53rd Army (Soviet Union)

The 53rd Army (Russian: 53-я армия) was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army which was formed in August 1941, disbanded in December 1941, and reformed in May 1942. It fought throughout World War II before again being disbanded after the war in October 1945. The army was first formed for the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran and was disbanded there in December 1941. The army reformed in May 1942. It fought in the Demyansk Pocket, the Battle of Kursk, the Battle of Belgorod, the Battle of the Dnieper, the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket, the Uman–Botoșani Offensive, the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, the Battle of Debrecen, the Budapest Offensive, and the Prague Offensive. At the end of the war in Europe it was moved to the Far East and fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. The army was disbanded in October 1945.

The 53rd Army was created by a Stavka directive on August 23, 1941. Its immediate task was to occupy Iran in conjunction with the British Army and other Commonwealth armed forces in August and September 1941. The purpose was to secure Iranian oil fields as well as safeguard the shipment of Lend-Lease war material from the US through Iran to the USSR. Units of the 53rd Army crossed the border on August 27, overcame resistance from Iranian border guards, and advanced towards Mashad.

As part of the Central Asian Military District, 53rd Army was described by the Combat composition of the Soviet Army as including 58th Rifle Corps (68th and 83rd Mountain Rifle Divisions, 389th Rifle Division), 4th Cavalry Corps (18th, 20th, 39th Cavalry Divisions), 44th Cavalry Division, and 72nd Independent Mountain Rifle Regiment (огсп) on 1 October 1941.

The 53rd Army was disbanded in December 1941.

The 53rd Army was reformed on May 1, 1942 from divisions of the 34th Army with the mission of fighting on the Northwestern Front. Until March 1943 it fought the German 16th Army in the Demyansk Offensive and unsuccessfully attempted to cut the Ramushevo corridor. After the German breakout the 53rd Army was transferred to the Stavka reserve on March 22 and then to the Reserve Front on April 10. On April 15, it was transferred a third time, to the Steppe Front, where it received new units and fought in the Battle of Kursk. On July 16 its troops took defensive positions on a line from Podolhi to Poidjarug. It fought subsequently in the Battle of Belgorod, pushing back German troops from July 19 onwards.

In August and September 1943 the Army fought in the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive and the capture of eastern Ukraine. Units of the 53rd Army advanced more than 200 km and in cooperation with other armies captured Kharkov on August 23 and Poltava a month later. On October 5 it reached the Dnieper. The 53rd Army forced the Dnieper, captured a bridgehead southeast of Kremenchug, and fought hard until mid-November to retain its foothold on the right bank.

The Army was transferred to the 2nd Ukrainian Front on October 20 and attacked along the Kirovohrad axis. By December 24 it had reached the line of Krasnosele and Znamianka, where it was stopped by German reserves. On January 5, 1944 the attack was resumed and the defending German units were destroyed. At the end of January the 53rd Army fought in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky Offensive and attacked in the direction of Zlatopol. In the Uman–Botoșani Offensive it captured Balta on March 29, Kotovsk three days later and, at the end of the offensive, a bridgehead on the Dniester near Dubăsari.

Then it fought in the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, attacking along the Focșani axis, and entered Bucharest on August 31. On 31 August 1944, the deposed Romanian autocrat Ion Antonescu, then a captive following the 1944 Romanian coup d'état, was taken to the headquarters of the 53rd Army.