9th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)

9th Mechanized Corps (1st Formation: 1940–1941) 9th Mechanized Corps (2nd Formation: 1943–1945) 9th Mechanized Division (1945–1957) 82nd Motor Rifle Division (1957–1958)
Active	1940–1941 (1st Formation) 1943–1958 (2nd formation)
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army / Soviet Army
Type	Mechanized
Size	Corps/Division
Engagements	World War II First Battle of Kiev Battle of the Dnieper Second Battle of Kiev Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive Zhitomir-Berdichev Offensive Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive Battle of Berlin Prague Offensive
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner (2nd formation) Order of Suvorov, 2nd class (2nd formation) Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class (2nd formation)
Battle honours	Kiev (2nd formation) Zhitomir (2nd formation)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Konstantin Rokossovsky Ivan Sukhov

Military unit

The 9th Mechanized Corps was a mechanized corps of the Soviet Red Army, formed twice. It was first formed in November 1940 and disbanded in September 1941 after suffering heavy losses. The corps was formed again in August 1943 at Tula. The second formation fought with the 3rd Guards Tank Army. It participated in the Battle of the Dnieper, the Battle of Kiev (1943), the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive, the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive. the Battle of Berlin and the Prague Offensive. During the war the corps received the honorifics "Kiev" and "Zhitomir" and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 2nd class, and the Order of Kutuzov 2nd class.

First formation

The corps was first formed in November 1940 in the Kiev Military District with the 19th and 20th Tank Divisions, and the 131st Motorized Division. In March 1941, the 19th Tank Division was transferred to the 22nd Mechanized Corps and was replaced by the 35th Tank Division.

On June 22, 1941, the first day of the German invasion, orders went out from headquarters Southwestern Front under Mikhail Kirponos to the mechanized corps to deploy forward as quickly as possible. The 9th Mechanized Corps moved its units towards the town of Lutsk, into the path of the advancing 14th Panzer Division, which pushed the 131st Motorized Division out of the town. Meanwhile, south of Lutsk, the 11th Panzer Division secured Dubno, a vital road hub, against minimal resistance, and Kirponos ordered an immediate counter-attacked to retake it. Although still in the process of moving forward towards the battle zone, both the 20th and 35th assembled forward detachments of between 30 and 40 tanks together with what infantry was to hand, and launched them forward, cutting the Lutsk-Dubno road.

At the same time, elements of 19th Mechanized Corps' 43rd Tank Division recaptured Dubno. The German reaction was swift; the next day, June 26, the 13th Panzer Division struck down from Lutsk, catching the 9th Mechanized forward detachments in the flank, rolling them up and sending then reeling back, whilst German infantry opened up the 11th Panzer supply rout by recapturing Dubno. The 13th Panzer turned east, and along secondary roads, took Rovno in the 9th's Mechanized rear.

However, on June 29, the 14th Panzer, attempting to advance eastward along the main tank highway, was stopped cold by the 20th Tank Division, and was just able to hold Lutsk against "massive attacks". The corps commander, Konstantin Rokossovsky, later wrote of this engagement in his memoirs, "The terrain off road was wooded and swampy, keeping the German advance to the road. The artillery Regiment of the 20th Tank Division deployed its newly issued 85mm Guns to cover the road and with direct fire repulsed the advancing Panzers". The 14th Panzer abandoned this route and followed the 13th Panzer Division. Both Panzer divisions of III Panzer Corps pushed on, leaving 25th Panzergrenadier Division to protect their rear against repeated attacks by 9th Mechanized Corps to drive into Rovno. The 25th Panzergrenadier Division reported extreme difficulty in holding back the attacks and suffered "serious losses" in the process.

By the beginning of July, German armor had smashed a hole in the center of the Russian line, and the 13th Panzer stood at the edge of the Kiev fortified district. In another attempt to restore the front, Kirponos ordered attacks from the 5th Army in the north and 6th Army in the south to accomplish this aim. The army still had three mechanized corps under command: the 9th, the 19th, and the 22nd. The 5th Army forces lunged southward and managed to cut the Zhitomir – Kiev highway, blocking III Panzer Corps' supply lines. The Germans reacted by assigning infantry to clear the road and push the Russians back to the north. On the 9th of July, the corps was still in the Kiev Special Military District as part of the General reserve.

September 20, 1941 from the remnants of the 9th Mechanized Corps of the 5th Army was formed a combined battalion, who joined in the 15th Mechanized Corps.

Second formation

The 9th Mechanized Corps formed again in August 1943 at Tula. Its main sub units were the 69th, 70th, and 71st mechanized brigades. The new corps advanced to the Dnieper River and then fought at Fastov and around Kiev in November 1943, and Zhitomir in January 1944.

The corps now formed a component of 3rd Guards Tank Army, and fought under its command for the remainder of the war. In April, it was withdrawn for three months rest and retraining before attacking again in the Soviet push to capture Lviv. In January 1945, the corps fought in the Vistula and Oder battles in eastern Germany, and finally in the Battle of Berlin in May 1945.

It later became 9th Mechanised Division, then 82nd Motor Rifle Division on 17 May 1957. It was based at Cottbus until 1958. It was disbanded on 9 May 1958 in the GSFG at Bernau with the 18th Guards Army (the former 3rd Guards Tank Army).

Composition

The early war corps tank component was massive on paper, but the 9th Mechanized was well below its authorized strength and lacked the latest modern designs that some of the other mechanized units had begun to receive. The 20th Tank Division in particular had only 32 tanks instead of 375, and the corps as a whole 300 instead of 1031. Its most common equipment was the T26 and the BT models. In terms of command and control, personnel training, communications and logistical support, the mechanized corps were not suited to conduct, sustain or survive in the high intensity combat operations of the early conflict The Wehrmacht decimated the mechanized corps in the first month of the war, destroying over 1000 tanks, so that by mid August the Stavka abolished the remaining corps.

Equipment on 22 June 1941
	Corps as a whole	T-37	T-26	BT-5 & BT-7	other
Corps	300
20 Tank Div.	36	0	3	30	3
35 Tank Div.	142	0	141	0	1
131 Mot, Div.	122	18	0	104	0

Awards and honorary titles

Kiev (Stavka order of 10.03.1943);
Zhytomyr (Stavka Order of 01.01.1944);
Order of the Red Banner (Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council of 03.04.1944) — for conduct in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket;
Order of Suvorov II degree (Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council of 10.08.1944) — for conduct in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive;
Order of Kutuzov II degree (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 04.06.1945) —for conduct in the Battle of Berlin.

References

Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941–1943, p 265
The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front p 272
The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front p 276
The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front
The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front. p 311
The road to Stalingrad p 170
Red Army Order of Battle p 132
Red Army Order of Battle p 132
Feskov et al. 2013, p. 204
Feskov et al. 2013, p. 384
Feskov et al. 2013, p. 163
Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941–1943, p 267
Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941–1943, p 216
Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941–1943, p 217

Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.

Soviet Union corps

Airborne

Guards	8 15 37 38 39

Artillery

Cavalry

Guards	1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Mechanised

Guards	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1
2
3 (1940)
3 (1942)
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
45

Rifle

Guards	1 1 (Special) 2 3 (1942) 3 (1943) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Light	1 2

Special	Special 31 44 45

1
2
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114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126 (Light Mountain Rifle)
127 (Light Mountain Rifle)
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
137

Rocket

Guards	3 7

Tank

Guards	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Army corps
(1957–1991)

Guards	4 5 13 27 30 48

Other

Special Corps

Divisions of the Soviet Union 1945–1957

Airborne

11
13
21
31
76
98
99
100
103
104
105
106
107
114

Artillery

Gun	4 7 8 9 10 27 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

Antiaircraft

Machine Gun

Guards

Mechanised

Tank

Other

OMSDON

Guards units marked in bold.

Divisions of the Soviet Union 1957–1989

Airborne

7
31
44 Training
76
98
103
104
105
106
107

Artillery

2
15
20 Training
26
34
51
55
81
110
149

Aviation

Motor
Rifle

Guards

1st – 18th	1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 14 15 16 17 18

20th – 39th	20 21 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

42nd – 66th	42 45 47 48 50 51 (I) 51 (II) 53 55 57 59 62 63 64 66

70th – 97th	70 72 77 81 83 86 87 90 92 93 94 97

109th – 144th	109 112 113 114 115 120 122 123 128 144

Training	2 16 34 37 42 53 62 63 66 80 92 100 112

4th – 27th	4 9 12 13 15 18 19 21 22 24 27

32nd – 49th	32 33 35 40 41 43 44 46 47 48 49

52nd – 69th	52 54 56 58 60 61 62 65 67 68 69

71st – 99th	71 73 74 75 78 79 80 82 84 85 88 89 91 92 93 95 96 99

100th – 119th	100 101 102 108 110 111 114 116 117 118 119

121st – 135th	121 124 125 126 127 129 130 131 134 135

145th – 199th	145 146 147 148 149 150 152 155 157 164 180 192 197 198 199

201st – 295th	201 203 207 213 242 245 254 265 266 270 272 295

Training	43 56 61 67 78 121 129 150

Rocket

Tank

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
19
20
21
22
23
24 Training
25
28
29
30
31
32
34
36
37
40
41
42
44 Training
45 Training
47
48 Training
51
60
75
78
79
90
117 Training
193

Other

OMSDON

Guards units marked in bold unless they are in a Guards section.

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