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.
22-681: The Third Area Army ( 第3方面軍 , Dai san hōmen gun ) was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II , based in southern Manchukuo and active in combat against the Soviet Union in the very final stages of the war. The Japanese 3rd Area Army was formed on October 29, 1943 under the control of the Kwantung Army as a military reserve and garrison force to maintain security and public order in southern Manchukuo as many veteran divisions of
44-576: 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,
66-553: 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
88-450: 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 )
110-592: 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 ,
132-589: 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
154-639: 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
176-402: 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 the formation equivalent in size to
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
220-514: The 3rd Area Army, including General Ushiroku, became prisoners in Siberia and other parts of the Soviet Union after the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945. Field army Specific field armies are usually named or numbered to distinguish them from "army" in the sense of an entire national defence force or land force. In English , the typical orthographic style for writing out
242-547: 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 the Roman comitatensis (plural: comitatenses )
SECTION 10
#1732773170920264-576: The Kwantung Army were transferred to the various southern fronts in the Pacific War . It consisted mostly of minimally-trained reservists , conscripted students and home guard militia , without adequate weapons or supplies. The 3rd Area Army was headquartered in Mukden . The units of the 3rd Area Army proved to be no match for the Red Army when the Soviet Union invaded Manchukuo towards
286-733: 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
308-613: 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
330-765: 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
352-615: 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
374-628: The end of World War II . General Jun Ushiroku refused orders from Kwantung Army Headquarters to retreat, and launched a counterattack along the Mukden– Port Arthur railway, along which many Japanese civilians were fleeing. However, General Uchiroku was hampered by lack of armor and by insufficient ammunition, and by August 13, 1945, his formations were largely shattered. A mutiny by the Manchukuo Imperial Army at Shinkyō ended his attempts to regroup. Many surviving soldiers of
396-458: 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
418-649: 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 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
440-621: 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
462-703: 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
#1732773170920484-603: 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
#919080