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22nd Combined Arms Army (22 OA)

The 22nd Combined Arms Army (22 OA) was disbanded in 2009. On the basis of the headquarters of the 13th Army Corps, by 01.03.1991, the 22nd Guards Combined Arms Konigsberg Army was deployed to ensure the cantonment of units and formations withdrawn from Eastern Europe. 22nd Combined Arms Army (22 OA), whose command already in May 1945 arrived in southern Ukraine, where in summer, together with the command and troops of the Separate Maritime Army located in the Crimea, they formed a new Tauride District. The 109th SK, who arrived with the army, combined the divisions in the Crimea since 1944 with the -315,392,414th.

On the basis of divisions of the 31st and 47th divisions, the 3rd motorized rifle division was formed, which formed the basis of the army, and due to the remaining equipment of the 47th division, the 1,174th BHVT ( Novosmolino ) was formed (disbanded in December 2005).

The 22nd Army was formed in June 1941 on the basis of the divisions of the Ural Military District (UrVO) as part of the 51st and 62nd rifle corps (a total of six rifle divisions). June 13, 1941 all divisions of the Ural Military District received a directive to move to the Western Special Military District (ZOVO). The relocation took place in strict secrecy: the address of the new cantonment was given to the division commanders only when traveling through Moscow. The command of the army was entrusted to the commander of the Ural Military District Lieutenant General F. A. Ershakov, who commanded the district troops in Sverdlovsk in the prewar years.

In June 1941, the 22nd Combined Arms Army departed to the Western Front. The German Blitzkrieg suffered its first defeat on June 22, 1941. The frontier post resistance, the Brest Fortress, battles along the entire border. The army did not scatter, the rear rallied. But the Germans continued the offensive, which fit into the blitzkrieg schedule. This continued until the beginning of July 1941. The fact is that on the Soviet border, in the region of Sebezh, Idritsa on the so-called “Stalin Line”, the enemy was met by the 22nd Combined Arms Army of the reserve of the High Command, Lieutenant General F. A. Ershakov, relocated to June from the Ural Military District, which then included the BASSR.

The army occupied the Sebezh fortified area and forced the Wehrmacht to stagnate. Her divisions fought out of the encirclement, fell into it again, broke through, heroically defended Great Luke, until they were crushed by the enemy. But it was from this time that the blitzkrieg ceased to exist as a plan, its time frame was hopelessly expired. And the SS division “Dead Head”, after taking Sebezh in general, was withdrawn for staffing.

As part of the 22nd army, two infantry divisions fought from Bashkiria - the 170th, formed in Sterlitamak, Belebey, Davlekanovo (commander, Major General T.K. Silkin) and the 186th, formed in Ufa, Beloretsk, Birsk (commander Major General N.I. Biryukov). The divisions had control, a small contingent of officers and junior commanders, and were to be replenished with mobilized ones, those who had already served, they became sergeants, and those of military age. In May 1941, the "Big training camps" began. The personnel of the 170th Infantry Division can be called Bashkir, because young people were mainly drafted from our villages - Miyakinsky, Fedorovsky, Sterlibashevsky, Sterlitamaksky, Ishimbaysky, Gafuriysky, Kugarchinsky, Beloretsky, Burzyansky, Alsheevsky and other districts. Of course, Russians, Tatars, and Chuvashs served in it, and Ukrainians are residents of these areas and nearby cities. About the same situation was with the 186th Infantry Division. In the 170th division, which had fought since July 7, was almost completely killed, but the banners were taken out of the encirclement. Her commander Silkin fought heroically, who went missing during a breakthrough from the encirclement.

In stubborn defensive battles in Belarus, the formations of this army suffered heavy losses. But then, until the end of August 1941, they stubbornly held positions in the area of ??the city of Velikiye Luki, holding down large enemy forces and making it possible to deploy strategic reserves on the outskirts of Moscow. The defense line of the 22nd Army included the Sebezh and Polotsk fortified areas, then upstream of the Zapadnaya Dvina River to Vitebsk. The border with the North-Western Front passed through the settlements of Kraslava, Dagda, Opochka.

On July 4, German troops occupied a bridgehead in the vicinity of Disna on the right (northern) bank of the Western Dvina River. Fights for the bridgehead continued throughout the first decade of July: the Germans tried to expand the bridgehead, the Soviet troops - to eliminate it. Particularly heavy fighting took place on July 8th. On this day, the commander of the 126th division, Major General M.A. Kuznetsov, was mortally wounded, two regiment commanders, the chief of staff of the division and the chief of the 1st division of staff, were out of order. On July 8, the defense of the 22nd Army was broken through near the village of Ulla west of Vitebsk. Three divisions of the 39th motorized corps of the 3rd tank group of the enemy broke through to Vitebsk. It turned out that the line of the Sebezh fortified area was also broken.

On July 12, the 57th motorized corps of the 3rd Panzer Group launched an offensive from the bridgehead in the area of ??Disna and broke through to the Dretun station. As a result, the 22nd Army was dismembered. On July 16, her 174th Infantry Division was forced to leave Polotsk. On July 16, the enemy managed to encircle the 51st Army Rifle Corps west of the city of Nevel, and on July 20 to occupy Great Luke.

On July 21, 1941, army formations knocked out the enemy from Velikiye Luki and resolutely counterattacked him in the Nevel region, ensuring that the 51st Rifle Corps left the encirclement and the entire army retreated to the heights east of Nevel. Subsequently, the army established itself at the turn: the upper reaches of the Lovat River - Velikiye Luki - Lake Dvigne, and held it for a month, fettling up to 10 enemy divisions and providing a junction of the Northwest and Western Fronts until the end of August 1941. In the battles near Smolensk, the 22nd Army defended itself on a 280-km-long front, with no aviation or anti-aircraft artillery. Despite the difficult conditions, she thwarted the enemy’s attempts to circumvent the left flank of the Northwest and the right flank of the Western fronts.

In the fall of 1942 and in the winter of 1943, the soldiers of another infantry division formed in the Urals, the 40th Guards, heroically fought near Stalingrad. And parts of the 150th Ural Rifle Division were the first in April 1945 to break into the center of Berlin. For their dedicated work during the war years, 12.9 thousand citizens were awarded orders and medals, 26 industrial enterprises of Sverdlovsk were awarded government awards. The headquarters of the Ural Military District was located in the city, on the basis of which more than 500 different military units and formations were formed, including the 22nd Army and the legendary Ural Volunteer Tank Corps (from volunteers from Sverdlovsk, Molotov and Chelyabinsk).

On the basis of the headquarters of the 13th Army Corps, on March 1, 1991, the 22nd Combined Arms Army was deployed to ensure the cantonment of units and formations withdrawn from Eastern Europe. In 2009-2010, all divisions that survived after years of reduction were turned into brigades. It was believed that a big war was not expected, and the brigades were better suited for conducting military operations in regional conflicts such as the Chechen wars or the Russian-Georgian conflict, much known as the "five-day war 08.08.08." The 22nd combined arms army that had survived by that time in the west of the country (headquarters in Nizhny Novgorod) was almost completely eliminated. Two combined-arms armies were deployed in the District, the 20th Guards Army (4th TD and 10th TD) and the 22nd Guards Army (2nd MRF and 3rd MRF) (the latter was disbanded in 2009).