Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

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Qvist
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#46

Post by Qvist » 04 Jul 2007, 12:05

I suppose the key words are "without massive tactical advantage".
Well, there is also as far as I know no experience whatsoever to suggest that it is normal to suffer much greater losses when on the offensive unless you possess a massive tactical advantage. Since we were speaking of "assaulting a well-fortified enemy", take for example the Verdun and Somme offensives during World War I. Both were failed set-piece offensives against a heavily fortified enemy in an age where offensive tactics were famously disadvantaged and inadequate, and in both cases the losses of the defenders and the attackers were in fact nevertheless roughly similar. The losses of the Western allies when they were advancing in Africa, Italy or NW Europe during WWII were never anywhere close to the relative levels experienced in the East. And, the Red Army did not achieve a better level of relative losses when it was defending than it did when it was attacking. In fact, I cannot think of even a single historical example that would suggest that incurring 3-5 times the losses of the defender is in any way something that can be reasonably expected as a result of having to attack a prepared enemy. On the contrary, everything points to the opposite conclusion.

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#47

Post by Art » 05 Mar 2008, 17:19

AMVAS wrote:A new Russian book published recently contains many interesting tables covering total strength of the Soviet army.
http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/23 ... tner=AMVAS
It title: "Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voina 1941-45. Dejstvuyushchaya Armiya"
During the forum downtime I translated some data tables from this book giving the strength of Soviet Armed Forces for several reference ponits in the period 1941-45. Apart from the number of personnel they include numbers of equipment, but I hope nobody is against it. The primary source of these data is a series of handbooks "The combat and numerical composition of the Soviet Armed Forces in the period of GPW" issued by the Institute of Military History at the Russsian Defence Ministry beginning from 1993 . Here the personnal numbers pertain to military personnel in ranks of the Red Army and Red Navy. Civilian personnel, hospitalized wounded and sick, military personnel of NKVD troops and other organizations are not included in the tables.

1st December 1941

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1st May 1942

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1st November 1942

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1st July 1943
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1st January 1944

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1st June 1944
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1st January 1945
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Qvist
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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#48

Post by Qvist » 05 Mar 2008, 21:33

Thank you Art - as so often before, an extremely valuable contribution!

Question: "operational forces" would mean the strength of the active Fronts, and independent armies, and active Fleets?

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#49

Post by Art » 06 Mar 2008, 15:06

Yes, also active units of the Territorial Antiaicraft Defence Forces, Long-Range Bomber Airforces, separate flotillas of the Navy.
Pay attention, that equipment numbers may not coincide with other sources. Compare for example tank numbers with Krivosheev. I don't know why it's so.

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#50

Post by konev » 10 Mar 2008, 04:43

Art and all,

Those numbers are from several books of the same them, namely the numerical quantities of the RKKA on the specific dates. The numbers listed are consolidations of Fronts and Military Districts.
I have the 22 June 1941 data and AMVAS is working (long-term) to get the rest.

Art, all of the titles are the same except the dates.

konev

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#51

Post by Art » 11 Mar 2008, 10:32

konev wrote:Art, all of the titles are the same except the dates.[/
Hello, konev. What is wrong with the dates?

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#52

Post by konev » 11 Mar 2008, 20:31

Art,

Nothing is wrong with the dates. What I meant was all of the word portion of the titles are the same and it is only the dates that are different from one book to the next.
"Boevoi i chislennyi sostav Vooruzhennykh Sil SSSR v period Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny (1941-1945) Statisticheskii sbornik No. #...."
[Combat and Numerical composition of the Armed Forces of the USSR in the period of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) Statistical material No...]
No. 1: 22 June 1941
No. 2: 1 December 1941
No. 3: ??
No. 4: 1 May 1942
No. 5: 1 November 1942
No. 6: ??
No. 7: 1 July 1943
No. 8: 1 January 1944
No. 9: 1 June 1944
No. 10: 1 January 1945

konev

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#53

Post by Art » 12 Mar 2008, 11:55

Michalev mentions the manusript of statistical collection No 11 (1st June 1945). Thanks for additions, konev.

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#54

Post by Art » 28 Mar 2008, 17:39

One can compare the modern sources with information given in the official Soviet history of WW2. Here are basic numbers for personnel and equipment of the Operational Army compiled using several volumes of this book:
Image
Unless specified all branches are included. In many cases as far as I can see the result is close to the Institute's of Military History data.

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#55

Post by Art » 30 Jul 2009, 15:33

I additionally uploaded tables with personnel and equipment strength of the Soviet Army and Navy as of 22 June 1941:
Image
Image
The tables a are compiled on the basis of allready mentioned "Boevoi i chislennyi sostav Vooruzhennykh Sil SSSR v period Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny (1941-1945) Statisticheskiy sbornik No. 1 (22 Iyunia 1941)", Moscow 1941
Some comments:
1. All figures are mostly based on 1 June returns.
2. About 800 thousands reservist were called up for training exercises in the 2nd quarter of 1941, including about 50 thousands called up to conctruction units. They recieved the official status of mobilized military personnel after 22 June, but before that moment were not included in the list strength of the Army. In the tables above they are shown in "traning call-up" line.
3. Only serviceable small arms and artillery weapons are shown.
4. Personnel of the Long-Range Bomber Air Force (GHQ Reserve) are incuded in the strength figures of respective fronts.
5. Distribution of personnel by branches was: the Navy - 353 752 men, the Army - 5 080 977, including 4 605 321 (of them 769 442 reservist) in the ground forces and 475 565 ( 35 822 reservist) in the air forces.

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#56

Post by Art » 22 Sep 2009, 14:53

I upoaded the table with averaged personnel strength of Soviet fronts and separate armies:
Image
Calcualted from "Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century" by G.F.Krivosheev

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#57

Post by Art » 07 Oct 2009, 17:05

I uploaded another table with personnel strength of the Soviet Army (effectives and men in hospitals) by months:
SovArmyStrength.jpg
SovArmyStrength.jpg (100.77 KiB) Viewed 836 times
That is from the latest (2009) edition of Krivosheev, sources are quoted under the table.
From the same book - the Soviet Navy personnel strength:
22 June 1941 - 351 622 men
1 January 1942 - 485 752 men
1 January 1943 - 427 714
1 January 1944 - 460 336
1 January 1945 - 527 707
Note that the sum of Army and Navy personnel somewhat differs from the tables above. For the number of civilian personnel in the Army see:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... s+of+women

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#58

Post by Art » 15 Nov 2012, 20:23

Some more info on the strength of the Soviet operational forces and breakdown by branches.

1 December 1941:
Total - 4 018 068 men
incl. ground forces - 3 394 000
Army air forces - 321 517
Navy - 302 545

1 May 1942:
Total - 5 677 915 men
incl. ground forces - 4 864 997
Army air forces - 237 907
Air Defense (PVO) - 272 466
Navy - 302 545

1 November 1942:
Total - 6 605 498
incl. ground forces - 5 781 229
Army air forces - 264 134
PVO - 258 794
Navy - 301 341

1 July 1943:
Total - 6 662 725
incl. ground forces - 5 768 891
Army air forces - 358 093
PVO - 266 825
Navy - 232 916

1 January 1944:
Total - 6 390 046
incl. ground forces - 5 507 063
Army air forces - 419 603
PVO - 206 975
Navy - 256 405

1 June 1944:
Total - 6 750 240
incl. ground forces - 5 814 472
Army air forces - 369 490
PVO - 258 904
Navy - 307 374

1 January 1945:
Total - 6 750 149
incl. ground forces - 5 920 698
Army air forces - 470 089
PVO - 118 340
Navy - 241 022

From A.V. Tolmacheva "Combat and numerical composition and losses of armed forces on the Soviet-German Front...", PhD thesis, 2006

nebelwerferXXX
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7,400,000 persons

#59

Post by nebelwerferXXX » 08 Dec 2012, 07:44

Yuri wrote:The State Committee of Defense decides:
1) To install delivery of food rations of Red Army for September and IV quarter 1941 on number in quantity 7,400,000 persons.
2) To confirm distribution of rations on fronts and districts, proceeding from following number of armies:

The Karelian front … … … … … … … … … … 185,000 persons
The Leningrad front … … … … … … … …. 452,000 persons
Northwest front … ..… … … … … …. 252,000 persons
The western front … … … … … … … … … …... 511,000 persons
Bryansk front … … … … … … … … … ….. 294,000 persons
Southwest front … … … … … … … …. 850,000 persons
Southern front … … … … … … … … … … ….. 532,000 persons
Reserve front … … … … … … … … … … 491,000 persons
The Odessa group...................................... 51,000 persons
51-st army … … … … … … … … … … … … … 101,000 persons
52-nd army … … … … … … … … … … … … 170,000 persons
54-th army … … … … … … … … … … … … … . 85.000 persons
The Arkhangelsk military district … … … ….. 104,000 persons
The Moscow military district … … … … …......... 392,000 persons
The Oryol military district............................. 245,000 persons
The Kharkov military district … … … … …. 356,000 persons
The North-Caucasian military district … …... 228,000 persons
The Transcaucasian military district … … … …390,000 persons
The Ural military district … … … … … ….......... 221,000 persons
At-Volga military district … … … …... 268,000 persons
Central Asia military district...................... 170,000 persons
The Siberian military district … … … … … … 176,000 persons
Transbaikalian military district … … … ….. 320,000 persons
Far East front … … … … … … …...................... 511,000 persons
The Leningrad military district...................... 45,000 persons

Total … … … … … … … … … … ….. … … ….. 7,400,000 persons
N I C E !

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Re: Soviet Fronts strengths: Overview

#60

Post by Art » 03 Sep 2013, 08:09

Tables in the previous post updated

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