63rd Rifle Corps

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63rd Rifle Corps
Active
  • 1st formation: 1939–1941
  • 2nd formation: 1943–1957
Country Soviet Union
Branch Red Army (Soviet Army from 1946)
Engagements World War II
Commanders
Notable
commanders

The 63rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice.

Red Army Soviet army and air force from 1917–1946

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, frequently shortened to Red Army, was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution. The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army", until its dissolution in December 1991. The former official name Red Army continued to be used as a nickname by both sides throughout the Cold War.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Contents

First formation

The corps headquarters was first formed during September 1939 in the Volga Military District. [1] It was part of the 21st Army in June 1941, with the 53rd, 148th, and 167th Rifle Division s on 22 June, under the command of Lieutenant General Leonid Petrovsky. [2] The corps headquarters was disbanded on 23 August as the Red Army eliminated most corps headquarters. [3]

The Volga Military District (PriVO) was a military district of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation that existed from 1918 to 1989 and 1992 to 2001.

The Soviet 21st Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II.

The 53rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army that served from the early 1930s to the immediate postwar period following World War II.

Second formation

The corps was reformed in mid-1943. Major General Tikhon Butorin briefly commanded it in early August, followed by Major General Dmitry Stankevsky for a few days. Major General Pyotr Koshevoy, promoted to lieutenant general on 17 May 1944, commanded the corps from late August to late May 1944. He was replaced by Major General Fyodor Bakunin, who commanded the corps for the rest of the war except for a brief period in April 1945, when he was replaced by Colonel Anatoly Nekrasov. [2]

Pyotr Koshevoy Soviet military commander

Pyotr Kirillovich Koshevoy was a Soviet military commander and a Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Fyodor Bakunin Soviet general

Fyodor Alexeyevich Bakunin was a Soviet Army major general. Bakunin briefly served in the Imperial Russian Army in 1917 and in 1919 joined the Red Army, fighting in the Russian Civil War. He became an officer and in 1938 was appointed to lead the 11th Rifle Division. A year later Bakunin became commander of the 2nd Rifle Corps. Nearly a year later, he became commander of the 61st Rifle Corps. The corps fought in the Battle of Smolensk after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Bakunin led the corps during the Siege of Mogilev, in which it was destroyed. He escaped the encirclement and became a teacher at the Frunze Military Academy. In the fall of 1943 he was given deputy command of the 10th Rifle Corps and in May 1944 command of the 63rd Rifle Corps. Bakunin led the corps until 1947, when he retired.

In 1954 the corps was in the Ural Military District and it controlled the 77th Rifle Division (Sverdlovsk) and 417th Rifle Division at Chebarkul. [4] On 4 June 1957 it was redesignated as the 63rd Army Corps, but was disbanded by the early 1960s. [5]

417th Rifle Division

The 417th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the spring of 1942 and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. Although it was formed in the Transcaucasus, unlike the 414th and 416th Rifle Divisions formed in about the same place at the same time it was never designated as a National division. After its formation it remained in service in the Caucasus under direct command of the Transcaucasus Front until the summer of 1942, when it was redeployed first to the Northern Group of Forces in that Front and then to the 9th Army. As German Army Group A retreated from the Caucasus in January, 1943 the division was reassigned to the 58th Army and a few months later to 37th Army in North Caucasus Front. In July it redeployed northward to join Southern Front, where it was assigned to the 63rd Rifle Corps in 44th Army in mid-September as the Front fought through south Ukraine, eventually reaching the land routes to the Crimea. It took part in the offensive that liberated that region in April and May, 1944, fighting in the 51st Army and winning a battle honor in the process. After the Crimea was cleared the 51st Army was moved far to the north, joining 1st Baltic Front. During operations in the Baltic states the 417th was awarded both the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Suvorov. In March, 1945 it joined the Courland Group of Forces on the Baltic coast containing the German forces encircled in northwest Latvia. It ended the war there and was soon disbanded.

Chebarkul Town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia

Chebarkul is a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the shores of Lake Chebarkul, 78 kilometers (48 mi) west of Chelyabinsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 42,844 (2010 Census); 47,144 (2002 Census); 50,062 (1989 Census).

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References

Citations

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