1st Light Tank Brigade (Soviet Union)

The 1st Light Tank Brigade (Russian: 1-я лёгкая танковая бригада (1 лтбр)) was an armored brigade of the Red Army that fought in the Winter War.

The brigade was formed as the 19th Mechanized Brigade in 1934 and was one of the units combined to form the 1st Tank Division in 1940.

History

The 19th Mechanized Brigade was formed in May 1934 in Detskoye Selo, part of the 7th Mechanized Corps of the Leningrad Military District. The brigade was relocated to Pushkin by 1938. The brigade was reorganized as the 1st Light Tank Brigade in 1938. The brigade took part in the Winter War as part of the 10th Tank Corps, which it rejoined on 13 October 1939. After the disbandment of the corps headquarters the brigade was assigned to the 7th Army as a separate tank brigade. By the beginning of the Winter War, the brigade fielded 178 tanks and 23 armored cars. After the end of the Winter War, the brigade returned to Pushkin.^[1]

Its headquarters and three tank battalions were used to form the 1st Red Banner Tank Division of the 1st Mechanized Corps, a process completed by the end of July 1940.^[1] The division was formed in camps near Strugi Krasnye, and the 1st Tank Battalion of the brigade was one of the units that formed the division's 1st Tank Regiment. The 4th and 8th Tank Battalions of the brigade were among the units forming the division's 2nd Tank Regiment. The 19th Tank Battalion was one of the tank units used to form the 5th Tank Regiment of the 1st Mechanized Corps' 3rd Tank Division.^[2]

References

Citations

1. Drig 2006.
2. Drig 2005, pp. 81–82.

Bibliography

• Drig, Yevgeny (2005). Механизированные корпуса РККА в бою. История автобронетанковых войск Красной Армии в 1940–1941 годах [Red Army Mechanized Corps in battle: The history of the Red Army armored forces 1940–1941] (in Russian). Moscow: Transkniga. ISBN 5-170-24760-5.
• Drig, Yevgeny (15 April 2006). [19th Mechanized Brigade - 1st Light Tank Brigade]. mechcorps.rkka.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
• Drig, Yevgeny (12 October 2013). [7th Mechanized Corps, from 1938 10th Tank Corps]. mechcorps.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
• Dunn, Walter S. (1994). Hitler's Nemesis: The Red Army, 1930-1945. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-94894-3.
• Grigoryan, Ararat; Milbakh, Vladimir; Chernavsky, Alexander (2013). Политические репрессии командно-начальствующего состава 1937-1938. Ленинградский военный округ [Political Repression of Command Personnel, 1937–1938: Leningrad Military District] (in Russian). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Press. ISBN 978-5-288-05282-8.
• Irincheev, Bair (2013). Танки в Зимней войне [Tanks in the Winter War] (in Russian). Moscow: Taktikal Press. ISBN 978-5-906074-08-9.
• Kolomiets, Maxim; Baryatinsky, Mikhail (1996). "Легкий танк БТ-7" [Light Tank BT-7]. Бронеколлекция [Armor Collection] (in Russian). No. 5 (8). Moscow: Modelist-konstruktor.
• Kolomiets, Maxim; Moshchansky, Ilya (1998). "Танки Испанской республики" [Tanks of the Spanish Republic]. Tankomaster (in Russian). No. 2–3. Moscow: Tekhnika – molodezhi. pp. 2–9.
• Kolomiets, Maxim (2001). "Танки в зимней войне 1939-1940" [Tanks in the Winter War, 1939–1940]. Фронтовая иллюстрация [Front illustrated] (in Russian). No. 3. Moscow: Strategia KM.
• Meltyukhov, Mikhail (2014). Прибалтийский плацдарм (1939-1940 гг.). Возвращение Советского Союза на берега Балтийского моря [Baltic Bridgehead (1939–1940): The Return of the Soviet Union to the Shores of the Baltic Sea] (in Russian). Moscow: Algoritm. ISBN 978-5-4438-0602-0.
• Pavlov, M. V.; Zheltov, I. G.; Pavlov, I. V. (2001). Танки БТ [BT Tanks] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksprint. ISBN 5-94038-019-0.
• Zaloga, Steven J. (2016). BT Fast Tank: The Red Army's Cavalry Tank 1931–45. New Vanguard 237. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-4728-1065-6.