The 1st Light Tank Brigade () was an armored brigade of the

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 ...

that fought 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 ...

. The brigade was formed as the 19th Mechanized Brigade in 1934 and was one of the units combined to form the 1st Tank Division in 1940.

History

The 19th Mechanized Brigade was formed in May 1934 in Detskoye Selo, part of the 7th Mechanized Corps of the

Leningrad Military District The Order of Lenin Leningrad Military District () is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010, it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern ...

. The brigade was relocated to

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

by 1938. The brigade was reorganized as the 1st Light Tank Brigade in 1938. The brigade took part in the

as part of the

10th Tank Corps The 10th Tank Corps was a tank corps of the Red Army, formed twice. First Formation In May–June 1938, the 7th Mechanized Corps headquarters was relocated from Novy Petergof to Luga and converted into the 10th Tank Corps when the Red Army ...

, which it rejoined on 13 October 1939. After the disbandment of the corps headquarters the brigade was assigned to the 7th Army as a separate tank brigade. By the beginning of the Winter War, the brigade fielded 178 tanks and 23 armored cars. After the end of the Winter War, the brigade returned to Pushkin. Its headquarters and three tank battalions were used to form the 1st Red Banner Tank Division of the 1st Mechanized Corps, a process completed by the end of July 1940. The division was formed in camps near Strugi Krasnye, and the 1st Tank Battalion of the brigade was one of the units that formed the division's 1st Tank Regiment. The 4th and 8th Tank Battalions of the brigade were among the units forming the division's 2nd Tank Regiment. The 19th Tank Battalion was one of the tank units used to form the 5th Tank Regiment of the 1st Mechanized Corps' 3rd Tank Division.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *{{Cite book, last=Zaloga, first=Steven J., title=BT Fast Tank: The Red Army's Cavalry Tank 1931–45, publisher=Osprey, year=2016, isbn=978-1-4728-1065-6, series=New Vanguard 237, location=Oxford Tank brigades of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1934 Military units and formations disestablished in 1940 Military units and formations of the Soviet Union in the Winter War