The 138th Separate Tank Regiment was a Cold War tank regiment of the

Group of Soviet Forces in Germany The Western Group of Forces (WGF),. previously known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOFG). and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG),. were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. The Group of Soviet Occupat ...

's 2nd Guards Tank Army. Formed in 1962 as the 5th Separate Tank Brigade, it was initially tasked with defending the East German Baltic coast. It became the 138th Separate Tank Regiment in 1980. The regiment was disbanded in 1990.

History

The brigade was activated in May 1962 in

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...

, part of the 2nd Guards Tank Army. It moved to Primerwalde in 1964. The 24th Separate Tank Battalion and 22nd Separate Motor Rifle Battalion were based at Primerwalde. The 45th and 46th Separate Tank Battalions were at Wustrow. The 58th Separate Tank Battalion was at Garz. The tank battalions were equipped with T-54 tanks and the motor rifle battalion was equipped with

BTR-152 The BTR-152 is a six-wheeled Soviet Union, Soviet armored personnel carrier (БТР, from Бронетранспортер/''BTR (vehicle), Bronetransporter'', literally "armored transporter"), built on the chassis and drive train of a ZIS-151 uti ...

armored personnel carriers. The brigade was tasked with the protection of the Baltic coastline. In 1974, the brigade had 130 T-54s. In 1980 the brigade was renamed the 138th Separate Tank Regiment, with the task of parachuting and airlanding assaults on Denmark. The 24th, 45th and 58th Separate Tank Battalions were transferred to Mongolia and became part of the

12th 12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. Twelve is a superior highly composite number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is the number of years required for an orbital period of Jupiter. It is central to many systems ...

, 41st and 91st Motor Rifle Divisions. The 46th Separate Tank Battalion and 22nd Separate Motor Rifle Battalion were disbanded. The regiment was also reequipped with

T-55 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tank ...

and

T-62 The T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank that was first introduced in 1961. As a further development of the T-55 series, the T-62 retained many similar design elements of its predecessor including low profile and thick turret armour. In contras ...

tanks, as well as

BTR-60 The BTR-60 is the first vehicle in a series of Soviet eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs). It was developed in the late 1950s as a replacement for the BTR-152 and was seen in public for the first time in 1961. BTR stands for ''Brone ...

armored personnel carriers. It was disbanded in April 1990.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* {{Cite book, title=Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской, last=Feskov, first=V.I., last2=Golikov, first2=V.I., last3=Kalashnikov, first3=K.A., last4=Slugin, first4=S.A., publisher=Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing, year=2013, isbn=9785895035306, location=Tomsk, language=Russian, trans-title=The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces, ref={{sfnRef, Feskov et al, 2013 Regiments of the Soviet Union Armoured units and formations of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1980 Military units and formations disestablished in 1990