345th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

Last updated
345th Rifle Division (September 9, 1941 – July 17, 1942)
345th Rifle Division (March 13, 1945 – 1946)
Active1941–1946
CountryFlag of the USSR (1936-1955).svg  Soviet Union
Branch Red Army flag.svg Red Army
TypeDivision
RoleInfantry
Engagements Crimean Campaign
Siege of Sevastopol (1941–42)
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
Proposed Soviet invasion of Hokkaido
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Col. Nikolai Olimpievich Guz
Col. Vasilii Vasilievich Pyankov

The 345th Rifle Division began forming in September, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, at Makhachkala on the Caspian Sea. Its first formation served exclusively in the southernmost parts of the Soviet-German front, specifically in the Caucasus and Crimea. It arrived at Sevastopol in December, and fought stubbornly in defense of the fortress-port until mid-July, 1942, when the city capitulated and the division was destroyed. In March, 1945, a new 345th was formed in the Far East, and a few months later took part in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August, but as it was in a reserve formation it saw little, if any, actual combat.

Contents

1st Formation

The division formed for the first time on September 9, 1941, at Makhachkala [1] in the North Caucasus Military District. [2] Just before it was sent to the front, its personnel were noted as being 38 percent Russian, with the remaining 62 percent Central Asian and Caucasian; [3] most of the Caucasian troops were Ossetians and Chechens. [4] Its order of battle was as follows:

The absence of an antitank battalion is notable. Even when it shipped out to Sevastopol it only had six such guns on hand. [5] Col. Nikolai Olimpievich Guz took command of the division on the day it was formed and he remained in command until the first formation was dissolved. The unit had about three months to form up far from the front before going into action. In late December it moved to the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti. As of December 20, the division had the following strengths (actual on hand/Official Shtat):

The division was not badly off for manpower, and was over-strength in howitzers, but was lacking in weapons in general and especially modern weapons. It had less than a tenth of the semi-automatic rifles it should have, and no submachine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, or 37mm anti-aircraft guns at all, just six antitank guns, and 107mm mountain mortars were substituted for 120mm mortars, and only at 75 percent strength. However, many other rifle divisions went to the front in equal or worse shape in that month. [6]

Siege of Sevastopol

In mid-December, German 11th Army, under command of General Erich von Manstein, began its first deliberate assault on the Sevastopol defenses. During a brief halt in this offensive, on December 23, a five-ship convoy carrying the 345th was escorted into the port, where it joined the Separate Coastal Army, under command of General I. Ye. Petrov; it would remain under these commands for the duration of the siege. It had been intended to land the division near Kerch along with the 302nd Mountain Rifle Division, but the crisis at Sevastopol forced the change in plans. The fresh troops were immediately ordered into the line to replace the 388th Rifle Division, which had been shattered in the earlier fighting. [7]

Manstein ordered an all-out attack on December 24, attempting to crack the boundary of Soviet defense sectors III and IV, in the area of Mekenzievy Mountain, south of the Belbek River. The Soviet reinforcements came as a rude surprise; the five attacking battalions of the 132nd Infantry Division ran up against one of the division's rifle regiments and were thrown back. [8] On Christmas Day, the 1165th Rifle Regiment, with the T-26 tanks of the 81st Tank Battalion, which had landed with the division, supported by the 8th Marine Rifle Brigade, two artillery regiments, the armored train Zhelezniakov, and three Soviet destroyers in the Black Sea, launched a counter-attack, which developed into a see-saw affair with no major breakthroughs occurring. The landings at Kerch began at dawn on December 26, which indirectly forced the German units at Sevastopol to scale back their attacks. on December 27, 8th Marine Brigade was relieved in the line by two battalions of 1165th Rifle Regiment. German 22nd Infantry Division attacked near Mekenzievy Railway Station; they were temporarily held back by mortar fire, but then broke through at the junction of the 1165th and 1163rd Regiments. This attack was again stalled by artillery and mortar fire. The Germans then used rocket artillery to penetrate to the third defense line, and after heavy fighting they captured the rail station. [9]

Molotov firing Molotov1941-1942.jpg
Molotov firing

On December 29, the 345th, along with the 79th Rifle Brigade, attacked Mekenzievy Station. The battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna, the cruiser Molotov, plus destroyers and minesweepers, fired over a thousand heavy- and medium-calibre shells in support. These caused heavy losses to German vehicles and personnel. The Soviet infantry attack met with initial success but by evening the Germans were once again in control of the station. On the following day, during intense combat, the station changed hands twice. In the afternoon the Germans attacked 1165th Regiment, gaining 400 metres of territory south of the station. By the end of the day the attacks stopped. On December 31, the division reported it had about 2,000 front-line infantry remaining. On the same day, German 11th Army made its final attempt in this phase of the siege to capture antiaircraft battery 365, known to the Germans as Fort Stalin. A preemptive Soviet artillery bombardment at dawn forced back the German timetable by two hours. At 1000 hrs., two battalions from the 22nd Infantry, with six StuG III assault guns in support, attacked the center and right flank of the 345th. This attack was repulsed. At 1235 hrs. two fresh German battalions were brought in to the attack, but the division held its ground. At 1800 hrs. the 8th Marine Rifle Brigade, and two regiments of the 95th Rifle Division, attacked into the Belbek valley to relieve pressure on the 345th. The day ended with the Red Army still in control of AA Battery 365, the German objective on this sector, and at the end of the day their assault was shut down. [10]

This phase of the siege ended, in part, because General Erik Hansen, commander of the German LIV Army Corps, was ordered to release his 132nd and 170th Infantry Divisions to counter the Soviet landings at Feodosiya. Consequently, the German forces had to give up the area around Mekenzievy Station, which was reoccupied by the division. The siege then settled into a relative lull over the next several weeks. On February 26, 1942, General Petrov ordered a large attack against the 24th Infantry Division's positions near Mekenzievy Mountain using the 345th, the 2nd and 3rd Naval Infantry Regiments, and the 125th Tank Battalion. The Germans were taken by surprise by the scale of the attack and the Soviet troops were able to advance about 1,300 metres into the German lines before being stopped by a counterattack. Intermittent fighting continued in this area until March 6, which cost the German division 1,277 casualties, including 288 dead or missing. Petrov's assault forces suffered much higher losses, with 1,818 dead and 780 captured. [11] The 345th suffered a large portion of these casualties, when on March 2, during a counterattack near Mekenzievy Farm, German troops slipped into a gap between 79th Marine Brigade and 1163rd Rifle Regiment and got into the regiment's rear, putting the entire division into a very dangerous situation. Some companies were isolated and had to make their ways back through thick woods and deep gorges, and many men were lost. As a result, the 1167th Regiment was temporarily disbanded to provide replacements for the other two. The fortress garrison went back to the defensive. During the spring, antiaircraft guns that were intended for the division were lost at sea. [12]

Operation Sturgeon Haul

When the third German assault began on June 7, the somewhat rebuilt 345th, at Mekenzievy Station, was the only reserve Petrov had to back up the defenders in sectors III and IV. [13] Overnight on June 8–9 it moved up to help form a new defensive line behind sector IV. The 1167th Regiment was stationed near Battery 365, while on the following day the 1163rd was behind the railway station and the 1165th joined with the remnant of the 79th Marines. These last two regiments once again faced the 22nd Infantry Division, with about 16 remaining StuG IIIs and a few captured tanks in support. After a heavy pounding by artillery the men of the 1163rd were overwhelmed, with 120 taken prisoner, and the railway station fell once again. Colonel Guz ordered the 1165th (Lt. Col. V.V. Babkov) to retake the station but at the end of the day it was still firmly in German hands. [14]

Around 1000 hrs. on June 12 the Germans dealt a major blow in the vicinity of the station; faced with an attack led by captured KV-1 heavy tanks, the defenders broke and ran. The Germans advanced to about 1 km south of the station, and the Soviets had now lost the eastern flank of the ridge running towards Battery 365. A scratch force of men from the 345th, 25th Rifle Division, and 79th Marines, established a new line of defense. On the 13th, Battery 365 fell. By June 15, the division had about 900 men remaining. General Petrov planned for a counterattack on June 18 with the 345th, the newly arrived 138th Rifle Brigade, and remnants of 95th Rifle Division; at this time the division was defending the Grafskaya Ravine. After a short artillery preparation, the attack stepped off at 0500 hrs., supported by the last three tanks of the 125th Tank Battalion, towards Mekenzievy Station, but German reserves drove them back to their original positions. [15]

Following additional German gains over the next three days, General Petrov ordered all remaining Soviet forces to evacuate the north side of Severnaya Bay as the enemy reached the shoreline on June 22. Defense sector IV had fallen and all that remained of sector III were the remnants of the division and the 138th Brigade holding on to the Serpentine tunnel and Martynovsky Ravine at the bay's northeast corner. Two platoon leaders of the 138th deserted to the Germans and gave information on the strength and dispositions of the remaining Soviet troops. A carefully planned attack on June 22 by 50th Infantry Division overran the Serpentine and reached the railway tunnel, which was cleared with flamethrowers. Heavy fighting continued around the ravine on the 23rd, but the disorganized Soviet units were defeated piecemeal, with at least 725 men captured. Perhaps as many as 4,000 men escaped southward to Inkerman, but nearly all the remaining men and women of the 345th were trapped north of the bay and overrun. [16] On July 4 the battle for Sevastopol ended, and the 345th Rifle Division was officially disbanded on July 17. [17]

2nd Formation

Very late in the war, on March 13, 1945, the 345th was formed again, this time in the 2nd Red Banner Army of the Far Eastern Front, near Khabarovsk. It and the 2nd formation of the 396th Rifle Division were the last two regular rifle divisions formed during the war. [18] Its order of battle remained the same as the first formation. Lt. Col. Vasilii Vasilievich Pyankov was assigned to command the division on the day it was formed; a week later he was promoted to Colonel. After just a few months the division was assigned to the 87th Rifle Corps in the 1st Far Eastern Front reserves, and served under those commands during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August. During the initial stages of the offensive the 345th, with its Corps, advanced deep into enemy-held territory, although the division saw little, if any actual combat. [19] The division was slated to participate in the proposed Soviet invasion of Hokkaido before it was cancelled. [20] :156 The 345th was disbanded in September by the order establishing the Primorsky Military District and the Far Eastern Military District. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)</span> Nazi German offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II

The siege of Sevastopol also known as the defence of Sevastopol or the Battle of Sevastopol was a military engagement that took place on the Eastern Front of the Second World War. The campaign was fought by the Axis powers of Germany and Romania against the Soviet Union for control of Sevastopol, a port in the Crimea on the Black Sea. On 22 June 1941 the Axis invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. Axis land forces reached the Crimea in the autumn of 1941 and overran most of the area. The only objective not in Axis hands was Sevastopol. Several attempts were made to secure the city in October and November 1941. A major attack was planned for late November, but heavy rains delayed it until 17 December 1941. Under the command of Erich von Manstein, Axis forces were unable to capture Sevastopol during this first operation. Soviet forces launched an amphibious landing on the Crimean peninsula at Kerch in December 1941 to relieve the siege and force the Axis to divert forces to defend their gains. The operation saved Sevastopol for the time being, but the bridgehead in the eastern Crimea was eliminated in May 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Kerch Peninsula</span> 1942 battle in the Crimea

The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, which commenced with the Soviet Kerch-Feodosia Landing Operation and ended with the German Operation Bustard Hunt, was a World War II battle between Erich von Manstein's German and Romanian 11th Army and the Soviet Crimean Front forces in the Kerch Peninsula, in the eastern part of the Crimean Peninsula. It began on 26 December 1941, with an amphibious landing operation by two Soviet armies intended to break the Siege of Sevastopol. Axis forces first contained the Soviet beachhead throughout the winter and interdicted its naval supply lines through aerial bombing. From January through April, the Crimean Front launched repeated offensives against the 11th Army, all of which failed with heavy losses. The Red Army lost 352,000 men in the attacks, while the Axis suffered 24,120 casualties. Superior German artillery firepower was largely responsible for the Soviet debacle.

The 109th Rifle Division was a Red Army infantry division that was formed three times, briefly in 1939, during 1942, and again from 1942-45. The first formation of the division was converted to a mechanized division after about nine months. Its second formation served for six months in 1942 in the defense of the fortress of Sevastopol, in the southern sector of the siege lines. After being destroyed there in July, a third division was formed by re-designating an existing rifle division near Leningrad in August, and it successfully held its positions for nearly a year and a half, in spite of shortages of food and supplies due to the German/Finnish siege. The 109th then participated in the offensive that drove the Germans away from the city in early 1944, helped drive Finland out of the war, and then joined the offensive along the Baltic coast towards Germany. This third formation compiled an admirable record of service, but was disbanded in 1946.

The 11th Mechanized Corps was a mechanized corps of the Red Army, formed twice. The corps was first formed as one of the original two Red Army mechanized corps from the 11th Rifle Division in Leningrad. In 1934 it was transferred to the Transbaikal Military District and in 1938 became the 20th Tank Corps. The corps was reformed in March 1941 in western Belarus. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the understrength corps was destroyed in the Battle of Białystok–Minsk.

The 318th Rifle Division began forming on June 15, 1942, in and near Novorossiysk on the coast of the Black Sea, as a standard Red Army rifle division; it was later re-formed as a mountain rifle division, but exactly when this happened is disputed among the various sources. It fought in the area it was formed in until September 1943, and was granted the name of this city as an honorific. In November of that year it took part in the largest Soviet amphibious operation of the war, across the Kerch Straits into the easternmost part of the Crimea, but its small beachhead was eliminated some weeks later. After the Crimea was liberated in May 1944, it remained there for several months before it was transferred to the Carpathian Mountains west of Ukraine as a mountain division, and spent the remainder of the war fighting through Czechoslovakia in the direction of Prague. The division continued to serve postwar in this same role, but was converted back to a standard rifle division before it was disbanded in the early 1950s.

The 16th Guards Tank Division was a tank division of the Soviet Army and later the Russian Ground Forces.

The 22nd Guards Rifle Division was unique in being the only Guards rifle division formed twice during the Great Patriotic War. It was first formed from the 363rd Rifle Division in March 1942. Soon after forming it provided a command cadre for the second formation of the 53rd Army in Kalinin Front. Later, in the fall of that year, the division provided most of its personnel and equipment to form the new 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps, and was then disbanded. In April 1943, a new 22nd Guards was formed from the second formation of the 150th Rifle Division in the Moscow Military District, and went on to serve for the duration in 10th Guards Army. This formation first saw service in Operation Suvorov, the summer offensive of Western Front that liberated Smolensk in late September, and then fought through the autumn and winter in grinding battles towards the city of Orsha. During the summer offensive of 1944 it helped break the Panther Line in western Russia and then advanced into Latvia, winning a battle honor for its part in the liberation of Riga, before ending the war in Lithuania, helping to contain the German forces trapped in the Courland Pocket. It was disbanded shortly after the war.

The 386th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served twice during the Great Patriotic War in that role. The division followed a very similar combat path to that of the 388th Rifle Division in both of its formations. It was first formed on August 19 in the Transcaucasus Military District. In late December it was shipped from the Black Sea ports to Sevastopol, which was under siege by the German 11th Army. The division arrived just as the second Axis assault on the fortress was ending and did not see any heavy fighting until the final offensive, Operation Störfang, began on June 2, 1942. On June 18 it came under attack from the Romanian Mountain Corps and put up a stiff fight but rapidly lost strength and cohesion before falling back towards the port in the last days of the month; it was officially disbanded just days before the final Axis victory. In the buildup to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria a new 386th was formed in the Far Eastern Front in late 1944. The new division fought with enough distinction that it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and continued to serve briefly into the postwar period.

The 388th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served twice during World War II in that role. The division followed a very similar combat path to that of the 386th Rifle Division in both of its formations. It was first formed on August 19, in the Transcaucasus Military District. From December 7 to 13, it was shipped from the Black Sea ports to Sevastopol, which was under siege by the German 11th Army.

The 391st Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. 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 396th Rifle Division was created in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army and was activated twice during the Great Patriotic War. The division followed a very similar combat path to that of the 398th Rifle Division in its 1st formation. It was first formed in August in the Transcaucasus Military District. In January 1942 it was moved to the Crimea where it joined first the 47th and then the 44th Armies in Crimean Front. On 8 May it came under attack by the German 11th Army as part of Operation Trappenjagd and by the end of the month it was destroyed in the Kerch peninsula, being officially disbanded on 14 June. In the buildup to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria a new 396th was formed in the Far Eastern Front in early 1945. The new division was one of only three formed in 1945 and served with the 2nd Red Banner Army, crossing the Amur River on 11 August and helping to reduce a Japanese fortified zone while also marching towards central Manchuria. Its rifle regiments were all decorated for their achievements and the division was disbanded before the end of the year.

The 414th Rifle Division was twice formed as an infantry division of the Red Army; very briefly in the winter of 1941/42, then from the spring of 1942 until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was officially considered a Georgian National division, having nearly all its personnel of that nationality in its second formation. After its second formation it remained in service in the Caucasus near the borders of Turkey and Iran in the 44th Army until the summer of 1942, when it was redeployed to help counter the German drive toward Grozny. As German Army Group A retreated from the Caucasus in January 1943 the division was reassigned to the 37th Army in North Caucasus Front, and during the fighting in the Taman Peninsula during the summer it served in both the 58th and 18th Armies, earning a battle honor in the process. It entered the Crimea during the Kerch–Eltigen Operation in November, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner following the offensive that liberated that region in April and May 1944, fighting in the 11th Guards Rifle Corps of the Separate Coastal Army. After the Crimea was cleared the Coastal Army remained as a garrison and the 414th stayed there for the duration of the war. Postwar, it was relocated to Tbilisi, being renumbered as the 74th Rifle Division in 1955 and disbanded the following year.

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 56th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in June 1943, based on the 2nd formations of the 74th and 91st Rifle Brigades, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. Along with its "sister", the 65th Guards Rifle Division, the 56th was formed "out of sequence", that is, many Guards rifle divisions were higher numbered and formed earlier than the 56th. The division was immediately assigned to the 19th Guards Rifle Corps of the 10th Guards Army and remained under those headquarters for the duration of the war. It first saw action in Western Front's summer offensive, Operation Suvorov. On September 8 the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment was given the honorific title "in the name of Aleksandr Matrosov" and on September 25 the division as a whole was awarded the honorific "Smolensk" for its role in the liberation of that city. During the winter of 1943-44 it took part in the stubborn fighting north and east of Vitebsk, first in Western and later in 2nd Baltic Front. During the following summer offensives it helped break through the defenses of the German Panther Line and advanced into the Baltic states, eventually being decorated with the Order of the Red Banner after the liberation of Riga. For the rest of the war it was part of the forces blockading the remnants of German Army Group North in the Courland Pocket in Latvia, eventually in Leningrad Front. After the war the 56th Guards was moved to the town of Elva in Estonia where it was disbanded in 1947, although the successor formations of the 254th Guards Regiment exist into the present day.

The 65th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in May, 1943, based on the 2nd formations of the 75th and 78th Rifle Brigades, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. Along with its "sister", the 56th Guards Rifle Division, the 65th was formed "out of sequence", that is, many Guards rifle divisions were higher numbered and formed earlier than the 65th. The division was immediately assigned to the 19th Guards Rifle Corps of the 10th Guards Army and remained under those headquarters for the duration of the war. It first saw action in Western Front's summer offensive, Operation Suvorov. During the winter of 1943-44 it took part in the stubborn fighting north and east of Vitebsk, first in Western and later in 2nd Baltic Front. During the following summer offensives it helped break through the defenses of the German Panther Line and advanced into the Baltic states, eventually receiving a battle honor for its part in the liberation of Riga. For the rest of the war it was part of the forces blockading the remnants of German Army Group North in the Courland Pocket in Latvia, eventually in Leningrad Front. After the war the 65th Guards was moved to Estonia where it was disbanded in 1947.

The 63rd Mountain Rifle Division was formed as a specialized infantry division of the Red Army in July 1936, based on the 2nd Georgian Mountain Division. When the German invasion of the Soviet Union began it was in the Transcaucasus Military District and was soon assigned to the 47th Army for the invasion of Iran. Following this it was moved to the western Caucasus region where it joined the 44th Army of Crimean Front for amphibious operations against the Axis forces in the Crimea. In late December 1941 it landed at Feodosia as part of 9th Rifle Corps. Along with the remainder of the Corps the 63rd Mountain hindered but failed to block the retreat of Axis forces from Kerch, where the 51st Army had also made landings. After a German counteroffensive retook Feodosia in mid-January 1942 the division fell back to the Parpach Isthmus where it took part in trench warfare near the Black Sea coast into the spring, gradually losing strength. On May 8 it was caught up in the opening stage of Operation "Bustard Hunt" (Trappenjagd) and in a few hours was overwhelmed and largely destroyed by German air and artillery bombardment in support of infantry and armor attacks. Less than a week later it was stricken from the Red Army's order of battle and was never rebuilt.

The 224th 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. A large part of this first formation took part in amphibious landings near Kerch in late December 1941 but it was encircled and destroyed during the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula in May 1942.

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 242nd Rifle Division was the lowest-numbered infantry division of the Red Army to be formed from scratch following the German invasion of the USSR. It was largely based on what would become the shtat of July 29, 1941 and was very quickly assigned to the new 30th Army of Western Front. Despite many shortages of equipment and specialist personnel, and a near-complete absence of formation training, the division joined the active army on July 15, thrown into the fighting near Smolensk. In late August and early September it took part on the Front's offensives toward Dukhovshchina, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to encircle and destroy a large part of the German 9th Army. At the start of Operation Typhoon on October 2 it was defending part of the sector attacked by 9th Army and 3rd Panzer Group south of Bely and was quickly overwhelmed. After fighting in encirclement for most of the rest of the month its remaining men were able to break out and reach Soviet-held territory, but the losses were to too great to justify rebuilding and the division was disbanded.

References

Citations

  1. Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p. 81. Sharp states this city was in Transcaucasus Military District.
  2. http://www.soldat.ru/files/f/boevojsostavsa1941.pdf, p. 56.
  3. David M. Glantz, Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005, p. 594
  4. Robert Forczyk, Where the Iron Crosses Grow, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2014, p. 94
  5. Charles C. Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX, Nafziger, 1996, p. 85-86
  6. Sharp, Red Tide, p. 86
  7. Forczyk, p. 94
  8. Forczyk, p. 94
  9. Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941-1942, Pen & Sword Books Ltd., Barnsley, UK, 2016, pp. 96-97. Donnell states that Guz was a Lt. Col. in command of the 1165th Rifle Reg't. at this time; this is contradicted by Forczyk and by Commanders of Corps and Divisions in the Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945.
  10. Donnell, pp. 98-101
  11. Forczyk, pp. 120, 122
  12. Donnell, pp. 113-15, 131
  13. Forczyk, pp. 173
  14. Donnell, pp. 153, 156-58
  15. Donnell, pp. 159, 162, 168, 180, 182
  16. Forczyk, pp. 191, 202
  17. Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 86
  18. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys, p. 150
  19. Sharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, Nafziger, 1996, p. 127
  20. Giangreco, D.M. (2016). "The Hokkaido Myth" (PDF). Journal of Strategy and Politics (2): 148–164. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  21. Feskov et al 2013, p. 580.

Bibliography