10th Rifle Corps

The 10th Rifle Corps was an infantry corps of the Red Army, which later became the 10th Army Corps after the Second World War.

The corps headquarters was formed in July 1922 in the West Siberian Military District.^[1]

In 1923, 10th Rifle Corps, under the command of a hero of the October Revolution and the Civil War Pavlo Dybenko, was transferred to the Moscow Military District.^[2]

The Corps took part in the Winter War, acting as part of the 7th Army in the western part of the Karelian Isthmus.

After the Soviet-Finnish war the corps was relocated to the Belarusian Special Military District (Red Ravine), and then introduced into the territory of Lithuania (Telšiai).

The First Formation was part of the operational army during World War II from June 22, 1941 to September 7, 1941.

Cross-border fighting in Lithuania and Latvia (1941)

On June 22, 1941 the corps and its headquarters was stationed in Varniai (Lithuania). It comprised the 10th, 48th and 90th Rifle Divisions.^[3] On the right-flank 10th Rifle Division held positions on the border of Palanga to Shvekshny having a neighbor to the right of the 67th Rifle Division 27th Army. Left-flank 90th Rifle Division took defence 30 kilometers wide south to the junction with the 125th Rifle Division 11th Rifle Corps. 48th Rifle Division was on March and the position on the border has not yet approached. As a part of the body were 25 480 people, 453 guns, and mortar and 12 lung tank s.

Opposing the corps and greater Soviet force was the I Army Corps, XXVI Army Corps and XXXVIII Army Corps, and krynem left wing e – tank part XLI Motorized Corps.

On June 22, 1941, German troops struck two major blow to its wings: the first by the 291st Infantry Division from Memel to Kretinga and Palanga, and the second – by the 41st Motorized Corps in a joint body with the 125th Infantry Division 11 Infantry Corps. The Soviet forces holding the attack's point of impact were quickly broken and part of the body in the early hours of the war was cut off from the north of the 67th Rifle Division, and the south of the 125th Rifle Division, and under the pressure of German troops began to retreat in the direction of Jelgava. Actually, he turned out to be dissected body – on June 23, 1941 the gap between the 10th and 90th Rifle Division reached 20 kilometers. South of the 90th Division the enemy troops rushed to the Siauliai. Since the band steps troops shell pressure slightly decreased, part of the body, or rather what was left of them, to June 26, 1941 a relatively orderly moved to line Mazeikiai – Kurtuvenyay and then on Riga. By the time the 90th Rifle Division ceased to exist virtually and in Riga in the housing has been included 22nd Motor Rifle Division NKVD. Within three days of the case were fighting for Riga, but July 1, 1941 finally left the city.

Its next major engagement was the Tallinn frontline defensive operation (1941).

The corps was destroyed in the early fighting of Operation Barbarossa but reformed twice. It was reformed in October 1942, but disbanded in December, then reformed in February 1943, serving until the war ended in May 1945.^[4]

Later formations and postwar

After the war, the corps arrived in the Urals Military District comprising the 91st, 279th, and 347th Rifle Divisions. Active in 1948 with three rifle brigades (12th, 14th and 28th), but in June 1957 became 10th Army Corps.^[5] In the early 1950s, it may have included the 2552nd Artillery Regiment.^[6]

In 1956, the corps moved from the Urals to the Baltic.^[7] In July 1957, as part of 11th Guards Army, the corps comprised 26th Guards Motor Rifle Division and 119th Motor Rifle Division, but was disbanded in (June) 1960.^[8] It had its headquarters at Vilnius.

References

1. ZapSibVO Order of July 12, 1922 №36/10.
2. Wasilewski AM The point of all life Corps Headquarters stationed in Kozlov s (November 1923 – June 1924), Kursk s (June 1924 – 1937), Voronezh s (1937 – Sep. 1939).
3. David Glantz (1998), 'Stumbling Colossus – The Red Army on the Eve of World War', Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0879-6 (pg. 261)
4. Keith E. Bonn (ed), Slaughterhouse, Aberjona Press, 2005, 340.
5. • V.I. Feskov, Golikov V.I., K.A. Kalashnikov, and S.A. Slugin, The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II, from the Red Army to the Soviet (Part 1: Land Forces). (В.И. Слугин С.А. Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской (часть 1: Сухопутные войска)) Томск, 2013, 132. Improved version of 2004 work with many inaccuracies corrected.
6. Feskov et al 2004.
7. Feskov et al 2013, p. 447.
8. Feskov et al 2013, p. 442.

• Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.