The 27th Army was a

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, and with ...

of the Soviet Union's

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

, which fought in World War II.

First formation

The 27th Army was formed in May 1941, under the command of Major General Nikolai Berzarin. On 22 June 1941 it consisted of the 22nd and 24th Territorial Rifle Corps, the

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

and

67th Rifle Division The 67th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army. The 20th Rifle Division (territorial defence) was formed from militia brigades in the Leningrad Military District in 1923. On May 21, 1936, it was named the 67th Rifle Division. In ...

s, 3rd Separate Rifle Brigade, two artillery regiments, and two anti-tank regiments. It became part of the

Northwestern Front The Northwestern Front (Russian: ''Северо-Западный фронт'') was a military formation of the Red Army during the Winter War and World War II. It was operational with the 7th and 13th Armies during the Winter War. It was re-cre ...

on the outbreak of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

, fighting in the Soviet defense of the Baltic, known in Soviet historiography as the Baltic Strategic Defensive Operation. From June to October 1941 the 27th Army fought on the Dvina River, during the Staraya Russa Offensive, and at Kholm and

Demyansk Demyansk (russian: Демя́нск) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Demyansky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located along the Yavon River. Municipally, it is incorporated as Demyanskoye Urban Se ...

. By 1 November 1941 the army's forces had been reduced to the 23rd and

33rd Rifle Division The 33rd Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Red Army and Soviet Army, formed twice. The division was formed in 1922 at Samara and moved to Belarus in the next year. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 and in the O ...

s, the 613th Artillery Regiment 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 ( ru , РВГК)) comprises reserve military formations and units; the Sta ...

(RVGK), the 28th Tank Division, and three Battalions of engineers. In December 1941 the first formation of the army was renamed the

4th Shock Army The 4th Shock Army was a combined arms army of the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II. The Army was formed from the 27th Army on 25 December 1941 (1st formation) within the Northwestern Front. On 1 October 1942 it included the 249th, 332 ...

Second formation

The army reformed in May 1942, within the

, consisting of five rifle divisions. In April 1943 it was moved into Stavka reserve. From July 1943, it participated in many famous battles, assigned to the Steppe Front, then the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front (Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a ...

, in the Belgorod-Kharkov operation and the

Bukrin bridgehead Velykyi Bukryn ( uk, Великий Букрин; russian: Великий Букрин) is a village in Obukhiv Raion at the south of Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, with about 100 inhabitants (2001). It belongs to Rzhyshchiv urban hromada, one of the h ...

. From October 1943, it fought in the Kiev offensive (with

1st Ukrainian Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front (Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a ...

). Thereafter, assigned to the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Front, it was part of the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive, the Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive, the Uman-Botosani Offensive, the Iassy-Kishinev Offensive, the

Battle of Debrecen The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the ''Debrecen Offensive Operation'', was a battle taking place 6–29 October 1944 on the Eastern Front in Hungary during World War II. The offensive was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front ...

, and the

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street fi ...

. After the end of the war, it was ordered withdrawn to Romania by 20 August 1945, and concentrated in the areas of

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2011 Romanian census there were 180,302 pe ...

Buzău The city of Buzău (formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu''; ) is the county seat of Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Muntenia. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Car ...

, and

Galați Galați (, , ; also known by other alternative names) is the capital city of Galați County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the Danube River. It has been the only port for the most par ...

in eastern Romania. By November it included the 33rd ( 78th, 206th, and 337th Rifle Divisions) and the 37th Rifle Corps ( 163rd, 316th, and 320th Rifle Divisions), as well as the

35th Guards Rifle Corps The 35th Guards Rifle Corps () was a rifle corps of the Red Army during World War II that became part of the Soviet Army during the Cold War. World War II Formation The 35th Guards Rifle Corps was formed in accordance with a Stavka directive ...

( 66th, 108th, and the

125th Guards Rifle Division 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

s). Shortly afterwards, the 27th Army was withdrawn to the

Carpathian Military District The Red Banner Carpathian Military District (, ) was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Cold War and subsequently of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the early Post-Soviet period. It was established on 3 May 1946 on the ...

. There, its headquarters was disbanded on 4 August 1946, and its three rifle corps were directly subordinated to the district headquarters.

Commanders

* Major General Nikolai Berzarin (5 May – 25 December 1941) * Major General

Fyodor Ozerov Fyodor Petrovich Ozerov (; 6 February 1899 – 18 November 1971) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general who held field army command during World War II. Early life and Russian Civil War Fyodor Petrovich Ozerov was born on 6 February 1899 in the v ...

(22 May 1942 – 29 January 1943) * Lieutenant General

Sergei Trofimenko Sergei Georgievich Trofimenko (10 (22) September 1899 in Ryovny – 16 October 1953 in Moscow) was a Soviet military commander, active in the Russian Civil War and the Second World War. His final rank was colonel-general. He had been promoted t ...

(29 January 1943 – 9 July 1945), Colonel-General in September 1944 * Colonel General

Ivan Boldin Ivan Vasilievich Boldin (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич Бо́лдин; in Vysokaya – March 28, 1965 in Kiev) was a senior Red Army general and war hero during the Second World War. Early military and political career A son of a la ...

(9 July 1945 – 5 July 1946)

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{Armies of the Soviet Army 027 Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1946 1941 establishments in the Soviet Union 1946 disestablishments in the Soviet Union