10th Army (Soviet Union)

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox military unit | unit_name = 10th Army | native_name = 10-я армия | image = The Battle of Bialystok (in Russian and German).jpg | caption = The initial offensive of the German Army Group "Center" in Belarus, 22–25 June 1941 | dates = 1939–1944 | country = {{USSR}} | allegiance = | branch = {{flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[Red Army]] | type = [[Combined arms]] | size = [[Field army]] | command_structure = | garrison = | garrison_label = | nickname = | patron = | motto = | colors = | colors_label = | march = | mascot = | equipment = | equipment_label = | battles = [[Second World War]] * [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] | anniversaries = | decorations = | battle_honours = | disbanded =  | commander1 = | commander1_label = | commander2 = | commander2_label = | commander3 = | commander3_label = | notable_commanders = [[Filipp Golikov]] | identification_symbol = | identification_symbol_label = | identification_symbol_2 = | identification_symbol_2_label = | identification_symbol_3 = | identification_symbol_3_label = | identification_symbol_4 = | identification_symbol_4_label = }} The '''10th Army''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: 10-я армия) of the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[Red Army]] was a [[field army]] active from 1939 to 1944.

==History== The Army was formed in September 1939, in the [[Moscow Military District]], and then deployed to the Western Special Military District. During the [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|Soviet invasion of Poland]] it consisted, according to Steven Zaloga, of the [[11th Rifle Corps]] ([[6th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|6th]], [[33rd Rifle Division|33rd]], and [[121st Rifle Division|121st RD]]); the [[16th Rifle Corps]] ([[8th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|8th]], [[52nd Rifle Division (1st formation)|52nd]], and [[55th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|55th Rifle Divisions]]); and the [[3rd Rifle Corps]] (in reserve) (33 and 113 RDs), under General [[Ivan Zakharkin]].<ref>Steven Zagola, Poland 1939, Osprey Books.</ref>

On 22 June 1941, at the onset of [[Operation Barbarossa]], the Army was part of the [[Soviet Western Front]]. It consisted of the [[1st Rifle Corps]] ([[2nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|2nd]] and [[8th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|8th Rifle Division]]s); [[5th Rifle Corps]] (including [[13th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|13th]], [[86th Rifle Division|86th]], and [[113th Rifle Division]]s); 6th Cavalry Corps ([[6th Cavalry Division (Russian Empire)|6th]] and [[36th Cavalry Division]]s) and [[5th Guards Motor Rifle Division|6th]] and 13th [[Mechanized Corps (Soviet)|Mechanised Corps]],<ref>Orbat.com/Niehorster [http://niehorster.org/012_ussr/41_oob/western/army_10.html 10th Army Order of Battle, 22 June 1941], accessed April 2008</ref> under General K.D. Golubev. It was encircled by German forces in June 1941 and largely destroyed.

By late June, the German [[Army Group Centre]] surrounded the 3rd, 4th and the 10th Armies in the [[Battle of Białystok–Minsk]]. In the end, all the formations and units of the 10th Army were defeated. On 30 June, while trying to cross the highway Minsk-Baranovichi, the army headquarters was destroyed, coming out of the remnants of the environment were addressed by fitting of the 4th Army. The headquarters was officially disbanded on 5 July 1941. The commander of the 10th Army, Major General [[Konstantin Golubev|KD Golubev]], and the army artillery commander, Major General M. Barsukov, escaping from the encirclement in a consolidated group with the August 86th Border Detachment of the NKVD, in late July Golubev was appointed commander of [[13th Army (Soviet Union)|13th Army]], which participated in the [[Battle of Smolensk (1941)|Battle of Smolensk]].

It was formed three times in 1941, next in October in the [[Southern Front (Soviet Union)|Southern Front]], but its formation 'was halted due to severe battle conditions'.<ref>Keith E. Bonn (ed)., 'Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front,' Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005, p.313</ref>

It was then reformed in November 1941 in the [[Volga region]], with nine divisions, seven of which were new formations. Soviet official websites give the nine divisions as the [[322nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|322nd]], [[323rd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|323rd]], [[324th Rifle Division|324th]], [[325th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|325th]], [[326th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|326th]], [[328th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|328th]] and [[330th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|330th Rifle]], and [[57th Cavalry Division|57th]] & [[75th Cavalry Division|75th Cavalry]], thus including two cavalry divisions. Nine of these divisions had been formed in the space of three weeks from the reserve of the [[Moscow Military District]] and been trained for 12 hours a day. General Lieutenant [[Filipp Golikov]] took command. Golikov's 1967 book describes how the army finished its concentration in the [[Penza]] area on 8 November 1941, after which 15 days were devoted to combat training and 5 days to construction of living quarters and other facilities.<ref>F.I. Golikov, 'V Moskovskoi bitve,' (In the Moscow battle), Moscow, Nauka, 1967, pp. 8–51, in [[William J. Spahr]], 'Zhukov: The Rise and Fall of a Great Captain,' Presidio Press, Novato, CA., 1993, pp. 89–91</ref> There were shortages of everything including warm winter clothing. The majority of the troops were between 30 and 40 years of age and, in some cases, up to 65% of the men had no military training. Initially part of the [[Reserve of the Supreme High Command]] (''[[Stavka]]'' Reserve), it was reassigned to the [[Western Front (Soviet Union)|Western Front]] for the [[Battle of Moscow]], after moving up to Ryazan attacking on the morning of 6 December 1941. In 1942, it continued its defensive operations on the central axis, and in 1943 took part in the [[Battle of Smolensk (1943)|second Battle of Smolensk]].

The 10th Army headquarters with associated units was withdrawn from the Western Front to the Stavka Reserve in early April (General Staff's directive of 7.04.44). From 10 April, it was moved to Roslavl, where it was to take control of the 81st and 103rd Rifle Corps (total 5 divisions). That same month, the army was disbanded and its headquarters formed the basis of Headquarters [[2nd Belorussian Front]] while its formations were reassigned to the [[49th Army]].

== Commanders == * Lieutenant-General [[Ivan Zakharkin]] (08.1939 – 10.1939) * Major-General Aleksandr Chernikov (10.1939 – 26.07.1940), * Lieutenant-General [[Vladimir Zakharovich Romanovsky]] (07.1940 – 03.1941) * Major-General [[Konstantin Golubev]] (03.1941 – 5.07.1941), army disbanded * Lieutenant-General [[Mikhail Yefremov (military commander)|Mikhail Yefremov]] (01.10.1941 – 17.10.1941), army disbanded * Lieutenant-General [[Filipp Golikov]] (01.11.1941 – 01.02.1942), * Lieutenant-General [[Vasily Popov (Soviet general)|Vasily Popov]] (02.02.1942 – 04.1944), * Lieutenant-General [[Vasily Kryuchenkin]] (04.1944 – 23.04.1944), army disbanded.

==References and sources== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a10/arm.html]

[[Category:Field armies of the Soviet Union|010]] [[Category:Military units and formations established in 1939]] [[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1944]] [[Category:1939 establishments in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Military units and formations of the Soviet invasion of Poland]]