatsa and Barmatsak when the 126th and 302nd Rifle Divisions of 51st Army began to advance on a three-mile front supported by the 55th and 158th Independent Tank Regiments from 4th Mech Corps. The advance was made against the Romanian 6th Corps, whose units, Erickson says, began to surrender as the tanks got in among their positions. The Corps's main attack opened late, further down the line, with three mechanised brigades hugging one road instead of the planned three, and the left-flank brigades, 36th and 59th, running into minefields. However the attack went on, until a pause at Zety on the evening on 21 November for fuel and ammunition. On the morning of 23 November, 4 Mechanised Corps linked up with 4th and 26th Tank Corps in the Sovietskii-Marinovka area and the northern and southern pincers had met. The German Sixth Army was surrounded in Stalingrad. In December 1942 the Corps gained a

Guards Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison gu ...

title and became the 3rd Guards Mechanised Corps. It fought at the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history ...

as part of

Steppe Front The Steppe Front (russian: Степной фронт) was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War which existed from July to October 1943. History On 9 July 1943, Stavka designated a new Reserve Front in the Voronezh region, that ha ...

. In June 1944, for

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп ...

, it was assigned to Chernyakhovsky's 3rd Belorussian Front as part of a Cavalry Mechanized Group which also included 3rd Cavalry Corps and was tasked to hit Bogushevsk in conjunction with 5th Army and 39th Army. Its units included 64th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, which operated

IS-2 heavy tank The IS-2 (russian: ИС-2, sometimes romanized as JS-2The series name is an abbreviation of the name Joseph Stalin (russian: Иосиф Сталин); IS-2 is a direct transliteration of the Russian abbreviation, while JS-2 is an abbreviation ...

s while fighting as part of the 1st Baltic Front in the

Šiauliai Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different la ...

('Shaulay') area during July 1944. It was then moved to the Far East and took part in the invasion of Manchuria as part of the Transbaikal Front.

Post War

The Corps, which gained the honorific ''Stalingrad-Krivorozhskaya'', became 3rd Guards Mechanised Division in November 1945, and later 47th Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1957. It was finally disbanded on 27 November 1959 while serving with 5th Army in the Far East Military District at

Dalnerechensk Dalnerechensk (russian: Дальнере́ченск) is a town in Primorsky Krai, Russia. Population: It was previously known as ''Iman'' (until 1972). Names It was originally known as Iman (russian: Има́н; ), but its Russian name was c ...

.Feskov et al 2013, p. 162

Commanders

* Major General of Tank Troops Mikhail Ivanovich Potapov (04.06.1940 - 17.01.1941), * Major General Andrey Andreevich Vlasov (17.01.1941 - 07.1941), * Major General of Tank Troops Georgy Rodin (18.09.1942 - 24.10.1942) * Major-General of Tank Troops Vasily Volsky (24.10.1942 - 03.01.1943) * Major General Alexey Pavlovich Sharagin (03.01.1943 - 03.05.1943), seriously wounded in May 1943, died of wounds 22.12.1943, * Major General of Tank Troops, later Lieutenant General of Tank Troops Viktor Obukhov (04.05.1943 - end of the war)

Footnotes

*On 7 July 1941 Colonel General Kirponos South West Front Commander reported to Stavka that the 4th Mechanised Corps consisted of 126 Tanks & on 15 July 1941 68 Tanks (6 KV-1s, 39

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The C ...

s, 23

BT-7 The BT-7 BT (russian: БТ) is the Russian abbreviation for "fast tank" (, ). was the last of the BT series of Soviet cavalry tanks that were produced in large numbers between 1935 and 1940. It was lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed fo ...

s).

Notes

References

David Glantz David M. Glantz (born January 11, 1942) is an American military historian known for his books on the Red Army during World War II and as the chief editor of '' The Journal of Slavic Military Studies''. Born in Port Chester, New York, Glantz re ...

(1998), 'Stumbling Colossus - The Red Army On The Eve of World War', Kansas. *

Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War. Early life Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at tw ...

(1999). ''Stalingrad: The Faithful Siege'', Penguin. . * Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse: Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005 * John Erickson (historian), Road to Stalingrad, Cassel (2003), p. 430 pp *

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2013 Mechanized corps of the Soviet Union, 04 Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1959