A Soviet Document and Some Observations on the Battle of Uman

[Jeff Leach]

I had posted part of this document (ЦАМО ф.228 оп.701 ехд.66 л.71-74 at http://www.podvignaroda.mil.ru/) earlier without realizing it gave so much information

[Jeff Leach]

Some observation had already been posted on another thread

Strenght of the 12th Army (I) on 22nd July 1941 (about the start of the encirclement)

44th Mountain Rifle Division (40%) ># 19.09.1941
58th Mountain Rifle Division (25%) ># 19.09.1941
60th Mountain Rifle Division (60%) ># 19.09.1941
72nd Mountain Rifle Division (35%) ># 19.09.1941
99th Rifle Division (20%)
192nd Mountain Rifle Division (30%) ># 19.09.1941
491th Rifle Regiment (20%)

Going by the strenghts of its component divisions it appears that the 12th Army (I) was already wrecked at the start of the battle.

The same document list the strenght of the 6 Army (I) on 15th August 1941 after the encirclement was over (the parts of the army that had escaped the encirclement)

80 th Rifle Division (20%) ># 19.09.1941
139 th Rifle Division (10%) ># 19.09.1941
140th Rifle Division (10%) ># 19.09.1941
141st Rifle Division (25%) ># 19.09.1941
189th Rifle Division (25%) ># 19.09.1941
190th Rifle Division (10%) ># 19.09.1941
197th Rifle Division (15%) ># 19.09.1941

This indicates that somewhere between 10% and 25% of the Soviet forces invovled in the encirclement escaped

Also listed is the disbandment date (>#) of the divisions. This indicates a number of things

1.) All the division except 99th Rifle Division (I) probably escaped the pocket as small groups of men, losing almost all their equipment. The structure of the division had been destroyed and they couldn’t be rebuilt.
2.) The 99th Rifle Division (I) retained enough of its structure to be rebuilt.
3.) The official tally for what had happened at Uman took about a month to complete, when the affected units were stricten from the lists.

[Jeff Leach]

Of the new pages, it is page number 3 that is most interesting. Listing the state of the Mechanized Corps. The 24th Mechanized Corps was 5 - 10% strenght before the battle.

[tigre]

Hello Jeff ; thanks for sharing it here . Cheers. Raúl M .