Series editor Martin Windrow
CONTENTS
World War II Soviet Armed Forces (2) 1942—43
The long counter-attack
The soviet high command
Red army land forces
Land forces uniforms
Red army air force
Navy
NKVD security forces
Plate commentaries
The Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 had allowed the Soviet Union to regain most of the territory conceded during the Russian Civil War. By 1941 the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), comprising the Russian Empire as it had existed before 1917, and also the western Ukraine, which had never been Russian. However, the Winter War against Finland (November 1939–March 1940) had exposed the numerically huge Red Army as poorly equipped and incompetently commanded; despite Russia’s reoccupation of much Finnish territory, that country remained unconquered.
By August 1941, Stalin held all the key military and political posts at the head of the Soviet Union’s power structure; nevertheless, it was 6 March 1943 before he had himself appointed to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union – his first military rank. Here he wears the M43 general officers’ peaked service cap and khaki greatcoat, with a combined-arms red cap band and collar patches, and his rank insignia on gold braid shoulder-boards. (Author’s collection)
Encouraged by the revelation of Soviet military unpreparedness, Germany and its European Axis allies launched an unprovoked attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. By January 1942 the Axis had forced the Red Army back 450 miles, and had occupied six SSRs – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Byelorussia (Belarus) and Ukraine. Axis forces were threatening Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and Moscow, and were poised to wheel southwards towards the economically vital oilfields of the Caucasus.
The two years described in this volume (January 1942 to December 1943) saw the Soviet Union recovering – slowly, and at great cost – from the catastrophic defeats of 1941.1 Leningrad and Moscow had been successfully defended, and the Axis advance had been halted in western Russia. By December 1942 the Axis advance to the Caucasus had been stopped on the Georgian border; most of the oilfields were saved, and the winter of 1942–43 proved to be the turning-point in the war. The Germans’ defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, and the failure of their July counter-offensive on the Kursk salient, heralded a steady Axis retreat, as the now better-equipped and better-led Red Army began its own relentless advance westwards. By December 1943 the Caucasus, eastern Ukraine and most of western Russia were back in Soviet hands, and eventual German defeat seemed increasingly likely.
The Western Allies recognized from the outset that the defeat of the Soviet Union would seriously compromise the Allied cause. Under the United States Lend-Lease Act of 11 March 1941, large quantities of US, British and Canadian aircraft, armoured and other vehicles, radio equipment, weapons, ammunition and clothing were transported to the Soviet Union between 1 October 1941 and 2 September 1945, via British sea convoys to Murmansk and Arkhangel’sk, and US Pacific convoys to Vladivostok. Furthermore, British forces and the Soviet Transcaucasian Front occupied Iran (Persia) on 25 August 1941, thus creating a ‘Persian Corridor’ that allowed the British to transport aid overland from Britishoccupied Iraq to Soviet Azerbaijan. Stalin accepted all available aid, but never publicly acknowledged its vital contribution to the Red Army’s eventual victory.
1 The separation of this subject into three volumes by date cannot be pedantically consistent in respect of organization, operations, and uniform practice alike, for reasons of relative space. Some examples of 1940 and 1941 uniform and insignia regulations described in this text are also illustrated in the first volume, MAA 464; and the uniform regulations of January 1943, of which some examples are illustrated in this book, will be covered in the text of the forthcoming third volume.
Stalin consolidated his position as Chairman of the Communist Party and chief executive of the Soviet Union by controlling the four key organizations that governed the USSR. He chaired the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) from 6 May 1941, and the People’s Commissariat for Defence from 19 July 1941. He established the State Committee for Defence (Gosudarstvenniy Komitet Oborony – GKO) on 30 June 1941 to ensure military-civilian liaison; and he commanded Red Army General Headquarters, established 23 June 1941 and redesignated on 8 August the GHQ of the Supreme High Command (Stavka Verkhovnogo Glavnokomandovaniya). Comprising the state’s top military, internal security and political leaders, this ‘Stavka’ effectively ran the Soviet war effort. On the date of its creation Stalin had himself appointed Supreme High Commander (Verkhovnnyy Glavnokomandushchiy).
A Red Army infantry section fighting in the ruins of Sevastopol, June 1942. They wear the summer field uniform comprising the M40 helmet, M41 field shirt and trousers, with puttees and ankle boots. They carry blanket-rolls across their right shoulders in place of backpacks, and are armed with Mosin Nagant M1891/30 rifles and PPSh-41 sub-machine guns. (Courtesy Central Museum of the Armed Forces, Moscow, via Nik Cornish)
Stalin appointed General Armii (Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza, 18 January 1943) Georgiy K. Zhukov, the Red Army’s most able general, as Deputy Supreme High Commander (Zamestitel’ Verkhovnogo Glavnokomandushchego) on 26 August 1942. This made Zhukov the highest-ranking Red Army officer, and Stalin’s right-hand man. Under him, Stavka controlled the Red Army General Staff; the chief of the general staff from 29 July 1941,Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza Boris Shaposhnikov, was replaced 9 May 1942 by his deputy, General-Polkovnik (16 February 1943, Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza) Aleksandr Vasilevskiy. Zhukov and Vasilevskiy forged a successful partnership that brought important victories.
An increasingly common sight after the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in February 1943: a determined Red Army soldier, wearing a khaki M43 winter field shirt and brandishing a PPSh-41, leads a crowd of exhausted German prisoners to the rear. German POWs could expect brutal treatment in NKVD-run prison camps, and the last survivors were not repatriated until October 1955. However, Soviet prisoners – especially Russians – could expect even worse treatment in German camps, where they were not only denied the protection of the Geneva Conventions, but were allowed to starve to death in huge numbers. (Tschakov Collection)
Lenin’s ‘Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’ (RKKA) had been redesignated in September 1939 as simply the Red Army (Krasnaya Armiya – KA), still divided into the Land Forces (Sukhoputnye Voyska) and the Air Force.
A group of NKL-16 Aerosani snowmobiles patrolling the supply lines across Lake Ladoga to besieged Leningrad early in 1942. These propeller-driven vehicles on skis were used for reconnaissance, raiding, communications, mail delivery, medical evacuation and border patrols. The small snowmobile battalions were assigned to the HQ troops of a field army. Each battalion had only 100 men, with 30 combat and ten transport snowmobiles, in three companies each of three platoons. (Courtesy Central Museum of the Armed Forces, Moscow, via Nik Cornish)
All males aged 18–50 were liable for military service until the end of the war. Non-commissioned officers were trained at their unit’s Regimental School, with re-enlisted NCOs filling the higher ranks. An 18-year-old appointed an officer cadet (kursant) was sent to a branch-specific Military College for training, abbreviated in wartime to just 4–10 months, before being commissioned as a mladshiy leytenant. Promising captains and majors could attend a branch-specific Military Academy before further promotion.
Women had served in the Red Army and Air Force as volunteers before the outbreak of war, but in June 1941 female conscription was introduced. By May 1945 some 800,000 women had served, constituting 25–30 per cent of total personnel (although relatively few reached commissioned rank). Initially they served in the Supply and Administration and Medical services, but significant numbers later fought as snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members, aircrew and paratroopers in the Air Force, and partisans in the occupied territories.
The Red Army (excluding the Air Force) was reorganized from 7 May 1940 into six combat arms. The Infantry and Cavalry were grouped into a single ‘Combined Arms’ branch; the Technical Troops were reorganized, retaining the Services but separating Technical Officers into a Technical Service with Artillery, Tank and Air Force Engineering branches.
Combined Arms Infantry: Rifle Regts, Mechanized Bns, Motorized Rifle (‘Motor Rifle’) Regts/Bns, Mountain Rifle Regts, Ski Bns, Machine-Gun Bns, Sub-machine Gun Bns/Coys, Anti-Aircraft (AA) Machine-Gun Bns/Btys/Coys, AA Rifle Coys, Anti-Tank (AT) Rifle Coys.
Combined Arms Cavalry: Cavalry Regts, Cossack Regts, Mountain Cavalry Regts, Reconnaissance Bns/Coys (Sqns).
Armoured Troops: Tank Regts/Bns/Coys, Armoured Car Reconnaissance Bns/Coys, Snowmobile Bns, Armoured Train Bns, Motorcycle Regts/Bns. Armour Engineering Service (formed 8 March 1942).
Artillery: Super-Heavy Artillery Regts, Heavy Artillery Regts/Bns, Field Artillery Regts, Howitzer Regts, Self-propelled Regts, Rocket-Launcher Regts/Bns, AA Regts/Bns/Btys, AT Regts/Bns/Btys, Artillery-Mortar Regts, Horse/Motorized Heavy Mortar Bns, Mortar Regts/Bns, Horse Artillery Bns, Cossack Artillery Bns, Searchlight Regts. Artillery Engineering Service (formed 4 March 1942).
Table 1: Red Army Fronts and Armies, 1 January 1942 to 31 December 1943 | ||
Front | Strategic Operations | Constituent Armies |
GHQ Strategic Reserve (RVGK) | Various | 21, 24, 27, 39, 43, 46, 57, 60, 1G, 2G, 4G–6G, 8G, 1S, 3T–5T |
Northern Theatre | ||
Karelian | Karelia | 7, 14, 19, 26, 32, 2CE, 7A |
Leningrad | Leningrad | 4, 23, 42, 55, 67, 13A |
North-Western (20.11.1943 disbanded) | Demyansk, Velikiye Luki | 11, 22, 27, 33, 53, 67, 3S, 4S, 1T, 6A |
Volkhov (23.4.1942 disbanded; 6.1942 re-formed) | Leningrad | 4, 8, 54, 2S, 14A |
Kalinin (10.1942 1st Baltic) | Rzhev-Vyazma, Smolensk | 5, 10, 22, 29–31, 39, 59, 68, 10G, 4R, 3S, 3A |
Baltic (formed 10.1943; 10.1943 2nd Baltic) | – | 22 |
Central Theatre | ||
Western | Rzhev-Vyazma, Orel, Smolensk | 3, 5, 11, 16, 20, 21, 30, 33, 41, 49, 1CE, 11G, 1A |
Central (2.1943 re-formed; 10.1943 Byelorussian) | Kursk, Orel, Chernigov-Poltava | 3, 10, 13, 50, 61, 70, 3CE, 4GT, 3T, 16A |
Bryansk (10.10.1943 disbanded) | Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, Voronezh-Kharkov, Orel | 3, 11, 38, 48, 63, 4CE, 6CE, 3R, 3T, 2A, 15A |
Southern Theatre | ||
Voronezh (20.10.1943 1st Ukrainian) | Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, Voronezh-Kharkov, Kharkov, Kursk, Belgorod-Kharkov, Chernigov-Poltava, Kiev | 6, 18, 27, 40, 47, 52, 53, 69, 7G, 3GT, R, |
Reserve (6.4.1943 formed; 9.7.1943 Steppe; 20.10.1943 2nd Ukrainian) | Kursk, Belgorod-Kharkov, Chernigov-Poltava, Lower Dnieper | 13, 27, 47, 61, 7G, 5GT |
South-Western (12.7.1942 disbanded; 22.10.1942 re-formed; 20.10.1943 3rd Ukrainian) | Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, Stalingrad, Voronezh-Kharkov, Kharkov, Donbass, Lower Dnieper | 6, 12, 21, 38, 40, 63, 64, 1G, 3G, 2R, 1T, 8A, 17A |
Southern (28.7.42 disbanded; 1.1.1943 re-formed; 20.10.1943 4th Ukrainian) | Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, North Caucasus, Donbass, Lower Dnieper | 9, 12, 18, 24, 28, 37, 44, 51, 65, 8CE, 9R, 4A |
South-Eastern (formed 7.8.1942; 28.9.1942 Stalingrad; 1.1.1943 Southern) | Stalingrad | 28, 51, 5CE, 7CE |
Stalingrad (12.7.1942; 9.1942 Don; 2.1943 Central) | Stalingrad | 21, 24, 62–66, 1R, 5R, 7R, 8R, 4T, 16A |
Caucasus Theatre | ||
Caucasus (28.1.1942 Crimean; 20.5.1942 North Caucasus; 1.9.1942 absorbed into Transcaucasus) | North Caucasus | 9, 18, 44, 47, 51, 56, Coastal, 8–10 CE, 5A |
Transcaucasus (formed 15.5.1942) | North Caucasus | 9, 45, 46 |
North Caucasus (formed 24.1.1943; disbanded 20.11.1943) | North Caucasus, Novorossiysk-Taman. | 58, Coastal, 10R, 5S |
Far Eastern Theatre | ||
Transbaikal | – | 17, 36, 12A |
Far Eastern | – | 1RB, 2RB, 15, 25, 35, 1C, 9–11A |
Abbreviations: A = Air Army; C = Cavalry Army; CE = Construction Engineer Army; G = Guards Army; GT = Guards Tank Army; R = Reserve Army; RB= Red Banner Army; S = Shock Army; T = Tank Army. |
Engineers: Engineer Bns/Coys, Mounted Engineer Bns, Electrical Engineer Maintenance Bns, Ordnance Bns, Pontoon Engineer Bns, Construction Engineer Regts, Road Maintenance Engineer Bns/Coys.
Signals: Signal Regts/Bns/Coys.
Technical Troops: Motor Transport Bns/Coys; Military Transport and Railway Troops; Chemical Troops – Flamethrower Bns and Chemical Coys.
Services: Supply and Administration Service Ammunition and Supply Columns; General Technical Service (formed 28 January 1942), from which the Artillery Engineering Service was formed 4 March 1942; Medical Service Bns and Field Hospitals; Veterinary Service Hospitals.
Specialist Officers: