Field army

In the Russian Empire, the term "field army" denoted the main element of the regular forces of the ground forces , in addition to which they included a special artillery and engineer corps. The irregular element of the ground forces was local troops , which included landmilitia and garrison units , as well as Cossacks . In contrast, the field army was divided into military branches: infantry , engineering troops , cavalry and artillery ^[5] .

In some modern armed forces (the US Armed Forces and a number of NATO bloc states ), the field army, according to accepted military terminology, refers to tactical units ^{[1] [4]} . After the 1974 reform of the US ground forces, the concept of a field army was left only for use in wartime, and the functions of its combat and rear support units fell on the command of the ground forces of the theater of operations and the headquarters of army corps ^[1] . A similar reorganization occurred in Italy ^[4] . By the mid-1990s, field armies remained in the ground forces of France , Great Britain , Greece , Turkey and Japan , but in these countries they began to play the role of operational-territorial associations ^[4] . In the armed forces of Egypt, the field army is considered the main operational association, and some of its functions are equated with the functions of the military district , and the commander is directly subordinate to the chief of the general staff ^[6] . In the Ground Forces of the Third Reich, at the time of the beginning of Operation Barbarossa , each field army had from three to 5 corps or 10 to 16 infantry divisions, from two to 8 motorized and tank divisions, 5 to 8 artillery regiments, and auxiliary parts ^[4] .

UK

According to Western analysts, the command system and composition of the post-war British field army was significantly different from the composition of similar associations in the United States and the Soviet Union ^[7] . If in the American field and in the Soviet armies all elements of providing firepower and deep maneuver (tank companies, heavy mortar divisions, etc.) were organically integrated into the organizational structure at the regimental level , then in the British field army they were grouped separately and their units attached to the active forces in the form of reinforcement units as necessary. Similarly, the British infantry division of that period did not have its own tank reserve, but under normal conditions it was always supposed to support its operations with an armored brigade ^[7] . Particular attention in the comparison of forces was paid to the fact that the Soviet motorized rifle division, as an element of the army group, had the smallest number (about 10 thousand people) and corresponded more likely to a reinforced brigade of the British field army ^[7] .

By the mid-90s of the XX century, only British Rhine remained in the British armed forces from field armies ^{[4] [8]} , which was deployed after the end of World War II on the basis of the 2nd Field Army of the 21st Army Group to carry out occupation functions in West Germany ^{[8] [9]} . As of April 2006, its personnel consisted of 49,300 people including 440 officers, and the 1st Division , 3rd Division and the Anglo-German support and support units were among the military formations ^[10] .

USA

In the framework of American ideas, the concept of a field army (registered or numbered) has been used since the times of the Mexican War ^[11] , but its strong entry into everyday life as an intermediate authority for managing army corps is associated with the period of the First World War ^[12] . Further development of military affairs in the United States led to the emergence during the second world war of another command stage between the corps commanders and the command of the theater of operations - army groups ^[12] . In those days , the US field army included a tank group (230 tanks) and from two to four army corps (which comprised 8 to 16 divisions, of which three to 5 were armored), one or two field artillery brigades, and several fighter anti-tank self-propelled artillery divisions, air defense brigades and other units ^[4] .

The complexity of the control chain led to an audit of the entire command structure, and in the early 1970s, General K. Abrams launched a reform of its large-scale reorganization, one of the consequences of which was the withdrawal of field armies from among the permanent elements of the American command and staff system with the transfer of their functions to the level corps and leadership of the army of theater of operations ^[13] . This decision caused a number of skeptical remarks, for example, a consensus was reached that the military leadership is unlikely to be able to improvise effectively in a combat situation without managerial units above the Russian corps ( Eng. Echelon above corps ), and these echelons were recognized as mandatory not only for coordinating the interaction of corps troops, but also for organizing all types of combat support (communications, field medicine, logistics, electronic warfare , engineering, psychological operations) , and also - solving logistics problems, interaction with civil authorities and the like ^[14] . As a result, it was still possible to introduce, under the pressure of circumstances, a separate command and control unit (numbered or field army ) between the leadership of the theater of operations and the corps according to the traditional model ^{[12] [13]} .

Subsequently, the separation of the field army as part of the existing forces became the prerogative of the command of the theater of operations, which could transfer control and coordination of the actions of the existing corps to it ^[15] . At the same time, the field army was manned from the military group of the theater of operations for the current requirements for solving a specific combat task, and parts of the allies could even be included in its outfit ^[15] .

• "The generality or the report card of the field army ...", - M. , 1722.
• Grishin S.V. , Tsapenko N.N. Units and units in battle. - Moscow : Military Publishing House , 1985. - S. 5. - 279 p. - (Foreign armies).
• Blume GE Allocation Of Units Within Typical Field Army . - Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: University of Wisconsin, 1972.
• Field Army // FM 100-15 Larger Units: Theater Army - Corps . - Washington, DC: Pentagon, 1973. - P. 7-1.
• FM 54-3 The Field Army Support Command . - Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1965.

• Army (Russian) . Encyclopedia Website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Date of treatment August 6, 2017.
• Army / Field Army (English) . www.globalsecurity.org . Date of appeal September 10, 2017.