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Separate Coastal Army

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Separate Coastal Army

The Separate Coastal Army (Russian: Приморская армия), also translated to English as Independent Coastal Army, was an army-level unit in the Red Army that fought in World War II. It was established on July 18, 1941, by the order of the Southern Front from the forces of 9th Army’s Coastal Group and was stood up on July 20, 1941.

At the beginning of the war the Soviet 9th Army was engaged in heavy fighting along the southern front of the Axis invasion of Southern Russia, retreating towards Odessa. On August 5, 1941 Stavka ordered the Coastal Army to defend the city of Odessa as long as possible. The army established a defense on the approaches to the city and engaged the Fourth Romanian Army, who was advancing towards the city, beginning August 10, 1941.

On August 1, 1941, the Coastal Army comprised the 14th Rifle Corps, consisting of two Rifle Divisions, and miscellaneous units. On August 20, 1941 STAVKA reassigned the Army from the Southern Front to STAVKA’s direct subordination.

In early September 1941, the commander of the Coastal Army asked Moscow to allocate a regular rifle division number to the ad-hoc Odessa Rifle Division. James F. Goff wrote that "..The Commissariat of Defense ordered it to be numbered 421st, because all lower numbers had already been assigned."

The Axis forces assigned 17 infantry divisions and 7 brigades to assault the city. By September 21, 1941, Soviet forces had stopped the German offensive 8–15 km from the city. For the next two months the Coastal Army, reinforced by the 157th Rifle Division and other forces, pinned down 20 Axis divisions. Finally, because of the threat of the German Army Group South breaking through into the Donbas and Crimea, it was decided to evacuate the Odessa Defense Region, including the Coastal Army, into the Crimea. The Black Sea Fleet accomplished this task on the night of October 14–15, 1941.

Order of Battle as of 19 November 1941

After evacuating Odessa in October 1941 the Army was assigned to defend the Crimea. In the second half of October the Germany 11th Army and Romanian Army broke through into the plains of Crimea. The Separate Coastal Army retreated towards Sevastopol ahead of the Axis forces.

On November 4, the Crimean defense forces formed the Sevastopol Defense District. On November 19, the Coastal Army joined the Sevastopol defenses. When the army joined the Defense District the army was composed of the following units.

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