1st Guards Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)

1st Guards Mechanized Corps
Active	1942-1946
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Armoured Forces
Type	Mechanized Corps
Role	Breakthrough and Exploitation in Deep Operations
Size	ca. 19,000-20,000 men 180-220 tanks
Engagements	Operation Saturn Battle of Kursk Battle of Prokhorovka Lake Balaton Defensive Vienna Offensive Prague Offensive
Battle honours	Vienna

The 1st Guards 'Vienna' Order of Lenin Order of Kutuzov Mechanized Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. After the war it continued to serve with Soviet occupation forces in Central Europe. It was originally the 1st Guards Rifle Division. The unit had approximately the same size and combat power as an early-war Wehrmacht Panzer Division, or a British Armoured Division during World War II.

It was under the command of General Lieutenant Russiyanov, and gained the honorifics "Vienna, Voronezh".

In its final form, it was designated the 137th Military Base and was withdrawn from Vaziani in Georgia and disbanded in the early 1990s.

Formation

The 1st Guards Mechanized Corps was formed in November 1942 in the Tambov region during the re-establishment of the Mechanized Corps as a formation in the Red Army. It was then assigned to the Southwestern Front which was under the command of General N.F. Vatutin to participate in the encirclement of German Army Group A in Operation Saturn, which was undertaken during the Battle of Stalingrad.

The corps consisted of the following units:

Combat Units

• 1st Guards Mechanized Rifle Brigade
• 2nd Guards Mechanized Rifle Brigade
• 3rd Guards Mechanized Rifle Brigade
• 16, 17, 18, 19 Guards Tank Regiments (combined into the 9th Guards Tank Brigade by 1945)
• 116th Guards Artillery Regiment
• 1504th Guards Anti-Tank Regiment
• 267th Mortar Regiment
• 407th Guards Mortar Battalion

Support Units

• 54th Guards Signalling Battalion
• Corps Train

Changes to unit organization

• The 116th Guards Artillery Regiment had been replaced by the 382nd Guards, 1453rd, and 1821st self-propelled gun regiments by 1945.
• The 1504th Guards Anti-Tank Regiment was no longer with the corps in 1945.
• The 11th Guards Motorcycle Battalion and 1699th Anti-Aircraft Regiment had been added to the corps by 1945.

Depending on the specific tasks allotted to the Corps, units from the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Stavka reserve) could be added to help it achieve its mission. When the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps returned to the front in January 1945, its tank formations were completely equipped with American M4A2 Sherman Lend-Lease tanks.

The Corps had been re-designated the 1st Guards Mechanised Division by March 1946 and served in the Transcaucasian Military District before being reorganised as the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1957 and then the 100th Guards MRD in 1965. At some point afterwards, probably in the late 1980s, it was renamed the 171st Guards District Training Centre. It was based in Tblisi throughout the postwar period.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was redesignated as the 137th Military Base, and finally withdrawn and disbanded in the 1990s.

Combat History

1942

• Operation Saturn

1943

• Battle of Kharkov (1943)
• Battle of Kursk
• Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev
• Battle of the lower Dnepr

1944

• None

1945

• Battle of Budapest
• Vienna Offensive

Assignment

1942

• Southwestern Front
  • 3rd Guards Army

1943

• Southwestern Front

1944

• STAVKA Reserve, later part of the Kharkov Military District

1945

• 3rd Ukrainian Front

Bibliography

• Bonn, K.E. 'Slaughterhouse - The Handbook of the Eastern Front', Aberjona Press
• Erickson, J. 'The Road to Stalingrad'
• Glantz, D. 'From the Don to the Dnepr'

External links

• Red Army Studies
• Battlefield.ru
• Eastern Front.co.uk
• Lost Battalion Games Article