Soviet Replacement/Reserve Units

[Art]

State Defense Committee Decree No. GKO-475ss, 13 August 1941
On plan for the development of replacement units and formation of march battalions.

The State Defense Committee decrees:
1. The following plan of development of replacement units and formation of march battalions is approved:
1) From 15 August to 31 December 1941 2000 march battalions with the strength of 2 million men are to be formed, of them at least 750,000 armed...

Glavupraform report on execution of this decree. Formed and sent to the front from 1 August to 31 December 1941:
3084 armed march companies with 747,596 men
67 armed march squadrons with 12,993 men
Total 3151 units with 760,589 men
Of them recieved weapons from the Main Artillery Directorate (i.e. from central resources) - 359,000 men, from military districts (i.e. from local resources) - 401,589 men

5418 unarmed march companies with 1,306,452 men
238 unarmed march squadrons with 52,624 men
283 unarmed batteries with 54,002 men
371 unarmed engineer technical squads with 42,739 men
Total 6310 unarmed units with 1,455,817 men
Total 9461 unarmed and armed units with 2,216,406 men

In addition, 200,342 men were sent from replacement units of operational fronts and armies bringing totals to 2,416,748 men.
Also 20,380 officers sent with replacement units.

found on livejournal:
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/dr_guil ... iginal.jpg
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/dr_guil ... iginal.jpg

[TheMarcksPlan]

From Shchadenko's report to Stalin from 14 February 1943.

Much appreciated as always, Art. Is this available online?

From interior military districts - 3,307,378 men, including:
2,147,437 in the 1st half of 1942
1,159,941 in the 2nd half

Should we read this as only newly-trained men from the districts or would this include recovering convalescents too? You list it separately from convalescents but just wanted to be sure. Were all military hospitals under the control of the operating fronts rather than the districts?

compensation of discharges or furloughs for medical reasons - 863,740

Does "medical" modify both discharges and furloughs here? Or were some discharges for industrial/agricultural production in 1942? If so, do you have any information on how many discharged/furloughed to production?

1,288,624 personnel released from service and auxiliary units

Any further details on what units were broken up?

[Art]

Much appreciated as always, Art. Is this available online?

Yes:
https://www.vif2ne.org/forum/0/arhprint/2447327

Should we read this as only newly-trained men from the districts or would this include recovering convalescents too? You list it separately from convalescents but just wanted to be sure.

According to the regulation on replacement units convalescents from hospitals situated in the zone of interior first arrived to replacement units and then were sent with march battalions/companies to the front. Convalescents from hospitals of the operational army zone returned to the front directly or via replacement units of the operational army. According to Shchadenko in 1942 the front received 3.31 million men with march replacements from the zone of interior, 1.81 million from replacement units and hospitals of the operational army and 0.37 million were incorporated from elements of military districts on the spot.

Does "medical" modify both discharges and furloughs here? Or were some discharges for industrial/agricultural production in 1942? If so, do you have any information on how many discharged/furloughed to production?

According to the document by the end of 1942 2,541,000 men were assigned to work in national economy, 357,000 were transferred to Navy and NKVD (this number looks too small actually), but no breakdown by years is provided.
One problem here is that the number of personnel conscripted during 1942 was obviously larger than 5.5 million. This discrepancy is not explained.

Any further details on what units were broken up?

Not in this document. On 24.12.1941 the GKO approved proposals of a commission headed by marshal Shaposhinkov, which called for release of about 1 million personnel through disbandment or of reduction of authorized strength of various units, including:
Combat rifle troops - 49,288
Airborne - 6,162
Artillery - 21,456
Fortified regions - 3,688
Air defense - 17,085
Chemical - 2,471
Armored trains - 3,016
Signal - 23,035
Engineer - 59,900
Railroad engineer - 16,540
Road maintenance and operation - 29,524
Motor transport - 5,045
Animal transport - 14,953
Survey - 3,612
Replacement - 279,633
Military schools - 31,379
Headquarters and administration - 45,726
Service and supply - 102,430
Air force - 276,775 (incl. schools and ground services)

In addition a number of units destroyed previously with an aggregate authorized strength of nearly 900,000 were officially deactivated.

[Art]

One problem here is that the number of personnel conscripted during 1942 was obviously larger than 5.5 million. This discrepancy is not explained.

Looking at this from the other side: Shchadenko counted about 22.5 million men incorporated into military by the end of 1942 (including pre-war strength). According to official data conscripted from 22.6.41 to 31.12.1942 were about 20.7 million. Adding pre-war strength of Army, Navy and NKVD troops (5 million) we arrive to 25.7 million men taken from civil population. There is a discrepancy of more than 3 million. Part of it is explained by some omissions in Shchadenko's report: he completely forgot to mention NKPS railroad troops with nearly 300,000 men at the end of 1942, construction troops and various civil formations assigned to military. Casualties of the Navy and NKVD also seem to be omitted. Still there is an unexplained gap, which was, probably, partly due to underestimation of casualties.

[Art]

1,288,624 personnel released from service and auxiliary units

Any further details on what units were broken up?

As reported on 5 July 1942:
In September 1941 reduction and disbandment of existing units reduced the authorizes strength by 1,748,000 men, also destroyed units with 872,000 men authorized strength were deactivated.
In December 1941 (GKO decree No.966ss - Shaposhnikov's plan referred above) - released 1,005,191 men from existing units and deactivated units with 898,421 men strength
March 1942 (Stavka's orders No.0043, 0051, 0054) - reduction of existing units by 219,975
April 1942 (NKO orders No.0293-0297) - reduction by 351,703
April 1942 (GKO decree No.1526ss of 3 April 42) - by 218,168
May 1942 (order No.00100 22.5.42) - units with 60,075 strength deactivated
June 1942 (NKO order No.00124 of 14 July 42) - 148,515 deactivated
June 42 (NKO order No.00134 of 30 June) - 184,291 deactivated
All in all, reduction and disbandment reduced the authorized strength by 3,543,037 men and 514,530 horses, deactivation of destroyed units - by 2,163,302 men and 142,151 horses.
That was counterbalanced by formation of new units as the authorized strength of the army almost didn't change from August 1941 to June 1942 (about 12.7 million).

As described further new TO/Es of 358 rifle and 10 mountain rifle divisions yielded saving of 641,000 men personnel, 456,300 horses and 146,640 motor vehicles.
reorganization and reduction of air force ground services - 601,761 men and 110,974 motor vehicles
Technical troops (signal, engineer, road maintenance) - 482,766 men, 142,247 horses and 29,246 motor vehicles
Air defense - 99,559 personnel and 1,956 motor vehicles

Of course, considering large shortfall, actual release of personnel was smaller than these numbers.

It looks like Shchadenko waged a veritable war on service and supply elements, considering them useless ration-eaters. That was a very simplified view as further events demonstrated.

[Art]

In addition the GKO decree No.2100ss of 26 July 1942 ordered release of 400,000 personnel through reduction and reorganization of service units and replacement of personnel with convalescents and women. Planned reduction of authorized strength was distributed as follows:
Air force - 100,000
Air defense - 80,000
armored - 30,000
GHQ artillery - 30,000
Engineer - 60,000
Fortified regions - 60,000
Signal - 10,000
Mortar - 5,000
Road maintenance and road construction - 25,000
Motor transport - 25,000
Depots - 5,000
Total 430,000

[TheMarcksPlan]

Still there is an unexplained gap, which was, probably, partly due to underestimation of casualties.

Yeah that's what I've always thought too. Lopukhovsky's The Price of Victory reproduces Schadenko's Sept 1, 1942 report as Appendix C.

Schadenko report Sept 1, 1942 - App. C of Price of Victory.png

18.1mil taken from the country during the war plus 5mil by June 22 is ~23.1mil up to 1.9.1942. Schadenko maybe recognized an internal error, given his 1942 year-end stat:

Looking at this from the other side: Shchadenko counted about 22.5 million men incorporated into military by the end of 1942 (including pre-war strength).

Total Soviet military strength on 1.9.1942 would be ~10mil including hospitals, implying ~13mil irrecoverable losses already minus those released to industry. To get permanent losses down to 10mil requires assuming ~3mil released to the economy, which seems an extremely high projection from official stats for economic releases but maybe that was radically undercounted.

I am at a loss to make sense of these high-level stats. Have you reached a conclusion on actual '41-'42 losses and posted it here somewhere?

It's obviously a massive data issue with multiple implications. If true RKKA losses were closer to Krivosheev's numbers than those logically implied by Schadenko's, then RKKA was tactically better in '41 - killing about as many Germans with fewer men and bloody losses than in latter '43. I suspect that was true as, even though RKKA improved operationally/strategically after '41, its prewar cohort at lower levels was mostly gone and wartime training was truncated. But the implicit Schadenko loss figures make '41-'42 seem a mostly-hidden tactical bloodbath for RKKA.

[TheMarcksPlan]

According to the document by the end of 1942 2,541,000 men were assigned to work in national economy, 357,000 were transferred to Navy and NKVD (this number looks too small actually), but no breakdown by years is provided.

Because the auto-translate feature I've used to read the document you linked (thanks again) isn't great, is it clear in your opinion that 2.54mil "assigned to work in national economy" means "assigned [from the armed forces]..." Or does does that number include people conscripted into national service in the economy but never put into the armed forces (untrusted minorities like Volga Germans, children of kulaks, etc.).

[TheMarcksPlan]

Again using Schadenko's Sept '42 report from The Price of Victory:

Schadenko report Sept 1, 1942 - App. C of Price of Victory item 10 - loss reconciliation.png

Big and seemingly obvious flaw: What about the 5mil RKKA prewar strength? Schadenko seems to have forgotten about them.

If 2.54mil went to the economy, as the '42-year-end report cited by Art might suggest (depending on whether "assigned to economy" implies "assigned from the army"), then RKKA would have suffered ~2.5mil more permanent losses than Schadenko calculates above. That Schadenko's loss figure is too low is clear from Germany capturing ~4.5mil soldiers by Sept. '42 (though some of these would have been militia and, e.g., workers on field fortifications). That leaves only ~500k KIA which is way too low by Sept. '42. But might 3mil KIA by Sept. '42 seem a bit high? And if fewer than 2.54mil were sent from the army to the economy (rather than conscripted directly into the economy), then a corrected-Schadenko (adding back prewar RKKA) implies up to 6.5mil KIA/died of wounds/disabled, which surely is too high up to Sept. 42. ...unless there really was a mostly-hidden tactical bloodbath in '41-'42.

[thorwald77]

The information to solve the problem is not available in Krivosheev.

In the 3rd edition pp. 215-219 we are given data on the changes made to the force levels during the war. We need to see the monthly balance sheets for each month in the war in order to tie out to total losses.

Key points
1-The schedule on p. 217 is a balance sheet dated July 1,1945. The monthly balance sheets prepared during the war are not provided in Krivosheev.

2-We are given only the monthly figures for those conscripted and overall force levels for 1941-45.

Where's the rest?

[thorwald77]

The schedule in Krivosheev p. 217 presents us with the changes made to force levels during the war @ 7/1/1945.

We need to know how many released POWs are included in the figures and where they were posted. In the figures there is a deduction of 939,700 for reconscripted POWS and 1,836,000 returned POWs

My breakout of these figures is as follows:

• Convicts penal units & executed 562,900
  Deserters imprisoned 376,300
  Returned POWS 1,836,500
  Total 2,775,700

• Balance per Krivosheev 11,444,100
  Less Deductions (2,775,700)
  Losses 8,668,400

The MOD data gives us a different view of casualties

• Killed 5,613,664
  Died 750,192
  DOW 1,233,562
  Disease 240,508
  MIA 2,842,850
  executed 71,754
  Others 28,600
  Others 530,733
  Omd Data base 11,311,863
  Border/Security 159,100
  Total 11,470,963

Based on the MOD figures the penal units and executions are included with total losses. On page 219 Krivosheev lists 376,300 deserters included with the 436,000 imprisoned.

[Jeff Leach]

The schedule in Krivosheev p. 217 presents us with the changes made to force levels during the war @ 7/1/1945.

We need to know how many released POWs are included in the figures and where they were posted. In the figures there is a deduction of 939,700 for reconscripted POWS and 1,836,000 returned POWs

My breakout of these figures is as follows:

• Convicts penal units & executed 562,900
  Deserters imprisoned 376,300
  Returned POWS 1,836,500
  Total 2,775,700

• Balance per Krivosheev 11,444,100
  Less Deductions (2,775,700)
  Losses 8,668,400

The MOD data gives us a different view of casualties

• Killed 5,613,664
  Died 750,192
  DOW 1,233,562
  Disease 240,508
  MIA 2,842,850
  executed 71,754
  Others 28,600
  Others 530,733
  Omd Data base 11,311,863
  Border/Security 159,100
  Total 11,470,963

Based on the MOD figures the penal units and executions are included with total losses. On page 219 Krivosheev lists 376,300 deserters included with the 436,000 imprisoned.

Do you know if "executed" means 'actually executed' or 'condemned to death'. My understanding is 70% - 90% of sentences were 'deferred', that is the soldier was allowed to prove himself in battle. A number of says 10,000 executed during the war seems a lot more reasonable number.

[thorwald77]

Jeff Leach wrote Do you know if "executed" means 'actually executed' or 'condemned to death'. My understanding is 70% - 90% of sentences were 'deferred', that is the soldier was allowed to prove himself in battle. A number of says 10,000 executed during the war seems a lot more reasonable number.

Your figure of 10,000 is yours and yours alone. I have no estimate of those executed. I am citing Krivosheev and the OMD database. Krivosheev cites a figure of 135,000 convicts executed. 135 тыс. расстреляно (учтены в числе небоевых потерь).


These figures are compiled from Russian sources. They tie out exactly.

Killed 5,226,800
DOW 1,102,800
Non Combat 555,500
MIA 500,000
POW 1,283,300
Subtotal Krivosheev 8,668,400

Subtotal Balance Pows 2,164,300

Executed( OMD database) 71,700
Convicts executed 135,000
Convicts penal units 427,900
Other Losses 956,800
Civilians killed 4,500,000
Siege Leningrad 658,000
Bombing Stalingrad 40,000
2nd Emmigration 451,000
Military deserters 180,000
Subtotal Civilians killed 7,420,400


Demographic loss 10,000,000
2nd Emmigration (451,000)
Military deserters (180,000)
Post war emmigration (622,000)
Other Losses 8,747,000

Grand total war dead 27,000,000

[thorwald77]

We can look at the problem from another angle

• Killed 5,226,800
  DOW 1,102,800
  Non Combat 555,500
  MIA 500,000
  POW 1,283,300
  Balance Pows"forced labor" 2,164,300
  Executed( OMD database) 71,700
  Convicts executed 135,000
  Convicts penal units 427,900
  Total losses 11,467,300
  
  
  Killed 5,613,664
  Died 750,192
  DOW 1,233,562
  Disease 240,508
  MIA 2,842,850
  executed 71,754
  Others 28,600
  Other Losses 530,733
  Subtotal Omd Data base 11,311,863
  
  Subtotal Border/Security 159,100
  
  Total losses 11,470,963

There is a minor difference due to rounding
The figures of other losses of 28,600 and 530,733 lack a clear explanation, however they appear in the Russian total of 27 million war dead.

I find it hard to imagine Stalin telling Beria. Levrenti we can pardon the 135,000 sentenced to be shot.

[thorwald77]

For those who still doubt what I have done, I ask that you take the time to summarize the data in Krivosheev on a spreadsheet for the 42 Army groups and the 12 Naval fleets and flotillas. pp. 164-218 English language edition

Krivosheev's data
KIA 5,184.7
Non Combat 534.2
DOW 1,100.3
MIA 4,452.3
Subtotal Krivosheev data 11,271.5

Corrections to Krivosheev
Released POW Golikov (2,016.5)
Border/Security 53.3
"Forced Labor" 2.164.3
Subtotal corrections 201.1

Total losses 11,472.3

So we can see that Krivosheev's data is as soft as shit, that dog won't hunt.

KIA 5,187.1
Non Combat 541.9
DOW 1,100 55.8
Border Security103.4 abiuy
MIA 4,455.6
Subtotal 11,444.1

Returned to USSR(1,836.5)
Penal units (427.9)
Executed (135.0)
Deserters imprisoned (376.3
Deductions (2,775.7)
about
Krivosheev's Total 8,668.4


Illenkov at the Archives of the MOD puts losses at "about 13,850,000"

• Recorded losses 11,472
  Released filtration 355
  Released Golikov 2,016
  Total 13,843

• Illenkov data
  Enlisted 12,431,198
  Navy 154,771
  Broder Security 159,100
  Irreplaceable losses13,845,069