1st Guards Cavalry Zhytomyr Red Banner Corps (Russian: 1-й гвардейский кавалерийский Житомирский Краснознаменный корпус) was a military unit of the Soviet Red Army which was renamed from the 2nd Cavalry Corps. Led by Pavel Belov it was involved in several colossal combat operations during World War II, with its most stupendous accomplishments seen during the Battle of Moscow.
Despite being a cavalry unit, the guards have a long and robust history of successful warfare among all allied units. The cavalry men proved themselves as valuable units from the early days of Operation Barbarossa until the last days of the war. Belov's group was the first major formation to successfully push the Germans back during the counter-offensive of the Battle of Moscow. By 1942, the unit had its reputation as the "Fire Squad" from Stalin himself. During the Battle of Rzhev-Vyazma the Cavalry Corps was among the few units to break through the German lines, leaving most of the heavy weapons behind. As a result, despite many difficulties, they achieved the longest successful raid of the Second World War, surpassing the besieged 62nd Army (Soviet Union) at Stalingrad.
By the second half of the war, the cavalrymen who often spearheaded the front of the 1st Ukrainian Front were able to make even more significant breakthroughs behind enemy lines using the advanced Cavalry mechanized group, which resulted in a faster enemy line collapse. In January 1945, the guards who at the time fought with the 60th Army helped in its liberation of Auschwitz. After continuing its drive towards Berlin it was redirected south, occupying Dresden. The 1st Cavalry Corps met with the Americans on the Elbe River in late April 1945. By the end of the war just the 2nd Guards Cavalry division, which by then counted eighteen Heroes of the Soviet Union, liberated two camps and taken over 16,000 German prisoners along with much equipment over the month of April. Their commander Mamsurov, Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich, for his accomplishments in the war, would participate in the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945. By the end of the war, the guards became one of the most decorated and accomplished units of the Red Army.
Organization By order of the NCO No. 342 of November 26, 1941, the 2nd Cavalry Corps named after The Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR was transformed into the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps. The 5th Cavalry Division was transformed into the 1st Guards Cavalry Division and the 9th Cavalry Division into the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division. By mid-1942, the 7th Guards Cavalry Division became the 3rd core division of the Corps, with 143rd Guards Fighter Anti-Tank Regiment joining in mid-1943. The corps consisted of 5 cavalry divisions at the time of the raid which included the 3 divisions from the 10th Cavalry Corps, the 41st Cavalry Division, 57th Cavalry Division, and the 75th Cavalry Division. It can be derived that the corps had approximately 18000 personnel, 15000 horses, 120 tanks, and 140 artillery guns, based on the size of a typical cavalry unit at corps strength in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.
Body composition: (as of May 1, 1945)
1st Guards Cavalry Stavropol Order of Lenin, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Division
61st Tank Zhytomyr Red Banner Regiment (from September 26, 1943);
2nd Guards Cavalry Crimean Order of Lenin, Red Banner twice, Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Division
230th Tank Regiment (from October 8, 1943, to December 30, 1943);
58th Tank Katowice Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Regiment (since May 22, 1944);
7th Guards Cavalry Zhytomyr Red Banner, Order of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Division
87th Tank Zhytomyr Red Banner Regiment (from September 29, 1943);
1244th Self-propelled Artillery Przemysl Order of Alexander Nevsky Regiment (from March 1944 to May 1945)
1461st self-propelled artillery Zhytomyr Red Banner Regiment (October 1943-January 1944)
143rd Guards Fighter-anti-tank Artillery Zhytomyr Red Banner Regiment;
1st Separate Guards Fighter-anti-tank Order of the Red Star division;
49th Separate Guards Mortar Division;
1st Guards Mortar Zhytomyr Red Banner Regiment of Rocket Artillery;
319th Anti-aircraft Artillery Katowice Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Regiment;
1st separate Guards anti-aircraft battery
Parts of the corps subordination:
1st Separate Guards Order of the Red StarCommunications Division (until May 1, 1942 – 10th Separate Communications Division);
187th separate motor transport battalion;
349th field auto repair base;
256th laundry squad;
27th field car factory;
1561st military postal station.
In operational subordination:
436th Fighter Aviation Regiment in the period from January 18, 1942, to February 4, 1942, on I-16 aircraft
28th Mixed Aviation Division between December 25, 1941, and January 25, 1942
Defensive Operations in Moscow 1941
Holding Tula On 14 October 1941, the German Army Group Centre resumed its offensive operations against the Soviet capital city of Moscow and merely 4 days later two crucial fortified regions of Mozhaisk and Maloyaroslavets were captured. Following that, Naro-Fominsk was seized on the 21st and on the 27th, the greatly defended city which sat on the Volga reservoir, Volokolamsk, was subsequently annexed. By then, the only city which remained in the hands of the Soviet Red Army on the Mozhaisk Defense Line was the city of Tula. On 29 October, the 2nd Panzer Group under Generaloberst Heinz Wilhelm Guderian advanced towards Tula upon orders from the Oberkommando des Heer(OKH), the German Army High Command, and a few days prior Tula was already declared to be in a state of siege.
In order to hold Tula, which was a city that was essential to the Soviet war efforts against the Wehrmacht's Army Group Center in its push towards Moscow, the STAVKA High Command ordered the 2nd Cavalry Corps under the command of Major General Pavel Alexeyevich Belov, with its flanks reinforced by the 10th, 49th and 50th Armies to defend the city. The mobile horsemen of the cavalry corps, which primarily served as dismounted infantrymen as the cavalry soldiers of the Eastern Front during World War Two would, conventionally, dismount from their horses and conceal them in safe positions before storming the battlefield as riflemen. The combined efforts of the cavalry corps and the several Soviet armies were capable of repelling Guderian's strikes towards Tula, and on 31 October Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, the Head of OKH, ordered that offensive operations against Moscow as part of the strategic Operation Typhoon be ceased due to logistical problems and supply shortages as winter approached, considering that the supply lines could not be further stretched and have efforts overly exerted upon their military culminating point.
Battles around Kashira On 18 November 1941, the OKH issued an order for Generaloberst Heinz Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group to bypass Tula and drive towards Kashira, a strategic stronghold located 120 kilometers southwest of Moscow and 80 kilometers northeast of Tula. Kashira was of paramount significance as not only did it serve as the headquarters of the Soviet Western Front, but also as the only significant barricade left between the 2nd Panzer Group and the Soviet capital. Should Kashira fall, Moscow would inevitably be seized by the Wehrmacht. The 2nd Panzer Group swept formidably through Venev and were storming towards Kashira at a rapid pace, motivated by the unwavering blitzkrieg spirit.
In a desperate attempt to defend against the German onslaught, the STAVKA High Command hurled the 2nd Cavalry Corps under the command of Major General Pavel Belov, later renamed the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps on 26 November, the 112th Tank Division led by General Andrei Getman, an armored brigade, a battalion of BM-13 Katyusha rocket launchers and air support at the armoured beasts of the 2nd Panzer Group. The cavalrymen of the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps were armed primarily with the SVT-40 semi-automatic battle rifle and the Cossack shashka, which was the traditional sabre of the Cossack horsemen. The cavalrymen, along with the T34 and KV1 tanks wielded by the 112th Tank Division battled ferociously against the Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs of the 2nd Panzer Group, and the Soviet units were launching powerful strikes against the German formations as envisaged by the Deep Battle doctrine, whereby an earthshaking artillery barrage would commence to shatter and thoroughly demoralize the frontal forces of the opponent prior to the assault and subsequent exploitation by the mobile units which, in this case, were the cavalrymen of the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and tankmen from the 112th Tank Division. After a vicious fight had ensued, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and 112th Tank Division's combined efforts proved to be extremely effective, repelling the 2nd Panzer Group back by 40 kilometers, towards the town of Mordves.
Since that clash between the Soviet mobile troops and the 2nd Panzer in the vicinity of Kashira, the ability of the German forces located south in the Tula Oblast to conduct a thrust north towards Moscow was greatly hampered, resulting in the attacks by the 2nd Panzer Group towards the heart of the Soviet state to eventually be stalled. Thus, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps held not just Kashira, but also hindered the Germans' capability of conducting a thrust towards Moscow in the south, saving Moscow and the Western Front from capitulation, which adequately demonstrated the fighting abilities of the valiant cavalrymen of the corps who were unflinching in battle.
Moscow Counteroffensive Phase: Pushing back the Panzers Defeating Guderian
On 5 December 1941, the State Defence Committee, also known as the GKO, issued an order for the counteroffensive against Army Group Center to commence. It was on the same day that the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and 9th Tank Brigade, with their flanks supported by the infantrymen of the 332nd Rifle Division, 10th and 50th Armies, mounted a powerful assault on General Heinz Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group. The courage and combat effectiveness of the cavalry corps were unmatched, and the panzer group, which had been plagued with logistical issues as well as problems that arose along with the harsh winter, including the rampant growth in numbers of soldiers getting frostbites and tank's engines and fuels freezing, was already incapable of wielding the colossal armored power which it had once possessed against the opponents. Guderian's panzers were subdued spectacularly by the horsemen of the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps, tankmen of the 9th Tank Brigade, and the supporting infantry. This allowed General Pavel Belov to liberate numerous towns, including the crucial town of Stalinogorsk, which had fallen into the hands of the 2nd Panzer Group on 21 November.
As the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps continued advancing with much impetus, Guderian's forces were being pushed back rapidly. Later, the "panzer leader" requested permission to withdraw his forces to prevent further losses from being sustained, but it was turned down. Due to the fact that the cavalry corps were proclaiming an overwhelming number of victories over the German panzers, the disappointed and infuriated Fuhrer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, summoned Guderian back to the base of Wolfsschanze in East Prussia on 20 December, and subsequently relieved him of his command on Christmas Day 1941. In this battle, the cavalry corps completely and swiftly subdued and repelled the once victorious 2nd Panzer Group which was commanded by the inventor of modern armored warfare and swept ferociously across the Russian steppe. This was indeed, not just one of the corps' greatest achievements but also that of the entire Red Army of the Soviet Union.
General Offensive Phase: 7 January to 20 April 1942
Cutting the Minsk-Moscow Highway