On 1 February 2021 the revival of the 75th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment at Sovetsk (until 1946 - the city of Tilsit), formerly part of the 40th Guards Tank Division, was reported.[4] It was reported that the new regiment would form part of the newly forming motor rifle division of the 11th Army Corps, likely a revived 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division. Sovetsk is located on the banks of the Neman River on the border with Lithuania, where the shortest land route to the border with the main part of Russia begins.
The Corps included an artillery brigade (with BM-27 Uragan and BM-30 Smerch heavy rocket launchers), missile and motor rifle brigades, and regiments for tanks, motor rifle and air defense.[5]
Military actions
After 24 February 2022, the corps was committed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 26 October 2022, Reuters published a special report regarding the defeat and retreat of an 11th Army detachment under colonel Ivan Popov and thousands of documents left in a base in Balakliia after the Ukrainian eastern Kharkiv counteroffensive 6–8 September. According to the documents, units within the corps had suffered heavy losses around Balakliia. In an action near Hrakove on 19 July, thirty-nine men were wounded, seven were dead, and 17 were reported missing, with a tank and two APCs lost. Meanwhile, on 24 July, 12 marines were killed in a HIMARS strike. By 30 August, the corps was down to 71% of its authorized strength, although more draftees were ordered. Some units were even worse off. The 2nd Assault Battalion had 49 personnel, when it should have had 240. The 9th BARS Brigade, an irregular unit, was at 23% of its intended manpower.[6]
In October 2022 American military correspondentDavid Axe claimed that the 11th Army Corps was destroyed during the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, having lost half its troops and 200 vehicles, and would "almost certainly require many months to rest, re-equip and induct draftees in order to regain even a fraction of its former strength."[7]
In May 2024, it was reported that the 11th Army Corps was taking part in the 2024 Kharkiv offensive.[2][8]
On 16 May, the Ukrainians claimed that two of the 11th Corps’ combat formations, deployed to the Kharkiv sector, the 138th Motor Rifle Brigade and 7th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment – part of the 18th Motor Rifle Division – took 70 percent losses in less than two weeks and had been rendered "combat ineffective".[9]
152nd Guards Rocket Brigade [ru] (Chernyakhovsk) The brigade traces its history back to the 3rd Destroyer (istrebitel'nye) Brigade of the 2nd Destroyer Division, in the combined-arms anti-tank role.[15] The brigade's first action was at the Battle of Kursk.[16] Twelve soldiers were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union.[17] The 3rd Destroyer Brigade was raised to Guards status on August 10, 1943, with the same original number retained. The formation was in the ranks of the Active Army [ru] (the troops fighting on the frontline) from June 12, 1942, to August 10, 1943, and from September 14, 1943, to May 9, 1945. In July–August 1943, it fought as part of the 70th Army at the Battle of Kursk. Initially, the unit was formed as the 3rd Destroyer Brigade. It then became the 3rd Guards Destroyer Brigade and was eventually reorganized in 1943 into the 3rd Guards Anti-Tank Artillery Brigade.[18] After the war, the brigade was in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and reported directly to the command of the Group of Forces. The formation was stationed in the area of Strelitz-Alt (or Alt-Strelitz) (de:Strelitz-Alt / Altstrelitz) in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the German Democratic Republic. In the 1960s, the brigade was reorganized into a missile formation. In the late 1980s, in the process of disbanding the GSFG, the brigade (military unit 96759) was withdrawn to Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad Oblast.[19]
^List No. 7 of the Directorates of brigades of all types of troops that were part of the active army during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Moscow. 1960. pp. 96, 131.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN9785895035306.
