The 7th Guards Cavalry Corps of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

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 ...

was a cavalry corps active during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was formed from the 8th Cavalry Corps in February 1943.

Second World War

8th Cavalry Corps

The 8th Cavalry Corps was created on 18 January 1942 at

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. Lieutenant General Pavel Korzun took command. It was initially composed of the * 21st Mountain Cavalry Division, * 52nd Cavalry Division, * 55th Cavalry Division. Immediately upon forming the 8th Cavalry Corps was assigned to the Bryansk Front. During the winter fighting in February - March 1942 the Corps controlled the 36th and 37th Ski Battalions. By the end of March 1942 the ski battalions and the 52nd Cavalry Division were gone. In April the corps was rebuilt: * 21st Mountain Cavalry Division * 55th Cavalry Division * 112th Cavalry Division * 148th Artillery-Mortar Regiment * 263rd Horse Artillery Battalion (76mm guns and mortars) The Corps completed its reorganization in June 1942. In July it went into battle with Bryansk Front against the northern flank of the German summer offensive. After a month of hard fighting the corps went back into reserve. In October it moved south and was assigned to the

5th Tank Army 5th Tank Army is the name of several Soviet units during World War II (not to be confused with the 5th Guards Tank Army). Its first formation occurred on 5 June, 1942, commanded by Major-General Alexander Lizyukov, serving under the Bryansk Front ...

in November for Operation Uranus. 13th Separate Signals Battalion, and 23rd signals air-flight. The Corps was assigned to the Southwestern Front’s in the area of the

(2nd formation) ( Serafimovich) north of Stalingrad where it cooperated with the

1st Tank Corps First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

(General V. V. Butkov) during Operation Uranus. in which they had the task of cutting the rail road in the region of the stations Bolshaya Osipovka, Surovikino, and Oblivskaya. Attached to the Corps was: * 174th Antitank Regiment * 179th Antitank Regiment * 35th Guards Mortar Regiment (BM-13) * 586th Antiaircraft Regiment (37mm guns) * 511th Flamethrower Tank Battalion During 1943, on January 30 from the area of the Seversky Donets river the Corps went over to the offensive in the direction of

Voroshilovgrad Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...

(now Lugansk) as part of the

3rd Guards Army The 3rd Guards Army () was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The army fought in the Battle of Berlin, during which it mopped up German resistance around Cottbus. 1942 to 1945 It was formed o ...

under the command of lieutenant general

Dmitry Lelyushenko Dmitry Danilovich Lelyushenko (russian: Дми́трий Дани́лович Лелюше́нко; ( – July 20, 1987) was a Soviet military commander, the highest rank achieved being that of an Army General (1959). Twice the Hero of the Soviet ...

, where it was engaged in furious fighting on the approaches to the city. At dawn on February 14 began the assault, as a result of which the first provincial city in central Ukraine was liberated. Although the main role in this operation was played by the 59th, 243rd, 279th Guard rifle divisions, 2nd Guard and 2nd Tank Corps, active assistance in the liberation of Lugansk was rendered by the 8th Cavalry Corps now under the command of General Major M.D. Borisov. The Corps was assigned by the

Soviet Southwestern Front The Southwestern Front was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War, formed thrice. It was first created on June 22, 1941 from the Kiev Special Military District. The western boundary of the front in June 1941 was 865 km long, fro ...

to break through German lines at Debaltsevo near the city and cut German communications. On the night of February 8, 1943, the Corps accomplished this and by February 14 the raid had been so successful that the whole corps was raised to Guards status. The Corps became 7th Guards Cavalry Corps, and its three divisions, the 21, 35, and 112 became the 14th, 15th and 16th Guards Cavalry Divisions. During the raid the corps also included the 148th Mortar Regiment, the 263d Separate Cavalry Artillery Battalion, and the 8th Separate Antitank Artillery Battalion. It completed this most difficult raid on the rear areas of enemy, distracting significant forces of enemy from reinforcing the frontline units. The Corps sustained very heavy losses breaking out of the encirclement, but the enemy also sustained losses in manpower and material which were essential for reinforcement of the forward units.Glantz, ''Companion to Colossus Reborn'', p. 81.

Commanders

* 15.01.1942 — 11.05.1942 Pavel Korzun * 12.05.1942 — 27.05.1942 Aleksey Semenovich Zhadov * 28.05.1942 — 09.09.1942 Ivan Fedotovich Lunev * 10.09.1942 — 16.10.1942 Aleksey Semenovich Zhadov * 17.10.1942 — 26.10.1942 Stepan Ivanovich Dudko, KIA * 17.10.1942 — 14.02.1943 Mikhail Dmitrievich Borisov, POW

7th Guards Cavalry Corps

Order No. 78 of the Commissariat of the Defense of the USSR dated 14 February 1943 the corps was redesignated the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps. *

14th Guards Cavalry Division 14 (fourteen) is a natural number following 13 and preceding 15. In relation to the word "four" ( 4), 14 is spelled "fourteen". In mathematics * 14 is a composite number. * 14 is a square pyramidal number. * 14 is a stella octangula number. ...

(former 21st Cavalry Division) *

15th Guards Cavalry Division 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 and preceding 16. Mathematics 15 is: * A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and . * A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky number, a pernicious n ...

(former 55th Cavalry Division) *

16th Guards Cavalry Division 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, ...

(former 112th Cavalry Division) After receiving its Guards designations the corps withdrew from behind German lines through snowstorms. After a week of dodging German patrols the Corps slipped back through Soviet lines, having disrupted the rear areas and movement of most of a Panzer Corps. After returning to Soviet lines and due to the heavy losses from Stalingrad offensive and the cavalry raid the Corps was sent into the reserves to rebuild. Between March and May 1943 the corps was reinforced and rebuilt in the Southwestern Front. The corps sent north to join the

Steppe Front The Steppe Front (russian: Степной фронт) was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War which existed from July to October 1943. History On 9 July 1943, Stavka designated a new Reserve Front in the Voronezh region, that had ...

in the STAVKA Reserves in June consisting of: * 14th Guards Cavalry Division * 15th Guards Cavalry Division * 16th Guards Cavalry Division * 145th Guards Antitank Regiment (76mm) * 57th Guards Mortar Battalion (rockets) * 7th Guards Antitank Battalion * 1773rd Antiaircraft Regiment The Corps was not committed in the first part of the summer offensive after

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, remaining in STAVKA reserves until September. Assigned to the 61st Army on 19 September 1943 the corps had added the 1897th SU Regiment (SU-76s) and the 7th Guards Mortar Regiment (120mm mortars). From late September 1943 to March 1944 the corps operated in the 61ast or 65th Armies of the Belorussian Front, trying to enlarge the penetration south of Gomel. In January 1944 the 1897th SU Regiment was replaced by the 1816th SU Regiment (Su-76s), which remained in the Corps until the end of the war. On 5 March 1944 the Corps was sent to the

2nd Belorussian Front The 2nd Belorussian Front (Russian: Второй Белорусский фронт, alternative spellings are 2nd Byelorussian Front) was a military formation, of Army group size, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Soviet army g ...

reserves, and in April helped clear the Germans out of the Mozyr and River Turya areas, clearing the south edges of the

Pripyet marshes __NOTOC__ The Pinsk Marshes ( be, Пінскія балоты, ''Pinskiya baloty''), also known as the Pripet Marshes ( be, Прыпяцкія балоты, ''Prypiackija baloty''), the Polesie Marshes, and the Rokitno Marshes, are a vast natural ...

for operations later in the summer. On 17 May 1944 the Corps went to the

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Белорусский фронт, ''Perviy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian") was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army ...

in the area of

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and

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. On 14 July 1944

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп� ...

began with the Corps advancing with the

2nd Tank Army The 2nd Guards Tank Army () was a large military formation of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army, now part of the Russian Ground Forces of the Russian Federation. The army was originally formed in early 1943 as the 2nd Tank Army. It was the ...

,. By the end of the week the corps had advanced 200 km, south of

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to Radom. The front line stabilized and the corps was on the defensive from 8 August 1944 to 7 January 1945. When the Vistula-Oder offensive started in January 1945 the 1st Belorussian Front formed the Konstantinov Cavalry-Mechanized Group under the 7th Guards Cavalry Commander, Lieutenant General Mikhail Konstantinov. The group consisted of: * 7th Guards Cavalry Corps ** 14th Guards Cavalry Division ** 15th Guards Cavalry Division ** 16th Guards Cavalry Division ** 1816th SU Regiment ** 145th Guards Antitank Regiment (76mm) ** 1773rd Antiaircraft Regiment ** 7th Guards Antitank Battalion ** 57th Guards Mortar Battalion (rockets) * 7th Guards Mortar Regiment *

9th Tank Corps 09 may refer to: * 2009, the year, or any year ending with 09, which may be written as '09 * September, the ninth month * 9 (number) * Ariège (department) (postal code), a French department * Auckland, New Zealand, which has the telephone area co ...

** 23rd Tank Brigade (T-34/85) ** 95th Tank Brigade (T-34/85) ** 108th Tank Brigade (T-34/85) ** 8th Motorized Rifle Brigade ** 36th Guards Heavy Tanks Regiment (IS-IIs) ** 1445th SU Regiment ** 1508th SU Regiment ** 868th Light Artillery Regiment ** 216th Antiaircraft Regiment ** 218th Mortar Regiment (120mm) ** 286th Guards Mortar Battalion (rockets) ** 90th Motorcycle Battalion This group advanced over 400 km from the center of the 1st Belorussian front to the Oder River in just 17 days. The group then turned north into Pomerania, where it spent two months clearing the flanks of the Soviet penetration of German lines. In April and May 1945 the Group advanced as part of the Berlin Strategic Operation operating independently sweeping north of the city to seize

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

and then continuing on to meet advancing units of the US 9th Army.

Commanders

* 25.02.1943 — 20.03.1943 Richard Ivanovich Golovanovsky, * 21.03.1943 — 04.06.1943 Yakov Sergeevich Sharaburko, * 07.06.1943 — 06.10.1943 Mikhail Maleyev, * 07.10.1943 — 09.05.1945 Mikhail Konstantinov

Postwar

The corps' 15th Guards Cavalry Division was converted into the 12th Guards Mechanized Division and transferred to another unit. In the fall of 1945 the corps, with the 14th and 16th Divisions, was transferred from

in the Belorussian Military District to Nakhchivan in the Baku Military District. In January 1946, the corps was converted into the 31st Guards Mechanized Division. The 14th and 16th Divisions were reduced to the 98th and 99th Guards Mechanized Regiments, respectively. In the spring of that year the 31st Guards became part of the 4th Army. In the spring of 1957 the division became the 25th Guards Motor Rifle Division, and on 17 November 1964 it was renumbered as the

23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division The 23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a motor rifle division active during the Cold War. After 1991-92, the division's remnants were eventually incorporated into the new Army of Azerbaijan. Cold War After t ...

References

Sources

* * Glants, D.M. (1), ''Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War'', Frank Cass, London, 1989 * Glantz, D.M. (2), ''Companion to Colossus Reborn: key documents and statistics'', University of Kansas2005 * ''Perecheni No.4, Command of Corps which were a part of the active Army during the years of the Great Patriotic War 1941-45'', Supplement to the direction of the General Staff for year 1956 No.168780, Moscow, 1956 *Murphy, David E. "'Operation Ring': The Black Berets in Azerbaijan." The Journal of Soviet Military Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, March 1992. {{Soviet Union corps G007

Second World War

8th Cavalry Corps

Commanders

7th Guards Cavalry Corps

Commanders

Postwar

See also

References

Sources