51st Army The 51st Army was a field army of the Red Army that saw action against the Germans in World War II on both the southern and northern sectors of the front . In particular , it was involved in the Crimean debacle of May 1942 , and the final cutting - off of German forces in the Courland area next to the Baltic . Inactivated in the 1950s , the army was activated again in the 1960s to secure the Soviet Union ' s border with China . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the army continued in existence as a component of the Russian Ground Forces . The army was active during two periods from 1941 until 1993 . Formation history . The Crimea . The Army was formed in August 1941 in the Crimea as the 51st Independent Army under Colonel General F . I . Kuznetsov , with the task of guarding the Crimea . Professor John Erickson in " The Road to Stalingrad " describes Stalin ' s rationale for the formation of the Army during a 12 August session within the Stavka war room : Stalin and the Stavka had concluded from the German moves underway at the time that a strike on the Crimea ( along with an attack on Bryansk ) was likely , and thus the formation of an Independent Army in the Crimea had been decided upon . Thus Kuznetsov was summoned , and after a discussion , he was sent south to take up his new command . The army ' s initial forces included the 9th Rifle Corps , the 271st and 276th Rifle Divisions , the 40th , 42nd and 48th Cavalry Divisions , and the 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 4th irregularly formed Crimean divisions and a number of smaller units . However , due to Kuznetsov ' s ' sticking blindly to the prewar plan ' , which anticipated a seaborne assault , and leaving the Perekop and Sivash approaches too thinly held , Von Manstein , leading the German assault , was able to push past the defences . Therefore the Stavka ordered that the army command be handed over to General Pavel Batov . In November the army was evacuated from the Taman peninsula and it joined the Transcaucasian Front ( briefly known as the Caucasian Front after 30 December 1941 ) . The army participated in the Kerch - Feodosiya landing operation in December 1941 – January 1942 alongside the 44th Army . 51st Army was originally planned to be the Kerch arm of the assault , but delays caused by bad weather and a schedule change prompted by renewed German attacks on Sevastopol resulted in 51st Army troops being landed at Capes Sjuk and Chroni during the night of 26 – 27 December 1941 . 44th and 51st Armies then formed the Crimean Front under General Dmitri T . Kozlov , formally established on 28 January 1942 , which hammered repeatedly at Von Manstein ' s Eleventh Army . On 1 February 1942 , 51st Army comprised the 138th and 302nd Mountain Rifle Division s , the 224th , 390th , and 396th Rifle Division s , the 12th Rifle Brigade , 83rd Naval Infantry Brigade , 105th Separate Mountain Rifle Regiment , 55th Tank Brigade , 229th Separate Tank Battalion , artillery units , and other support units . A German offensive was launched against the Front on 8 May 1942 , and due to bickering between Kozlov and the Front commissar , Lev Mekhlis , and a trail of incompetent actions , it concluded around 18 May 1942 with the near complete destruction of Soviet defending forces . Three armies ( 44th , 47th , and 51st ) , 21 divisions , 176 , 000 men , 347 tanks , and nearly 3 , 500 guns were lost . The remains of the force were evacuated . Stalingrad and after . After the evacuation 51st Army joined the North Caucasian Front at Kuban . In July , Marshal Budenny received orders to combine the Southern Front and North Caucasian Front into a single formation retaining the title of North Caucasian Front , and 51st Army joined the ' Don group ' of that front under General Lieutenant Rodion Malinovsky , along with the 12th Army and the 37th Army . As part of the Stalingrad Front ( from 1 – 5 August ) , then briefly with the Southeast Front ( from 6 August until 27 September ) , and then back with the Stalingrad Front it took part in the Battle of Stalingrad . On 31 July when it came under Stalingrad Front control it was so worn down by its previous rough handling that it was only 3 , 000 men strong . During Operation Uranus , the counterattack from Stalingrad , the 4th Mechanized Corps began its attack from the 51st Army ' s sector . On 24 – 25 December 1942 , the commander of 51st Army , Major - General N . I . Trufanov , organized a local offensive operation on the right flank with the forces of three rifle divisions , and moved to the north bank of the Aksav River , on the eve of the Koitelnikovo offensive operation , which eventually defeated the German efforts made as part of Operation Winter Storm to relieve the Sixth Army in Stalingrad . On 30 January 1943 , the " Luftwaffe ' s " " Kampfgeschwader 51 " destroyed the 51st Army ' s Headquarters , near Salsk . Dropping 100 – 250 kg bombs , a wave of Junkers Ju 88 s and Heinkel He 111 s destroyed the communications centre , working offices of the chief - of - staff , the operational headquarters and the offices of the operational duty officer . Up to 20 buildings and personnel billets were also destroyed . Casualties among personnel were also very high . After January 1943 as part of the Southern Front , which became the 4th Ukrainian Front on 20 October 1943 , the 51st Army took part in the Rostov , Donbass ( August – September 1943 ) , Melitopol ( September – November 1943 ) and the 1944 Crimean offensive operation . On 1 April 1944 , 51st Army included the 1st Guards Rifle Corps ( 33rd Guards , 91st and 346th Rifle Divisions ) 10th Rifle Corps ( 216th , 257th , and 279th Rifle Divisions ) 63rd Rifle Corps ( 263rd , 267th , and 417th Rifle Divisions ) , the 77th Rifle Division , the 78th Fortified Region , artillery , armour , and other support units . During these operations , the 51st Army ' s attacks trapped the German " XXIX . Armeekorps " against the Sea of Azov . In May – June , 1944 51st Army was moved to the western direction . As part of the 1st Baltic Front it participated in operations clearing Latvia and Lithuania – the Baltic Offensive . Leading the penetration of 1st Baltic Front into German lines , 51st Army reached the Bay of Riga on 31 July 1944 , cutting off German Army Group North to the northeast of Riga . Under tremendous pressure , the Germans organized an armored counter - attack ( " Doppelkopf " ) from 16 to 27 August 1944 that succeeded in re - opening a 40 - kilometer wide corridor through which Army Group North retreated westward into the Courland region of Latvia . After regrouping in September 1944 , the 51st Army attacked westward in October , reaching the Baltic coast north of Memel , and with other 1st Baltic Front armies , definitively cut off Army Group North in Courland , where the German force would remain for the rest of the war . Thereafter , 51st Army took up position on the far western flank of the Soviet forces arrayed against Army Group North ( later renamed Army Group Courland ) . Of the six major battles for Courland , 51st Army ' s only real progress was during the first Courland battle , from 15 – 22 October 1944 , in which the army pushed some ten kilometers north against bitter resistance of the German " III . SS - Panzerkorps " . Thereafter , the front lines in this area of the Courland front changed little . After 9 May 1945 it accepted the capitulation of the German Army Group Courland . Postwar . The army moved during June 1945 from the Baltic States to the Urals with almost all its forces . Feskov et al . list 10th Rifle Corps ( 91st , 279th , and 347th Rifle Divisions ) and 63rd Rifle Corps ( 77th , 87th , and 417th Rifle Divisions ) in the District at the time , and probably under 51st Army headquarters . The army ' s headquarters moved without its troops to Sakhalin in the Far East Military District in 1953 , but it was later disbanded . In 1969 , the 51st Combined Arms Army was re - formed on the basis of the staff of the 2nd Army Corps in the Far East Military District . On 11 October 1993 the 51st ( Combined Arms ) Army became the 68th Army Corps . Order of Battle in the 1980s . At the end of the 1980s the composition of the 51st Combined Arms Army of the Far East Military District included : Other Army - level troops reported by Feskov et al . 2004 , as of 1988 , included the 280 отдельный Уссурийский Engineer - Sapper Bаttalion of the 25th Army Corps ( Anadyr ) , the Staff of the 25th Army Corps , 8th Separate Communications Battalion ; 921st Artillery Regiment at Petropavlovsk - Kamchatsky , the 75th Rocket Brigade , 166th Separate Communications Regiment , a Separate Engineer - Sapper Regiment ; and the 553rd Separate Communications Battalion at Yuzho - Sakhalinsk ( Южно - Сахалинск ) .