Battle of Smolensk
As Operation Barbarossa began, the 170th was moving west from the Urals as part of 22nd Army's 62nd Rifle Corps, to take up positions in the vicinity of Polotsk and Vitebsk. [4] [5] The division defended Sebezh on the Latvian border. At the beginning of July, retreating Soviet troops came to Sebezh. On 3 July, German bombers destroyed the town. The 391st and 717th Rifle Regiment moved to the Kuznetsovka railway station, while the 422nd Rifle Regiment stayed in place. For two days, the division attempted to hold back advancing German troops. On 11 July, the division retreated to positions around Zamość station. On 13 July, the division was ordered to attack. The division was initially successful, pushing back German troops to Kuznetsovka station. However, the division was then forced to retreat back to Idritsa due to German superiority in both numbers and firepower. Around this time, Major General Silkin went missing and was presumed killed. [1] Colonel Nikolai Laksin took command of the division. [2]
After taking Nevel on July 15, the German LVII Motorized Corps was ordered to capture Velikiye Luki. This isolated thrust by one panzer and one motorized division took the city on July 19, but Soviet counterattacks against the supply corridor, in part by the 170th from the west, forced the German forces to give up the city and retreat. [6] On 20 July, the division became part of the 51st Rifle Corps and moved to positions northwest of Nevel. The division was ordered to counterattack, but met strong resistance and was stopped in the area of Hamchino. The division was surrounded on part of the Leningrad Highway, known as the Nevel Pocket. [7] The division attempted to break out at Begunovo and Zabolote. The division was forced to destroy equipment and suffered heavy losses in the encirclement. On 23 July, the remnants of the division reached the area of Lake Urai and took up defensive positions. The division was again forced to retreat and on 26 July moved to the Dokuhino area, where it absorbed the remnants of the 98th and 112th Rifle Divisions. On 28 August the division was reported as having just 300 men with "...no equipment, headquarters or staff". It was transferred to 24th Army in Reserve Front for rebuilding in September, but was far from complete when the Germans launched Operation Typhoon. It was surrounded with its army north of Spas-Demensk by 1 October, and was disbanded on 4 October, [2] [4] due to a shortage of equipment. [8]
A new 170th Rifle Division was formed at Molotov, once again in the Ural Military District, based on the 439th Rifle Division which was already forming up when re-designated. [9] [10] The order of battle remained mostly the same, with the following additions:
- 286th Antiaircraft Battalion
- 134th Reconnaissance Battalion
- 182nd Sapper Battalion
- 210th Signal Battalion
The howitzer regiment had been removed, and the standard artillery regiment retained the number of the original light regiment.
In February 1942, the division was deployed to the west, into the 58th Army of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, and in April it deployed to the front lines in the 34th Army of Northwestern Front. The 170th took part in the fighting around the Demyansk Pocket during the rest of 1942, either under command of the 34th or the 11th Army. In January 1943, it was reassigned to the 27th Army, and in March was once again in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding and a redeployment to the south. [11]
By the beginning of June, the 170th was assigned to the Central Front in the Kursk salient. The division joined the 48th Army, and remained there for the duration, with the exception of a few months in early 1944. [11]
Advance
In January 1944, the division became part of the 42nd Rifle Corps, where it would remain for the duration. Belorussian Front was renamed 1st Belorussian in February. During the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration, the 42nd Corps was concentrated north of Rogachev to assist its partner 29th Rifle Corps and units of the 3rd Army to break through the positions of the German 134th and 296th Infantry Divisions. By late on June 24 this had been achieved, with the Germans overwhelmed and the 9th Tank Corps exploiting to the rear. With the defenses of Army Group Center shattered, the division trekked westward towards Poland.
48th Army was transferred to 2nd Belorussian Front in the late autumn of 1944. During the Vistula-Oder Offensive the 170th pushed on through northern Poland before the army was once again transferred to 3rd Belorussian Front. The division fought in the East Prussian Offensive, and ended the war near Elbing. [12]
Five men of the division were named as Heroes of the Soviet Union, two of them posthumously. At the end of the war the men and women of the division carried the full title 170th Rifle, Rechytsa, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Division. (Russian: 170-я стрелковая Речицкая Краснознамённая ордена Суворова дивизия.) The division was part of the 42nd Rifle Corps, 48th Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front in May 1945. [13] The division was disbanded near Mühlhausen in July 1945.
The 2nd Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Red Army that served from the Russian Civil War to the Second World War. Originally formed in 1919 from the 1st Ryazansk Rifle Division, the division was twice destroyed and reformed during the war. The division contained two or three rifle regiments.
The 216th Rifle Division was a division of the Red Army and Soviet Ground Forces. It was the successor to a motorized division of that same number that was destroyed during the Battle of Uman in August 1941. It fought at Kharkov and in Karelia, Crimea, and Kurland.
The 193rd Tank Division was originally a Red Army infantry division that was reorganised after World War II as a mechanised and then a tank division of the Soviet Army.
The Soviet 117th Rifle Division was a rifle division that served during the Second World War. Originally formed in 1939 destroyed and reformed during the war.
The 11th Guards Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. It was disbanded in 1946.
The 140th Rifle Division was a Red Army rifle division that saw service during the Great Patriotic War. Originally formed during the prewar buildup of the Red Army, the 140th might be regarded as the unluckiest division in the Army, as it, uniquely, had to be completely, or almost completely, re-formed three times between 1941 and 1943, being destroyed in the Uman pocket during Operation Barbarossa, the Vyasma pocket during Operation Typhoon, and on the Caucasian steppes in the face of the German summer offensive of 1942. In spite of this, the fourth formation of the 140th went on to have a very distinguished record in combat, a testament to the resiliency of the Red Army in World War II.
The 146th Rifle Division was formed for the first time as a standard Red Army rifle division in mid-1939, as part of a major build-up of the Army prior to the start of World War II. After the start of the German invasion in 1941 it defended the approaches to Kiev for several months until being surrounded and destroyed in September. A second formation began in January 1942, and the new division spent the following year on a relatively quiet sector before joining the offensives that would drive the German invaders from north-central Russia, Lithuania, and Poland. The 146th ended the war fighting in the streets of Berlin, after compiling an enviable record of service, and saw postwar duty in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.
The 137th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army in World War II. Raised in 1939 as a standard Red Army rifle division, it served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. The division fought in the central part of the Soviet-German front. It shared credit with other formations for the liberation of Bobruisk during Operation Bagration, and ended the war in the conquest of East Prussia.
The 169th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army beginning in late August 1939, as part of the pre-war Soviet military build-up. It saw service in the occupation force in western Ukraine in September. The German invasion found it still in Ukraine, fighting back to the Dniepr until it was nearly destroyed. The partly-rebuilt division fought again at Kharkov, then was pulled back into reserve and sent deep into the Caucasus where it fought south of Stalingrad throughout that battle. Following another major redeployment the division helped in the liberation of Oryol, and the following race to the Dniepr. In 1944 and 1945 it was in 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, participating successfully in the offensives that liberated Belarus, Poland, and conquered eastern Germany. It ended the war on the Elbe River.
The 250th Rifle Division was the sixth of a group of 10 regular rifle divisions formed from cadres of NKVD border and internal troops as standard Red Army rifle divisions, very shortly after the German invasion, in the Moscow Military District. It was largely based on what would become the shtat of July 29, 1941, with several variations. It served under command of 30th Army in an effort to recover Smolensk in late July and in the Dukhovshchina offensives in August and September, and was quickly reduced to a much-weakened state. It was largely encircled in the initial stages of Operation Typhoon but sufficient men and equipment escaped that it was spared being disbanded and, in fact, it was partly rebuilt by incorporating remnants of other disbanded divisions. In October it played a relatively minor role in the defensive operations around Kalinin as part of 22nd Army in Kalinin Front. Early in 1942 the 250th was transferred to the 53rd Army of Northwestern Front, and spent most of the year rebuilding while also containing the German forces in the Demyansk Pocket. After this position was evacuated at the end of February, 1943 the division was transferred to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command and shipped south, joining the 2nd Reserve Army in Steppe Military District. This soon became the 63rd Army in Bryansk Front and the 250th was assigned to the 35th Rifle Corps, where it remained for the duration of the war. During the summer offensive against the German-held salient around Oryol the division helped lead the drive to liberate that city in August, and then advanced through western Russia and into Belarus, now in Central Front. In the initial phase of Operation Bagration the division, now in 3rd Army, was given special recognition for its role in the liberation of the city of Babruysk, and shortly thereafter also received the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Suvorov. During 1945 it moved, with its Corps and Army, from 2nd Belorussian to 3rd Belorussian Front before returning to 1st Belorussian, seeing combat in Poland, East Prussia and central Germany; its subunits were awarded additional honors and decorations during this period. The 250th had a distinguished career as a combat unit, ending its combat path along the Elbe River. It was disbanded in Belarus in July 1946.
The 325th Rifle Division was formed in September 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, made up of older reservists and young men with no prewar training. As with many other divisions in the 320–330 series it was flung into the fighting west of Moscow in the 10th Army to defend the capital and then to take part in the winter counteroffensive. After a year on a quiet sector the division rejoined the fighting in the late winter of 1943, eventually distinguishing itself sufficiently to be redesignated as the 90th Guards Rifle Division. After disappearing from the Soviet order of battle for more than a year a new division was formed in the spring of 1944, based on a cadre of two distinguished rifle brigades, and gave very creditable service for the duration, completing its combat path in East Prussia.
The 283rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. Formed in the summer of 1941, the division fought in the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Kursk, the Battle of Smolensk and the Battle of Berlin. The 283rd was disbanded in 1946, after the end of the war.
The 391st Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and fought the German Operation Barbarossa. It began forming in August 1941, in the Central Asian Military District. It was first assigned to Southwestern Front but on its arrival it was seen to be far from combat-ready and so was moved north to the Moscow area for further training. It was finally assigned to the 3rd Shock Army in Kalinin Front and took part in the battle for the Kholm Pocket. Following this the division was moved to 1st Shock Army and took part in the dismal fighting for the Demyansk salient until it was finally evacuated by the German forces in March, 1943. The division moved on into the gradual advance across the Baltic states through 1943 and 1944, winning a battle honor along the way, until February, 1945, when it was transferred with its 93rd Rifle Corps to 1st Ukrainian Front as part of 59th Army. In the last weeks of the war the 391st was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its service in Upper Silesia, and ended the war advancing on Prague, but despite its distinguished record it was selected as one of the many divisions to be disbanded during the summer of 1945.
The 397th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, active twice during 1941-45, fighting the German Operation Barbarossa.
The 215th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II that continued to serve in the Soviet Army during the early years of the Cold War. It was the successor to a motorized division of that same number that was destroyed during the Battle of Kiev in September 1941.
The 200th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed as part of the prewar buildup of forces, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. After being formed in the far east of the USSR just months before the German invasion it was moved to the northern Ukraine where it soon joined the 5th Army north of Kiev. The presence of this Army in the fastnesses of the eastern Pripyat area influenced German strategy as it appeared to threaten both the left flank of Army Group South and the right flank of Army Group Center. In September the latter Group was turned south to encircle the Soviet forces defending Kiev and in the process the 200th was cut off and destroyed.
The 219th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was redesignated about 10 weeks after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Due to a chronic lack of vehicles, and especially tanks, the division had been effectively serving as a motorized rifle brigade since June 22, so the redesignation was a formality and it was soon destroyed in the encirclement battle east of Kiev.
The 221st Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was redesignated about four weeks after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. After several further redesignations the division, which had always been a rifle division for all intents and purposes, was destroyed during Operation Typhoon in October 1941.
The 235th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. As part of the 41st Rifle Corps it was soon sent to Northwestern Front to defend the distant approaches to Leningrad. Along with its Corps the division became part of the Luga Operational Group. After Novgorod was captured the Luga Group was largely encircled and had to fight its way north toward the city, suffering considerable losses in the process. The losses to the 235th were greater than those of some others and after officially carrying on in the reserves of Leningrad Front for some time the division was officially disbanded in late December.
The 28th Tank Division was an armored division of the Red Army, created during the prewar buildup of forces in the Baltic Special Military District, based on a light tank brigade and a motorized rifle brigade, and fought against German Army Group North during the first months of Operation Barbarossa. It was initially under command of the 12th Mechanized Corps of 8th Army. It was noteworthy for being the first wartime command of Ivan Chernyakhovskii, who went on to lead the 3rd Belorussian Front. The division's tank regiments were largely destroyed in the first battles, but not without inflicting losses themselves, after which the remnants fell back through Latvia and Estonia, receiving enough reinforcements and replacements to remain combat-effective. It served well at Novgorod and in the early fighting around Demyansk, as part of 27th Army, but in November the Stavka ordered it to be converted to the 241st Rifle Division.
Soviet Union 
Red Army 
Order of the Red Banner (2nd formation) 
Order of Suvorov 2nd class (2nd formation)