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Soviet field army of World War II

The 2nd Red Banner Army (Lang ru) was a Soviet field army of World War II that served as part of the Far Eastern Front. The army was formed at Khabarovsk in the Soviet Far East in 1938 as the 2nd Army. After the Far Eastern Front was split in September that year it became the 2nd Independent Red Banner Army. When the front was reformed in June 1940, the army was redesignated as the 2nd Red Banner Army, stationed in the Blagoveshchensk area. It spent the bulk of World War II guarding the border in that area, sending formations to the Eastern Front while undergoing several reorganizations. In August 1945, the army fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, capturing the Japanese fortified regions of Aihun and Sunwu adjacent to its sector of the border, and advancing into Manchuria to Qiqihar. The army was disbanded after the war in late 1945.

Owing to increased tensions with Japan, the 2nd Army was created in July 1938 on the Far Eastern frontiers of the Soviet Union from the 18th Rifle Corps as part of the Far Eastern Red Banner Front. It was commanded by then Komkor (Corps commander) Ivan Konev. In September, the front was dissolved and its troops were split into two independent armies, which both inherited the Order of the Red Banner previously awarded to the front. The army, redesignated as the 2nd Independent Red Banner Army (2nd OKA), still under Konev's command, was headquartered at Khabarovsk and controlled troops in the oblasts of the Lower Amur, Khabarovsk, Primorsky, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and the okrugs of Koryak and Chukotka. It was directly subordinate to the People's Commissariat of Defense and operationally controlled the Amur Red Banner Flotilla. The 2nd OKA included the 3rd, 12th, 34th, 35th, 69th, and 78th Rifle Divisions during its existence, as well as the fortified regions of De Kastri, Lower Amur, Ust Sungari and Blagoveshchensk. Elements of the army fought in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, a series of border clashes between the Soviet Union and Japan, in mid 1939 under the control of other formations. On 4October 1939, the Northern Army Group was established at Nikolayevsk on Amur, controlling troops in the fortified regions of Nikolayevsk on Amur and De Kastri, Kamchatka and Sakhalin. Subordinated to the 2nd OKA, the group operationally controlled the Northern Pacific Flotilla. By an order dated 21 June 1940, the Far Eastern Front was recreated and the headquarters of the 2nd Independent Red Banner Army was abolished and used to form the headquarters of the 2nd and 15th Armies. The 2nd (Blagoveshchensk) Red Banner Army (2nd KA) was headquartered at Kuibyshevka. It included the 3rd and 12th Rifle Divisions and the 69th Motorized Division (the former 69th Rifle Division, stationed in the Blagoveshchensk area). The 34th, 35th, and 78th Rifle Divisions became part of the 15th Army. Lieutenant General Vsevolod Sergeyev became army commander on 22 June. On 27 August, the 31st Mixed Aviation Division (SmAD) was formed from its 26th Mixed Aviation Brigade. In March 1941, the 59th Tank Division was formed in the Khabarovsk area as part of the army. Lieutenant General Makar Teryokhin replaced Sergeyev on 11 March. By 22 June the army also included the 101st Blagoveshchensk and the Ust Bureysk Fortified Regions.

During World War II, the army covered the border around Blagoveshchensk and sent reinforcements to the active forces fighting on the Eastern Front. Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, a directive dated 25 June transferred the 59th Tank and 69th Motorized Divisions by rail to the Eastern Front. On 28 June the 31st SmAD departed for the Eastern Front, and remaining units, including the 3rd Fighter Aviation Regiment, were made directly subordinate to the Air Force (VVS) of the 2nd KA. In August the 95th Mixed Aviation Division was formed in the VVS of the 2nd KA; it became the 95th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) by 1September. By 1September, the army included the Svobodny Rifle Division, and the 82nd Bomber Aviation Division (BAD) had been added to the VVS of the 2nd KA. By 1October the Svobodny Rifle Division had been replaced by the 204th Rifle Division, the 95th IAD had become the 95th SmAD, and the 96th SmAD had been created. By 1November, the 1st and 2nd Rifle Brigades and the Zeya and Blagoveshchensk separate rifle regiments had been formed in the army. The 95th SmAD had again been redesignated as the 95th IAD by 1December, and a separate cavalry regiment and the 73rd and 74th Tank Brigades had been formed. As of 1December the two separate rifle regiments had disappeared from the order of battle and the 1st and 2nd Rifle Brigades were shown as being part of the 101st Fortified Region. The Ust Bureysk Fortified Region was likely disbanded in December, as it does not appear in the order of battle for 1January 1942. The 95th IAD became an SmAD again in December. In January the 82nd BAD briefly transferred to the VVS of the Far Eastern Front, but transferred back to the army's VVS in February. Around the same time the 96th Rifle Division and 258th and 259th Rifle Brigades became part of the army. In March the 95th SmAD was disbanded and its units directly subordinated to the army's VVS. The 96th SmAD was converted into an IAD in May. In July, the 96th and 204th Rifle Divisions were shipped to the Eastern Front and the 17th and 41st Rifle Brigades were formed. The VVS of the army became a separate unit, the 11th Air Army, in August. In April 1943, the 1st and 2nd Amur Tank Brigades were formed in the army, growing out of what were separate tank battalions; in June, the 1st was merged into the 2nd, becoming the 258th Tank Brigade in July. The army's composition remained constant for most of 1944; the 342nd and 355th Rifle Divisions were formed in the army in late November and December, respectively, from its four rifle brigades. The 345th and the 396th Rifle Divisions were formed in the army in March 1945. In July, the 342nd and the 345th Divisions transferred out of the army to the 87th Rifle Corps and the 355th Division joined the Chuguyevka Operational Group, an independent unit directly controlled by the Far Eastern Front headquarters.

In preparation for the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the army became part of the 2nd Far Eastern Front when the Far Eastern Front was split on 5August. For the invasion, the army had a strength of 240 tanks and self propelled guns, as well as 1,270 guns and mortars, and occupied a sector. It numbered 54,000 men out of a nominal strength of 59,000. The army's three rifle divisions were at around 90% of their nominal strength, with around 9,000 to 10,000 men each; the 3rd and 12th Divisions were slightly larger than the 396th. The 101st Fortified Region numbered 6,000 men and was almost at full strength. The army included three tank brigades (the 73rd, 74th, and 258th) and three self propelled artillery battalions. Front commander Army General Maxim Purkayev initially tasked the army with defending the Blagoveshchensk area from Japanese attack, in cooperation with the Amur Flotilla's Zee Bureysk Brigade and separate battalions of river ships. When the main Soviet attacks achieved success, the army was to launch an assault crossing of the Amur River, reduce or isolate the Japanese Sakhalian, Aihun, and Holomoching fortified regions and defenses around Sunwu, and advance south through the Lesser Khingan Mountains to Qiqihar and Harbin. The front's offensive operations were later known in Soviet historiography as the Sungari Offensive.