The 11th Artillery Brigade () was a formation of the

Ukrainian Ground Forces The Ukrainian Ground Forces ( uk, Сухопу́тні військá Збрóйних сил Украї́ни), also known as the Ukrainian Army, are the land forces of Ukraine and one of the five branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They ...

. The brigade's full name of the brigade was the ''11th Separate Guards Artillery Kyiv Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Brigade''. The brigade was the successor of the 1st Guards Cannon Artillery Kiev Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Brigade, formed on 18 August 1942 in Stalingrad. It was part of . It was based in

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

, in western Ukraine. The Brigade was formed on 18 August 2004 on the base of 12th Artillery Regiment of the 1st Tactical Artillery Group. Group commander

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

Sergiy Korniychuk became Brigade's Commanding officer. The Brigade took its conscripts from the Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi,

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

and

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdo ...

s (provinces). The brigade was disbanded in 2013.

History

1st Cannon Artillery Brigade was created on 18 August 1943 in Stalingrad. First Brigade commander was Guards Colonel Volodymyr Kerp. On 1 March 1943, the Brigade was awarded Guards designation for successful actions near Stalingrad. At the end of March 1943 the Brigade was relocated to the Central Front near

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

. Between 5–12 July 1943 the Brigade took part in the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history ...

. It took part in the Liberation of Oryol,

Hlukhiv Hlukhiv ( uk, Глу́хів, ) or Glukhov (russian: Глухов, translit=Glukhov) is a small historic town on the Esman River. It is a city of regional significance in the Sumy region of Ukraine. Hlukhiv is administratively incorporated as ...

Konotop Konotop ( uk, Конотоп ) is a city in Sumy Oblast in northeastern Ukraine. Konotop serves as the administrative center of Konotop Raion. Konotop is located about 129 km from Sumy, the oblast administrative center. It is host to K ...

and on 29 September 1943 was one of the first units to cross the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

. On 6 November 1943 the Brigade was awarded the honorable name "Kiev" for liberating the city of

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. From 14 March to 15 May 1944 the brigade took active part in the liberation of

. Later the Brigade moved toward Lviv and crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border. During the battles for the liberation of Poland, for crossing the

Vistula River The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

and a battle near

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Prov ...

, the Brigade was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of t ...

on 19 February 1945. The Brigade provided artillery fire in the liberation of Kielce, the Oder River and the

Lusatian Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (german: Lausitzer Neiße; pl, Nysa Łużycka; cs, Lužická Nisa; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. On 10 May 1945, the Brigade, being part of

5th Guards Army The 5th Guards Army was a Soviet Guards formation which fought in many critical actions during World War II under the command of General Aleksey Semenovich Zhadov. The 5th Guards Army was formed in spring 1943 from the 66th Army in recognition of ...

, liberated

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. The Brigade was awarded the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Second Class on 4 June 1945 for valour and heroism. After the war, it became the 897th Guards Cannon Artillery Regiment. The Brigade has been stationed in the following cities: *

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

- May–June 1945 * Allentsteig,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

- June–October 1945 * Byškov, Czechoslovakia - October–November 1945 *

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

- November 1945 – December 1947 * Vapniarka,

Vinnytsia Oblast Vinnytsia Oblast ( uk, Ві́нницька о́бласть, translit=Vinnytska oblast; ; also referred to as Vinnychchyna — uk, Ві́нниччина) is an oblast of western and southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia. ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

- December 1947 – June 1949 *

(then

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

) - June 1949 – present The brigade was disbanded on 31 December 2013.

Brigade Order of Battle (2004)

* Howitzer Artillery BattalionTraining of the Battalion
/ref> * Anti-tank Artillery Battalion

Awards

Throughout

World War II 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 opposing ...

8,270 soldiers from the Brigade were awarded Medals and Orders. 9 of them became

Heroes of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

: *Guards Captain Nikolai Posohin *Guards Captain Mikhail Zonov *Guards Captain Vladimir Strizhak *Guards Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Volk *Guards Senior Lieutenant Grigoriy Sidorov *Guards Sergeant Petr Kharkovskiy *Guards Senior Sergeant Kashagan Dzhamangaraev *Guards Senior Sergeant Grigoriy Cherniy *Guards Senior Sergeant Botabay Sadikov

References

Ministry of Defense' Army of Ukraine magazineGround artillery
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Military units and formations established in 2004 Military units and formations disestablished in 2013 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner Artillery brigades of Ukraine