The 79th Group Army (),

Unit Unit may refer to: General measurement * Unit of measurement, a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law **International System of Units (SI), modern form of the metric system **English units, histo ...

31671, formerly the 39th Group Army (第三十九集团军), is a military formation of the Chinese

People's Liberation Army Ground Force The People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF), also referred to as the PLA Army, is the army, land-based service branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), and also its largest and oldest branch. The PLAGF can trace its lineage from 192 ...

(PLAGF). The 79th Group Army is one of thirteen total

group armies Group armies () or army groups or combined corps, are corps-level military formations of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force of China. Despite what the name suggests, current Group Armies are not army-level formations, but corps-sized f ...

of the PLAGF, the largest echelon of ground forces in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, and one of three assigned to the nation's

Northern Theater Command The Northern Theater Command () is one of the five Theater command (China), theater commands of the People's Liberation Army, founded on 1 February 2016. Its predecessor is the Shenyang Military Region, Jinan Military Region and Beijing Militar ...

History

The 79th Group Army can trace it's lineage to the

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Red Army, formally the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=中國工農紅軍) or just the Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=紅軍), was the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1928 to 1937. I ...

's 15th Legion. It was involved in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

, most notably the Liaoshen campaign and Pingjin campaign. In 1949 the 15th Legion was renamed to the 39th Army Corps( Chinese: 陆军第39军) The army corps was a military formation of the

People's Volunteer Army The People's Volunteer Army (PVA), officially the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV), was the armed expeditionary forces China in the Korean War, deployed by the History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976), People's Republic of Chi ...

(People's Volunteer Army (PVA) during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. It comprised the 115th, 116th, and 117th Divisions. The 39th Army Corps was deployed to the

in 1950. After the ceasefire, it was placed under the command of the

Shenyang Military Region The Shenyang Military Region was one of seven military regions for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It has command and control of military and armed police forces in the three northeast provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning, whic ...

and was stationed in the

Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong or Liaotung Peninsula ( zh, s=辽东半岛, t=遼東半島, p=Liáodōng Bàndǎo) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located ...

. In 1985, it was re-organized into the 39th Group Army. In 2016, it was re-assigned to the

Northern Theater Command Ground Force The Northern Theater Command Ground Force is the ground force under the Northern Theater Command. Its headquarters is in Jinan, Shandong. The current commander is Shi Zhenglu and the current political commissar is . History The Northern Theat ...

, and in April 2017 it was renamed to the 79th Group Army

Organization

In 2023, the 79th Group Army was composed of: *4 armored brigades *1 mechanized infantry brigade *1 infantry brigade *79th Special Forces Brigade "Amur Tigers" (东北虎) *1 artillery brigade *1 engineering brigade *1 Chemical defense brigade *1 helicopter brigade *1 air defense brigade *1 Service support brigade

Awards

In the 2013 "Blade Sharpening" (砺刃—2013) military competition, which was the first ever PLASOF inter-unit competetion, the 79th Special Forces Brigade won first place.

Leadership

Historical Commanders

* Xu Qiling (? - December 2018)

Historical Political Commissars

* Yu Yonghong

References

Sources

* {{Structure of People's Liberation Army Ground Force since 2017 Field armies of the People's Volunteer Army Field armies of the People's Liberation Army Northern Theater Command Shenyang Military Region