3rd Mechanized Corps (1940 formation)

Formed in June 1940 during World War II, the corps was stationed in occupied Lithuania under the Baltic Special Military District.

The 3rd Mechanized Corps began forming in June 1940 in the Western Special Military District, just after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.

Responsibility for the formation of the corps was soon shifted to the newly created Baltic Special Military District.

[1] On 20 June, two days before the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the corps had a total of 669 tanks and 224 BA-10 and BA-20 armored cars.

[2] In response to signs of the impending invasion, all units of the corps were alerted on 18 June and left their permanent bases.

[1] District commander Fyodor Kuznetsov warned Kurkin of an impending German attack on 21 June, raising the corps to full combat readiness and ordering units out of camp into forests under the guise of exercises.

The division advanced along rural roads, avoiding German airstrikes by moving only at night and maintaining strict radio silence.

At the same time, Colonel Pavel Poluboyarov, head of the armored forces of the Northwestern Front (formed from the district on the outbreak of the war), tasked the corps with counterattacking to the west.

It stalled the Division's advance for a full day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons, until it finally ran out of ammunition.

The grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again, the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely.

However, by early July the Corps had virtually ceased to exist as a formation, though remnants rejoined Soviet lines later.