page_title: 5th Rifle Corps
section_title: Soviet invasion of Poland
hierarchical_section_title: 5th Rifle Corps / First formation / Soviet invasion of Poland
caption_attribution_description: English: Soviet invasion of Poland 1939 This work is in the public domain in Russia according to article 1281 of Book IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation No. 230-FZ of December 18, 2006 and article 6 of Law No. 231-FZ of the Russian Federation of December 18, 2006 (the Implementation Act for Book IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) (details). Usually:[1] The author of this work died before January 1, 1942. The author of this work died between January 1, 1942 and January 1, 1946, did not work during the Great Patriotic War (Eastern Front of World War II) and did not participate in it. This work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym before January 1, 1943 and the name of the author did not become known during 50 years after publication. This work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym between January 1, 1943 and January 1, 1946, and the name of the author did not become known during 70 years after publication. This work is non-amateur cinema or television film (or shot, or fragment from it), which was first shown between January 1, 1929[2] and January 1, 1946. This work is in the public domain in the United States, because it was in the public domain in its home country (Russia) on the URAA date (January 1, 1996), and it wasn't re-published for 30 days following initial publications in the U.S. [1] If the author of this work was subjected to repression and rehabilitated posthumously, countdown of copyright protection began not from the death date, but from the rehabilitation date. If the work was first published posthumously, the copyright term is counted from the date of that first publication, unless the author was later rehabilitated, in which case it runs again from that later rehabilitation date. [2] Cinema films first shown before January 1, 1929 are subjects of points 1 and 2 of this template.
context_page_description: The 5th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Union's Red Army, formed twice.
  Formed in 1922, the corps was based at Bobruisk in Belarus for most of the interwar period. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, with elements participating in the Battle of Grodno before linking up with German troops. As a result, the corps was stationed on the border when the Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941. The corps was destroyed in the first week of the war in the Battle of Białystok–Minsk and officially disbanded in early July.
  The corps was formed for a second time in mid-1942 in the Soviet Far East, and spent most of World War II guarding the border around Bikin, sending several formations to the Eastern Front while undergoing several reorganizations. In August 1945, the corps fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria as a separate unit directly controlled by the 2nd Far Eastern Front, capturing the Japanese fortified region adjacent to its sector of the border against light resistance, and advancing into Manchuria. The corps was disbanded after the war in late 1945.
context_section_description: The corps fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland in September, advancing into what was annexed by the Soviet Union as western Belarus. On 17 September, at the beginning of the invasion, it was part of the Dzerzhinsky Cavalry-Mechanized Group of the Belorussian Front and included the 4th and 13th Rifle Divisions. At 05:00 on that day it crossed the border into Poland, overrunning the overstretched Polish border guards. The corps captured 29 border guards while suffering losses of six killed and two wounded. It reached the Stolbtsy–Baranovichi railway line by 18:00 and the Usza River by 23:00, with mobile detachments advancing to the Servach River during the day. At 8:00 on 19 September, a motorcycle group from the 4th Division's 101st Rifle Regiment entered Slonim, receiving 6,000 prisoners of war from units of the 15th Tank Corps, advancing ahead of the 5th.
  At 4:00 on 20 September, the motorcycle group of the 13th Division's 119th Rifle Regiment entered Volkovysk, where it was operationally subordinated to the 15th Tank Corps. The group encountered two squadrons of Polish cavalry 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) west of the city, capturing 150 with the loss of one killed. At 18:00 on 20 September, the 119th Regiment supported the tank corps' 27th Light Tank Brigade in the capture of the southern part of Grodno. That night, it managed to gain a foothold on the right bank of the Neman and reach the eastern approaches to the city. Meanwhile, the corps was transferred to the 10th Army. On 21 September, the main forces of the corps had reached Zelva, with the 101st and 119th Regiments moving on Grodno to fight in the battle for the city. 
  By the morning of 21 September, the 119th Regiment had arrived in Grodno, crossing to the right bank north of the 101st Regiment. Beginning at 6:00, the two regiments, reinforced with four guns and two tanks, attacked into the city, reaching the railway line by 12:00 despite Polish counterattacks and the city center at 14:00. The main forces of the 4th and 13th Divisions attacked from the east, but withdrew back to the city outskirts after reaching the railway line. After the Polish troops withdrew from the city on 22 September, the corps moved west and southwest from Volkovysk behind the 6th Cavalry Corps' 11th Cavalry Division.
  On 24 September, the corps reached the Svislach–Porazava line, and its advance detachments took control of Bielsk Podlaski and Brańsk at 13:00 on 25 September. On the next day, in the Gaynovichi area, the corps captured 120 Polish soldiers and discovered an ammunition depot. On the same day, in the Czyżew area, a German rearguard detachment was fired upon by Polish troops, losing one killed and four wounded before moving to Ciechanowiec, where Soviet troops provided medical assistance to them. On 27 September, the corps' forward detachments reached Nur and Czyżew, discovering another Polish ammunition depot near Gaynuki and digging up buried weapons in the forests. That night, a Polish detachment of 50 cavalrymen attacked departing German units at Nur, who moved west covered by the 13th Division's reconnaissance battalion. The battalion scattered the Polish detachment in the area of the village of Moderka. By 19:00 on 29 September, the corps' units occupied Małkinia Górna and Kosów Lacki. The 121st Rifle Division joined the corps by 2 October.
caption: Soviet troops marching into Poland
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