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Mountain Divisions on the
Steppes of Ukraine
Airborne assault landings will be effective in mountainous battle areas. Since troops, head-
quarters, and support units, which operate in the rear, are particularly reliant on roads,
it is possible to use air assaults to capture enemy troops operating in the rear, to attack
his communications and roads, commanding heights, ravines, passes, railway junctions,
and so on, and this can produce exceptionally important results. In general terms, the
dropping of an assault landing force will hardly be expedient outside the framework of an
offensive operation.
—VOENNYI VESTNIK [M H],
n 1941, the Soviet Union was preparing, painstakingly and tirelessly, for war. Each Soviet
army had its unique structure, character, and purpose. Each “cover” army was created to
Ideal with a clearly defined task in the forthcoming war of “liberation.” Sufficient material
has been published to provide for a separate study on each of the thirty Soviet armies that
existed in the first half of 1941. If a detailed study were made of the structure, disposition,
and direction given to the training of just one Soviet army, the “liberation” tendency inherent
to all Soviet preparations would become quite obvious.
Take, for example, the 9th Army. In number and name, it was not different from other
Soviet armies, but it was a very unusual army. In 1941, this was the most powerful army in
the world. It had six corps, including two mechanized (by June 22, 1941, 799 tanks alto-
gether) and one cavalry corps. In total, on June 21, 1941, the 9th Army counted seventeen
divisions, including two aviation, four tank, two motorized rifle, two cavalry, six rifle, and
one mountain-rifle division. e rifle, motorized rifle, and cavalry divisions had tanks as well.
By June 1, 1941, the Odessa military district, the divisions and corps of which became part
of the 9th Army, had 1,114 tanks. Another mechanized corps, the 27th (by June 22, 1941,
1
it had 356 tanks), under the command of Major General I. E. Petrov, was to be added to
the 9th Army. e corps was created in the Turkmenistan district and, before completing its
formation, was secretly transferred west. After yet another mechanized corps was included,
the 9th Army should have had twenty divisions, including six tank divisions.
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