Fifth Army

Fifth Army may refer to:

Germany

Russia/USSR

Others

Fifth Army (Ottoman Empire)

The Fifth Army of the Ottoman Empire or Turkish Fifth Army was formed on March 24, 1915 and dissolved on October 1918. It was assigned the responsibility of defending the Dardanelles straits in World War I. The original commander of the army was the German military advisor to the Ottoman Empire, General Otto Liman von Sanders. The command passed to Vehip Pasha who became responsible for the Helles front while von Sanders still wielded considerable influence.

Order of Battle, April 1915

In Late April 1915, the army was structured as follows:

When the Allied campaign the Battle of Gallipoli, which aimed to seize the Dardanelles, commenced, the Fifth Army comprised two army Corps; the III Corps was defending the Gallipoli peninsula and the XV Corps was defending the Asian shore. The XV. Corps, also known as the "Asian Group." In addition, the 5th Division was positioned north of the peninsula under the command of First Army.

5th Red Banner Army

The 5th Army is a Russian Ground Forces formation in the Far East Military District. During the Soviet period it was known as the 5th Red Banner Army. It was formed in 1939, served during the Soviet invasion of Poland that year, and was deployed in the southern sector of the Soviet defences when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 during World War II. In the disastrous first months of Barbarossa, the 5th Army was encircled and destroyed around Kiev.

Reformed under Lelyushenko and Govarov, it played a part in the last-ditch defence of Moscow, and then in the string of offensive and defensive campaigns that eventually saw the Soviet armies liberate all of Soviet territory and push west into Poland and beyond into Germany itself. The 5th Army itself only advanced as far as East Prussia before it was moved east to take part in the Soviet attack on Japan. Since 1945 under the Soviet and now Russian flag it has formed part of the Far East Military District keeping watch on the border with the People's Republic of China.