5th Mechanised Corps (Soviet Union)
It fought in the First Battle of Smolensk, losing large numbers of tanks in the Lepel counterattack.
After reaching Smolensk, it was subordinated to the 20th Army on 4 July[10] for a counterattack to recapture Senno and Lepel in conjunction with the 7th Mechanised Corps.
[12] By the time it went into battle at Lepel on 6 July, the corps was at two-thirds of its strength due to breakdowns.
The corps also attacked without air support and with a shortage of anti-aircraft guns, fuel, and ammunition.
In the Orsha area the retreating corps was given replacement tanks and ordered to resume the attack the next day.
Also, a detachment of remnants of the corps led by Colonel Alexander Lizyukov enabled elements of the 16th and 20th Armies to escape the Smolensk Pocket by defending the Solovevo gap in the German encirclement.
[19] The corps was moved to the northeastern sector of the pocket to attack towards Dukhovshchina with orders to keep the Solovevo corridor open.
[22] On the night of 31 July to 1 August, the corps escaped the Smolensk Pocket through a gap in the German encirclement.
[24] On 5 August, after escaping the Smolensk pocket, the corps was ordered to concentrate southeast of Yartsevo.
[26] On the night of 7 to 8 August, the corps was ordered to move southeast of Gzhatsk in front reserve.
[27] On 10 August the 13th Tank Division was disbanded as a result of heavy losses it had suffered in the pas month of fighting.
[10] The corps was disbanded on or around 24 August 1941[28] due to the Soviet reorganization of their mechanised forces into smaller units.
It was formed in the Moscow Military District under the command of Major General Mikhail Volkov.
[36][37] By 1 April the 49th Mechanised Brigade was re-subordinated to the corps after being directly subordinated to the Volga Military District in March.
The corps had advanced 5–10 kilometres (3.1–6.2 mi) by 16 August, when a heavy air raid resulted in significant losses, and it was withdrawn to the front reserve.
The offensive began on 28 August, and the corps was committed to exploit the breakthrough, advancing 6–10 kilometres (3.7–6.2 mi) on that day.
[30] On 1 October the corps was part of the Western Front, and by 1 November it was back in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.
It was to break through south of Tinovka in conjunction with the 104th Rifle Corps, then advance towards Shubennyi Stav, which was to be taken on 26 January with Zvenigorodka.
[43] On 28 January the corps, without the 233rd Tank Brigade, was attached to the 40th Army and moved west because of a German counterattack.
[44] It marched from Malyi Vinograd to Staryi Zhibotin to repulse predicted German counterattacks.
The German counterattacks did not materialise and the corps achieved "limited success" (according to a later Soviet General Staff study) with its own attacks.
[45] In early February, the corps attacked from the east towards Lysianka, Bosovka, and Malyi Vinograd against counterattacking German troops, pushing them back.
[46] 10 days later, German troops captured Malyi Vinograd, pushing back the corps and other units.
A tank regiment from the corps reached Mohyliv-Podilskyi on the morning of 19 March and by the end of the day the city had been captured.
[48] On 4 August the corps was awarded the honorific "Dniester" for its actions in crossing the river and capturing Bălți during the Uman–Botoșani Offensive.
