Page "Red Army" Paragraph 47

Impressed by the German campaign of 1940 against France, the Soviet People's Commissariat of Defence ( Defence Ministry, Russian abbreviation NKO ) ordered the creation of nine mechanized corps on 6 July 1940.

Between February and March 1941 another twenty would be ordered, and all larger than those of Tukhachevsky.

Even though the Red Army's 29 mechanized corps had no less than 29, 899 tanks on paper by 1941, they proved to be a paper tiger.

There were actually only 17, 000 tanks available at the time, meaning several of the new mechanized corps were under strength.

The pressure placed on factories and military planners to show production numbers also led to a situation where the majority of armored vehicles were obsolescent models, critically lacking in spare parts and support equipment, and nearly three quarters were overdue for major maintenance.

By 22 June 1941 there were only 1, 475 T-34s and KV series tanks available to the Red Army, and these were too dispersed along the front to provide enough mass for even local success.

To put this into perspective, the 3rd Mechanized Corps in Lithuania was formed up of a total of 460 tanks ; 109 of these were newer KV-1s and T-34s.

This corps would prove to be one of the lucky few with a substantial number of newer tanks.

However, the 4th Army was composed of 520 tanks, all of which were the obsolete T-26, as opposed to the authorized strength of 1, 031 newer medium tanks.

This problem was universal throughout the Red Army.

This fact would play a crucial role in the initial defeats of the Red Army in 1941 at the hands of the German armed forces.