First Formation The Fourth Army was created in August 1939 in the
Belorussian Special Military District from the Bobruisk Army Group as an independent army. In September 1939, the Fourth Army took part in the
Soviet invasion of Poland commanded by the future Marshal of Soviet Union
V.I. Chuykov, the defender of
Stalingrad. Its order of battle in that operation is listed
here. Elements of the army, apparently 4th Battalion, 29th Light Tank Brigade, took part in the
German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk on September 22, 1939. When the German invasion of the Soviet Union commenced on 22 June 1941, the Army was part of the
Western Front and had the
28th Rifle Corps (
6th Rifle Division and
42nd Rifle Division),
14th Mechanised Corps, and
49th and
75th Rifle Divisions, as well as the 62nd
Fortified Region. General Colonel Pavlov, Commander of the Western Front, had decided to redeploy some of 4th Army’s troops early in 1941, and John Erickson wrote that
12th Rifle Division was accordingly moved into
Brest, and HQ
14th Mechanised Corps to
Kobrin, which in Erickson’s words, ‘deprived 4th Army simultaneously of its reserve and its second echelon.’ It should be clearly understood that
John Erickson (historian) was writing in the pre-1990 period when formation designations could be unclear, sometimes to the point of deliberate deception (Soviet 'maskirovka'). According to Sharp the 12th Rifle Division was identified by the Germans on the Western Front, but the unit was assigned to the Far East for the entire war. The formation that appears to have been moved into Brest Fortress was 42nd Rifle Division. Facing the 4th Army across the
Bug River was deployed the German
Fourth Army, with twelve infantry divisions and a cavalry division, as well as
Panzer Group 2. Some units faced several difficulties; when General Major A.A. Khorobkov, the army commander, saw his officers on 10 June, General Major
Stepan Oborin,
14th Mechanised Corps commander, emphasized that more than half his soldiers were untrained recruits, that his artillery had received guns for which there was no ammunition, and that he only had enough lorries to make a quarter of the corps mobile – the rest would have to march. On the eve of the attack, 4th Army suffered, as did many Soviet formations, from German communication sabotage. Units lost telephone connections, electrical power, and the
Brest Fortress lost its water supply. From about 5 am on 22 June fierce fighting began around the Brest fortress, but the seven battalions around the fortress, from 28th Rifle Corps, were undermanned, disorganized, and slow off the mark to man the defences. Despite these deficiencies the final German reduction of the fortress took some time in the face of determined Soviet resistance. By 1600 hours on 22 June, 4th Army HQ was back at Zapruda, whereupon Front HQ ordered that 14th Mechanised Corps be launched in an attack to clear Brest and reach the frontier line. However the Army staff felt the plan had no chance of success, and so it proved; when the attack was launched the next day, only insignificant progress was made. Three days later Western Front ordered a general withdrawal to try to keep the frontier armies out of threatened German encirclement; 4th Army was directed to fall back on a line from Bytin to
Pinsk. Further instructions came through from Pavlov after a chance meeting later the same day; to cover the concentration of reserve armies on the Dnieper, 4th Army was to hold the Shchara, the
Slutsk ‘
fortified district,’ and the Sluch river line. However the Slutsk fortified district, as the district commander reminded Khorobkov, had long ago been instructed to dispatch all its weapons to the
Brest fortress (which was continuing to hold). The planned defence was thus practically non-existent, and
Slutsk fell on 27 June. The Army took part in the defenses of the area around
Babruysk. At the end of July 1941, the Fourth Army began to dissolve. The Fourth Army's staff members were absorbed into the general staff of the
Central Front, and the troops were absorbed into other armies.
Composition on 22 June 1941 Source: Commander
Lieutenant General Aleksandr Korobkov :
28th Rifle Corps – Major General
V.S. Popov ::
6th Rifle Division – Col. M. A. Popsiu-Shapko ::
42nd Rifle Division – Maj. Gen.
I. S. Lazarenko (According to Sharp the 12th RD was identified by the Germans on the Western Front, but the unit was assigned to the Far East for the entire war. 42nd RD was assigned to Brest Fortress at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.) :
58th Rifle Corps ::
68th Mountain Rifle Division ::
75th Rifle Division ::89th Rifle Brigade ::90th Rifle Brigade :
15th Cavalry Corps ::
1st Cavalry Division (second formation, ex 1st Mountain Cavalry Division) ::
23rd Cavalry Division ::
39th Cavalry Division ::1595th AT Regiment ::15th Independent AT Battalion ::17th Mortar Battalion :28th Anti-Aircraft Battery :492nd Assault Aviation Regiment :167th Fighter Aviation Regiment
Commanders During World War II • Aleksandr Korobkov 4th Army (1st formation) (1939 – 8 July 1941) •
Leonid Sandalov 4th Army (1st formation) (8–23 July 1941) •
Vsevolod Yakovlev, 4th Army (2nd formation) (26 September – 9 November 1941) •
Kirill Meretskov, 4th Army (2nd formation) (9 November – 16 December 1941) • Pyotr Ivanov, 4th Army (2nd formation) (16 December 1941 – 3 February 1942) • Pyotr Lyapin, 4th Army (2nd formation) (3 February – 25 June 1942) •
Nikolai Gusev, 4th Army (2nd formation) (26 June 1942 – 30 October 1943) •
Ivan Sovetnikov, 4th Army (3rd formation) (1944–1945) ==Postwar service==