Parts of this article (those related to the World War II) need to be updated.(March 2023) |
184th Rifle Division (II) (1941–1946) 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division (1946–1949; 1978–present) | |
---|---|
Active | 1941–1949; 1978–present |
Country | Soviet Union (1941–1991) Russia (1991-present) |
Branch | Russian Ground Forces |
Type | Fortification Artillery |
Part of | 68th Army Corps, Eastern Military District |
Garrison/HQ | Goryachiye Klyuchi, Kurilsky District, Sakhalin Oblast |
Nickname(s) | Dukhovshchinskaya (Духовщинская) |
Engagements |
The 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division is a division of the Russian Ground Forces stationed in Sakhalin Oblast with administration over the Kuril Islands.
In 2022 the unit participated in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [7]
It was first formed as the 184th Red Banner Rifle Division (Russian : 184-я Краснознамëнная стрелковая дивизия, abbreviated: 184-я сд) which was a Soviet Red Army division during World War II (1920s till 1940 – 2nd Division of Lithuania). [8] It was with 29th Rifle Corps of 11th Army on June 22, 1941, as part of the Baltic Military District. Most of the soldiers rebelled and joined the cause of the Lithuanian Activist Front. [9] Some of its remnants went to make up the Second Formation of the 16th Rifle Division.
Its Second Formation was activated in October 1941, a redesignation of the 4th NKVD Rifle Division, which had been active in the Crimea since September 1941. The division fought as part of the 62nd Army during the Battle of Stalingrad under Colonel Koida from July 17 to September 15, 1942. [10]
Among the most notable division members was Roza Shanina. On July 12, 1944, the division occupied Trakai jointly with the 45th Rifle Corps. During the East Prussian Offensive, the division hoisted the flag of the Soviet Union on the Soviet state border. [11] It was then transferred to the Far East and fought as part of 45th Rifle Corps, 5th Army, during the invasion of Manchuria. [12]
During the war the division was part of the 2nd Guards Corps (39th Army), 3rd Tank Army, 5th Army, 62nd Army. It disbanded in 1945-46. [13]
Some 12 men of the 184th Division were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, among them Vasily Zaytsev . [14]
The 109th Fortified Region had been serving in the Far East. Circa 1946 it became the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Brigade. [15]
On June 8, 1946, on the basis of the 184th Rifle Division and the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Brigade, the 18th Machine-Gun Artillery Division was created in Primorski Krai, comprising the:
It was disbanded in 1949. [16]
The division was reformed in mid-May 1978 in Knyaze-Volkonskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, without inheriting the lineage of the previous formation. [17] It was transferred to the Kuril Islands during the summer of 1978.
The main responsibility for the defense of the Kuril Islands falls to the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division of the Eastern Military District. The headquarters of the division are located in Goryachiye Klyuchi on the Iturup Island. It also has garrisons on Kunashir Island and Shikotan Island. [18] The division was previously the only division-strength military formation remaining in the Armed Forces of Russia, along with the 201st Military Base in Tajikistan. [19] The division's aging infrastructure is in need of overhaul. [20] There are also Border Guard Service troops stationed on the islands. [21] [22]
In case of attack by Japan, the Russian forces on the Kuril Islands are expected to hold out for only one to four days unless they receive support. [23]
In 2011, it was reported that the K-300P Bastion-P system was being deployed in the islands. [24] The division became part of the 68th Army Corps in 2014. [25] In 2022 it was reported that the division had started to receive upgraded T-80BVM main battle tanks as part of its equipment. [26] The division is estimated to have about 3,500 troops under its command and is currently made up of two machine-gun artillery battalions, a motor-rifle battalion, an artillery battalion, a tank company or battalion, one rocket artillery battery, a short-range air defense company, an air defense battalion, and a support company. [7]
In May 2022 it was reported that the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division was participating in the Russo-Ukrainian War near Izium. [27] [ unreliable source? ] [28] By July 2022, they were reported to be participating in the Battle of Siversk against the defending 81st Airmobile Brigade and a special forces unit from the National Guard of Ukraine, to capture the city and open the way for Russian forces to advance on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk as well as the road going southwest towards Bakhmut. [7]
Name | Date |
---|---|
Kombrig (later Major General) Vladas Karvelis | August 30, 1940 – May 1941 |
Colonel Vasily Abramov | August–December 1941 |
Major-General Stanislav Poplavsky | January–March 1942 |
Colonel Samuil Koyda | March 15, 1942 – January 18, 1943; February 11 – March 1, 1943 |
Major Pavel Galuza | January 23 – February 10, 1943 |
Colonel Stepan Khoteyev | March 18 – May 23, 1943 |
Colonel Samuil Tsukaryov | May 24 – December 12, 1943 |
Colonel Aleksandr Belov | December 13, 1943 – June 1, 1944 |
Major-General Basan Gorodovikov | June 10 – December 11, 1944; February 19 – September 3, 1945 |
Colonel Ivan Mayskiy | December 12, 1944 – January 15, 1945 |
Major-General Rakhim Maksutov | January 17 – February 18, 1945 |
The 1st Red Banner Army was a Red Army field army of World War II that served in the Soviet Far East.
A mechanised corps was a Soviet armoured formation used prior to the beginning of World War II and reintroduced during the war, in 1942.
The Far Eastern Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific Fleet and part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Eastern Military District.
The 35th Combined Arms Red Banner Army is a field army of the Russian Ground Forces. The army was first formed in July 1941 with the Far Eastern Front. After spending most of World War II guarding the border in Primorsky Krai, the army fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, and was disbanded shortly after the end of the war. Reformed at Belogorsk when Sino-Soviet tensions rose in the late 1960s in the Far East, the army became part of the Eastern Military District in 2010.
The 42nd Guards Evpatoriyskaya Red Banner Motor Rifle Division is a Russian military unit.
The 39th Separate Guards Red Banner Motor Rifle Brigade is a mechanized infantry brigade in the Russian Ground Forces. Originally formed as the Blagoveshchensk Fortified Region of the Soviet Union's Red Army in 1932, it became the basis for the 2nd formation of the 342nd Rifle Division and took part in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. During the Cold War, it was reformed as the 56th Motor Rifle Division and later re-designated as the 33rd Separate Motor Rifle Division. In 2009, it was downsized and reorganized into the 39th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade as part of the 2008 Russian military reform.
The 3rd Guards Tank Army was a tank army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. The 3rd Tank Army was created in 1942 and fought in the southern areas of the Soviet Union and Poland, then in Germany and Czechoslovakia until the defeat of Germany in 1945. Postwar, the army served as occupation troops in East Germany, went through several name changes, and was finally deactivated in 1969.
The 51st Army was a field army of the Red Army that saw action against the Germans in World War II on both the southern and northern sectors of the front. The army participated in the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula between December 1941 and January 1942; it was destroyed in May 1942 with other Soviet forces when the Wehrmacht launched an operation to dislodge them from the peninsula. The army fought in the Battle of Stalingrad during the winter of 1942–43, helping to defeat German relief attempts. From late 1944 to the end of the war, the army fought in the final cutting-off of German forces in the Courland area next to the Baltic. Inactivated in 1945, the army was activated again in 1977 to secure Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the army continued in existence as a component of the Russian Ground Forces. The army was active during two periods from 1941 until 1997.
The 101st Rifle Division was a unit of the Soviet Red Army initially formed as a mountain rifle division on 28 August 1938 within the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city.
The 127th Order of Kutuzov Motor Rifle Division is a division of the Russian Ground Forces. It was reformed from the 59th Separate and 70th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigades in 2018, and was the 127th Machine-Gun Artillery Division from 1990 to 2009. The division traces its history to the 66th Rifle Division of World War II.
The 44th Kievskaya of the Red Banner Rifle Division of Nikolay Shchors, or 44th Kievskaya for short, was an elite military formation of the Soviet Union. Created during the beginnings of the Russian Civil War. It was destroyed during the Winter War, after being ordered to help the 163rd Rifle Division break a Finnish siege on the Raate road as part of the Special Rifle Corps 9th Army, together with the 54th Rifle Division. Afterwards it was levied and dissolved multiple times throughout the 40s and 50s until its final dissolution in 1959.
The 27th Army was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which fought in World War II.
The 266th Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. The 266th was formed three times during the war.
The 161st Stanislav Red Banner Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Mechanised Brigade was a brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces from 1993 to 2003.
The 11th Tank Division was a Soviet tank division initially formed in 1940 at Tiraspol and destroyed in 1941; it was then formed as a tank corps in May 1942. This unit was subsequently reorganized as the second formation of the 11th Tank Division in 1945.
The 34th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during and before World War II. The division was formed in 1923. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945. Postwar, it became the 11th Machine Gun Artillery Division.
The 68th Army Corps is an army corps of the Russian Ground Forces' Eastern Military District, stationed in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, with its headquarters at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The corps was first formed in 1993 from the 51st Army and disbanded in 2010. It was reformed in 2014.
The 85th Rifle Corps was a rifle corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.
The 62nd Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 127th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)