70 years ago, on September 8th, 1946, elements of the 4th Guards Kantemirovka Tank Division drove across Red Square in the first Tanker's Day parade.

Parades are a big deal, and the Victory Parade was an enormous deal. On June 24th, 1945, every care was taken to ensure that things would go perfectly.

1. First rehearsal of infantry present in the parade. June 12th, 7:00-9:00, central airstrip.
2. Dress rehearsal of infantry and cavalry present in the parade. June 17th, 7:00-9:00, central airstrip.
3. Inspection of all artillery units present in the parade. June 13th, 3:00-5:00, Sadoviy Crescent from Smolensk Square to Krimskiy Bridge.
4. Inspection and training of all armoured and mechanized units participating in the parade. June 13th, 16:00-18:00, Kuzminki (proving grounds).
5. Inspection of all vehicles (artillery and moto-mechanized units). June 15th-16th, at night 3:00-5:00, Red Square.
6. Training of the battle and combined orchestra. June 15th-16th, 3:00-5:00, Red Square.
7. [Illegible scribble, something about tanks and artillery] June 11th, 2:00-5:00.

• Reviewer entry: 0 minutes 50 seconds
• Report of the parade commander and presentation of the list of units present to the reviewer: 00:20
• Reviewer inspection of forces: 15:00
• Speech: 10:00
• Salute: 3:30
• Commands for a celebratory march: 1:30
• Movement of infantry: 36:00
• Time to build up distance for cavalry: 2:00
• Movement of cavalry: 4:00
• Movement of artillery: 29:00
• Movement of armoured and mechanized forces: 21:00
• Assembly and marching of orchestras: 6:00

Here is a map of the forces lining up on Red Square. 298 company-sized units would march through it on this day, including engineering units, military academies, artillery, mortars, motorized infantry, and, what interests us the most, a regiment of SU-76 SPGs, a brigade of T-34-85 tanks, a regiment of SU-100s, a regiment of IS-2 tanks, a regiment of ISU-122 SPGs, and a regiment of ISU-152 SPGs.

There was also a little something from German tank units. Not the tanks, of course, as those were rusting from Moscow to Berlin, but their banners. Flags of many German units were thrown to the ground in front of the mausoleum. Unlike the banners of SS units, they were not burned, but distributed among museums. The following tank units had their banners disgraced, out of a total of 26 regimental banners, 138 battalion banners, and 36 squadron banners.

• 9th tank battalion
• 1st battalion, 2nd tank regiment
• 1st battalion, 31st tank regiment
• 2nd battalion, 68th SPG regiment
• 1st battalion, 27th tank regiment
• 1st battalion, 1st tank brigade
• 1st battalion, 15th tank brigade
• 67th tank battalion
• 11th AT gun squadron
• 15th AT gun squadron
• 9th AT gun squadron

"Order from the Special Machinebuilding Trust of the NKTP, #19.2090s, September 1st, 1933, Moscow

Practice from previous years of preparation for parades on May 1st and November 7th shows that vehicles are sent in several days before a parade. The factory did not have time to carefully calibrate them, as a result there were cases of vehicles stalling while driving through Red Square. In the upcoming October parade, this cannot happen.

I order:

1. Personally hold factory directors responsible for supplying:
1. Voroshilov factory: 100 T-26 tanks, 25 armoured tractors.
2. Factory #37: 100 T-37 tanks.
3. Kharkov Locomotive Factory: 2 T-35s, one of which is the production type and the other is sent in for improvements from Leningrad.
4. OKMO experimental factory: one T-35 vehicle currently being modified.
2. All factories must immediately begin production and calibration such that vehicles will be ready by no later than October 1st and delivered to Moscow no later than October 10th.
3. Factory directors must send a report every 5 days to me personally.

Army parades are a pretty big deal. You have to make sure everything happens absolutely perfectly, and that takes a lot of preparation. Even something as mundane as a track link has to be looked over.

"For four high-speed BT-7 tanks participating in the May 1st parade, issue 8 small-link assembled tracks, tested at the factory. Send the tracks to military warehouse #404, making sure they arrive no later than April 1st, 1940."

"Act #010 on April 6th, 1940
Composed by representatives:

• From the customer:
• Military Engineer 3rd grade comrade G.A. Alekseev
• From plant #540 QA:
• comrade Povkhovtsev
• From plant #540:
• Senior Engineer V.N. Vasiliev
• Senior Engineer I.F. Nastek

On September 7th, 1945, a Victory Parade was held by the Allied nations at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

The parade was proposed by Marshall of the Soviet Union G. Zhukov. A regiment was to be presented by each country that had troops on Germany's territory, including infantry and armoured vehicles. The parade would be viewed by the commanders of the Soviet, American, British, and French forces in Germany.

For various political reasons, the "top brass" rejected the offer, sending representatives instead. The representatives were Zhukov (USSR), Patton (USA), Major-General Brian Robertson (Great Britain), and General Marie-Pierre Koenig (France). British Major-General Eric Neirs commanded the parading troops.

The parade was opened by the 248th Infantry Division, which stormed Berlin. The Soldiers were dressed in field uniforms, with PPSh submachineguns on their chest. Next were the French: infantry, mountain troops, resistance members. The British were represented by elements of various infantry regiments, as well as representatives from the Royal Air Force. The Americans displayed their 82nd Paratroop Division.

The USSR demonstrated their newest IS-3 tanks. 52 of these menacing vehicles at the end of the parade column caused much excitement among the foreign military representatives that were present.

Original article available here.