Talk:Bulgarian People's Army

Contested deletion

This article should not be speedily deleted for lack of asserted importance because... (your reason here) --Aa372798 (talk) 01:06, 4 September 2016 (UTC)It gives you more specific information on the military of the former eastern bloc country the information given to you on the redirect does not give you as much information as the page for the National People's Army or the Soviet Armed Forces.

starting from 1946

1944 in another place.Xx236 (talk) 07:30, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Equipment

Which period? Il-2 was a history.Xx236 (talk) 07:32, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

The combined strength

320 or 325 ?Xx236 (talk) 07:36, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Land forces in early 1950s

(transferred from User talk:B.Velikov)

• Here is a source for 1955 - a presentation by a former Land Forces Commander - Lt.-Gen. (Ret.) Kiril Tsvetkov. It is called 135 Years of Serving the Motherland (135 години в служба на Родината) and it was made on July 19, 2013 at the celebration commemorating 135 years from the creation of the Bulgarian Army:

"...At the end of 1955 the Bulgarian Land Forces have a peacetime structure of 2 armies and 2 independent rifle corps, composed in total of 9 rifle divisions and 14 other formations. In addition to that in a case of war five additional rifle divisions and 9 formations of the different arms would mobilize. With the signing of the Warsaw Treaty For Mutual Defence Cooperation on May 14, 1955 a new stage in the build-up and development of the Bulgarian Army commenced... In 1963 the stable force structure of the Bulgarian Army and their Land Forces was put into place. The Bulgarian People's Army peacetime strength was set at no less than 100 000 men (in the LF - 4 motor rifle divisions and 5 tank brigades at full strength and additional 3 motor rifle divisions at reduced strength). During wartime the BPA was to reach over 400 000 men with 18 tactical formations in the LF... ... A boost in the development of the BPA and the LF and in their modernization and rearmament came in 1972 with the Government's Decision B No.6 / from May 9, 1972 (Решение Б №6 / 09.05.1972 г.), which fixed the structure of the BPA as follows: Land Forces with 3 armies; Air Forces and Air Defence and Naval Fleet. Overall 108 000 men (23 500 officers, 20 500 NCOs and 64 000 lower ranks), split between the services as follows: Land Forces - 66 000 men, Air Forces and Air Defence - 19 000 men, Naval Fleet - 5 400 men, Education establishments and forces directly subordinated to the Ministry of People's Defence and the General Staff – 17 600 men... Practical realization of that decision is also the formation of the Land Forces Command in 1973..." http://www.otbrana.com/новини_4362 Buckshot06 (talk) 00:24, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Dear B.Velikov how reliable, do you think, are the sources cited at the various Bulgarian Wikipedia articles on the Motor Rifle Divisions, for example 1 MRD bg:Първа_мотострелкова_дивизия, and the Reserve Officers' Training School also listed bg:Осма_мотострелкова_дивизия? Buckshot06 (talk) 04:03, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Very reliable. I have them in pdf format... somewhere. The Land Forces Association consists of retired high ranking officers and the foundation is its subsidiary. Lt.-Gen. (Ret.) Kiril Tsvetkov, who is cited as the author of the source has served in staff positions fron 1982 until April 2003 and between 2001 and 2003 commanded the Land Forces. He's the Chairman of the Land Forces Association. I have just received a delivery of Army General Mutafchiev's book "At The General Direction", but I am very disappointed. He was Commander of the 7th Motor Rifle Division, the Third Army and the last Minister of People's Defence, about the time when the BCP relinquished the power in the 1989-91 period, but the book is his memoirs. Hardly anything factual as comprehensive structures.

BTW, completely unrelated, but can you edit the title of the article about the our governmental flying service? It is completely made-up and counter-factual. The title is not 28th Air Detachment, but AVIATION DETACHMENT 28, because the official title in Bulgarian is Авиоотряд 28. Avio- is the short version of Aviation [Авиационен] and 28 is not a numbered, but a code designation, as the detachment was formed under the Ministry of Transport in 1972, the 28th year since the Bulgarian Communist Party took over the power. "Air" presumes air force, which the detachment was never part of. It was unofficially under the total control of the State Security's 5th Directorate - Directorate for Safety and Close Protection (УБО, the bodyguard, catering and welfare service for the high-ranking officials of the state), but formally it was a civil aviation institution under the Ministry of Transport. B.Velikov (talk) 06:56, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Sure. Where does the 8th Motor Rifle Division fit in, though? Did the 15th Motor Rifle Division actually exist? Nobody apart from that WP article mentions it.. Buckshot06 (talk) 10:57, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

8th, 10th and 15th MRDs are wartime mobilization reinforcements of the First Army. One of them is the wartime expansion of the peacetime 32nd Separate Motor Rifle Regiment in Stanke Dimitrov (present day Dupnitsa), the other two should be the wartime mobilization formation of the Military Academy and the wartime mobilization formation of the Reserve Officer Requalification School in Vratsa (?, ШПЗО "Гоце Делчев"). Don't quote me on that. I am certain about the three MRDs and that one of them comes from the 32nd SMRR, but don't have information at hand about the rest. This is about the second half of the 1980s, not the 1950s.B.Velikov (talk) 11:19, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

So, wartime reinforcement combat formations:

• 1st Balkan Front
  • 1st Army:
    • 1st Motor Rifle Division (1st MRD reduced to 1st Territorial Training Center (Slivnitsa) in peacetime)
    • 8th Motor Rifle Division (wartime mobilization formation of the Reserve Officer Requalification School "Gotse Delchev" in Vratsa)
    • 10th Motor Rifle Division (32nd Separate Motor Rifle Regiment in Stanke Dimitrov (present day Dupnitsa) in peacetime)
    • 15th Motor Rifle Division (wartime mobilization formation of the Reserve Officer School "Hristo Botev" in Pleven)
    • 21st Motor Rifle Division (21st MRD reduced to 21st Territorial Training Center (Pazardzhik) in peacetime)
  • 2nd Army:
    • 72nd Motor Rifle Division (30th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment in Pazardzhik in peacetime)
    • 11th Tank Brigade (reduced to 11th Territorial Training Center (Karlovo) in peacetime)
  • 3rd Army:
    • 16th Motor Rifle Division (16th MRD reduced to 16th Territorial Training Center (Burgas) in peacetime)
    • 18th Motor Rifle Division (18th MRD reduced to 18th Territorial Training Center (Shumen) in peacetime)
    • 68th Motor Rifle Division (wartime mobilization formation of the Higher People's Combined Arms School (Veliko Tarnovo))
• General Staff (in charge of rear area security and field replacement personnel):
  • 61st Reserve Personnel Training Motor Rifle Division (field replacement personnel, I have absolutely no idea where it comes from. All I have is, that it's the main field replacement formation and its abbreviation: 61зумсд - for запасна учебна мотострелкова дивизия). I am certain, that the Higher People's Air Force School "Georgi Benkovski" in Dolna Mitropoliya and the Higher People's Military Construction School "General Blagoy Ivanov" in Sofia each formed a reserve MRD in wartime, but don't have the information at hand.
  • 95th Reserve Motor Rifle Division
  • 25th Reserve Tank Brigade

No idea about the last two, other than the info, that "they were cadre formations, formed at the suggestion at the Supreme High Command of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact". Most probably the 95th MRD and 25th TBr were reserve formations of the Warsaw Pact High Command, but were to mobilize using obsolete equipment, such as the T-34. Missing from this list are the Front Artillery Division and the Front Anti-Tank Artillery Brigade (wartime mobilization formations of the higher artillery school in Shumen and the wartime mobilization formation of the Military Academy, which I don't even know what it is exactly).

There were two reasons for the reduction of formations to TTCs. The lesser one was the deepening insolvency of the state, as a cost-reducing measure. The bigger one was, that with the constant growth of the armed forces with new units and formations, by the mid-1980s the land forces have reached manpower shortage of over 10 000. The TTCs were in essence the MRDs with their staff personnel reduced to about 70%-80% and the troops reduced to a single regiment strength. Some of the units were cadred in peacetime (like the air defence artillery and the NBC protection battalion - no personnel and the equipment in conservation) and their main purpose was to train personnel for the division's wartime mobilization. B.Velikov (talk) 17:43, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

References