1.
Battle of Raseiniai
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The Battle of Raseiniai was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group and the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Corps with the 12th Mechanised Corps, Army Group North controlled the 18th Army and the 16th Army, along with the 4th Panzer Group. The Germans had 20 infantry divisions, three Panzer and three motorized infantry divisions, Air support was provided by Luftflotte 1. The front had the 8th and 11th Armies with the 27th Armies in its second echelon, the 4th Panzer Group advanced in two spearheads, led by the XLI Panzer Corps and LVI Panzer Corps. Their objective was to cross the Neman and Daugava, the most difficult obstacles in front of the Army Group North. German bombers destroyed many of the signals and communications centers, naval bases, Šiauliai, Vilnius and Kaunas were also bombed. Soviet aircraft had been on alert but were held on their airfields after the first wave of German bombers passed. By noon, the Soviet divisions began to back and the German columns then began to swing towards Raseiniai. By the evening, Soviet formations had fallen back to the Dubysa, north-west of Kaunas, forward elements of LVI Panzer Corps reached the Dubysa and seized the vital Ariogala road viaduct across it. By the end of 22 June, the German armoured spearheads over the Niemen had penetrated 80 km, the next day, Kuznetsov committed his armoured forces to battle. Near Raseiniai, the XLI Panzer Corps was counter-attacked by the Soviet 3rd, the concentration of Soviet armour was detected by the Luftwaffe, which immediately attacked tank columns of the 12th Mechanised Corps south-west of Šiauliai. German forces encountered a unit equipped with the Soviet KV heavy tanks for the first time, the Germans fired at the tracks of the KVs, bombarded them with artillery, anti-aircraft guns or sticky bombs. A report of the 1st Panzer Division described the engagement, The KV-1 and KV-2 and our companies opened fire at about 800 yards, but it remained ineffective. We moved closer and closer to the enemy, who for his continued to approach us unconcerned. Very soon we were facing each other at 50 to 100 yards, a fantastic exchange of fire took place without any visible German success. The Russian tanks continued to advance, and all armour-piercing shells simply bounced off them, thus we were presently faced with the alarming situation of the Russian tanks driving through the ranks of 1st Panzer Regiment towards our own infantry and our hinterland. Our Panzer Regiment therefore about turned and rumbled back with the KV-1s and KV-2s, in the course of that operation we succeeded in immobilizing some of them with special purpose shells at very close range 30 to 60 yards. A counter attack was launched and the Russians were thrown back, a protective front established and defensive fighting continued
2.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
3.
8th Army (Soviet Union)
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The 8th Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. The 8th Army was formed in October 1939 from the Novgorod Army Operational Group of the Leningrad Military District with the task of providing security of the Northwestern borders of the USSR, on 30 November 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland in the Winter War. The strength of the 8th Army, or overall the Red Army, in the north of Lake Ladoga, the Finns deployed only two divisions, and they had a support group of three brigades, bringing their total strength to over 30,000 uniforms. The Soviets had a division for almost all roads leading west to the Finnish border, the Eighth Army was led by Ivan Khabarov, but on 13 December he was replaced by Grigori Shtern. The Vice Commander of the Southern Group was Vladimir Kurdyumov from December 1939, the mission was to destroy the Finnish troops in the area of Ladoga Karelia and advance to the area between Sortavala and Joensuu within ten days. The Soviets had the advantage of a ratio in men, five-to-one in artillery. The Finnish troops conducted a retreat before the overwhelming opposition. On 7 December, in middle of the Ladoga Karelian front, the waterway itself did not offer any protection, but alongside there were ridges up to ten meters. The battle of Kollaa lasted until the end of war, up to north the Finns retreated from Ägläjärvi to Tolvajärvi on 5 December, and defeated Soviet attacks by the 139th Rifle Division and 75th Rifle Division in the battle of Tolvajärvi on 12 December. In the south, two Soviet divisions were united on the side of the coastal road of Lake Ladoga. As before, these divisions were in a trap as the Finns could make counterattacks from a north to columns flank, the Finns made counterattacks in all fronts but were not successful – however the Red Army was now facing a position of defence rather than attack. On 19 December the Finns temporarily ceased their assaults as the soldiers were exhausted and it was not until the period 6 to 16 January 1940 that the Finns made another major offensive, and cut the Soviet division into a smaller group of different sized mottis. Contrary to Finnish expectation, the encircled Soviets divisions did not try to breakthrough to the east but instead they stayed put, the Soviets were expecting auxiliary troops and service shipments support to arrive by the air. However, the Finns repelled all efforts of the Soviet Eighth Army to resupply the encircled troops, in 1940 the Army became a part of the Baltic Special Military District. From the morning of 22 June 1941 as part of the Northwestern Front the army joined the fighting with superior forces of the German Wehrmacht on the Shyaulyay axis. After 30 June the 22nd Motor Rifle Division NKVD started operating as part of 10th Rifle Corps, during July–August the troops of the 8th Army conducted persistent defensive actions in the territory of Estonia. On 14 July, the army was transferred to the Northern Front, during November- December, they conducted persistent offensive combat for achieving Leningrad blockade break-through. On 9 June, the army was subordinated to the Volkhov Front, in August- September, it acted as a part of the Fronts assault group for the Sinyavinsk Offensive Operation
4.
Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
5.
Kaunas
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Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the centre of a county in Trakai Municipality of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413, in the Russian Empire it was the capital of the Kaunas Governorate from 1843 to 1915. It became the temporary capital city in Europe during the interwar period. Now it is the capital of Kaunas County, the seat of the Kaunas city municipality and it is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. Kaunas is located at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, the Nemunas and the Neris, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, the citys name is of Lithuanian origins and most likely derives from a personal name. Before Lithuania regained independence, the city was known in English as Kovno, the traditional Slavicized form of its name, the Polish name is Kowno. An earlier Russian name was Ковно Kovno, although Каунас Kaunas has been used since 1940, the Yiddish name is Kovne, while its names in German include Kaunas and Kauen. The city and its elderates also have names in other languages, an old legend claims that Kaunas was established by the Romans in ancient times. These Romans were supposedly led by a patrician named Palemon, who had three sons, Barcus, Kunas and Sperus, Palemon fled from Rome because he feared the mad Emperor Nero. Palemon, his sons and other relatives travelled all the way to Lithuania, after Palemons death, his sons divided his land. Kunas got the land where Kaunas now stands and he built a fortress near the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers, and the city that grew up there was named after him. There is also a region in the vicinity named Palemonas. On 30 June 1993, the coat of arms of Kaunas city was established by a special presidential decree. The coat of arms features a white aurochs with a cross between his horns, set against a deep red background. The aurochs is the heraldic symbol of the city since 1400. The heraldic seal of Kaunas, introduced in the early 15th century during the reign of Grand Duke Vytautas, is the oldest city heraldic seal known in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The current emblem was the result of study and discussion on the part of the Lithuanian Heraldry Commission. An aurochs has replaced a wisent, depicted in the Soviet era emblem, blazon, Gules, an aurochs passant guardant argent ensigned with a cross Or between his horns
6.
Baltic Military District
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The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the occupied Baltic states, formed briefly before the German invasion during the World War II. Initially the Baltic Military District was created by order of the USSR Peoples Commissar of Defence on 11 July 1940 and this was after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States but before they were forcibly legally absorbed into the Soviet Union. On August, 17th,1940 it became the Baltic Special Military District, personnel of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Armies were incorporated into the Red Army as the 22nd, 24th, and 29th Territorial Rifle Corps respectively. However they were unreliable and defected in large numbers to the Germans after June 1941. In 1941 the District consisted of the, 8th Army 11th Army 27th Army 5th Airborne Corps and other smaller formations, 3rd Mechanised Corps was also located within the district at Vilnius. The district headquarters was in Vyshniy Volochek, the district was disbanded on March 23,1944. Postwar the District was created on 9 July 1945 at Riga on the basis of Zemland Group of Forces formed from the former 1st Baltic Front and it initially included only the Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics. Circa 1944 a headquarters for Internal Troops in the area was created and this headquarters supervised several Internal Troops divisions, including the 14th Railway Facilities Protection Division NKVD from 1944 to 1951. Other divisions deployed included the 4th, 5th, and 63rd Rifle Divisions NKVD, on 30 April 1948 10th Guards Army became 4th Guards Rifle Corps. The main combat formation within the District was the 11th Guards Army in the Kaliningrad Oblast, in the 1950s it comprised the 1st TD and all the remaining Guards formations - 2nd Rifle Corps, 16th Koenigsberg Red Banner Rifle Corps and 36th Nemanskiy Red Banner Rifle Corps. In 1955 4th Guards Army Corps consisted of 8th Guards Rifle Division, 118th Guards Rifle Division, 36th Guards Mechanised Division, however in July 1956 the 118th Guards Rifle Division was disbanded. For the entire period the 11th Guards Army comprised the 40th Guards Tank Division and the 1st Tank. In 1960 the 5th Guards MRD, a former Rifle Division, was disbanded, the 51st Guards Motor Rifle Vitebsk Division of the Order of Lenin Red was disbanded in accordance with district Commander directive №006471 dated May 5,1960. In 1969 the 8th Guards Motor Rifle Division was moved from the District to the Central Asian Military District, in 1979 Scott and Scott reported the HQ address of the District as PriBVO, Riga-Center, Ulitsa Merkelya, Dom 13, with the officers club in the same location. Began arriving from Mlada Boleslav, Czechoslovakia, in October 1990, 24th Tank Training Division, Riga Division disbanded 1995. 107th Motor Rifle Division, Vilnius 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division, withdrawn February 1993 to Yelnaya, Moscow Military District. The regiment was training and preparing junior officers and specialists, BMP commander, gunner guns of drivers of various vehicles, radio chiefs. Located in the village of Adazi-2 near the town of Riga, holm says the regiment was at Adazi until November 1993
7.
Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
8.
11th Army (Soviet Union)
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The 11th Army was an army of the Red Army, formed four times. The first formation was a unit of the newly created Soviet armed forces. It was formed by the Bolsheviks on October 3,1918, in February 1919 it was dissolved and was again deployed in March 1919 as a subdivision of the Caspian-Caucasian Front. It took a prominent part in the sovietization of the three republics of the southern Caucasus in 1920–21, when Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia were brought within the orbit of Soviet Russia. In 1939 the 11th Army was formed in the Belarusian Special Military District from the former Minsk Army Group and it fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Baltic Operation, the Demyansk Pocket, and the Battle of Kursk. The army disbanded in December 1943, since the Russian Republics Caucasus Front dissolved, it did not have a true successor organization. The Army of the North Caucasus, which was renamed 11th Army on October 3,1918, during the Russian Civil War the 11th Army fought against the White troops of General Anton Denikins Volunteer Army in the western part of the North Caucasus. It was the strength of the Caspian-Caucasian Army Group. On 27 April 1920 the 11th Army took Baku, the Bolsheviks then established the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, as a Soviet republic in May 1920. This was the first country in the South Caucasus that the Bolsheviks seized control of, taking advantage of its quarrels with neighboring Armenia, the 11th Army had little difficulty in initially sovietizing Azerbaijan. Although it soon was embroiled in a fierce anti-Soviet insurgency, the army remained poised to advance into the two remaining republics, Armenian and Georgia. For the time being, however, the authorities in Moscow ordered the army to stand down while negotiations between Russia and Armenia were being carried out, in that brief span the Red Army did aid Armenian communists fighting against the Armenian government in the Ijevan region of Armenia. The head of the 11th Armys Revolutionary Military Council was Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the military leaders of the 11th Army were in 1921, V. P. Military decisions were supervised by the Armys Council of War and its members were in 1921, Sergey Kirov, Valerian Kuybyshev, J. P. Butyagin, K. A. Vesnik, Lukin, B. D. Mikhailov, Kvirkeliya, S. S. Eliava, by 1921, the 11th Red Army is characterized by the modern French historian Marie Broxup as a purely Russian army led by Russian commanders and Russian political cadres. In May 1921 the army lost its name and was integrated into the Caucasian Front, in 1939 the 11th Army was formed in the Belarusian Special Military District from the former Minsk Army Group. It took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland, in summer 1940 it became part of the Baltic Military District. It participated in operations as part of the Soviet Northwestern Front west and south-western of Kaunas
9.
Neman
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It begins at the confluence of two smaller tributaries, about 15 kilometers southwest of the town of Uzda in central Belarus, and about 55 km southwest of Minsk. In its lower reaches it forms the border between Lithuania and Russias Kaliningrad Oblast and it also, very briefly, forms part of the border between Lithuania and Belarus. The fourteenth-largest river in Europe, the largest in Lithuania, and the third-largest in Belarus, the Neman is navigable for most of its 900 km length. The Neman/Nemunas river basin formed during the Quaternary period, and is located roughly along the edge of the last glacial sheet and its depth varies from 1 meter in its upper courses to 5 meters in the lower basin. From west to east, the largest settlements are Sovetsk/Tilsit, Neman/Ragnit, Kaunas, Alytus, Druskininkai, Grodno, the total length of the Nemunas/Neman is 914 km. It is the 14th longest river in Europe and the 4th longest in the Baltic Sea basin, over its entire length,436 km flows in Belarus and 359 km in Lithuania. A116 km stretch is the border between Lithuania and Russias Kaliningrad oblast and its greatest depth is 5 m, and at its widest it extends about 500 m. The Nemunas/Neman is a river, it flows at about 1 to 2 m/s. During floods, water discharge can increase up to 11-fold, to more than 6,800 m3/s, severe floods occur on the lower reaches of the river about every 12 –15 years, which sometimes wash out bridges. The Nemunas/Neman is an old river, dating back to the last glacial period and its valley is now up to 60 meters deep and 5 km broad. It has about 105 first-class tributaries, the largest being the rivers Neris, Shchara, fifteen of the tributaries are longer than 100 km. In the complete Nemunas/Neman basin, there are tributaries extending to the 11th order, the Nemunas basin in Lithuania drains more than 20,000 rivers and rivulets and covers 72% of Lithuanias territory. The total area of the Nemunas/Neman basin is 98,200 km2,34,610 km2 of which are within Belarus, valley of Neman in Grodno Region is the lowest point above sea level in Belarus at 80 to 90 m. The river has lent its name to a Neolithic subculture, originally based on hunting, fishing, the city of Memel, now in Lithuania, is known today as Klaipėda. On German road maps and in German lexika, only the 112-kilometer section within Prussia was named Memel, the border between the State of the Teutonic Order and Lithuania was fixed in 1422 by the Treaty of Lake Melno and remained stable for centuries. The Treaty of Tilsit between Napoleon and Czar Alexander I was signed on a raft in the river in 1807, napoleons crossing at the outset of the 1812 French invasion of Russia is described in War and Peace. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles made the river the border separating the Memel Territory from German East Prussia as of 1920, at that time, Germanys Weimar Republic adopted the Deutschlandlied as its official national anthem. In the first stanza of the song, written in 1841, Lithuanian and Polish literature often mention the Nemunas
10.
BT-8
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The BT-7 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 for the time, the BT tanks were known by the nickname Betka from the acronym, or its diminutive, Betushka. The BT-7s successor was the famous T-34 medium tank, introduced in 1940, which replaced all of the Soviet fast tanks, infantry tanks, the first prototypes of the BT-7 had a distinctive canted-ellipse shaped turret mounting both the main gun and a coaxial machine-gun. In the rear of the turret, there was a rotating drum-type magazine for 1845 mm shells or a radio station, the prototype underwent an extensive testing program in the summer and autumn of 1934. As a result of testing, it was felt that a machine-gun was unnecessary on a tank with a 3-man crew. Therefore, in early 1935, the tank went into production with a simpler design, in the production model, a cylindrical turret housed a 45 mm 20K gun with a DT machine gun. On some of the tanks, a model 71-TC radio with frame antenna was installed, the crew consisted of three men, the commander, the loader and the driver. In 1937, the company launched production of the BT-7 with a conical turret, the main armament remained the same, but the ammunition was increased to 44 rounds. All serving tanks now installed the DT machine gun in the rear niche, for the firing of the gun and coaxial machine gun at night, the tank was equipped with two special projector-type headlamps, and a mask placed on the gun. Subsequently, these lights were retrofitted to earlier models of the tank, improvements were also made to the drive wheels, caterpillar tracks and gearbox by 1938. In parallel with the modification,154 BT-7A artillery tanks were produced between 1936 and 1938. These were fitted with a turret and a 76 mm KT-type gun with 50 rounds of ammunition. From December 1939, the BT-7A went into production with minor modifications - additional bracing for rigidity, a floor hatch. The diesel tanks were more efficient, and the petrol-powered tanks were soon placed into reserve. In 1938, four experimental BT-8 tanks mounted with V-2 diesel engines were produced, after comparative tests of the BT-7 and BT-8, the diesel tanks were put into production in 1940 with the powerplants being produced in a separate plant of the Voroshilovets factory to ensure supply. Several experimental tanks were conceived based on the BT series, for example the wheeled BT-IS, Tsyganov, a platoon commander in the 4th Armoured Regiment of the Ukraine Military District and self-taught designer. The type successfully passed field tests, but was not ordered in bulk, another Tsyganov design was the S-2 Cherepaha, with a new design of hull and turret. Finland converted 18 captured tanks into BT-42 assault guns, shortly before Operation Barbarossa, the BT-7 underwent an up-armor program
11.
T-26
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The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the 1930s and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in numbers than any other tank of the period. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models, the T-26 and BT were the main tanks of the Red Armys armoured forces during the interwar period. The T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, as well as in the Winter War in 1939–40. Though nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most numerous tank in the Red Armys armoured force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Soviet T-26 light tanks last saw use in August 1945, during the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria, the T-26 was exported and used extensively by Spain, China and Turkey. Captured T-26s were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies, the tank was reliable and simple to maintain, and its design was continually modernised between 1931 and 1941. No new models of the T-26 were developed after 1940, the T-26 was a Soviet development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank, which was designed by the Vickers-Armstrongs company in 1928–29. The simple and easy-to-maintain Vickers 6-Ton was intended for export to less technically advanced countries, the Soviet Union, Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Thailand, China, and many others. Vickers advertised the tank in military publications, and both the Soviet Union and Poland expressed interest in the Vickers design. In early 1930, the Soviet buying committee, under the direction of Semyon Ginzburg, arrived in Great Britain to select tanks, tractors, the Vickers 6-Ton was among four models of tanks selected by Soviet representatives during their visit to Vickers-Armstrongs. Several Soviet engineers participated in assembly of the tanks at the Vickers Factory in 1930, the first four Vickers 6-Ton tanks arrived in the USSR at the end of 1930. The last tanks arrived in 1932, when production of the T-26 was already in progress. The British tanks were sent to Soviet factories for study in preparation for production and to military educational institutions. Later, some tanks were given to military depots and proving grounds. The Vickers-built 6-Ton tanks had the designator V-26 in the USSR, three British tanks were successfully tested for cross-country ability at the small proving ground near Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill in January 1931. Kliment Voroshilov ordered the creation of the Special Commission for the Red Army new tanks under the direction of S. Ginzburg to define the type suitable for the Red Army
12.
Raseiniai
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Raseiniai is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland. Grand Duchy of Lithuania Raseiniai is one of the oldest communities in Lithuania – the name of the settlement was mentioned for the first time in 1253 and its name was mentioned in Chronicles of the 13th and 14th centuries under various names, including Rushigen, Rossyen, and Rasseyne. In the 14th–18th centuries, Raseiniai was one of the most important towns in the Samogitia region, at the end of the 14th century the city became important centre, and its representative participated with others from the region in signing the peace treaty of Königsberg in 1390. At the end of the 15th century, Raseiniai was granted Magdeburg Rights, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth the city became important in the region. Government institutions were located there, and it served as a center for the area. In 1580 the local aristocrats met there in order to choose their representatives to the General Sejm in Warsaw, from 1585 Raseiniai served as the permanent location of the county parliament. In 1792 city Magdeburg rights were renewed, following the third partition of the Commonwealth in 1795, Raseiniai was annexed by the Russian Empire and its city rights were annulled. In the Russian Empire, the town was the center of a district of the same name. From 1801 to 1843, the district was in the Vilna Governorate. Historically, the articles of commerce were wood and grain for export. Because of its position and distance from the railroad and the main highways. A fire in 1865 which almost destroyed the town contributed to the citys decline in the latter half of the 19th century. In 1831, an insurrection against Tsarist oppression began in Raseiniai, on March 26, the rebels took Raseiniai and formed a provisional district government. Within a few days the insurrection spread throughout the entire country – and was known as the 1831 Rebellion. The town long had a large Jewish presence and it was among the first Jewish communities established in Lithuania, and the city, which is known in Yiddish as Raseyn, became known as the Jerusalem of Zamut. Jews continued to settle there in large numbers throughout the 17th century, during most of the 19th century, the greater proportion of the towns population was Jewish and it was a center of the Jewish Haskalah movement. In 1842 the city had 7,455 inhabitants, the majority of whom were Jews, in 1866 the town had 10,579 inhabitants, of whom 8,290 were Jews
13.
XXXXI Panzer Corps
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XXXXI Panzer Corps was a tank corps in the German Army during World War II. The corps was formed, as the XXXXI Corps, on 5 February 1940 in Wehrkreis VIII as Armeekorps. Reorganised as a Panzer Corps, it was known as the XXXXI Panzer Corps and was commanded by General Georg-Hans Reinhardt. In the May 1940 Battle of France, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was one of the three Panzerkorps that broke through the Ardennes in the Battle of Sedan and drove west to the sea at Abbeville. In June 1941, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was deployed on the Eastern Front for Operation Barbarossa and it was reorganised in 1942, becoming part of the Second Panzer Army of Army Group Centre. The XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at Bely, in the operations at Nikitinka, Yartsevo, Vyazma. In March 1943, the fought at Smolensk, Kromy. In April 1943, it fought in Sevsk, Trubchersk, later, the XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at the Battle of Kursk. During this period it transferred several times between the Ninth and Second Panzer Armies, in June / July 1944 the corps was almost destroyed during the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration, and required complete rebuilding. As part of the reconstructed Fourth Army, it faced the East Prussian Offensive during January 1945, after a week of heavy fighting its divisions were trapped in the Heiligenbeil pocket on the Baltic coast, where they were destroyed in March. Samuel W. Mitcham Jr The Panzer Legions Stackpole Books ISBN 0-8117-3353-X
14.
1st Air Corps (Germany)
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Fliegerkorps was formed 11 October 1939 in Cologne from the 1. The Corps was also known as Luftwaffenkommando Don between 26 August 1942 until 17 February 1943 and it was transformed to the 18. Fliegerkorps @ Lexikon der Wehrmacht I
15.
Junkers Ju 88
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The Junkers Ju 88 was a German World War II Luftwaffe twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called Schnellbomber that would be too fast for fighters of its era to intercept. It suffered from a number of problems during later stages of its development and early operational roles. Despite its protracted development, the aircraft one of the Luftwaffes most important assets. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945 and more than 16,000 Ju 88s were built in dozens of variants, throughout production the basic structure of the aircraft remained unchanged. In August 1935, the German Ministry of Aviation submitted its requirements for an unarmed, three-seat, design of the Ju-88 began with a study EF59 which evolved into two parallel designs, Ju-85 and Ju-88. The Ju 85 was a bomber aircraft prototype, designed by Junkers in 1935. The Reich Air Ministry requested the aircraft, which differed from the Ju 88 due to the use of a twin fin tail unit, the aircraft was never put into service. Design was initiated by Junkers Chief Designer Ernst Zindel and he was assisted by Wilhelm Heinrich Evers and American engineer Alfred Gassner. Evers and Gassner had worked together at Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America where Gassner had been Chief Engineer, Junkers presented their initial design in June 1936, and were given clearance to build two prototypes. The first two aircraft were to have a range of 2,000 km and were to be powered by two DB 600s, three further aircraft, Werknummer 4943,4944 and 4945, were to be powered by Jumo 211 engines. These single-leg landing gear struts also made use of stacks of conical Belleville washers inside them, as their form of suspension for takeoffs. By 1938, radical modifications from the first prototype began to produce a heavy dive bomber, the wings were strengthened, dive brakes were added, the fuselage was extended and the number of crewmen was increased to four. Due to these advances, the Ju 88 was to enter the war as a medium bomber, the aircrafts first flight was made by the prototype Ju 88 V1, which bore the civil registration D-AQEN, on 21 December 1936. When it first flew, it managed about 580 km/h and Hermann Göring and it was an aircraft that could finally fulfill the promise of the Schnellbomber, a high-speed bomber. The streamlined fuselage was modeled after its contemporary, the Dornier Do 17, the fifth prototype set a 1,000 km closed-circuit record in March 1939, carrying a 2,000 kg payload at a speed of 517 km/h. However, by the time Luftwaffe planners like Ernst Udet had their opportunities to their own pet features added, the Ju 88 V7 was fitted with cable-cutting equipment to combat the potential threat of British barrage balloons, and was successfully tested in this role. The Ju 88 V8 flew on the 3 October 1938, the A-0 series was developed through the V9 and V10 prototypes
16.
Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
17.
Novgorod Army Operational Group
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An army, besides the generalized meanings of ‘a countrys armed forces’ or its ‘land forces’, is a type of formation in militaries of various countries, including the Soviet Union. This article serves a central point of reference for Soviet armies without individual articles, during the Russian Civil War, most Soviet armies consisted of independent rifle and cavalry divisions, and corps were rare. Following the Second World War, an army was reorganised with four or five divisions, during a war, an Army of the Soviet military was typically subordinated to a front. In peacetime, an army was subordinated to a military district. There were large variations in structure and size, for example, in the October 1944 Battle of Debrecen, the 27th Army was a massive organization with nine rifle divisions, an artillery division, and four attached Romanian infantry divisions. The 40th Army, by comparison, had only five rifle divisions, both armies were part of the Second Ukrainian Front. Special titles given to Soviet armies included red banner army, following the award of the Order of the Red Banner, the famous image of the flag over the Reichstag was of men from the 3rd Shock Armys 150th Rifle Division. A total of five shock armies were formed by the campaigns of 1942–43, the 2nd, 3rd. During the Stalingrad counteroffensive the 5th Shock Army was the last such formation formed, armies which distinguished themselves in combat during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 often became Guards armies. These included the 8th Guards Army, as World War II went on, the complement of supporting units attached to a Soviet army became larger and more complex. From the Soviet Air Force, air armies were attached to fronts and they were made up of two to three aviation corps. The 16th Air Army is one of the longest serving, still today in the Moscow Military District. After World War II, Soviet armies were known as combined arms armies, sometimes translated during the early Cold War as all-arms armies, normally made up of two or three tank and mechanised corps. Guards tank armies were made up of a number of Guards tank, the Stavka formed ten reserve armies in mid-1942 to bolster the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. The Leningrad Peoples Opolcheniye Army was born mostly from the 168 battalions of fighters previously raised to deal with expected saboteurs and it reported directly to the commander of the Northern Front. The initial intention was to create an army with seven divisions, the Novgorod Army Operational Group was first established on 13 August 1939 by the order No.0129 of the Chairman of the Peoples Commissariat for Defence, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. The Group was created for operations in Estonia and Latvia and it became the 8th Army in October 1939 It had the task of providing security of the Northwestern borders of the USSR. Was reestablished on July 31,1941, troops from the east and it was part of the operational army from 31 July 1941 to 6 August 1941 when it was redesignated as the 48th Army
18.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
19.
2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. V. Novoselsky when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 and it initially comprised the 11th and 16th Tank Divisions, & the 15th Mechanized Division. On 22 July 1941 2nd Mechanized Corps consisted of 11th Tank Division 181 tanks,1070 vehicles &71 tractors, 16th Tank Division with 99 tanks,870 vehicles &16 tractors & 15th Mechanized Division with 188 tanks, no vehicles &122 tractors. After the invasion began the Odessa Military District was renamed Southern Front, the front fielded the 9th and 18th Armies. Against Generaloberst Schoberts 11th Army, which had penetrated Soviet defenses, however, after initially withdrawing to behind the Dniester River on Tiulenevs orders Stavka ordered 6th Army & 2nd Mechanized Corps to recapture the Prut River line. The line was already in German hands & this decision was far too late, mikhail Kirponos commander of Southwestern Front now ordered 26th Army to wheel about & cover their withdrawal & for 6th & 12th Armies to attack eastwards to meet up. By 20 July, 2nd Mechanized Corps was holding open a narrow corridor upon to the east between LVIII Panzer Corps & 17th Army, another two corps commanders & six division commanders perished in the fighting. 2nd Mechanized Corps was largely destroyed, rkkaww2 states, The residual men of the 11th Tank Division joined the 12th Army. The divisions remnants were reorganised into the 132nd Tank Brigade, later the 4th Guards Tank Brigade, the entire headquarters of the 15th Motorised Division was captured. However, later, the commander, Colonel Laskin, managed to escape from captivity. The residual personnel of the 14th Tank Regiment eventually formed the 71st Separate Tank Battalion, ISBN 0-7006-0879-6 David Glantz, Before Stalingrad Barbarossa - Hitlers Invasion of Russia 1941, Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2692-3 Christer Bergstrom, Barbarossa - The Air Battle, July–December 1941, Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 1-85780-270-5
20.
19th Guards Mechanized Brigade (Belarus)
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The 19th Guards Mechanized Brigade is a formation of the Armed Forces of Belarus based in Zaslonovo, a few kilometers east of Lepiel. The 19th Guards Brigade traces its history back to the 1942 formation of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps of the Soviet Army during World War II, subsequent designations during the Cold War included 2nd Guards Mechanized Division and 19th Guards Tank Division. Following the Cold War, the 19th Guards Tank Division was relocated to Belarus, thereafter, the unit was reduced to a personnel and equipment cadre unit and titled the 19th Guards Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment before being upgraded to a mechanized brigade in 2008. Formed in the Tambov area on 15 October 1942 from elements of the 22nd Guards Rifle Division, by the end of the war, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps commanded the 4th, 5th, and 6th Guards Mechanized Brigades, as well as the 37th Guards Tank Brigade. The corps fought at Stalingrad in 1942-43, at Melitopol in 1943, Odessa and Budapest in 1944, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps finished the war as part of the 6th Guards Tank Army in the area of Benešov, Czechoslovakia, on 9 May 1945. The 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps, like all Soviet mechanized corps, was reorganized as a division in mid-late 1945, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Division was part of the Southern Group of Forces based at Esztergom, Hungary. The division was part of the Soviet forces that crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, on 15 December 1956, the division was reorganized as a tank division and renamed the 19th Guards Tank Division. The 97th Motor Rifle Regiment transferred to the division from the 27th Mechanized Division on the same day, the divisions 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment dropped the designation Self-Propelled, also on the same day. The 67th Separate Tank Training Battalion was disbanded in 1960, in 1961 the 99th Separate Missile Battalion was activated. The 74th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion was formed on 19 February 1962, the 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment became a regular tank regiment around this time. In 1968, the 55th Separate Sapper Battalion became an engineer-sapper battalion, the chemical defence company was upgraded to a battalion in 1972. The 1081st Separate Material Supply Battalion formed from the 690th Separate Motor Transport Battalion in 1980, the chemical defence battalion was once again downsized to a company in 1985. On 7 September 1987, the 99th Separate Missile Battalion became part of the 459th Missile Brigade, among other veterans of the unit, Yuri Budanov served with the division in the late 1980s in Hungary. The 87th Guards Tank Regiment, 99th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion and 74th Separate Equipment Maintenance, the division withdrew to Zaslonov and became part of the 7th Tank Army. Following the end of the Cold War, the unit was withdrawn to Zaslonovo in Belarus 1992, at some point following relocation, the division was reorganized and became a Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment, a partial-strength mechanized infantry formation. One of the equipment storage bases is the 19th, the former 19th Guards Tank Division at Zaslonovo in the Lepiel region, on October 1,2003, the base was considerably strengthened. From other bases of storage of arms and techniques now we are distinguished favorably by new structure, besides a battalion of protection, storage and service, motor-rifle and tank battalions were added. In 2008 the base for storage of weapons and equipment was upgraded into a brigade,2012 reports suggest one-two established manoeuvre battalions
21.
20th Guards Motor Rifle Division
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The 20th Motor Rifle Division is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces, originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940, and it consisted of 2nd Tank Division, 5th Tank Division, 84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer and signals battalions. On 22 June 1941, the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 31,975 men &651 tanks, of which 110 were new T-34, the Corps was heavily engaged in the first battles of Operation Barbarossa, particularly during the Baltic Operation and at the Battle of Raseiniai. It stalled the Divisions advance for a day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons. General Erhard Raus, the Officer commanding 6th Panzer Divisions Kampfgruppe Raus, the grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again, the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely. The crew had only been apparently stunned by the shots which had entered the turret. Afterwards they were buried nearby with honours by the German soldiers of the unit held up, however, by early July the Corps had virtually ceased to exist as a formation, though remnants rejoined Soviet lines later. For example, the 5th Tank Division was at Yelnya by 4 July 1941, and consisted of 2,552 men, general Lieutenant M. E. Katukov took command. It was initially assigned to the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front and it took part in Operation Mars alongside the 22nd Army. At the beginning of Operation Mars 3rd Mechanised Corps consisted of 232 tanks, the Corps then fought in the Battle of Kursk, then fought across the Ukraine with the Central, Belorussian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. On 23 October 1943, it was awarded ‘Guards’ status and re-designated the 8th Guards Mechanised Corps, in 1944, it took part in the Zhitomir-Berdichev, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Proskurov-Chernovits, and Lvov-Sandomir battles, in April gaining the Carpathian honorific. It ended the war in Berlin after participating in the Warsaw-Poznan, as part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 1st Guards Tank Army. In the immediate period, the Corps was reorganised as the 8th Guards Mechanised Division. In May 1957, it was reorganised as the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division, bearing honorifics, Carpathia-Berlin, in 1964, the division was transferred to the 8th Guards Army. It took part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia as part of the 1st Guards Tank Army, although when it returned to East Germany, became part of 1st Guards Tank Army in 1983, until 1993. The division was withdrawn from Germany in June 1993, and moved to Volgograd in the North Caucasus Military District, there it was under the command of the reduced 8th Guards Army Corps, formerly the 8th Guards Army. The division remained garrisoned in Volgograd, with parts of the division having taken part in the First, in 2009 the division was disbanded by being renamed the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. a. 133rd Independent Guards Engineer-Sapper Battalion – Leisnig 51° 21’ 40” North, 153rd Independent Chemical Defense Battalion o
