By 1944 the Soviet Mechanised Corps had matured and developed into powerful, flexible formations that could sit at the heart of Tank Armies or be used as independent assault groups. From February 1943, the Mechanised Corps adopted their final organisation 010/418 which would see them through to the end of war albeit with numerous small changes. The key to this organisation was the pooling of transport at Brigade level which allowed the Corps to move quickly but efficiently. The first six Mechanised Corps were raised in September 1942 with establishment 010/290 which can be largely recreated from Albums held in TsAMO, only care must be taken in interpreting this dataset. Mechanised Corps represented the most expensive divisional sized combat units in the Red Army yet we know relatively little about how they were organised and equipped. Although only a small number of these corps were raised, they were important indicators as to STAVKAs strategic intentions as Mechanised Corps were deployed in many of the key offensives. New information for Russia now allows a more comprehensive look at these interesting units. Mobility was key to German plans at the opening of the Great War and yet I could find little about the establishment of Infanterie Divisionen in 1914, so this article aims to address the question of what transport was available to the hard marching men of the first summer of the war and comparing this to the forces of 1918.
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