Андрей Тихомиров, Николай Литвинов
The emergence of armies and armed forces

The creation of armies in the history of different countries

The primitive communal system did not have an army, since there were no classes and no state in it. The generic organization of the society had only a self-acting armed organization of the population. The decomposition of tribal society into classes led to the emergence of the army as an instrument of class domination and oppression, and the self-acting armed organization of the population became impossible. In a slave-owning society, wars were primarily fought in pursuit of slaves and armies were slave-owning. Permanent armies were not formed immediately. The army of Ancient Egypt was based on military settlements and was located on the borders of the state, where allotment of land was payment for military service. Later, permanent armies appeared, the main purpose of which was to keep the population of the conquered regions in subjection and suppress uprisings. This, for example, was typical of the standing army created by Darius Hystaspes in the Persian Empire.

"A new page in the history of India begins with the era of chariot invasions by Indo-European semi-nomadic peoples from the steppes of the Urals and Altai. It was the beginning of a new historical period in ancient India, it is called the "Vedic" in connection with the ancient sacred Indian literature, the texts of the Vedas, the collection (Samhita) of hymns in the Vedic language (the predecessor of Sanskrit). Although these texts were composed between 1500 and 1000 BC, their complete collection was not clearly recorded until 900 or 800 BC. By that time, much of the meaning of these religious texts had already been lost due to many changes in social, economic, religious and political life. The reasons for the conquest of Northern India by the Aryans are as follows: the "tanks" of antiquity are widely used – cavalry and chariots, iron weapons, perhaps something like catapults spewing a fiery barrage of fire, since traces of severe high-temperature fires have been found in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. The oldest city in Palestine, Megiddon, was destroyed several times due to terrible fires that engulfed the entire city, this was established by archaeological excavations and belonged to the V and VI layers. The word "armageddon" later came from the name of this city – the place where, according to Revelation John (16:16), when the end of the world comes, the last battle will take place with the participation of all the kings of the earth. Scientific research has proved that Armageddon is a distorted Hebrew phrase translated as "the mountain near the city of Megiddo" (in northern Palestine), where many decisive battles took place in ancient times due to the geographical location of this area, and the Roman garrison, known for its cruelty, was stationed there.

The fire trails were left by the ancient Aryans everywhere they visited. Including where their possible predecessors, arias, were located. A monstrous fire destroyed Troy II (many layers were found in Troy), traces of a monstrous fire were found everywhere in this layer. Not far from Babylon are the ruins of Borsippa. The first explorers considered them to be part of the urban area of Babylon. There, in Borsippa, the remains of the temple towered, which best tell about the way the Babylonians and Assyrians once erected their towers. In the turbulent years of the formation of archaeology, the idea arose that this tower from Borsippa could be identified with the world-famous Tower of Babel, which is mentioned in the Bible. Archaeologists have found huge religious premises of the temple and its extraordinarily powerful walls. Since ancient times, traces of a fire disaster have remained on them, which destroyed the temple to the ground. The temple tower was badly damaged during the fire. " (Tikhomirov A.E., Collection of articles in 2014, "PoLyART", Orenburg, 2015, p. 244).

The military system in the slave-owning countries served the ruling class of slaveholders. In the armies of the slave-owning states of Greece and Rome, slaves were recruited as soldiers, but from this the armies did not cease to be an instrument of suppression of slaves in the hands of the ruling class. The geographical position of the states of the ancient world – Egypt, Greece, Rome, the development of production, trade, navigation, the struggle for supremacy on the sea routes led to the emergence and development of the navy. Athens had the most powerful fleet, and then Rome. The navy, as well as the army, served to suppress the resistance of the exploited masses and acquire slaves. During the period of feudal relations, subsistence farming and feudal fragmentation precluded the possibility of maintaining large standing armies. Military power during this period was directly related to land ownership; the ruling class – the feudal knights, when marching, formed a militia – the feudal militia. Serfs in the army were used only as servants and served in the wagon train.

The development of commodity production and the growing social division of labor, the growth of cities, the strengthening of absolutism and the state apparatus, the use of gunpowder and firearms led to the death of feudal militias and contributed to the emergence of mercenary armies. It was more profitable for the bourgeoisie of cities and the bureaucratic monarchy, which was created on the basis of the development of capitalist relations, to initially maintain a mercenary army in wartime than to have a large standing army dependent on it. However, mercenary armies had little connection with the state, they served the one who paid the most (Wallenstein's army in the Thirty-Year-Old Warrior). Absolutism, on the other hand, needed a more reliable standing army to strengthen its power. In the 2nd half of the 17th century, the economic development of the main European states already allowed the maintenance of permanent armies not only in wartime, but also in peacetime. The development of capitalist relations in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It aggravated the economic rivalry between the states and led to frequent wars, which also caused the appearance of a permanent army and navy. All European states are moving to permanent and national armies, exceeding in 3-4 slots the mercenary armies of the 16th-1st half of the 17th centuries. The system of permanent armies is maintained until the transition to mass cadre armies of the 19th century.

According to the sources of the Byzantine writer-historian Procopius of Caesarea of the 6th century, the ancient Slavs-Ants in the wars with Byzantium in the 6th century. acted with organized forces. In the period of the 9th-10th centuries. the army in Russia consisted of mounted squads and infantry. The troops of Kievan Rus consisted of princely squads and represented the germ of future feudal squads and the people's militia (remnants of the military democracy system). The Kiev prince, in addition to the squad, also had a fleet that operated both on the Dnieper and Danube rivers and on the Black Sea.

In the era of feudal fragmentation of Russia (12th-14th centuries), the bulk of the prince's army consisted of detachments of large landowners (boyars), staffed by the prince's vassals and "people" (slaves). But the number of this princely army was small, and therefore, in necessary cases, at the call of the Grand Duke, appanage princes, boyars and small patrimony ("boyar's children") came to him with their detachments. The main part of the Russian troops consisted of cavalry, but infantry (militia) played a more significant role. Of particular note is the successful use of infantry (militia) by Alexander Nevsky in the Battle of the Neva (1240), Lake Peipsi (1242) and Dmitry Donskoy in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380).

The liberation of Russia from the Mongol-Tatar yoke took place in 1480, exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Kulikovo. Why does the victory at Kulikovo Field in 1380 occupy a more significant place in our minds than the final victory over the Golden Horde? Although all comparisons are conditional, let's turn to events of a huge scale that are quite close to us – the Great Patriotic War. What was the most significant battle against the Nazis? The battles that determined the winners were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk. The war did not end after them, but the course of the war and its outcome were determined. A man needs to carry a heavy load over the mountain. How difficult is the path to the truth! My strength is running out, so it seems that everything has run out. I want to drop the load, sink down next to him on the rocks and die. But a person, if he has the courage, gets to the top – even if he crawls, and when he looks back from the top, when he sees the terrible steepness that he overcame, then the further path, even if it is also dangerous and difficult, will seem possible to him. And he will go through it with joy and enthusiasm. The Battle of Stalingrad was for the Soviet people the most difficult uphill climb, from the top of which the road to victory opened. And the Battle of Kulikovo for the Russian people became a milestone event in the fight against the Mongol-Tatars.

In the 16th century, a permanent Streltsy army was created in the Moscow state, the strength of which reached 40 thousand people during periods of intense external and internal situation in the 17th century. In the 17th century. in the Moscow state, the fees of datochny people (the germ of conscription) were established and the regiments of the "new system" were formed as a transitional form from the noble militia to the regular army. In 1680, the Moscow state had an army of about 165 thousand people. In addition, a significant number of Ukrainian and Don Cossacks were involved in military service during this period. Peter the Great was the creator of the regular Russian army and navy, which far surpassed the Western European standing armies in terms of manning and combat capability. Under Peter I, the Russian armed forces consisted of regular land regiments, the Navy, and military schools were established at the same time. By 1725, the Russian armed forces consisted of guards, artillery, 126 regiments of regular troops and 100,000 irregular Cossack and Kalmyk cavalry. During this period, the Baltic Fleet had 35 large linear sailing ships, 10 frigates and about 200 galley (rowing) vessels with 28 thousand. sailors and officers. In the warriors against foreign invaders in Russia, a large national people's militia was usually created, which courageously defended the independence of the Motherland. Russian Russian military art of the 18th century gained the opportunity for rapid development and became advanced in comparison with the military art of the permanent Western European armies, which were recruited by recruiting, due to the special nature of the progressive wars waged by the Russian people, a more advanced system of acquisition.

The mass armed forces of the manufacturing period of the wars, created on the basis of universal conscription, first appeared in France during the French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. In the struggle against the coalition of feudal states, the French bourgeoisie could only attract the peasantry and the working population of the cities to the army. In 1794, the French armed forces consisted of 1.2 million people. They were built on the principle of short-term active service, which ensured the creation of large reserves of trained population enrolled in the reserve. After the victory of the French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. All capitalist states began to recruit their armies also on the principle of universal military service. All citizens who had reached a certain age were accepted into the army. The soldier's mass was mainly composed of peasants, the dominant classes were represented in the army by officers. The troops were brought up in the spirit of nationalism and chauvinism.

During the wars against Napoleon I (1805-1813), the Russian armed forces were formed on the principle of indefinite service. In the future, the development of capitalism in Russia, the growth of the armed forces in the main European states and the defeat of tsarism in the Crimean War of 1854-1855 contributed to the introduction of universalmilitary service. The Military Service Charter of 1874 resolved an important problem in Russia – the creation of a reserve of trained reserves necessary for the deployment of mass armed forces in wartime. Conscription, established in Russia in 1874, was formally universal. But in the conditions of the autocratic system of Russia, many feudal and serfdom orders continued to be preserved in the Russian army. There was still a gap between the command staff and the disenfranchised, belittled mass of soldiers that separated the "master" from the "peasant". The military reform of 1874 nevertheless made it possible to create mass armed forces in Russia.

"In the 19th century, machine production was widely developed in large industrial countries. The last third of the 19th century was characterized by a significant increase in productive forces and major technical shifts in industry, which greatly contributed to an increase in the production capabilities of weapons. Conscription, introduced in all large capitalist states, in turn opened up wide opportunities for further numerical growth of the Armed Forces both in peacetime and in wartime. By the end of the 19th century, mass armies had developed in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary and other countries, built on the principles of a cadre army and a cadre navy.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the latest technical discoveries and inventions led to the emergence of new industries and further growth in the production of military equipment. The emergence and development of such industries as electrical engineering, petroleum, high-quality steels, automotive, pulp, aviation, machine tool construction, mechanical engineering, chemical production, as well as the development of railway transport and technical means of communication had a special impact on the progress of military equipment. This made it possible to provide massive land armies with new types of weapons, expand the construction of numerous naval fleets and begin production of combat aircraft. The established shortened terms of service in the regular armies up to 2-3 and in the navy up to 5 years made it possible to cover a significant number of military servicemen with military training in peacetime. By the beginning of the First World War in 1914-1918. of all those liable for military service, 58% were trained in peacetime: in France, 43% in Germany, 30% in Russia, which made it possible to increase the number of peacetime armed forces 4-5 times during mobilization" (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, State Scientific Publishing House "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, main editor B.A. Vvedensky, volume 9, 1951, p. 83).

The armed forces in the era of imperialism have a pronounced class character both in purpose and in terms of recruitment principles. The recruitment of capitalist armies by soldiers from the working people, who have to fight for the interests of the exploiting classes that are alien to them, is associated with deep political contradictions.

The need for a huge army to wage imperialist wars and the fear of the ruling circles of capitalist countries to arm the multi-million masses of the people lead to a deep and insoluble crisis of the military system of capitalism. Russian Russian Empire showed serious signs of a crisis in the military system of capitalism during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and during the first Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. This crisis was expressed in the mass revolutionary actions of soldiers and sailors of the tsarist army and Navy, who did not want to fight for interests alien to them and participate in the suppression of the labor movement. The Tsarist army came to the same crisis in 1917, and the German army in 1918. The armed forces of France, England and Austria-Hungary were in a state close to crisis at that time.

While preparing their armies for war against the USSR, Western countries in the period between the two world wars took all measures to make them an obedient tool for reactionary domestic policy and a reliable means of aggression against the socialist state. Fearing the involvement of the working masses in the armed forces, bourgeois military ideologists proposed theories that talked about abandoning mass armies and returning to small, professional armies (Fuller, Sekt, Soldan, de Gaulle, etc.) or to waging a lightning war with one aircraft (Douai, etc.). After the First World War, Britain and the United States returned to professional armies, manned for hire. In France, overtime professionals made up more than a third of the armies recruited on the principle of universal military service. In the defeated countries – Germany, Austria and others – a system of professional armies with long service lives was also established. But this could not resolve the deep contradictions of the military system of capitalist countries, which consist in the fact that the imperialists during the general crisis of capitalism were unable to ensure the strength of the rear, which is the most important of the constantly acting factors determining the fate of the war.

The experience of the two world wars has shown that the imperialists were forced to involve the multi-million masses of peoples in the war, whose attitude to the goals of the war becomes crucial, since it determines the morale of the armed forces. The growth of the armed forces, which began at the end of the 19th century, continued in the early 20th century. In 1898, the armed forces in each of the main Western capitalist powers (Germany, France) in peacetime amounted to 400-600 thousand people. Before the First World War in 1914, they increased to 500-800 thousand people, and before the Second World War in 1939. For example, 1300 thousand people have reached in Germany. Pre-revolutionary Russia in 1898 had a peacetime land army of 660 thousand people, and in 1914 – 1360 thousand people. At the beginning of the First World War, the number of land forces of each of the main European countries (Germany, Russia, France) exceeded 4 million people, and by the end of the war in Russia and Germany had already reached over 8 million people.

In World War II, the number of land forces of each of the capitalist powers (Germany, England, USA) exceeded 5 million people, and by the end of the war in Germany alone reached over 9 million people.

The forms of organization of armies, genera and types of troops are usually adapted to the forms and methods of warfare. Since the latter change depending on economic conditions and the development of production, in connection with the emergence of new technical means of struggle, a new type of armed forces (aviation) arises, the importance and role of each old branch of the army of the land army changes and new branches and types of troops arise.

Before the machine period of the wars, there were only three types of troops in the armies: infantry, cavalry, artillery, and in an embryonic form there were engineering troops, which by the time of the First World War included poorly developed communications units, aviation, aeronautical units, etc.

During the First World War, due to the rapid growth of military equipment, forms of armed struggle became more complicated and, along with the development of the old branches of the armed forces (infantry and artillery), new ones appeared: armored, air defense, chemical, communications, automotive, road and others, which ensured the combat activities of the main branches of the armed forces.

Further development of the armed forces

Until the 19th century, all the forces of the state, which did not exceed 200 thousand people, made up one active army, deployed before the battle in a narrow space measured in a few kilometers. Even the more numerous army of Napoleon I in such general battles as the battles of Jena in 1800, Wagram in 1809, Borodin in 1812, was not divided into separate armies as operational associations.

The continuous growth of the armed forces in the 19th century, recognized by new bourgeois social relations and increased economic opportunities created by the development of capitalism, led to an expansion of the scale of wars (campaigns and operations). The rapid development of science and technology has led to an unprecedented arms race, to the rapid development of weapons and military equipment of all kinds. The growth of the composition of the armed forces, the increase in the fire and technical power of units and formations on the basis of qualitative and quantitative growth of weapons contributed to the continuous expansion of the fronts of combat clashes even in the manufacturing period of the wars. This caused the need to introduce into the operational management system of the armed forces such basic operational associations as the private army, and subsequently the highest operational association – the front (army group). The land forces began to be divided into several armies, the number of which was constantly growing.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the armed forces of states were usually called the army. This was due to the fact that the land army in most States made up the vast majority of the armed forces. There was no air fleet, and the Navy most often represented an organization independent of the land army with its own specific tasks in naval theaters of operations. Since the middle of the 19th century. Increasingly, the term "army" has become used only to refer to ground forces or military associations, e.g., the land army, combined arms army, etc.

Subsequently, the armed forces of all States underwent major changes related to the development of productive forces and industrial relations. The dependence of the development of armies on the economic and political structure of society and their class character are clearly visible in the examples of the entire history of human society.

For the first time, the army as an operational association appeared in Russia before the Patriotic War of 1812 due to the fact that Russian troops were forced to cover the territory of the country on a very wide front in three independent directions. In total, three armies were created. Prussia first divided its troops into two armies in 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War and into three armies during the Franco—Prussian War of 1870-1871. France had only one army in the Austro-Italo-French War of 1859 and deployed two armies only in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. According to the plans of the Russian command, in the event of war, it was planned to deploy four armies in 1880, six armies in 1900, and eight armies in 1908. The fighting in the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905 was deployed by Japan with five armies, Russia had one army. The increase of Russian troops in Manchuria, the expansion of the front of hostilities and the difficulties of management by the end of the war led to the division of the active army into three combined arms armies.

At the beginning of the First World War, Russia had nine armies, in 1916 – thirteen. Germany had fifteen armies at the end of the war, France had ten, and the United States had one. During the period of foreign military intervention and the civil war of 1918-1920. Soviet Russia deployed sixteen armies. In the Second World War of 1939-1945, there was a further increase in the number of combined arms armies. By the end of the war, Nazi Germany had 17 combined arms armies, Japan – thirteen, the United States – eight armies. The increase in the number of combined arms armies is explained by the increased intensity of the struggle in wars, the expansion of strategic fronts and the increase in the armed forces (the number of divisions, corps) with significantly increased economic opportunities.

Since the 19th century, combined arms armies consisted of 2-5 army corps and 1 cavalry corps (1-2 cavalry divisions). With imperfect controls (lack of telegraph and telephone), an army of such a large composition could only be controlled with its compact combat formation on a narrow front that could be viewed from one command post. By the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, the largest of the three Russian armies in composition: the army included 6 infantry corps (12 infantry divisions), 3 cavalry corps, 18 Cossack regiments; In total, it had 149 infantry battalions and 144 squadrons; the total number was 127 thousand people, 558 guns. Russian Russian army was fielded in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, consisting of 6 corps, which included 186 battalions, 213 squadrons, 774 guns; its number was 303 thousand people, 90 thousand horses. The difficulty of operational management of such a bulky army caused its fragmentation into detachments. According to the deployment plan of 1880, the Russian military command envisaged armies consisting of 11-15 infantry and 3-4 cavalry divisions (177-241 battalions, 96-140 squadrons, 476-622 guns). But the deployment plan of 1890 provided for armies of 17-18 infantry divisions, 10-12 calculated cavalry divisions. According to the 1900 plan, the composition of the Russian armies was envisaged in 9-12 infantry divisions and 4-7 calculated cavalry divisions, but the number of armies as a whole increased.

Due to the significant growth in the composition of the armed forces as a whole and the special conditions of operational management (two separate theaters) in 1900 – for the first time in the history of military art – in Russia, according to the war plan, the creation of higher operational associations – fronts, each comprising two or four armies. The emergence of the concept of the front caused, in turn, the emergence of new concepts: an inseparable army, which is part of a front-line association, and a separate army, which is not part of the front. In other states, higher operational associations similar to the fronts called army groups were created only in the second half of the First World War of 1914-1918.

In the absence of front-line control, it was considered impossible to control a large number of armies, and therefore the latter were created very large. Thus, the Second Russian Army in Manchuria in early February 1905 included 4 army (rifle) corps and 2 large detachments, and in total about 100 thousand people, 120 infantry battalions, 79 squadrons and hundreds, 439 guns. Such a composition of the combined arms armies of the manufacturing period of the war (before the advent of cars, automatic weapons, airplanes, tanks and other types of military equipment characteristic of the machine period of the war) was determined by the fact that their basis was the muscular strength of man and horse (infantry and cavalry). Apart from artillery (which was dominated by calibers no higher than 75-76 mm), there was no other military equipment. Rifle, saber, horse – the main fighting force of the army. The striking force was based on the bayonet, and the maneuverability was based on the mobility of a pedestrian (25-30 km per day).

The typical composition of the Russian combined arms armies of the First World War, deployed in 1914, was: 4 army corps, 3-4 separate second-line infantry divisions, 11-13 infantry divisions in total, 4-5 cavalry divisions, with a total strength of 220-250 thousand people (176-208 infantry battalions, 128-158 squadrons, 360 machine guns, 684-768 guns). Some Russian armies had up to 5 army corps. In the initial period of the war, the Russian armies advanced in a band 80-120 km wide. Such a large width of the front is explained by the linear forms of operational formation of troops and the vastness of the spaces of the Russian-German-Austrian theater of operations. The typical composition of the German combined arms armies in 1914 in the West was 5 army (infantry, reserve) corps, 1 cavalry division or 1 cavalry corps, 1-2 Landwehr brigades. Combined arms armies of 6 army corps, 1-2 cavalry divisions, 276-324 machine guns, 650— 750 guns were deployed in the main direction. The total number of the army is 180—230 thousand people. The German armies in the Western European theater of war deployed for an offensive in a 25-60 km wide strip. Such narrow fronts of the army's actions were explained by the need to allocate siege corps from the army to attack fortresses on the offensive path, as well as the desire of the Germans to have superiority of forces to the full depth of the strategic operation and, in part, the well-known "tightness" of the theater of war.

The management of such large armies in the First World War was facilitated, compared with the 19th century, by the introduction of the telegraph, telephone, radiotelegraph and automobile. The combat power of the combined arms army grew continuously due to the armament with rapid-fire infantry weapons and rapid-fire artillery (late 19th century), and then with machine guns (by the beginning of the First World War), guns of larger calibers (105, 122 and even 150 mm) and mortars (during the war). An increase in operational density, that is, the degree of saturation of the front with troops and firepower, at the beginning of the First World War, with the linear strategy and tactics of that period, was achieved, as a rule, by narrowing the army band, since there were no strategic and operational reserves at the expense of which it would be possible to significantly change the composition of the army at that time. During the positional period, the total width of the offensive front of strong combined arms armies did not usually exceed 30-35 km, and the breakthrough area was 12-25 km, despite the fact that the composition of the combined arms army was brought up to 16-28 infantry divisions (4-5 multi—division corps), up to 1600-2800 medium and higher caliber guns (without mortars) and up to 300-500 combat aircraft. The British and French also reinforced the armies with 300-350 tanks. The narrowing of the front of attack of the combined arms army, despite its immeasurably increased combat power by the end of the First World War, is explained by the increased strength of positional defense, which required a deep multi-layered combat formation to overcome.

During the period of foreign military intervention and the civil war of 1918-1920, there were no corps in the Soviet armed forces, and the armies consisted of 3-6 infantry and cavalry divisions. The states of the division corresponded to the states of the corps. During this period, for the first time in history, the mounted army, the labor army, and the reserve army appeared. The cavalry army is the highest operational cavalry association, which was based on the highest cavalry formations, it was a strong means of operational maneuver and strike in the hands of the front and supreme high command. It included 3-41/2 cavalry divisions and temporarily attached rifle divisions, reaching 18 thousand sabers, 362 machine guns, 52 guns, 5 armored trains, 15 aircraft. The mounted army played a major role in the defeat of foreign interventionists and White Guards. The labor armies consisted of troops liberated due to the liquidation of a number of fronts in 1920; they were used to restore transport and the national economy destroyed by the war. The reserve army united reserve troops, prepared mass replacements for the front, and at the end of the war, along with the labor armies, participated in economic construction. The labor and reserve armies were disbanded with the end of the Civil War.

The fundamental difference between the armies of this period is the progressively increased saturation of their military equipment: automatic weapons, mortars, guns (small, medium and large calibers) in the ranks from the battalion and above, the appearance of a car in the composition, along with a horse, and occasional reinforcements of armies with tanks and aircraft. However, these armies were still foot armies, with their inherent low maneuverability. The main striking force of this period was infantry and artillery. Tanks, aircraft and motor vehicles were very poorly represented, technically they were imperfect, and therefore they could not radically change the nature of armies. These were not yet armies that met the requirements of the machine period of the war. Ego was one of the reasons why armies could not overcome positionalities in combat before the end of the First World War.

By the beginning of the Second World War, the armies were strengthened not quantitatively, but qualitatively due to their further technical equipment. These were the armies of the machine period of the war, in which the motor and the combat vehicle begin to occupy a prominent place, and the muscular strength of a man, and especially a horse, although playing a role, loses its former importance.

By the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet armies, reflecting in their structure the advanced nature of the art of war, had become technically perfect in terms of their technical equipment, composition and striking power. Soviet military thought and practice, developmentI have quite independently, correctly resolved the question of the most operationally appropriate structural forms that meet the requirements of the machine period of the war. During the Great Patriotic War, along with the development of the Soviet military art, there was further qualitative development of the army. By the end of the war, the organization of the army reflected fully the rich operational and tactical experience of the Soviet Armed Forces and the enormous successes of the military economy of the Soviet country, which provided the army with completely modern weapons, in accordance with the latest requirements of the "war of motors". The firepower, striking power and mobility of the armies increased significantly by the end of the war.

The army in World War II had different types of composition and purpose. A combined arms army is an operational association of non—permanent personnel, which included several combined arms formations (corps or separate divisions), artillery and other special troops not included in corps (divisions), management and supply bodies. Such an army usually operated in one operational area or part of it and was part of the front (army group). Individual combined arms armies that were not part of the fronts (army groups) operated on an independent separate operational line and were directly subordinate to the Supreme High Command. Before the Second World War, new concepts appeared expressing the strategic purpose of armies – the army of invasion; the army of cover, the expeditionary army (amphibious). During the Second World War, along with combined arms armies, tank armies, airborne (air) amphibious armies, air (aviation) armies, etc. appeared for the first time.

During the Great Patriotic War, guards and shock armies were created in the Soviet Armed Forces for the first time in history.

The Great Patriotic War and the Second World War as a whole made significant changes in the understanding of the role of the army in modern operations, due to the changing nature of the operation itself. The army operation began to have a less independent character compared to the operations of the First World War; the tactical functions of the army were strengthened, the scope of its tasks was reduced.

Germany entered World War II with the strongest armed forces. The German combined arms armies deployed for the offensive on the Western European Front in 1940 consisted of 3-4 army corps, 1-2 tank corps (10-13 infantry and 1-2 tank or motorized divisions). During the offensive, the mobile corps were excluded from the army and became an independent front-line group. The army was supported in the offensive by aviation consisting of up to an air corps (500-800 combat aircraft) and provided with an anti-aircraft division to fight the air enemy. The typical composition of the German armies in 1941 before the invasion of the USSR was 3-5 army corps (10-16 infantry divisions). In addition, the armies included: 5-8 artillery regiments with heavy caliber guns, 2-4 motorized engineer regiments, a significant number of bridge and pontoon columns (parks), engineering and road construction battalions and other auxiliary units. The offensive of the armies was supported by aviation as part of the pre-aviation corps (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, the State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief S.I. Vavilov, volume 3, 1950, p. 45).

The Soviet Armed Sips managed not only to stop the pressure of the German fascist armies, but also to defeat them. On the Soviet-German front, the composition of the German armies ranged from 10 to 16 infantry divisions and from 2 to 8 tank and motorized divisions. Sometimes German armies on defensive fronts reached 24-30 infantry divisions. By the end of World War II, the U.S. Army had 2-3 army corps (7-9 infantry, 1-2 tank and 1 airborne division). In the main direction, the US army was brought up to the composition of 4 army corps (up to 12 infantry and 6 tank divisions). In typical U.S. armies, mobile divisions (tank and airborne) ranged from 1/4 to 1/3 of the number of divisions. In addition, the army included a tank group (about 230 tanks), intended to strengthen the corps. In addition to regular corps artillery, the American army had army artillery: two artillery brigades with heavy-caliber guns, one anti-aircraft artillery brigade and several 76-mm self-propelled artillery fighter and anti-tank divisions. The Japanese armies consisted directly of divisions. The typical Japanese army consisted of 4-5 infantry divisions, 1-2 infantry brigades. Some Japanese armies included one tank division or brigade each.

The development of modern operations in depth and the growth of aviation led to the creation of the airborne army as the highest operational association of airborne troops intended for landing and conducting independent combat operations behind enemy lines; they included 3-4 parachute and landing landing formations.

The development of aviation, the growth of aviation units and formations, in turn, required the creation of air (aviation) armies as the highest operational or strategic associations consisting of aviation formations and having a non-permanent composition; such armies were intended to solve tasks of an operational and strategic scale and received their full organizational design and quantitative development only during the war. By the end of the war, the United States had five such armies in Europe and six in the Pacific basin. The Japanese had five air armies. The air armies included several hundred combat aircraft in their combat strength. The Americans had tactical air armies designed exclusively for joint operations with ground forces on the battlefield, and strategic heavy aircraft designed mainly for strikes against the enemy's deep rear, communications and industrial centers. In Germany, instead of the air army, the name was adopted – the air fleet; there were five such fleets.

By unleashing World War II, the fascist aggressors – Germany, Japan, and Italy – were able to prepare strong invading armies, which included most of the armed forces intended for offensive operations with decisive goals. The conditions for the creation of strong armies by these states were created by the policy of the governments of Great Britain, France and the United States, which helped to increase the military potential of the aggressor countries (especially Germany) and encouraged their anti-Soviet policies.

After the Second World War, in Western countries, based on the study of the experience of the last war, the forms, types and technical equipment of such an operational association as the army continue to change.

In a Western society based on the exploitation of man by man, standing armies serve as the main means of asserting the rule of the exploiting classes, suppressing the resistance of the oppressed working classes and conducting an aggressive, predatory foreign policy.

In modern conditions, the basic concept of the army is the army as an operational association of troops, which is part of the active army (the armed forces of the state); in turn, the army consists of higher tactical formations and individual units. The composition of the army depends on the social nature of the armed forces, on the nature of the war and the methods of its conduct, on the operational purpose of army units, their types, characteristics of the theater of operations and other circumstances.

Used literature

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, The State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 9, 1951

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, The State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief S.I. Vavilov, volume 3, 1950

Tikhomirov A.E., Collection of articles in 2014, "PoLyART", Orenburg, 2015