Taurida Military District

Last updated

Taurida Military District
Active9 July 1945 – 4 April 1956
CountryFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Type Military district
Headquarters Simferopol
Commanders
Notable
commanders

The Taurida Military District was a military district of the Soviet Union. It was formed from the headquarters of the Separate Coastal Army and the 22nd Army in the summer of 1945. The military district controlled troops on the territory of the Crimean, Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblasts. It was disbanded in 1956, being replaced by the Odessa Military District.

Contents

History

The Taurida Military District was formed on 9 July 1945 from the headquarters of the Separate Coastal Army and the 22nd Army in Simferopol. It controlled troops on the territory of the Crimean Oblast, Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhia Oblast, [1] transferred from the Odessa and Kharkov Military Districts. Separate Coastal Army commander Lieutenant General Kondrat Melnik took command of the district. [2] In its early years, the district was tasked with demobilizing combat troops, reducing units to peacetime strength, rebuilding military bases, demining, and helping to rebuild the local economy. [3]

The 112th Rifle Corps, relocated from Estonia, was initially part of the district with headquarters at Kherson. After its 44th Rifle Division at Melitopol transferred to Pavlohrad in the Kiev Military District, the corps was left with only the 123rd Rifle Division at Kherson. The corps headquarters and the 123rd Rifle Division were disbanded in April 1946. The Separate Coastal Army's 315th and 414th Rifle Divisions at Kerch and Dzhankoy, respectively, were also part of the district. The 414th soon transferred to Tbilisi. During the winter and spring of 1946, the 53rd Rifle Corps arrived from Poland and established its headquarters at Simferopol. It included the 126th, 235th and 263rd Rifle Divisions, based at Simferopol, Yevpatoriya and Feodosia, respectively. The corps headquarters and the 235th Rifle Division disbanded in July 1946. At the same time the 25th Guards Rifle Corps, formerly of the 7th Guards Army, arrived with headquarters at Zaporizhia from Czechoslovakia. Its 4th Guards Rifle Division was based at Melitopol and disbanded in summer 1946. The 25th Guards Rifle Division was based at Zaporizhia and soon moved to Lubny, being replaced by the 188th Rifle Division from the Southern Group of Forces. The 113th Guards Rifle Division was based at Yevpatoriya. In the fall of 1946 the corps headquarters disbanded. [2]

In 1946, the district was reorganized. The 126th Rifle Division became the 28th Mechanized Division and four divisions became brigades, the rest being disbanded or transferred. By the spring of 1947, the district included the 28th Mechanized Division, the 7th Separate Rifle Brigade (former 315th Rifle Division), 19th Separate Rifle Brigade (former 263rd Rifle Division), 43rd Separate Guards Rifle Brigade (former 113th Guards Rifle Division) and 52nd Separate Rifle Brigade (former 188th Rifle Division). The 19th Separate Rifle Brigade was disbanded soon after. Following the end of the demobilizations of military units, the district began regular combat training for defense against an amphibious invasion and cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet. [3] Between 1950 and 1953 the divisions became brigades again. In 1955, the 188th was redesignated as the 20th and the 315th as the 52nd. [2]

By a directive of 19 April 1956 its territory was assigned to the Odessa Military District and the district was disbanded in a process completed by 1 July. [3] Its headquarters was reformed as the 45th Rifle Corps on 4 April. [2]

Commanders

The military district was commanded by the following officers: [1] [2]

Related Research Articles

8th Guards Combined Arms Army

The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, within Russia′s Southern Military District, that was reinstated in 2017 as a successor to the 8th Guards Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which was formed during World War II and was disbanded in 1998 after being downsized into a corps.

The 1st Red Banner Army was a Red Army field army of World War II that served in the Soviet Far East.

Baltic Military District

The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the occupied Baltic states, formed briefly before the German invasion during the World War II. After end of the war the Kaliningrad Oblast was added to the District's control in 1946, and the territory of Estonia was transferred back to the Baltic Military District from the Leningrad Military District in 1956. The Baltic Military District was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and reorganised into the North Western Group of Forces, which ended its existence after withdrawal of all Russian troops from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 1 September 1994.

Volga–Ural Military District

The Volga–Ural Military District was a military district of the Russian Ground Forces, formed on 1 September 2001 by the amalgamation of the Volga Military District and the Ural Military District. The headquarters of the Ural Military District, located at Yekaterinburg became the new headquarters of the merged district. In 2010 the District was merged with part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Central Military District.

The 52nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, the interwar period, World War II, and the Cold War, formed once during the Russian Civil War and three times during the existence of the Soviet Union.

A rifle corps was a Soviet corps-level military formation during the mid-twentieth century. Rifle corps were made up of a varying number of rifle divisions, although the allocation of three rifle divisions to a rifle corps was common during the latter part of World War II.

Odessa Military District

The Odessa Military District was a military administrative division of the Imperial Russian military, the Soviet Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was known under such name from around 1862 to 1998. It was reorganized as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Military of Moldova in 1992. In 1998 most of its territory was transformed into the Southern Operational Command (Ukraine).

22nd Mechanised Brigade (Ukraine)

The 22nd Mechanised Brigade was a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces from 2000 to 2003. However most of its historical traditions stem from the 66th Guards Rifle Division, originally a formation of the Red Army and later of the Soviet Ground Forces.

The 20th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Red Army, formed three times. The first formation of the division lasted from 1919 to 1921 and fought during the Russian Civil War before its downsizing into a brigade. The brigade became the 3rd Rifle Division, the Caucasian Mountain Rifle Division, and the 20th Mountain Rifle Division during the interwar years. In 1944 the 20th became the 20th Rifle Division again. It was disbanded after the end of the war. The division briefly reformed between 1955 and 1957 from the 188th Rifle Division and was converted into a motor rifle division.

The 13th Guards Army Corps was a corps of the Soviet Ground Forces, formed from the previous 13th Guards Rifle Corps, which saw service during the Second World War.

32nd Army Corps (Ukraine)

The 32nd Army Corps was an army corps of the Soviet Ground Forces and then the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Its Military Unit Number was a/h 44 690, and from 1994 – a/h A-1916.

The 25th Army Corps was an army corps of the Soviet Ground Forces active from 1957–1960 and 1980–89. In its first period of existence it was in the Odessa Military District, and in its second period of existence it garrisoned the remote Kamchatka region and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Soviet Far East.

35th Guards Rifle Division

The 35th Guards Rifle Division was a division of the Soviet Red Army in World War II.

The 6th Guards Airborne Division was a Red Army airborne division that fought as infantry during World War II.

The Primorsky Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces that existed in from 1945 to 1953. Formed from the headquarters of the 1st Far East Front after the end of World War II, the district controlled troops on the territory of Primorsky Krai, North Korea and the Kwantung Peninsula. It was disbanded in 1953 and the territory became part of the Far Eastern Military District.

The 56th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army of the Soviet Union, formed three times.

The 82nd Rifle Corps was a rifle corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.

The 414th Rifle Division was twice formed as an infantry division of the Red Army; very briefly in the winter of 1941/42, then from the spring of 1942 until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was officially considered a Georgian National division, having nearly all its personnel of that nationality in its second formation. After its second formation it remained in service in the Caucasus near the borders of Turkey and Iran in the 44th Army until the summer of 1942, when it was redeployed to help counter the German drive toward Grozny. As German Army Group A retreated from the Caucasus in January, 1943 the division was reassigned to the 37th Army in North Caucasus Front, and during the fighting in the Taman Peninsula during the summer it served in both the 58th and 18th Armies, earning a battle honor in the process. It entered the Crimea during the Kerch–Eltigen Operation in November, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner following the offensive that liberated that region in April and May, 1944, fighting in the 11th Guards Rifle Corps of the Separate Coastal Army. After the Crimea was cleared the Coastal Army remained as a garrison and the 414th stayed there for the duration of the war. Postwar, it was relocated to Tbilisi, being renumbered as the 74th Rifle Division in 1955 and disbanded the following year.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Holm, Michael. "Tauride Military District". www.ww2.dk. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Feskov et al 2013, pp. 488–489.
  3. 1 2 3 Ivanov 2003, p. 727.

Bibliography