A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army ) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps . It may be subordinate to an army group . Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces , and fleets in navies . A field army is composed of 80,000 to 300,000 soldiers.
22-588: The 1st Army ([1-я армия] Error: {{Langx}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) ) was an army -level command of the Russian Imperial Army created during World War I . The First Army, commanded by General Paul von Rennenkampf , invaded East Prussia at the outbreak of war in 1914 along with the Second Army commanded by General Alexander Samsonov . After declaring war on the German Empire ,
44-534: A geographic area in wartime. After the outbreak of the First World War , the Russian General Headquarters set up two Fronts: Northwestern Front , uniting forces deployed against German Empire , and Southwestern Front , uniting forces deployed against Austria-Hungary . In August 1915, Northwestern Front was split into Northern Front and Western Front . At the end of 1916 Romanian Front
66-450: A headquarters, and usually controls at least two corps, beneath which are a variable number of divisions . A battle is influenced at the field army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. NATO armies are commanded by a general or lieutenant general . Front (Soviet Army) A front ( Russian : фронт , romanized : front )
88-767: A numerical name, such as the British Army of the Rhine , Army of the Potomac , Army of the Niemen or Aegean Army (also known as the Fourth Army). The Roman army was among the first to feature a formal field army, in the sense of a very large, combined arms formation, namely the sacer comitatus , which may be translated literally as "sacred escort". The term is derived from their being commanded by Roman emperors (who were regarded as sacred), when they acted as field commanders . While
110-576: A single front at the start of the hostilities, or when hostilities were anticipated. Some military districts could not form a front. Fronts were also formed during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. The main fronts during the Russian Civil War and Polish-Soviet War were : Army groups differ from fronts in that a Soviet front typically had its own army-sized tactical fixed-wing aviation organization. According to Soviet military doctrine ,
132-581: A specific operation, after which it could be reformed and tasked with another operation (including a change of the Front's designation) or it could be disbanded - with its formations dispersed among the other active Fronts and its HQ reintegrated into its original Military District HQ. Soviet and Russian military doctrine calls the different levels in the command chain (including the Fronts) "Organs of Military Control" ( Russian : Органы военного управления ). In 1979 in
154-615: Is a type of military formation that originated in the Russian Empire , and has been used by the Polish Army , the Red Army , the Soviet Army , and Turkey . It is roughly equivalent to an army group in the military of most other countries. It varies in size but in general contains three to five armies . It should not be confused with the more general usage of military front , describing
176-593: The Russian Empire had been able to mobilize very quickly. All Russian forces were put under the command of Grand Duke Nikolai and his Quartermaster General Yuri Danilov . The invading forces made a determined and speedy attack on East Prussia. However, the First and Second Armies were stopped by the German Eighth Army , led by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his chief of staff, General Erich Ludendorff . The German and Russian armies met at Tannenberg , where
198-404: The air army was directly subordinated to the front commander (typically a ground commander). The reform of 1935 established that in case of a war the peacetime military districts on the border would split upon mobilisation each into a Front Command (taking control of the district's peacetime military formations) and a Military District Command (which stayed behind with the mission of mobilising
220-706: The Red Army in World War II . Soviet fronts in the European Theatre during the Second World War from 1941 to 1945: (time period) (22.6.41. – 20.11.43.) Pyotr Sobennikov , Pavel Kurochkin , Semyon Timoshenko , Ivan Konev (22.6.41. – 15.4.44.) Andrey Yeryomenko , Semyon Timoshenko , Ivan Konev , Georgy Zhukov , Vasily Sokolovsky , Ivan Chernyakhovsky (21.6.41. – 12.7.42.) Semyon Timoshenko , Fyodor Kostenko Southern Front and
242-536: The Roman comitatensis (plural: comitatenses ) is sometimes translated as "field army", it may also be translated as the more generic "field force" or "mobile force" (as opposed to limitanei or garrison units). In some armed forces, an "army" is or has been equivalent to a corps-level unit . Prior to 1945, this was the case with a gun ( 軍 ; 'army') within the Imperial Japanese Army , for which
SECTION 10
#1732849103522264-624: The Second Army was encircled and suffered complete destruction. Both the First and Second Armies suffered terrible casualties in one of the most comprehensive German victories of World War I . The First Army also suffered defeat at the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in September 1914, which led to Rennenkampf's dismissal and replacement by Litvinov. First Army served under Northwestern front for
286-588: The Soviet Troops in the Far East ( Russian : Главное командование советских войск на Дальнем Востоке ). Existed between 30 July and 17 December 1945 under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky . It commanded the: The degree of change in the structure and performance of individual fronts can only be understood when seen in the context of the strategic operations of
308-726: The Troops of the Western Direction ( Russian : Главное командование войск Западного направления ). Existed between 10 July and 10 September 1941 under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko . It commanded the: Main Command of the Troops of the South-Western Direction ( Russian : Главное командование войск Юго-Западного направления ). Existed between 10 July 1941 and 21 June 1942 under
330-593: The command of initially Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny , since September 1941 of Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko . It commanded the: Main Command of the Troops of the North Caucasus Direction ( Russian : Главное командование войск Северо-Кавказского направления ). Existed between 21 April and 19 May 1942 under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny . It commanded the: Main Command of
352-597: The formation equivalent in size to a field army was a hōmen-gun ( 方面軍 ; 'area army'). In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Forces , an army was subordinate in wartime to a front (an equivalent of army group ). It contained at least three to five divisions along with artillery, air defense, reconnaissance and other supporting units. It could be classified as either a combined arms army (CAA) or tank army (TA); and while both were combined arms formations,
374-454: The former contained a larger number of motorized rifle divisions while the latter contained a larger number of tank divisions . In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district . Modern field armies are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility. For instance, within NATO a field army is composed of
396-581: The remainder of the war. Litvinov was replaced by Sokovnin in April 1917. Vannovski replaced Sokovnin in July and the army's final commander, von Notbek, took over in September 1917. The First Army consisted of the following units in August 1914: The 1st Army had the following commanders until it was demobilized in 1918. Field army Specific field armies are usually named or numbered to distinguish them from "army" in
418-602: The reserve formations and putting them at the disposal of the Fronts as replacement troops). In that sense the Air Armies were under Air Force command in peacetime, but under the command of the Front HQs in wartime; and the Fronts were commanded by ground-forces generals. An entire Front might report either to the Stavka or to a theatre of military operations (TVD). A Front was mobilised for
440-418: The sense of an entire national defence force or land force. In English , the typical orthographic style for writing out the names field armies is word numbers , such as "First Army"; whereas corps are usually distinguished by Roman numerals (e.g. I Corps) and subordinate formations with ordinal numbers (e.g. 1st Division). A field army may be given a geographical name in addition to or as an alternative to
462-671: The years of high confrontation between the countries of the Western liberal democracies and those of the Socialist Bloc the Main Commands of the Troops of a Strategic Directions were reinstated covertly: ( Russian : Главное командование войск Северо-Западного направления ). Existed between 10 July and 27 August 1941 under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov . It commanded the: Main Command of
SECTION 20
#1732849103522484-583: Was established, which also included remnants of the Romanian army. In April 1917, Caucasus Front was established by the reorganization of the Caucasus Army . The Soviet fronts were first raised during the Russian Civil War . They were wartime organizations only, in the peacetime the fronts were normally disbanded and their armies organized back into military districts . Usually a single district formed
#521478