The 15th Army was a

field army A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...

of the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The 15th Army, as part of the 8th Army, took part in the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

from 12 February to 13 March. Reformed at Birobidzhan, Soviet Union, from the 2nd Red Banner Army in June 1940. It formed in July 1940 as part of the Far Eastern Front. Until August 1945 the army defended the Far Eastern borders of the USSR. On 5 August it was incorporated into the newly created 2nd Far Eastern Front. On 9 August, during the

Soviet–Japanese War The Soviet–Japanese War)Known in Mongolia as the Liberation War of 1945 () was a campaign of the Second World War that began with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria following the Soviet declaration of war against Japan on 8 August 1945. The ...

, the 15th Army, consisting of shock troops, participated in the Sungari operation. Its advance units entered

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

on 20 August. Through the end of Army destroyed the scattered pieces of the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...

. Conducted border operations through mid-1945. Participated in the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation () and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet Union, Soviet invasion of the Emp ...

and the crossing of the

Amur River The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...

in August 1945. Composition April 1943 * 34th Rifle Division * 39th Rifle Division *Novoye Fortified Area * 203rd Tank Brigade Composition August 1945 *34th Rifle Division * 361st Rifle Division * 388th Rifle Division * 171st Tank Brigade In October 1953, by the order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR dated 23 April 1953, the staff of the Far East Military District, the former 2nd Far-Eastern Front, was reorganised as the staff of the 15th Army, with its headquarters at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In May 1957, rifle divisions were reformed into motor rifle divisions. On 17 May 1957, the 56th Rifle Division became the 56th Motor Rifle Division (in this case the 357th Rifle Regiment was renamed as the 390th Rifle Regiment);Michael Holm
33rd Red Banner Motorised Rifle Division
accessed February 2015. The 41st Rifle Red Banner Division was renamed the 41st Motor-Rifle Red Banner Division. The 79th Rifle Sakhalin Division was renamed the 79th Motor-Rifle Sakhalin Division. All three newly renamed divisions formed part of the 15th Army. On 1 April 1958 the 41st Red Banner Motor Rifle Division was disbanded. In 1960 the army headquarters was moved to

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

on the mainland and assigned a new division, the 129th Motor Rifle Division at

. After briefly being renamed the 18th Army in 1967-69 it was renamed back to the 15th Army and assigned several new divisions, the 73rd Motor Rifle Division arriving from the North Caucasus Military District in mid 1968, two fortified areas being assigned (the 2nd and 17th), the 270th Motor Rifle Division being formed in 1970, and the 81st Guards and 135th Motor Rifle Divisions being transferred from the disbanding 45th Army Corps in November 1972. In October 1993 the 15th Army was renamed the 43rd Army Corps.

Commanders

* Mikhail Kovalyov (12 February 1940 – 25 February 1940) * Vladimir Kurdyumov (25 February 1940 – 28 March 1940) * Leonty Cheremisov (July 1940 – November 1941) * Michael Savushkin ( November 1941 – October 1942) * Stepan Mamonov ( October 1942 – August 1945) * Nikolay Krylov (April 1953 – September 1953) * Semyon Kozak (September 1953 – December 1953) * Nikolai Trufanov (January 1954 – January 1956)

References

External links

*Leo Niehorster
– Order of battle 22 June 1941
{{Armies of the Soviet Army 015 Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations of the Soviet Union in the Winter War