Red Army 1942
Strength and Organisation of the Soviet Armed Forces

On 5 December 1941, in temperatures of minus 30 degrees centigrade, the Red Army launched its counter-offensive with 720,000 men, 670 tanks (205 of which were heavy and medium models), 5900 guns and mortars and 415 rocket launchers. The offensive was the first success of the Red Army and was a tremendous boost to morale.
During the first months of the 1942 campaign, Stalin decreed an all-out offensive, but the operation ended in disaster as the Soviet armies were encircled and destroyed by the German Army Group South's own offensive. The Soviet forces were pushed back deep into the Caucasus. The bitterest fighting was concentrated around the key position of Stalingrad, and it was here that the German offensive foundered, unable to dislodge the Soviet defenders whose stubborn resistance during the autumn of 1942 was one of the turning points of the war.

In December 1941, the strength of the Red Army was estimated to 280 infantry and cavalry divisions and 44 motorized infantry and armored divisions.
In March, the spring thaw brought the fighting activity on both sides to a halt. Only from May the fighting could be continued.
In April 1942 a total of 51 additional allied divisions from the Axis countries Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and one Spanish volunteers division had been moved to the Eastern Front. At this time the Germans were superior in material, especially on airplanes and tanks, to the Soviets.
In May, the Russian operational reserves were estimated at about 60 divisions. According to reliable Swedish sources, the Russians had at this time only 35 divisions available as reserves - which could be true under the assumption that the conscription of the 1924 age group was not yet fully recovered.
The Soviet Union possessed at the same time over 8,190 armored vehicles, but including were those held in reserve and those stationed in the Middle and Far East (more than 2,000 armoured vehicles).

Between May 11 and 29, 1942 the Russian 6th, 57th and the mass of the 9th Army were encircled and destroyed around Kharkov. In this battle the Russians lost alone 240,000 prisoners, 1,300 tanks and 2,000 guns were captured or destroyed.
Also in May the German 11th Army under Manstein conquered the island part of Kerch in the Crimea, where the Russians lost 170,000 soldiers. Until July 2, Manstein was also able to conquer the fortress of Sevastopol, were the Soviets lost additional 100,000 men of their total strength.

At the beginning of the German summer offensive of 1942 (June 28, 1942) were about 120 Russian divisions compared to 100 divisions of the Axis Powers (50 German, 9 Italian, 27 Romanian, 13 Hungarian and one Slovakian) of Army Group South, which were supported by 1,500 aircrafts.

Important Red Army units in 1942:

The Soviet High Command considered divisions to be an expendable unit and a week's hard fighting on the Eastern Front could reduce its establishment strength by half. It was not Red Army practice to replace the losses of front-line units: they were allowed to run down to a point where they were either disbanded or pulled out of the line for rebuilding. Thus a nominal division might well have the actual strength of a regiment. Similiary, not only were Soviet units 'overrated', but they were often 'underlede', so that in some cases full-strength divisions were commanded by colonnels.

Throughout 1942 the size of Soviet Rifle divisions decreased but this was compensated by a steady increase in fire-power derived from an increase in mortars and regimental artillery. But needless to say these rifle divisions could not match the combined-arms divisions of the German Army.
A particular feature of the Rifle division was the increase in infantry fire-power occasioned by the widespread introduction of the sub-machine gun PPSh41 - over 2,000 men were later normally equipped with sub-machine guns. The Russians had realised the value of sub-machine guns before the war but it was not until late 1942 that the front-line troops were receiving them in sufficient quantity.
The Infantry armies varying considerably in size from 60,000 to 120,000 men. They could be augmented by the temporary attachment of independent tank and artillery units so they could expand to over 200,000 men.

A basic problem facing the Russians throughout the war was a shortage of technically skilled personnel and in the artillery arms this dearth was most keenly felt. The solution was to concentrate the best artillerymen into large specialised brigades and divisions where their skills could be improved and put to best use.
In 1941 the vast majority of artillery pieces were distributed among the rifle divisions. After the disasters of 1941 and early 1942 when thousands of guns were lost, Soviet industry began mass artillery production. Rather than rush reserves to the divisions at the front, however, the Stavka re-organised artillery into brigades and divisions. Thus, by the end of the war, nearly three-quarters of the artillery was held back from the rifle divisions and organised in centralised formations.

Tank brigades were combined into tank corps which were the Soviet equivalent to German Panzer divisions and likewise played a similar, central role. By 1943 there were 26 corps.

Picture: this T-70 light tank has been disabled by a mine. The light tanks T-60 and T-70 were the second most build Russian tanks after the T-34 in 1942 (9,357 = 38%) and 1943 (3,463 = 14%), but their guns were inadequate against German tanks.

The other important motorised, mobile, divisional-size formation was the mechanized corps which, with a strength of nearly 18,000 men in 1944, was the largest and most powerful in the Soviet Army.

In addition to the tank and mechanised formations were the cavalry divisions, of which were 40 in 1941. They were held in high regard in the Red Army. During the spring thaw and late autumn before the coming of the snows, much of Russia was impassable to motor traffic, and horse-power came into its own. In April 1945 there were still 34 cavalry divisions in the Red Army, and it was not until the mid-1950s that the last horsed cavalry units were finally disbanded.

In the summer of 1942, eight Airborne Corps in the process of formation were converted into Guards rifle divisions and some of them found themselves fighting as infantry in the ruins of Stalingrad.

Red Air Force

The enforced lull in air operations during the winter period allowed the Red Air Force to recover from the first shocks. Training was improved and the quality of the aircrews rose generally through direct combat experience.
The re-siting of industry east of the Urals began to bear fruit with military aircraft production rising rapidly: 2,000 a month by mid-1942 (total of 9,924 fighters, 8,219 ground attack and 3,537 bombers in 1942), 2,500 by November 1943 (total 14,590 fighters, 11,177 ground attack and 4,074 bombers in 1943) and 3,355 by the summer of 1944 (itotal 17,913 fighters, 11,110 ground attack and 4,186 Bomber in 1944). Not only did the quantity of planes rise, but so too did the quality. 1942 saw the widespread introduction of improved models including the Ilyushin II-2 Sturmovik ground-attack plane and Yak and Lavochkin fighters.

In May 1942 there were 3,164 aircraft, of which where 2,115 modern planes, at the Russian Western Front. Although the Red Air Force found itself overwhelmed by the German Luftwaffe during the summer offensive of 1942, the numbers and quality of Soviet aircraft were progressively increasing. Thus, when the counter-offensive around Stalingrad was launched, the Red Air Force was able to assume the tactical initiative. From 19 November 1942 to 2 February 1943, the Red Air Force on the southern sector flew nearly 36,000 sorties as against 18,500 of the Luftwaffe.

The organisational changes of the first few months of the war expanded in the reforms of spring 1942, the emphasis being on centralised control of Red Air Force formations.
The first step was the formation of the Air Army, which would be assigned to a particular front under the control of an Air Force general who would act as aerial adviser to the ground forces commander.
The first Air Armies consisted of two fighter and two mixed-type air divisions, a night-fighter and a training regiment, with a squadron each of reconnaissance and communication planes. By the end of 1942 some 13 air armies had been brought into existence.
The recovery of the Soviet aircraft industry and arrival of lend-lease planes in 1942 made possible to increase the size of the Air Force units: fighter and ground-attack regiments were given a third squadron, giving them a total strength of 32 aircraft and 160-180 men. By 1943 most regiments had about 40 aircraft divided into three 12-plane squadrons each of three four-plane flights, plus four command and reserve aircraft.
In 1942-43 a typical strength of an air army was just under 1,000 aircraft.

In addition to the reorganised 'Front' Air Force, there was the growing importance of reseve air groups under Stavka control. By November 1942 the Stavka reserve consisted of ten air corps which each normally comprised three air divisions of three regiments (each fighter regiment possessing 32 aircraft, and each bomber regiment 20).

Picture: MiG-3 fighters over Leningrad. Introduced shortly before the war they were no match for Luftwaffe fighters and after 1942 used only for armed reconaissance and close support.

Red Navy

The Russian Navy was organised in four geographical fleets: Baltic, Black Sea, Pacific and Arctic.

Based at Nicolaiev, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Poti and Batum the Black Sea Fleet consisted in 1941 of:

• 1 battleship
• 6 cruisers
• 18 destroyers
• 44 submarines
• 84 motor torpedo-boats
• 18 minesweepers
• 56 escort, patrol and river craft

Picture: battleship Sevastopol is firing on German positions during the siege of the city of Sevastopol. She had twelve 30.5cm guns and a maximum speed of 23 kn.

The Baltic Fleet assisted in the defence of Leningrad. It operated 1941 from bases and dockyards at Kronstadt, Tallinn and Libau and comprised:

• 2 battleships
• 4 cruisers
• 30 destroyers and torpedo-boats
• 69 submarines
• 48 motor torpedo-boats
• 113 minesweepers
• 86 escort, patrol and river craft
• 50 armoured motor gunboats

The Arctic Fleet's operations included the reception of Allied convoys and interception of German coastal traffic from Norway. Based at Polyarnyy and Archangel, in 1941 the Arctic Fleet comprosed:

• 11 destroyers and torpedo-boats
• 15 submarines
• 2 motor torpedo-boats
• 3 minesweepers
• 120 escort, patrol and river craft

Lastly, the Pacific Fleet, based at Vladivostok and Nicolaiev-Komsomolsk, consisted in 1941 of:

• 22 destroyers and torped-boats
• 85 submarines
• 135 motor torpedo-boats
• 68 minesweepers
• 3 escort and patrol craft

Early warship losses through air and mine warfare, fuel shortages, icebound seas and other operational and maintenance limitations meant that large numbers of sailors (33,000 in the Crimea and Arctic alone) were soon being landed to steam the German advance.