Russian Airborne Troops - Interwar and World War II

Interwar and World War II

The first airborne forces parachute jump is dated to 2 August 1930, taking place in the Moscow Military District. Airborne landing detachments were established after the initial 1930 experimental jump, but creation of larger units had to wait until 1932-33. On 11 December 1932, a Revolutionary Military Council order established an airborne brigade from the existing detachment in the Leningrad Military District. To implement the order, a directive of the Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs transformed the Leningrad Military District’s 3rd Motorised Airborne Landing Detachment into the 3rd Airborne Brigade (Special Purpose) commanded by M.V. Boytsov. Two further airborne brigades (the 13th and 47th) and three airborne regiments (the 1st, 2nd, and 5th, all in the Far East) were created in 1936. In March and and April 1941, five airborne corps were established on the basis of the existing 201st, 204th, 2llth, 212th, and 214th Airborne Brigades. The number of Airborne Corps rose from five to ten in late 1941, but then all the airborne corps were converted into "Guards" Rifle Divisions in the northern hemisphere summer of 1942.

The Soviet airborne forces were mostly used as 'foot' infantry during the war. Only a few small airborne drops were carried out in the first desperate days of Operation Barbarossa, in the vicinity of Kiev, Odessa, and the Kerch peninsula. The two significant airborne operations of the war were the Vyazma operation of February–March 1942, involving 4th Airborne Corps, and the Dnepr/Kiev operation of September 1943, involving a temporary corps formation consisting of 1st, 3rd, and 5th Airborne Brigades.

Airborne corps 22 June 1941: Source soldat.ru forums.

• 1st Airborne Corps: Major General Usenko Matvei Alekseyevich (on 23 June – October 1941 year)
  Colonel, 19 January 1942 Major General Zholudev Victor Grigorevich (on December 15, 1941 – July 1942)
  Major General Alexander Peter Alekseyevich (September – December 1942).
• 2nd Airborne Corps:
  Major General Kharitonov Fedor Mikhaylovich (23 June – 9 September 1941)
  Colonel Gubarevich Joseph Ivanovich (May – October 1941)
  Colonel, since 1942 Major General Tikhonov Mikhail Fedorovich (September 1941 – May 1942).
• 3rd Airborne Corps: (ru:3-й воздушно-десантный корпус (СССР))
  Major General Glazunov Vasiliy Afanasevich (June 23 – 29 August 1941)
  Colonel Travnikov Nikolai Grigorevich (September 1941 – March 1942)
  Colonel Afanasev Fedor Alexandrovich (February – July 1942).
• 4th Airborne Corps: (ru:4-й воздушно-десантный корпус (СССР))
  Major General Zhadov Aleksey Semenovich (23 June – 2 August 1941)
  Colonel, 19 January 1942 Major General Levashev Aleksey Fedorovich (November 1941 – February 23, 1942)
  Colonel, 13 May 1942 Major General Kazankin Alexander Fedorovich (23 February 1942 – December 1942).

• 5th Airborne Corps: (ru:5-й воздушно-десантный корпус (СССР))
  Major General Bezuglyy Ivan Semenovich (June – October 1941)
  Colonel Gur'yev Stepan Savelevich (3 October 1941 – August 1942)
  Colonel Afanasev Fedor Alexandrovich (August – November 1942)
  Major General of Shore Duty Parafilo Terenty Mikhaylovich (25 November – December 1942)

Airborne corps formed after 22 June 1941:

• 6th Airborne Corps:
  Major General Pastrevich Alexander Ivanovich (October 1941 – August 1942)
  Major General Kirzimov Alexander Ilyich (August – December 1942)
• 7th Airborne Corps:
  Colonel, since 1942 Major General Gubarevich Joseph Ivanovich (October 1941 – August 1942)
  Major General Lyapin Peter Ivanovich (August – December 1942).
• 8th Airborne Corps:
  Colonel, 1942 Major General Glazkov Vasiliy Andreevich (October 1941 – August 1942)
  Colonel Konev Ivan Nikitin (29 August – December 1942).
• 9th Airborne Corps:
  Major General Bezuglyy Ivan Semenovich (October 1941 – March 30, 1942, “for the use of combat aircraft for personal purposes, the non-fulfillment within the required period of the orders of the military council VDV (Airborne Troops) about the transfer of aircraft to other formations” removed from the held post, and is from June lowered in the service rank to Colonel)
  Colonel, since 1942 Major General Denisenko Mikhail Ivanovich (March – August 1942)
  Colonel Mamontov Aleksey Georgievich (18 August – 29 October 1942)
  Major General Travnikov Nikolai Grigorevich (October 29 – December 1942).
• 10th Airborne Corps:Colonel, 1942 Major General Ivanov Nikolai Petrovich (November 1941 – August 1942)
  Major General Kapitokhin Alexander Grigorevich (August 29 – December 1942).

From December 1942 a total of sixteen Guards Airborne Divisions began to be formed, numbered 1st-16th (Slaughterhouse, 388). 5th Guards Airborne Division (ru:5-я гвардейская воздушно-десантная дивизия) was formed from 9th Airborne Corps (2nd formation).

David Glantz wrote in 1984:

In August, the Stavka formed the 37th, 38th, and 39th Guards Airborne corps. By October, the newly formed corps had combined into a separate airborne army under Maj. Gen. I. I. Zatevakhin. However, because of the growing need for well-trained ground units, the new army did not endure long as an airborne unit. In December, separate airborne army the Stavka reorganized the separate airborne army into the 9th Guards Army of Col. Gen. V. V. Glagolev, and all divisions were renumbered as guards rifle divisions. As testimony to the elite nature of airborne-trained units, the Stavka held the 9th Guards Army out of defensive actions, using it only for exploitation during offensives.

At the end of the war the airborne divisions were reconstituted as Guards Rifle Divisions.

• 37th Guard Svirsk Airborne Corps (19 January – 9 August 1944, and from 30 December 1944, 37th Guards Rifle Corps):
  General Lieutenant Mironov Pavel Vasilyevich (19 January 1944 – May 1946)
  • 98th Guards Svirsk Rifle Division
  • 99th Guards Svirsk Rifle Division
  • 103rd Guards Rifle Division
• 38th Guard Airborne Corps:
  Major General, from November 5, General Lieutenant Kapitokhin Alexander Grigorevich (August 9, 1944 year – March 25, 1945)
  General Lieutenant Utvenko Alexander Ivanovich (26 March 1945 – July 1946)
  • 104th Guards Rifle Division
  • 105th Guards Rifle Division
  • 106th Guards Rifle Division
• 39th Guard Airborne Corps:
  General Lieutenant Tikhonov Mikhail Fedorovich (August 1944 – June 1945).
  • 100th Guards Rifle Division
  • 107th Guards Rifle Division
  • 114th Guards Rifle Division (from 14th Guards Airborne Division (2nd formation))