| 308th Infantry Division | |
|---|---|
 Emblem of the Soviet Army | |
| Active | 25 December 1941 - May 1946 |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army Soviet Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | Rifle Division
|
| Part of | 62nd Army |
| Garrison/HQ | Ivanovo |
The 308th Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. The division was formed three separate times during the course of the war.
The 308th Rifle Division first started forming on 25 December 1941 at Ivanovo in the Moscow Military District. On 7 January 1942, while still forming the division was redesignated the 117th Rifle Division. [1] See the 117th Rifle Division's entry for more information.
The 308th Rifle Division (2nd formation) was formed in accordance with Order Number 0044 of the Siberian Military District dated 21 March 1942. [2] It was formed at Omsk in the Siberian Military District, using 20% Red Army men (active duty), 25% returning wounded veterans, 25% reservists from industry, and 30% new recruits from the classes of 1922-23. Most of the recruits and reservists came from the Omsk and Krasnoyarsk oblasts. When the division left for the west it had 12,133 officers and men assigned. [3]
The division remained in the Siberian Military District until May 1942 until it was moved to the west. In late May, the division was assigned to the 8th Reserve Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. On 1 June 1942, the division, still with the 8th Reserve Army, was at Saratov. From August 29 to September 6, 1942, the division covered at least 300 kilometers on foot. On 1 August 1942 the 308th Rifle Division was part of the 24th Army in the area of Kotluban. The division joined the active army on 29 August 1942 when it was assigned to the 24th Army on the Stalingrad Front. The first fight in the division took the 24th Army on the territory of the state farm "Kotluban." The division had to seize the hamlet of Borodkin and heights of 133.4, 143.8 and 154.2. Division troops backed 217th Tank Brigade, 136 mortars, heavy artillery regiment in 1936. The enemy forces unleashed on the division powerful artillery fire, mortars, aircraft and tanks.
By the end of September 1942 the division was assigned to the 62nd Army inside Stalingrad. In the fighting at Stalingrad the division arrived came on the night of October 2, 1942, under Colonel Leontii Gurtev. As part of General V.I. Chuikov's 62nd Army, the division seized positions in the area of the "Barricades" plant. The division was finally pulled out of the city and the 62nd Army in December with only 500 men still assigned to the division. [3] For its actions at Stalingrad September to December 1942 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by an order dated 19 June 1943.
Reassigned to the Volga Military District to be rebuilt, the division spent the next several months reconstituting its strength. By 1 March 1943, the division was shipped back to the front and assigned to the Kalinin Front reserves and then to the 11th Army in the STAVKA reserves. [3]
The division returned to the front in the 3rd Army of the Bryansk Front in Operation Kutuzov. Distinguishing itself in combat, the division was awarded Guards status and redesignated the 120th Guards Rifle Division. [3] During the remainder of 1943 the division participated in the Orel, Bryansk, and Gomel - Rechitsa operations. [4]
As the 308th Rifle Division, the unit had two commanders. Colonel Leontii Nikolaevich Gurt'ev [4] took over the division on 1 March 1942, was promoted to major general on 7 December 1942, and was killed in action at Pamanlovo on 3 August 1943. For his actions in taking that town, he became a Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously on 27 August 1943. His successor as division commander was Colonel Nikolai Kuz'mich Maslennikov, [4] who took over officially on 4 August 1943 and was promoted to major general on 22 September 1943. Maslennikov was commander until the 308th became the 120th Guards Rifle Division in September 1943 in accordance with NKO Order Number 285.
This division was organized as a Red Army national unit from 5 June to 7 July 1944 from the 1st Latvian Riflemen Reserve Regiment at Gorkiy in the Moscow Military District. The division was the last national, "ethnic" division formed during the war. The division was formed as a Latvian Division under the 130th Latvian Rifle Corps. The 130th Rifle Corps was assigned to the 2nd Baltic Front's 22nd Army from July to October 1944. They were then reassigned to the Leningrad Front's 67th Army. They fought at Aiviekste River, Jēkabpils, Olaine, Džūkste and Blīdene. [5] By the end of the month the Corps was back with the 22nd Army and from March 1945 to the end of the war in Latvia, assigned to the Kurland Group on the Baltic Coast. [3]
Gorokhovets district to 1st Latvian Riflemen Reserve Regiment. It contained 319th, 323rd, and 355th Riflemen and 677th Artillery Regiment, 301st Sapper Battalion, 899th Communications Battalion and Reconnaissance Company. Divisions beginning strength was about 7,300 men. The commanders were: Major General Voldemar Damberg and Regiment Commander M. Kalniņš. On July 12, 1944, the division headed to the front as part of the 130th Latvian Rifle Corps. First combat happened on August 5. They fought at Aiviekste River, Jēkabpils, Olaine, Džūkste and Blīdene. [5]
The division was based in Daugavpils postwar, still with the 130th Rifle Corps. It was disbanded in May 1946 along with the corps. [6]
The 59th Guards Kramatorsk Order of Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Motor-Rifle Division of the Soviet Union's Red Army was initially formed near Krasnodar in March 1942 as the 197th Rifle Division. On the division's formation Colonel M. I. Zaporozhchenko took command, who stayed with the division until February 1943. Its second commander was Major-General G. P. Karamyshev from February 1943 up to the end of the war.
Latvian Riflemen Soviet Divisions were military formations of the Red Army during World War II created in 1941 and consisting primarily of ethnic Latvians.
The 120th Guards Mechanised Brigade is a mechanised infantry brigade of the Belarus Ground Forces. It is the heir to the traditions of the Red Army 120th Guards Rifle Division which became the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1957.
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 18th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Russian Civil War, Polish–Soviet War, Winter War and World War II. The division was formed a total of five times during this period.
The 31st Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the interwar period and World War II.
The 302nd Rifle Division began service as a specialized Red Army mountain rifle division, which saw service in the disastrous operations in the Crimea in early 1942. It was later converted to serve for the balance of the war as a standard rifle division. The division played a leading role in the 51st Army's breakthrough south of Stalingrad in the opening stages of Operation Uranus, and then in the exploitation following this success; however, it was badly battered and routed in the initial stage of the German Operation Winter Storm. After recovering from this, the division continued to turn in a creditable record of service in the southern sectors of the Soviet-German front for the duration, and was especially recognized for its role in the liberation of the city of Ternopol, for which it received that city's name as an honorific.
The 422nd Rifle Division was formed for the first time as a standard Red Army rifle division late in 1941, after the Soviet winter counteroffensive had begun, but was soon re-designated. A second formation began in March, 1942, again in the far east of Siberia, until July, after which it was moved west to join the reserves of Stalingrad Front in August. It was the highest-numbered rifle division to see active service in the front lines after the German invasion, Operation Barbarossa. Over the course of the next six months, the division distinguished itself in both defensive and offensive fighting and earned its re-designation as the 81st Guards Rifle Division on the first day of March, 1943. The 422nd was never reformed.
The 315th Rifle Division was a standard Red Army rifle division formed for the first time on February 12, 1942, in the Siberian Military District before being sent to the vicinity of Stalingrad, where it was engaged in the futile efforts to break through to the besieged city from the north near Kotluban. After rebuilding, it was part of the southern thrust of Operation Uranus in November, helping to encircle the German 6th Army and also to hold off its would-be rescuers. During 1943 and early 1944 the division advanced through the southern Donbas and into Ukraine, where it was honored for its role in the liberation of Melitopol, before taking part in the liberation of the Crimea in April and May 1944. The men and women of the 315th ended their war on an anticlimactic note, serving for the last year as part of the garrison of the Crimea. However, the unit, and its successors, continued to serve well into the postwar era.
The 347th Rifle Division began forming in mid-September 1941, as a Red Army rifle division, in the North Caucasus Military District. It was soon assigned to the 58th Army while both it and its Army continued to form up before entering combat in November, as part of the offensive that first liberated Rostov-on-Don. During the German summer offensive in 1942 the division retreated back into the Caucasus, fighting to defend the routes to the oil fields at Baku, until the German forces began to retreat after their defeat at Stalingrad. During 1943 and early 1944 it continued to serve in the southern part of the front, taking part in the liberation of Crimea, before being transferred to the Baltic States region, serving in Latvia and Lithuania for the duration of the war, compiling a distinguished record of service along the way. In 1946 it was reformed as a rifle brigade, and its several successor formations remained part of the Red Army until 1959, when it was finally disbanded.
The 336th Independent Guards Bialystok Orders of Suvorov and Alexander Nevsky Naval Infantry Brigade is a brigade of the Russian Naval Infantry, formerly part of the Soviet Naval Infantry.
The 392nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, and fought against the German Operation Barbarossa 1941-46. It was formed in August in the Transcaucasus Military District as a Georgian National division. It saw its first action in August, 1942, in the 37th Army and in the course of the final push by the 1st Panzer Army in October it was overrun and nearly destroyed, although it was never actually disbanded. In December what remained was moved to the 45th Army on the border with Turkey where it stayed for the duration of the war.
The 417th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the spring of 1942 and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. Although it was formed in the Transcaucasus, unlike the 414th and 416th Rifle Divisions formed in about the same place at the same time it was never designated as a National division. After its formation it remained in service in the Caucasus under direct command of the Transcaucasus Front until the summer of 1942, when it was redeployed first to the Northern Group of Forces in that Front and then to the 9th Army. As German Army Group A retreated from the Caucasus in January, 1943 the division was reassigned to the 58th Army and a few months later to 37th Army in North Caucasus Front. In July it redeployed northward to join Southern Front, where it was assigned to the 63rd Rifle Corps in 44th Army in mid-September as the Front fought through south Ukraine, eventually reaching the land routes to the Crimea. It took part in the offensive that liberated that region in April and May, 1944, fighting in the 51st Army and winning both a battle honor and the Order of the Red Banner in the process. After the Crimea was cleared the 51st Army was moved far to the north, joining 1st Baltic Front. During operations in the Baltic states the 417th was further distinguished with the award of the Order of Suvorov. In March, 1945 it joined the Courland Group of Forces on the Baltic coast containing the German forces encircled in northwest Latvia. It ended the war there and was soon moved to the Ural Military District before being downsized to a rifle brigade. This brigade was briefly brought back to divisional strength during the Cold War.
The 33rd Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in May 1942, based on the 2nd formation of the 3rd Airborne Corps, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was the second of a series of ten Guards rifle divisions formed from airborne corps during the spring and summer of 1942. It was briefly assigned to the 47th Army in the North Caucasus Front but was soon moved to the Volga Military District and saw its first action as part of 62nd Army in the fighting on the approaches to Stalingrad. It was withdrawn east of the Volga in September, but returned to the front with the 2nd Guards Army in December, and it remained in this Army until early 1945. After helping to defeat Army Group Don's attempt to relieve the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad the 33rd Guards joined in the pursuit across the southern Caucasus steppe until reaching the Mius River in early 1943. Through the rest of that year it fought through the southern sector of eastern Ukraine as part of Southern Front and in the spring of 1944 assisted in the liberation of the Crimea, earning a battle honor in the process. The Crimea was a strategic dead-end, so 2nd Guards Army was moved north to take part in the summer offensive through the Baltic states and to the border with Germany as part of 1st Baltic Front. During the offensive into East Prussia the division and its 13th Guards Rifle Corps was reassigned to 39th and the 43rd Armies before returning to 2nd Guards Army in April. For its part in the capture of the city-fortress of Königsberg the 33rd Guards would receive the Order of Suvorov. In mid-1946 it was converted to the 8th Separate Guards Rifle Brigade.
The 43rd Guards Rifle Division was an elite Latvian infantry division of the Red Army during World War II.
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 229th 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 20th Army it was moved from the Moscow Military District to the front west of Orsha by July 2. Serving under the Western Front the 20th was soon pocketed in the Smolensk region but the 229th was able to escape at the cost of significant losses. It was partially rebuilt before the start of the final German offensive on Moscow, when it was completely encircled and destroyed.
The 231st Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed out-of-sequence in the Ural Military District in February 1942. It continued training and forming until late May when it was assigned to 8th Reserve Army and began moving toward the Stalingrad area. By the end of August it had reached the fighting front as part of 66th Army in Stalingrad Front and was almost immediately committed to the first of the Kotluban offensives, attempting to cut off the XIV Panzer Corps that had penetrated to the Volga River north of Stalingrad about a week earlier. The division suffered heavy casualties from the outset of these efforts, attacking across flat and open terrain against well dug-in opposition. Devastated in these attacks the 231st was soon relegated to second-echelon duties until, with only about 600 infantry and sappers still on strength, it was officially disbanded on November 2.
Voldemar Frantsevich Damberg was a Soviet Army major general. Of Latvian ethnicity, Damberg rose to corps command during World War II.
The 196th 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. It began forming just months before the German invasion in the Odessa Military District. When the German invasion began it was in the 7th Rifle Corps, in the District reserves. The Corps was soon moved to the reserves of Southwestern Front, and by mid-July the division had joined 26th Army as a separate division. It took part in battles on both sides of the Dniepr River during August until it was finally encircled and destroyed in September, although it remained on the books of the Red Army until December.
