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Military district

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Military districts are organizations of a state's armed forces (often of the Army) which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and in countries with conscript forces, often handle parts of the conscription cycle.

Navies have also used a similar model, with organizations such as the United States Naval Districts. A number of navies in South America used naval districts at various points in time.

China

Germany

Today's German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) have four military districts - Wehrbereichskommando as part of the Streitkräftebasis or Joint Service Support Command. The headquarters are in:

During World War II Germany used the system of military districts (German: Wehrkreis) to relieve field commanders of as much administrative work as possible and to provide a regular flow of trained recruits and supplies to the Field Army. The method they adopted was to separate the Field Army (Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres) from the Home Command (Heimatkriegsgebiet) and to entrust the responsibilities of training, conscription, supply and equipment to that command.

The Commander of the Infantry Corps with the identical number also commanded the Wehrkreis in peacetime, but command of the Wehrkreis passed to his second-in command at the outbreak of war.

Before the start of the war, there were also four Motorized Army Corps (in effect, staffs to control the training of Panzer and Light Panzer formations) which had no corresponding military districts, but were served (as regards conscription and supplies) by the districts in which Corps headquarters or subordinate formations had their Home Garrison Stations. These Corps were:

  • XIV Army Corps (Motorized) - XIV. Armeekorps (mot.)
  • XV Army Corps (Motorized) - XV. Armeekorps (mot.)
  • XVI Army Corps (Motorized) - XVI. Armeekorps (mot.)
  • XIX Army Corps - XIX. Armeekorps

The Districts were organized into a Chain of Command that included Area Headquarters (Wehrersatzbezirk Hauptquartier) and Sub-area headquarters (Wehrbezirk Hauptquartier).

During World War II, Germany was divided into nineteen military districts. At the start of the war, there were only fifteen:

Wehrkreis XX and XXI were established in Poland to control Danzig and Posen, respectively which belonged to Germany before World War I.

Two additional Wehrkreis were established after the invasion of Poland to control the remainder of that country. These were Wehrkreis Böhmen-Mähren which covered the so-called "Protectorate" of Bohemia-Moravia that was Czech areas not part of the Sudetenland and Wehrkreis "General-Government" which controlled the remainder of Poland.

It has been speculated that the missing Wehrkreis number—XIX—was intended for use inside Russia if Germany had been successful in completing the invasion and additional numbers would have been assigned to the named Wehrkreis at the end of the war.

In peace time, the Wehrkreis was the home to the Infantry Corps of the same number and all subordinate units of that Corps.

Indonesia

Indonesia was also the user of military district during the Dutch Operatie Kraai to defend their states from the Dutch invasion in December 1948-January 1949. Modified military districts, or KODAMs, are still in use today.

History

When the Dutch launched their invasion of Indonesia, The Indonesia National Army (Indonesian: Tentara Nasional Indonesia) resisted with conventional linear tactics. This tactic ultimately failed, and the Dutch successfully forced the Indonesian army to form a guerilla formation.

General Soedirman conceived of a way to face the Dutch along with other military strategists such as T.B. Simatupang and A.H. Nasution on the headquarters staff. They finally decided to reorganize the army structure, and institute an attrition strategy with a military district system that was called Wehrkreise--adapted from the German system during World War II.

Concept

Wehrkreise is used in Indonesia as a means of circles of defense, or regional defense. The system was used to defend islands and provinces that still remained under Indonesian control. Each regional commander was given full authority to launch counter-attacks. Wehrkreise region commanders held power over the military, politics, the economy, education, and local government. During the usage of this system, the conventional linear style of defence was fully abandoned. The system was later ratified in Surat Perintah Siasat No.1, signed by General Soedirman on November 1948.

Poland

Current

Historical

Russia

In Russia, a military district (вое́нный о́круг, voyenny okrug) is a territorial association of military units, formations, military schools, and various local military establishments. This territorial division type was utilized in Imperial Russia, USSR and is currently in use in Russian Federation.

Such territorial division provides convenient management of army units, their training and other activities regarding the country’s readiness to defend itself.

History

Russian Empire

In Russian Empire, military districts were first formed in 1862–64 to replace the pre-existing Military Inspectorates. The military districts were organised to include civilian administration regions of gubernyas and uyezds. By 1892 there were 13 Military Districts in the Russian Empire, and one region with the status of a military district:

1) Petersburgsky military district – Petersburg, Olonets, Arkhangel'sk, Novgorod, Pskov, Estlyandia and from the Livland gubernya the uyezds: Pernov, Fellinskiy, Valkskiy and Verrosskiy

2) Finnsky military district - all eight gubernyas of Finland

3) Vilenskiy military district - Vilno, Grodno, Koven', Kurlandia, Livland (without above mentioned four uyezds), Vitebsk, Mogilev, Minsk and Suvalky (without the Shchuchinsk uyezd)

4) Warshawsky military district - Warsaw, Plotskaya, Kalishskaya, Petrokovskaya, Keletskaya, Radomskaya, Lyublinskaya, Sedletskaya, Lomzhinskaya and the Shchuchinskiy uyezd of the Suvalky gubernya

5) Kievsky military district - Kiev, Podolsk, Volhynya, Chernigov, Poltava, Kharkov, Kursk

6) Odessky military district – Bessarabia, Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, Tavrichesk

7) Moscowsky military district - Moscow, Smolensk, Tver, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Vladimir, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan, Orel, Tambov, Voronezh

8) Kazan'sky military district - Kazan', Vyatka, Perm, Ufa, Simbirsk, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Astrakhan (with the Astrakhan, Ural and Orenburg Cossack host troops)

9) Cavcazsky military district - Stavropol gubernya with the entire Caucasus and Transcaucasia (including the Kuban and Terek Cossack host troops)

10) Turkestansky military district - the region (область): Syrdar (with the Amu Dar'ya subdivision), Samarkand and Fergana

11) Omsky military district - Tobol'sk and Tomsk gubernyas, the Akmolinskaya, Semipalatinsk and Semirechensk regions

12) Irkutskky military district - Irkutsk and Yenisei gubernyas and the Yakutsk region

13) Amursky military district – regions of Transbaikal, Amur (with the local Cossack troops), Pacific coast region and the Sakhalin island

The Transcaspian oblast’ had separate military district administrative rights.

The Commander of the military district was named Commanding troops of (name) military district (in the Petersburg military district - Commander-in-Chief who was the Tsar), with all troops, military institutions and military ranks of the military region subordinated to them.
In some regions the military district commander was simultaneously the local Governor-General.
Control of military district included the military-district council and functional district staff and the administrations of artillery, engineers, comissariat and military medical service.

In the Donskoy military district the right and responsibility of the Commander of forces and Governor-Generalship were entrusted to the appointed ataman; control of the military district consisted of Don Cossack host staff and administration.

However by the beginning of the First World War there were 12 military districts remaining: Dvinsk, Irkutsk, Caucasus, Kazan', Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Odessa, Omsk, Petrograd, Amur, Turkestan.

Soviet Union

In the USSR, the first six military districts (Yaroslavsky, Moskovsky, Orlovsky, Belomorsky, Uralsky, and Privolzhsky) were formed on 31 March 1918 during the Russian Civil War in 1918–20 in order to prepare substantial army reserves for the front. Next reform did not take place until the economic reforms (NEP) of 1923 which concluded in 1929. At this time the military districts in the Russian Soviet Republic still conformed to the gubernyas and oblasts of the Russian Empire, with the exception of the other republics each of which constituted a military district in their own right.
Great Patriotic War
The number of military districts varied depending on the circumstances and with the evolution of the Soviet Army. Before the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 there were 16 military districts and one front although this number fluctuated and as many as 25 military districts existed at different time before the war.

North and North Western districts

West and Central USSR districts

South and South Western districts

Siberian and Central Asian districts

Far Eastern districts

Right after the war, the number was increased to 33 to aid in demobilisation of forces, but by October of 1946, they had been reduced to 21.

Cold War era
At the end of the 1980s, immediately before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there were sixteen military districts, within three to five main groupings:

Russian Federation

A military district operates under the command of the district headquarters, headed by the district commander, and is subordinated to the Ground Forces Headquarters.

In today's Russia, there are 6 military districts:

In this classification, Kaliningrad and the surrounding Kaliningrad Oblast are considered to be a special region.

See also

References

  • www.mil.ru for official Russian military district information



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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 05:01:14 PDT (GMT -0700)
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