301st Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

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301st Rifle Division (10 July 1941 – 27 December 1941)
301st Rifle Division (27 December 1941 – 13 July 1942)
301st Rifle Division (June 1943 – October 1946)
Active1941–1946
CountryFlag of the USSR (1936-1955).svg  Soviet Union
Branch Red Army flag.svg Red Army
TypeDivision
RoleInfantry
Engagements Operation Barbarossa
Battle of Kiev (1941)
Second Battle of Kharkov
Operation Blue
Donbass Strategic Offensive
Battle of the Dniepr
First Jassy–Kishinev Offensive
Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive
Vistula-Oder Offensive
Battle of Berlin
Decorations Order of Suvorov 2nd class.png   Order of Suvorov (3rd Formation)
Battle honours Stalino (3rd Formation)
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Col. Aleksei Aleksandrovich Sokolov
Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Timofeevich Volchkov
Col. Pyotr Ivanovich Ivanov
Col. Vladimir Semyonovich Antonov

The 301st Rifle Division began service as a standard Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion, but was soon largely destroyed in the encirclement of Kiev, although enough of a cadre survived to form the basis of a second formation. This new division began forming in the last days of 1941, and saw some limited service in the Second Battle of Kharkov, but then had to fall back in the face of the German summer offensive, became encircled quite early on, and had to be disbanded in July. Nearly a year later a third 301st was raised, based on the personnel and equipment of two existing rifle brigades. This incarnation of the division compiled a creditable record of service in several major offensives through Ukraine, then into Poland and into the heart of Berlin in April 1945, and also served briefly post-war in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, headquartered in Berlin.

Contents

1st Formation

The division began forming on 10 July 1941 at Poltava in the Kharkov Military District. [1] Its order of battle was as follows:

Col. Aleksei Aleksandrovich Sokolov was assigned as commanding officer on the day the division began forming. Less than a month after this the 301st was assigned to Southwestern Front, arriving after a relatively short march on 2 August. Three days later it was assigned to 38th Army, [3] but by 1 September it was shifted northwards to a position along the Dniepr River about 70km southeast of Kiev in 26th Army. [4] This reassignment proved the division's undoing as it was largely trapped when the German forces linked up far east of Kiev later in September. While the division was effectively destroyed as a fighting force during that month, it appears that at least a cadre escaped, including Col. Sokolov, who remained in command on the books until 1 December. He was replaced on that date by Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Timofeevich Volchkov. The division was finally officially removed from the Soviet order of battle on 27 December, and on the same date a new formation of the division began, also under Maj. Gen. Volchkov. [5]

2nd Formation

On 27 December, as the old 301st was stricken off, a new division began forming up, initially numbered the 447th, [6] this time at Krasnoyarsk in the Siberian Military District. As well as the same commander, and probably some of the staff, it also had the same order of battle as the 1st formation. In spite of this it took three months to complete forming up, which would tend to indicate that this was largely a ground-up rebuilding. [7] General Volchkov was replaced in command by Col. Pyotr Ivanovich Ivanov on 19 February 1942; Ivanov would remain in command through the remainder of the 2nd formation's existence.

The division left Siberia in late March 1942, assigned once again to Southwestern Front on 1 April. It spent most of April in 28th Army, and then was reassigned to 21st Army. [8] On 11 May, when a new offensive on Kharkov began, 21st Army was part of the "northern group" attacking towards the city. The 301st was not part of the Army's assault force; 1054th Rifle Regiment was assigned to hold the line east of Belgorod, while 1050th and 1052nd Regiments constituted the Army's reserve, and began moving towards the front from the region of Krasnaia Poliana on 12 May. By the end of the day on 14 May the division had advanced to the Northern Donets River west of Maslova Pristen, nearly due south of Belgorod, but this was a narrow salient and the advance was halted here. [9]

While it escaped the catastrophe that engulfed the "southern group" in the Kharkov offensive, the 301st still took significant casualties in its attacks, which left it too weak to survive in the face of the German Operation Blue. When the offensive began on 28 June the division was still in 21st Army, helping to defend a front west of Staryi and Novyi Oskol, opposite the bulk of German 6th Army. An attack by that Army on 30 June, aimed at the junction of 21st and 28th Armies, encircled the 301st and 227th Rifle Divisions, plus the 10th Tank Brigade. [10] Some elements of the division escaped, along with the other remnants of 21st Army, but the division was ground down to the point it had to be disbanded again on 13 July. [11]

3rd Formation

The final 301st Rifle Division began forming in late June 1943, and completed on 14 August, when Col. Vladimir Semyonovich Antonov was named as commanding officer; he would remain in this position for the duration of the war. The new division was based on the personnel of the 34th Rifle Brigade and the 157th Rifle Brigade. [12]

34th Rifle Brigade

The 3rd formation of this brigade started forming in late August 1942, at Baku in the Transcaucasus Military District from students of the army and navy schools in and around the city. It was part of the emergency response to the Axis advance into the Caucasus in July, and in September the brigade went to the front in the 11th Guards Rifle Corps of 9th Army. In October, under the command of Col. A.V. Vorozhitsev, it was defending along the Terek River against the 1st Panzer Army. Since enemy armor could be expected in quantity, the brigade was reinforced with heavy support, including:

The 34th remained under these commands when the Germans began to retreat after Stalingrad, and on 24 January 1943, it took part in the liberation of Armavir. In February, 11th Guards Corps was briefly reassigned to 58th Army in the North Caucasus Front, but by 1 March both the Corps and the brigade were back in 9th Army. In April the 34th moved for the last time, to the 9th Rifle Corps in the same Army, where it began converting to the 301st Rifle Division in June. [13]

157th Rifle Brigade

The 2nd formation of this brigade began in September 1942, in the Transcaucasus Front, formed from training units in the Transcaucasus. By 1 October it had been sent to 44th Army of the Front's Northern Group of Forces. In November it became part of 9th Rifle Corps in the same Army, and remained in that Corps from that point on. After the front lines moved to the Kuban near the end of the year 9th Corps was transferred to 9th Army of the North Caucasus Front in January 1943. The 157th remained facing the German forces in the Taman peninsula over the coming months, then it began converting to the 301st Rifle Division in June. [14]

Advance

The division's order of battle mostly remained the same as the first two formations, but it inherited the 337th Antitank Battalion from the 34th Brigade. On 20 August the 301st was declared fit for service. It remained in the 9th Rifle Corps, where it was formed, for the duration of the war and on into the postwar period. 9th Corps was almost immediately reassigned to 5th Shock Army, where it would serve for most of the rest of the war. 5th Shock was then in South Front (later 4th Ukrainian Front), and the 301st served in that Front until February 1944. [15]

It arrived at the front during the Donbass Strategic Offensive, advancing through the southernmost part of the Soviet-German front. On 8 September the division was recognized for its role in the liberation of Stalino, and was given its name as an honorific:

"STALINO"... 301st Rifle Division (Colonel Antonov, Vladimir Semyonovich)... The troops that participated in the liberation of the Donbass, during which they captured Stalino and other cities, by order of the Supreme High Command on September 8, 1943, are given congratulations, and in Moscow a salute was given with 20 artillery salvos of 224 guns." [16]

In November the division was moved to 28th Army, then back to 5th Shock when that army was reassigned to 3rd Ukrainian Front. In April 1944 the 301st was in 57th Army of the same front during the First Jassy–Kishinev Offensive. On the 11th the division reached the Dniestr River and, without bridging equipment, began forcing a crossing with improvised means:

"The 1050th Rifle Regiment from Col. V.S. Antonov's 301st Rifle Division began crossing the river shortly after noon, a platoon and company at a time on these fragile rafts and boats. Despite heavy German machine-gun fire, the regiment's 1st Battalion managed to cross the river just south of Bychok, captured the Germans' first trench line, and assaulted Hill 65.3, which was situated less than one mile [2km] southwest of Bychok. The regiment's 2nd Battalion and headquarters group also successfully crossed the river an hour later. [17]

In the end, the several bridgeheads seized by 57th Army proved too small and shallow for major crossing operations, and the offensive on this sector came to a halt.

When the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive began in late August, 9th Corps and the 301st were still in 57th Army, but before month's end would return to 5th Shock Army, [18] where they remained until postwar. At the start of the offensive 9th Corps, reinforced by 96th Tank Brigade, was committed to the fighting on the second day, moving up to the area north of Lake Botno while covered by an 11km-wide smoke screen. On 22 August, still under cover of smoke, 9th Corps joined the fighting on 57th Army's left flank, supported by tanks and by the SU-76s of the 1202 SU Regiment. This combined force crushed the enemy's resistance and by 0830 hrs. seized the strongpoints of Ursoiya and Kaushan station. By the close of the day the 301st had advanced up to 10-15km in the day's fighting and taken the village of Zaim. The advance continued the next day and 9th Corps attained all its objectives, advancing so aggressively that it was outrunning the corps that had been in the first echelon. [19] [20]

The whole 5th Shock Army went into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command in September, and the division's 337th Antitank Battalion had its towed guns replaced with self-propelled SU-76 guns. In November, 5th Shock joined 1st Belorussian Front for the duration, allowing the 301st to take part in the final defeat of Germany in Poland, East Pomerania, and in Berlin. [21] On 2 May 1945, units of the 301st reported the capture of the ruins of the New Reich Chancellery building, just as fighting in the city was drawing to an end, and Colonel Antonov was shown the burned bodies of Josef and Magda Goebbels. [22] By this time the division had earned, in addition to its honorific Stalino, the Order of Suvorov as well. (Russian: 301-я стрелковая Сталинская ордена Суворова дивизия).

Following the German surrender, when most Soviet formations were being demobilized, 5th Shock Army, including the 301st Rifle Division, was selected to be part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, with its headquarters in Berlin. The division was disbanded in October 1946, with the army. [23]

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The 227th 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. It arrived at the front in July and was assigned to 26th Army along the Dniepr, but was fortunate to escape that Army's encirclement in September. During the next several months, the division fought as part of 40th Army in the Kursk region, operating toward Prokhorovka and Oboyan during the winter counteroffensive. It made noteworthy gains during the May 1942 offensive north of Kharkiv but these went for naught when the southern wing of the offensive collapsed. When the main German summer offensive began in late June, the division's 21st Army was directly in the path of the German 6th Army and the depleted 227th was soon destroyed on the open steppes.

The 230th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed as one of the first reserve rifle divisions following the German invasion of the USSR. After being hastily organized, it joined the fighting front along the lower Dniepr River as part of 6th Army. After the German victory east of Kyiv, it retreated into the Donbas as part of 12th Army and spent the winter in the fighting around Rostov-on-Don. When the German 1942 summer offensive began, it was driven back, now as part of 37th Army, and largely encircled near Millerovo. While not destroyed, by late August it was so depleted that it was disbanded.

References

Citations

  1. According to Dunn, the District where the division formed is unknown, but in the Southwest area; Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 77
  2. Charles C. Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX, 1996, p. 68
  3. Dunn states the division's initial assignment was 26th Army; Dunn, Stalin's Keys, p. 77
  4. David Stahel, Kiev 1941, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2012, map on p. 220
  5. Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 68
  6. Dunn, Stalin's Keys, p. 99
  7. Sharp, "Red Tide", pp. 68-69
  8. Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 69
  9. David M. Glantz, Kharkov 1942, Ian Allan Publishing, Ltd., Hersham, UK, 1998/2010, pp. 64, 91, 94, 185, 246
  10. Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 111, 128, 134
  11. Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 69
  12. Sharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, 1996, p. 112
  13. Sharp, "Red Volunteers", Soviet Militia Units, Rifle and Ski Brigades 1941 - 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. XI, 1996, pp. 23-24
  14. Sharp, "Red Volunteers", p. 68
  15. Sharp, "Red Swarm", 1996, pp. 112-13
  16. "Освобождение городов".
  17. Glantz, Red Storm over the Balkans, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2007, p. 127
  18. Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1944, pp. 230, 262
  19. Soviet General Staff, The Iasi-Kishinev Operation, ed. & trans. R.W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2017, pp. 54, 105, 114, 121, 127, 251
  20. Sharp, "Red Hammers", Soviet Self-Propelled and Lend Lease Armor 1941 - 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. XII, 1998, p. 57-58
  21. Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 113
  22. John Erickson, The Road to Berlin, George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Ltd., London, UK, 1983, p. 618. Erickson gives the number of the reporting regiment as the 150th, under command of Lt. Col. Gumerov. This number is probably in error for the 1050th.
  23. Feskov et al 2013, p. 382.

Bibliography