Soviet rifle corps in World War II
The6th Guards Danube Rifle Corps was arifle corps of theRed Army duringWorld War II. During the war, it formed part of the8th,2nd Shock,1st Guards,46th,37th, and57th Armies.
The corps headquarters was formed on 16 March 1942 inMalaya Vishera for the continuation of the offensive during theBattle of Lyuban. Initially, the corps included one rifle division and one airborne brigade, in addition to the 42nd Guards Corps Artillery Regiment, which supported the corps for almost the rest of the war.
The corps was part of the 'operational army' from 28 March to 13 October 1942, and 5 November 1942 to 9 May 1945.
During the fighting inVolkhov, the corps did not see combat. In the summer, in anticipation of theSinyavino offensive, the corps received new units and relocated slightly to the north. In September 1942 the Corps was involved in the Sinyavino offensive. The Corps was put into action as part of the offensive on 27 August 1942. The offensive of the corps initially found success, as it crossed the Chyornaya river and broke through the first line of German defenses at the junction of the227th and223rd Infantry Divisions. In two days the corps reached the approaches toSinyavino. Subsequently, the3rd Guards Rifle Division launched an attack on Workers Settlement No. 5, the24th Guards Rifle Division advanced on Lake Sinyavinskaya, and the19th Guards Rifle Division directly attacked Sinyavino. The corps was unsuccessful in making any further advance, soon was surrounded, and suffered heavy losses. The corps began withdrawing from the positions it reached near Sinyavino on 27 September. In October, the corps headquarters was transferred to theReserve of the Supreme High Command (Stavka Reserve).
On 23 October, the corps was assigned new units: the38th and44th Guards and266th Rifle Divisions. At the end of November the corps was relocated to the area ofVerkhny Mamon. From December the corps went on the offensive in theMiddle Don offensive from the Osetrovo bridgehead on the Don and secured the breakthrough for tanks of the18th Tank Corps, after which it developed the offensive, following the tanks towardsMillerovo. The troops of the corps liberatedBoguchar on 19 December, and on the same day the tanks reached the town of Meshkov. On the next day the corps deployed near Millerovo and on 26 December it entered the battle for the city, which continued until the liberation of that city on 17 January. After the liberation of Millerovo, the corps deployed to the west and began fighting its way towards theSeversky Donets.
Postwar, the 6th Guards Rifle Corps was moved to Romania along with the 57th Army. The20th Guards Rifle Division became the 25th Guards Mechanized Division and was stationed atGiurgiu. The61st Guards Rifle Division was stationed atBrănești. The10th Guards Airborne Division became the 126th Guards Rifle Division and was stationed atBuda. In December 1946, the corps was disbanded, along with the 61st and 126th Guards Rifle Divisions.[1]
- Major General Ivan Korovnikov (16 March–21 April 1942)
- Colonel Sergey Roginsky (22 April–5 June 1942; promoted to Major General 13 May 1942)
- Major General Sergey Biyakov (6 June–6 October 1942)
- Colonel Ivan Alfyorov (7 October 1942–30 December 1943; promoted to major general 31 December 1942)
- Major GeneralGrigory Kotov (31 December 1943–killed 7 November 1944; promoted to lieutenant general 13 September 1944)
- Colonel Mikhail Zaychikov (8–20 November 1944)
- Lieutenant General Stepan Morozov (21 November 1944–19 March 1945)
- Lieutenant General Nikolay Dreyer (20 March 1945–11 June 1946)
- Lieutenant General Fyodor Zakharov (June–December 1946)
- ^Feskov et al 2013, p. 423
- 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.
Soviet Union corps