15th Tank Corps
The 15th Tank Corps was a tank corps of the Soviet Union’s Red Army. It formed in 1938 from a mechanized corps and fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland. The corps was disbanded in January 1940 at Wilno and Soleczniki. In 1942, the corps was reformed under the command of Major General Vasily Koptsov and became part of the 3rd Tank Army. In February 1943, the unit fought in Operation Star, achieving its objective of recapturing the key city of Kharkov in eastern Ukraine.
About 15th Tank Corps in brief
The 15th Tank Corps was a tank corps of the Soviet Union’s Red Army. It formed in 1938 from a mechanized corps and fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland. The corps was disbanded in January 1940 at Wilno and Soleczniki. In 1942, the corps was reformed under the command of Major General Vasily Koptsov and became part of the 3rd Tank Army. In February 1943, the unit fought in Operation Star, achieving its objective of recapturing the key city of Kharkov in eastern Ukraine. The unit was virtually destroyed after being surrounded by a German counteroffensive in the Third Battle of Kharksov during late February and early March. It was rebuilt in the following months and became the newly created 3rd Guards Tank Army, fighting in Operation Kutuzov, the Soviet counteroffensive during the Battle of Kursk, in late July. For its actions in the offensive, the Corps was converted into the 7th Guards Tank Corps. During the Second World War, the 15th Corps fought in both the Korean War and the Pacific War. The 15th was disbanded at the end of the war, and the corps’ headquarters were moved to the Belorussian Special Military District, its headquarters located in Borisov. The 2nd Brigade had 234 BT-7 light tanks and 30 BA armored cars; the 20th Brigade had 61 BAs; the corps thus fielded 461 tanks and 122 armored cars. It also included the 89th Separate Air Liaison Flight, operating Polikarpov R-5 and U-2 biplanes.
The Corps was part of Ivan Boldin’s Dzerzhinsky Cavalry-Mechanized Group, which fought against Nazi Germany in the Polish invasion of September 1939. The invasion was conducted under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which divided Poland between the Soviet Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and guaranteed that neither country would attack the other. In September 1939 the corps crossed the state border, overran the Polish border guards, and began a rapid advance without resistance; most of the Polish troops in the east had been transferred west to fight against the German invasion of Polish earlier in the month. On 17 September, at 05: 00, the corps, advancing on the KMG’s southern flank, overrunning the practically undefended Nowosiółki–Kajszówki sector of the Baranovichi Fortified Region. On 18 September, the 27th Brigade advanced from the line of Rudašo, but was bogged down for several hours while moving through the area near Golewicze. After burning two bridges over the Shara River, the brigade reached Slonim and disarmed 80 policemen, until the morning of 19 September. On 19 September, it did not reach the Jarniewo area, 2 kilometers west of Slimim, until morning of the next day. On 20 September, the brigade reached the Vavysk area and burned one bridge over the Vawkysk River.
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