The 63rd 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 ...

established by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution 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

World War II 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 ...

First Formation

The Army was formed on July 10, 1942 from the 5th Reserve Army, a part of the

Reserve of the Supreme High Command The Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Russian: Резерв Верховного Главнокомандования; also known as the '' Stavka'' Reserve or RVGK () or RGK ( comprises reserve military formations and units; the ''Stavka'' ...

. Since July 12, 1942 the army was incorporated into the newly created Stalingrad Front for defensive battles on approaches to

Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...

. On August 20, 1942 the 63rd Army attacked with 197th, 203rd and 14th Guards Rifle Divisions across the river Don against the Italian ''Sforzesca'' Division ( XXXV Corps) and successfully gained a short-lived bridgehead across the Don northwest of Kletskaya. The advance by 63rd Army was imitated by 1st Guards Army, then to the left of 63rd Army, with an attack on 22 August against German XI Corps west of Sirotinskaya. An Italian counterattack by ''Celere'' Cavalry Division on August 23 briefly slowed the 63rd Army, but it continued the expansion of its bridgehead with a breakout attack by 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps (which had crossed the Don on August 23) and by the 14th Guards Rifle Division. Eventually, the arrival of Italian reinforcements on August 28 allowed the XXXV Corps and the German XVII Corps to stop the expansion of the bridgehead. On September 30, 1942 Stalingrad Front was renamed as Don Front for the battle within the city. On October 29, 1942 the army subordinated to the reconstructed Southwestern Front for the

Operation Uranus Operation Uranus () was a Soviet 19–23 November 1942 strategic operation on the Eastern Front of World War II which led to the encirclement of Axis forces in the vicinity of Stalingrad: the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romani ...

counter-offensive. On November 4, 1942, the 63rd Army was granted Guards status and briefly transformed into the 1st Guards Army (Second Formation) before being split and reformed into the 3rd Guards Army on 5 December.

Second Formation

April 27, 1943 the Army was formed for the second time on the basis of the 2nd Reserve Army. Originally it consisted of the 129th, 235th, 250th, 348th, 380th and 397th Rifle Divisions, artillery, engineering, and other parts. On April 29, 1943 the army was incorporated into the

Bryansk Front The Bryansk Front () was a Front (military formation), major formation of the Red Army during the World War II, Second World War. First Formation (August - November 1941) General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it fi ...

. Initially it conducted defensive operations along the Zusha and Neruch Rivers and the region south of Mtsensk. It participated in

Operation Kutuzov Operation Kutuzov was the first of the two counteroffensives launched by the Red Army as part of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation. It commenced on 12 July 1943, in the Central Russian Upland, against Army Group Center of the German ''Ger ...

at Orel, and the Briansk and Gomel-Rechitsa Offensives. With

Markian Popov Markian Mikhaylovich Popov (; 15 November 1902 – 22 April 1969) was a Soviet military commander, Army general (Soviet Union), Army General (26 August 1943), and Hero of the Soviet Union (1965). Early life Markian Popov was born in 1902 in U ...

at the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in ...

it comprised the 5th, 41st, 129th, 250th, 287th, 348th and 397th Rifle Divisions. On October 8, 1943 the army was assigned to the Central Front (renamed as Belorussian Front on October 20, 1943). It was disbanded on February 18, 1944, with its troops transferred to the 3rd and 48th armies.

Commanders

* Lieutenant General Vasily Kuznetzov (4 July – 1 November 1942) * Lieutenant General Vasily Morozov (8 March – 14 May 1943) * Lieutenant General Vladimir Kolpakchi (14 May 1943 – 10 February 1944)

Structure on 1 August 1942

*Army headquarters * 14th Guards Rifle Division – General-major Afanasy Gryaznov (17 July to 31 December 1942) * 1st Rifle Division- General-major Semenov (17 July to 31 December 1942) *

127th Rifle Division 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

– Colonel Zaitsev (17 July to 22 September 1942) * 153rd Rifle Division – Colonel Nikolay Nikitin (17 July to October 1942); Colonel Karnov (from 11 October 1942) * 197th Rifle Division – General-major M. I. Zaporozhchenko (17 July to 31 December 1942) * 203rd Rifle Division – Colonel Kashlayev (17 July to 31 December 1942) ; Colonel Zdanovich (from 3 September 1942) * 36th Tank Brigade * 134th Tank Brigade * 193rd Tank Brigade *646th Tank Battalion *647th Tank Battalion *1110th Artillery Regiment *1180th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment *1249th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment *1250th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment *51st Guards Mortar Regiment *58th Guards Mortar Regiment *79th Guards Mortar Regiment *1413rd Sapper Battalion *1486th Sapper Battalion

Structure on 1 October 1942

*Army headquarters *14th Guards Rifle Division *1st Rifle Division *153rd Rifle Division *197th Rifle Division *203rd Rifle Division * 6th Guards Cavalry Division- Colonel Belogorodskyi (26 July – 31 December 1942) *1110th Artillery Regiment *1180th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment *1249th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment *1250th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment *1257th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment *26th Machine-gun Battalion *28th Machine-gun Battalion *350th Independent Engineer Brigade *1486th Sapper Battalion

First Formation

Second Formation

Commanders

Structure on 1 August 1942

Structure on 1 October 1942

References

Further reading