27th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)

27th Mechanized Corps
Active	1941
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Mechanized corps
Commanders
Notable commanders	Ivan Yefimovich Petrov

The 27th Mechanized Corps (Military Unit Number 2850) was a mechanized corps of the Red Army. Stationed in present-day Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan after its formation in March 1941, the corps was relocated westwards after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. As a result of the reorganization of the Soviet mechanized corps, the 27th Mechanized Corps was disbanded before it saw combat.^[1]

History

Formation

The corps was formed in March 1941 in Mary in the Central Asian Military District. The corps included the previously formed 9th Tank Division at Mary, and the new 53rd Tank Division at Kyzyl-Arvat, as well as the new 221st Motorized Division at Samarkand. The corps was commanded by Major General Ivan Yefimovich Petrov.^[1]

World War II

BT-7 of the type used by the corps

On 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began. At the time the corps was equipped with 356 tanks. On 25 June the corps was alerted for movement to the west. On 27 June the first echelon of the 9th Tank Division moved west by rail, followed by the rest of the division. Moving through Tashkent and Orenburg, the division's first echelon reached Voronezh on 8 July. On 8 July, the Soviet General Staff decided to disband the mechanized corps and reorganize the tank divisions as a result of heavy tank losses in the first days of the war. The division's headquarters arrived at Voronezh on 10 July. The 27th Mechanized Corps was to become part of the 28th Army^[2] at Kirov. Unloading was to be carried out at the Fayansovaya railway station to the north of Kirov. The trains transporting the corps began to arrive at the station the next day, unloading only at night due to German air superiority. Many trains were delayed due to damage to the railway tracks, including one tank battalion that was stuck at Bryansk station for three days. By 15 July, the concentration of the 9th Tank Division had been completed with 208 tanks (mostly T-26s and BT-7s). At the same time the 9th Tank Division had become the 104th Tank Division, the 53rd Tank Division the 105th Tank Division, and the 221st Motorized Division the 106th Tank Division. The corps was disbanded on 15 July, and the 106th Tank Division became the 106th Motorized Division on 19 July.^[1][3]

References

1. Drig, Yevgeny (27 November 2008). "27 механизированный корпус" [27th Mechanized Corps]. mechcorps.rkka.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
2. Glantz 2010, p. 50.
3. Glantz 2010, p. 593.

• Glantz, David M. (2010). Barbarossa Derailed: The German Advance to Smolensk, the Encirclement Battle, and the First and Second Soviet Counteroffensives, 10 July – 24 August 1941. Philadelphia: Casemate. ISBN 9781906033729.