The 19th Perekop Red Banner Tank Corps was a tank corps of the Red Army during World War II.
Formed in December 1942, the corps saw its first action in the Sevsk–Dmitrovsk offensive in spring 1943. That summer it took part in the defensive phase of the Battle of Kursk and Operation Kutuzov.
Formation and Sevsk–Dmitrovsk Offensive
The corps began its formation process on 24 December in the region of the railway station of Turdey, Tula Oblast. Major General Ivan Dmitryevich Vasilyev took command on 5 January and led it for the majority of the rest of the war. The corps was initially assigned the 101st Tank Brigade, the 42nd and 43rd Tank Regiments, and the 19th Motor Rifle Brigade, but on 19 January the tank regiments, not having arrived, were replaced by the 79th and 202nd Tank Brigades. The 101st Tank Brigade was equipped with 51 American Lend-Lease M3 Lee medium tanks, while the 202nd included an assortment of tanks mainly gathered from training units: 22 KV and British Lend-Lease Matilda II tanks, and twenty T-60 light tanks. The 79th Tank Brigade rounded out the corps' tank units with twenty T-34 medium tanks and 26 T-60. The tank brigades possessed 65 percent of their authorized transport vehicles, while the 19th Motor Rifle Brigade lacked transport vehicles, its organic artillery and mortar battalions, and anti-tank rifle company. To address the 19th Motor Rifle Brigade's lack of vehicles, it was proposed to use horse transport instead, and 108 horses and 45 sledges were added to the brigade structure, but a lack of feed prevented this in practice. The brigade was given twenty vehicles without spare parts which were regularly inoperable as a result, and having been formed from ski battalions continued to move on skis. These four brigades remained with the corps for the rest of the war.
Not having completed its formation, on 19 January, the corps began a 400-kilometer march through Yefremov and Yelets to Livny. Reinforcements that did not reach the corps while it was forming partially arrived in the course of the march. The 79th and 202nd Tank Brigades did not arrive to the corps while it was forming and operated on their previous sectors of the front in the general direction of Livny, where they were slated to join with the remainder of the corps. The march was made difficult by the still insufficient cohesion of the tank crews, with many driver-mechanics having weak skills in the driving and maintenance of foreign tanks. The diversity of its tanks complicated maintenance and logistics, while blizzards hampered the movement of wheeled transport, light tanks, and Matildas, making the roads impassable. The corps was forced to employ locals in settlements along the march route to clear the snow off the road. With the movement taking place along one road and only at night, the movement of the corps was slow as it could cover only twenty to thirty kilometers each night. The 19th Motor Rifle Brigade suffered particular difficulties due to a lack of transport for provisions and fodder for horses and due to exhaustion about 600 men were left along the route.
The corps was left with two tank brigades when the 79th Tank Brigade was detached on 25 January. The corps proceeded its assigned concentration area in the region of Bolshoy Lyubash and Golovinka, 40 kilometers north of Fatezh, where on arrival on 13 February it was assigned to the Operational Group of Lieutenant General Yury Novoselsky of the Bryansk Front. On 11 February, a 30-strong M3 Lee tank battalion of the 101st Tank Brigade, arriving ahead of the rest of the corps, was committed to a mobile detachment that included a tank rider company and a motor rifle battalion. The detachment was tasked with rapidly advancing in cooperation with the group of Major General Pyotr Sobennikov and taking Kromy by the morning of 12 February. The detachment was to hold the town until the approach of the 211th Rifle Division, advancing from Cheremoshchnoye. At 16:30 on 11 February the mobile detachment arrived in the region of Verkhny Lyubazh and was joined by the battalion from the 101st Tank Brigade. On 12 February Novoselsky detached the 19th Motor Rifle Brigade from the corps and gave it its own mission to destroy the German grouping in the region of Vetryanka in cooperation with the 230th Rifle Division. Thus, on 12 February, the 19th Tank Corps only had one complete tank brigade, the 202nd Tank Brigade with one KV tank, nine Matildas, and thirteen T-60s.