40th Army (Soviet Union)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=40th Army


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branch=Soviet Army
dates=1941-1945, 1979~1990
country=Soviet Union
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size=varied in size; usually several divisions
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garrison=
battles=Battle of Kiev (1943)
Iassy-Kishinev Offensive
Battle of the Dnieper
Battle of Kursk
Soviet war in Afghanistan
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The 40th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a army-level command active from 1941 to 1945 and then again from 1979 to circa 1990.

It was first formed, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had commenced, from elements of the 26th and 37th Armies under the command of Major General K.P. Podlas in August 1941 at the boundary of the Bryansk Front and the Soviet Southwestern Front. By 25 August 1941 the 135th and 293rd Rifle Divisions, 2nd Parachute Corps, 10th Tank Division, and 5th Anti-Tank Brigade had been assembled to form the force. [John Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1975, p.202] It then took part in the Battle of Kiev (1941), where the Army was badly shattered, and General-Major Semenchenko's 10th Tank Division was reduced to twenty tanks. [Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, 2003 paperback edition, p.207, 210] The remnants of the Army joined Soviet Southwestern Front under Marshal Timoshenko. In June 1942, Operation Blau saw Hoth's Fourth Panzer Army thrust in full force against 40th Army, which had its headquarters overrun by 24th Panzer Division on 29-30 June. The 40th Army fell back from the Kastornoye area back to Voronezh, alongside the 4th, 17th, and 24th Tank Corps. [Erickson, 2003, p.356-8] In response, the STAVKA hastened to establish the new Voronezh Front.

During the Battle of Kursk, where the Army fought as part of Voronezh Front, it transferred a number of reinforcements to 6th Guards Army to help 6th Guards hold back the 48th Panzer Corps, including the 29th Tank Destroyer Brigade and the 1244th and 869th Tank Destroyer Regiments, a total of over 100 antitank guns. [Walter S. Dunn Jr, [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6832372 Kursk: Hitler's Gamble 1943] , Praeger Publishers, 1997 (Chapter 9: Cracking the Second Defensive Line)] 40th Army also transferred a tank brigade to 38th Army at the same time. After the battle, it was involved in the crossing of the Dnepr in September 1943 in conjunction with airborne operations. [Nikolai Viktorovich Staskov, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JAP/is_4_12/ai_112321381 1943 Dnepr airborne operation: lessons and conclusions] Military Thought, July 2003] The Army was later involved in the Battle of Kiev (1943) and in 1944, as part of 2nd Ukrainian Front, actions around the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket, Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, and the Uman-Botoshany, Iassy-Kishinev, Bratislava-Brno, and Prague offensives. [Aberjona Press, Slaughterhouse, 2005] It also fought in the Battle of Debrecen, at which, due to its low priority, it only had five divisions assigned. 40th Army was disbanded in July 1945.

The Army was re-created during May 1979 in the Turkestan Military District to cover the boundary with unstable Afghanistan with three motor rifle divisions (the 5th Guards, 108th and 68th), and entered Afghanistan (as part of the beginning of the conflict there) in December 1979 without the last division, but had the 201st MRD added to its composition during January 1980. Also with the force that entered Afghanistan were the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, 860th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment, the 56th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, and the 36th Mixed Air Corps. Later on the 201st and 58th Motor Rifle Divisions also entered the country, along with other smaller units. [Ye. I. Malashenko, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JAP/is_2_13/ai_n15623829/pg_7 Movement to contact and commitment to combat of reserve fronts] , Military Thought (military-theoretical journal of the Russian Ministry of Defense), April-June 2004] The Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan was formed on the basis of the Army HQ. General Igor Rodionov, later Russian Minister of Defence, commanded the Army in 1985-6.

After the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, [A fine study of the Soviet withdrawal, based on Soviet official documentation, has been written by the Foreign Military Studies Office and is available at fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/Withdrawal.pdf] 40th Army was reduced to 59th Army Corps, but again reformed on June 4, 1991, at Semipalatinsk from HQ 32nd Army. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Army became part of the Military of Kazakhstan and was redesignated the 1st Army Corps.

Commanders of 40th Army 1980-1989

* General-Lieutenant Yuri Tukharinov (Тухаринов Юрий Владимирович) Ввод ОКСВ в ДРА — 23.9.1980 г.
* General Lieutenant Boris Tkach (Ткач Борис Иванович) 23.9.1980 - 7.5.1982
* General-Lieutenant Viktor Ermakov (Ермаков Виктор Федорович) 7.5.1982 - 4.11.1983
* Генерал-лейтенант Генералов Леонид Евстафьевич 4.11.1983 г.-19.4.1985 г.
* General-Lieutenant Igor Rodionov 19.4.1985 г.-30.4.1986
* General Lieutenant Dubnin Viktor Petrovich Дубынин Виктор Петрович 30.4.1986-1.6.1987
* General Lieutenant Boris Gromov 1.6.1987 -15.2.1989

References, Sources, Further Reading

*Feskov et al, The Soviet Army in the period of the Cold War, Tomsk University Press, Tomsk, 2004
*http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a40/arm.html
*http://www.soldat.ru/force/sssr/afganistan/perechen.html (RU) - Russian language working list of all units that served in Afghanistan 1979-89