| 65th Rifle Division 102nd Guards Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1931–1944 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Decorations | |
| Battle honours | Novgorod |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Pyotr Koshevoy |
The 65th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army.
The 65th Territorial Rifle Division was formed in May 1931, based in Tyumen, Kamyshlov, and Ishim. The division included the 193rd, 194th, and 195th Rifle Regiments, the 65th Artillery Regiment, a tank battalion, reconnaissance and sapper companies, and anti-aircraft and anti-tank batteries. The division headquarters was in Tyumen in a two-story house on Republic street, and the barracks of the 193rd Rifle Regiment in a former indoor market on the neighboring Lenin street. M. I. Glukhov was appointed first commander of the division, and was succeeded by Grigory F. Gavryushenko in May 1932. in January 1934 the best six skiers of the unit led by Gavryushenko skied from Tyumen to Moscow to report to the 17th Congress of the Communist Party, and a year later this route was repeated by the wives of the commanders of the division – the "daring five" as they were known in Tyumen. [1]
During the expansion of the Red Army in 1939, the 193rd Rifle Regiment was used to form a new 65th Rifle Division in Tyumen during July 1939, in accordance with a 9 July directive of the Ural Military District. The 110th and 128th Rifle Divisions were formed from the other two rifle regiments of the 65th Territorial Rifle Division between July and September 1939.
From 13 July to 1 August 1939 the division was relocated to Transbaikalia, based northeast of the Matsievskaya station where the construction of dugouts was begun. The division became part of the 12th Rifle Corps of the Transbaikal Military District on 18 September. On 10 October the mobilized personnel began to be discharged and the division shifted to peacetime strength. The division was reorganized as the 65th Motorized Division on 25 January 1940 but again reverted to a rifle division on 26 April. [2]
When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941 the division was located in Chita Oblast at Matsievskaya station, then relocated to the Solovyovsk–Otpor area. Until October it remained in the Transbaikal Military District, which became the Transbaikal Front on 15 September. [3] From 20 October the division began departing in echelons from Dauriya station, and on 30 October unloaded in Kuybyshev for the parade there on 7 November. After the parade, on the next day, 8 November, the division boarded trains again and was sent through Yaroslavl, Vologda, Cherepovets to the Tikhvin sector, where on 12 November it unloaded at the Bolshoy Dvor station and deployed on the southeast approaches to Tikhvin. Included in the 4th Separate Army, the division fought in positional battles near Tikhvin until mid-November, and from 19 November in the Tikhvin offensive. Having taken the outskirts of that city from the southeast, the division ran into strong defenses between 24 and 26 November. From 1 to 7 December the city was stormed and its liberation was declared on 9 December. The 65th formed the main force in the liberation of the city. For its "exemplary performance of combat objectives" during the offensive and its "courage and heroism," the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 17 December. [2]
Fought near Leningrad and in the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation.
From 14 August to 6 October 1944 the division was in the army reserve, receiving reinforcements and conducting training. From 7 October the division fought in the Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive to liberate the Polar region as part of the 99th Rifle Corps. The 65th was part of the main attack for the breakthrough of strong German fortified defenses and strongpoints on the heights dominating and covering the main direction of the enemy towards Bolshoy Karikvayvish, Luostari, and Petsamo. On the first day of the offensive the division, operating on the right flank, broke through the German defenses. On the morning of the second day it captured the powerful strongpoint on the Bolshoy Karikvayvish mountain. Then it took six similar strongpoints on the dominating heights. By the morning of the third day of the offensive the division had penetrated German defenses to a depth of 5–6 kilometers, assault-crossed the Titovka river, and began the pursuit of defeated small German units. The division advanced 20 kilometers into the German rear by 12 October and captured Luostari airfield. During the operation the division defeated two battalions of the 137th Regiment of the German 2nd Mountain Division, inflicted heavy losses on the 111th Reserve Battalion, Bicycle Brigade Norway, the 111th Mountain Artillery Regiment and the support troops of the 2nd Mountain Division, capturing 97 soldiers and officers in addition to large quantities of equipment. [4]
Became the 102nd Guards Rifle Division on 29 December 1944. [5]
In January 1945, the division was transferred to the Grodno area and included in the 19th Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front. In February - early April, the division took part in the East Pomeranian Offensive, during which, in cooperation with other formations of the army, on February 26, it captured the town of Schlochau (Człuchów) and at the beginning of March reached the Baltic Sea near Koszalin.
In late March - early April, the division participated in the capture of the naval base and the port of Gdynia and liberation of the "Polish Corridor". Subsequently, until the beginning of May, the division conducted operations to block and destroy enemy troops on the western coast of the Danzig Bay.
In 1945-46, the division performed occupation duty on the demarcation line of the Mecklenburg province, and was disbanded in 1947. [6]
The division included the following units. [5]
The Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive was a major military offensive during World War II, mounted by the Red Army against the Wehrmacht in 1944 in the Petsamo region, ceded to the Soviet Union by Finland in accordance with the Moscow Armistice, and Norway. The offensive defeated the Wehrmacht's forces in the Arctic, driving them back into Norway, and was called the "Tenth Shock" by Stalin. It later expelled German forces from the northern part of Norway and seized the nickel mines of Petsamo.
The Karelian Front Russian: Карельский фронт) was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, and operated in Karelia.
The 90th Guards Tank Division was a division of the Soviet Army, and then of the Russian Ground Forces.
The 75th Guards Rifle Division was a Red Army infantry division during World War II and afterwards, which later became the 75th Guards Tank Division and was finally disbanded in the 1990s.
The 14th Army was a field army of the Soviet Army, formed twice.
The 10th Guards Motor Rifle Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces. The full name of its predecessor division was the 10th Guards Rifle Pechengskii, Twice Order of the Red Banner, Order of Alexander Nevsky, Order of the Red Star Division. The 10th Guards Rifle Division was formed from the 52nd Rifle Division in late 1941.
The 252nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II.
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.
Habibullah Huseynov was an Iranian Azerbaijani Red Army colonel and a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union. Huseynov emigrated to Baku, working as a loader and a fitter. He was drafted into the Red Army on a Komsomol direction in 1928 and became an artillery officer. He was arrested and imprisoned as an Iranian spy during the Great Purge. He was released months later and became an anti-aircraft artillery battalion commander, serving in this role during World War II.
The 51st Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Army, formed twice. Its first formation was formed during the Russian Civil War and fought in the Perekop-Chongar Offensive in 1920. It also fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland, Winter War and World War II. During World War II, it fought in the Battle of Rostov, Barvinkove-Losowaja Operation and Second Battle of Kharkov before being destroyed at the Battle of Voronezh. Officially disbanded on 28 November 1942, the division was reformed on 15 April 1943 from the 15th Rifle Brigade. The 2nd formation fought in Operation Bagration and the Battle of Königsberg. It was disbanded in an executive order by Premier Joseph Stalin in 1946.
The 166th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army that fought in World War II, formed twice. The division's first formation was formed in 1939 and wiped out in the Vyazma Pocket in October 1941. In January 1942, the division reformed. It fought in the Battle of Demyansk, the Battle of Kursk, Belgorod-Khar'kov Offensive Operation, Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive, Polotsk Offensive, Šiauliai Offensive, Riga Offensive and the Battle of Memel. It was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
The 114th Rifle Division began service in July 1939 as a standard Red Army rifle division, as part of the pre-war expansion of the Soviet forces. It was stationed on the Svir River front in the autumn of 1941 and had a relatively uneventful war facing the Finns until the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive began on June 10, 1944, from which point it saw much more active service. As the Finns were leaving the war the division was transferred to 14th Army in the Arctic, from where it helped to defeat and pursue the German forces from Lapland into Norway.
Vasily Dmitrievich Myachin was a Soviet Army colonel and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Myachin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership of a battalion during the Berlin Offensive. Postwar, Myachin continued to serve in the army, retiring in 1978, after which he worked as an air traffic controller.
The 57th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and the Soviet Army.
The 407th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army that was briefly active shortly after World War II, from August 1945 to early 1946. The division, the first Red Army rifle division created after the war in Europe, was formed from the second formation of the 94th Separate Rifle Brigade, which had been formed in early 1943 for garrison duty at the port city of Sukhumi in Georgia.
Vladimir Ivanovich Shcherbakov (Russian: Щербаков, Владимир Иванович, was a Soviet general of the Red Army during World War II.
The November 1941 formation of the 257th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, the second unit to bear the designation during World War II. The division joined the 3rd Shock Army and was sent into battle in the Toropets–Kholm offensive in January 1942. Following the conclusion of the offensive, the 257th defended positions northeast of the city of Velikiye Luki for much of the year. For distinguishing itself during the Battle of Velikiye Luki in late 1942 and early 1943, the division was reorganized as the 91st Guards Rifle Division in April 1943.
Anatoly Aleksandrovich Dyakonov was a Soviet Army lieutenant general and a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The May 1943 formation of the 127th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, the third unit to bear the designation during World War II.
The 101st Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in December 1944, based on the 1st formation of the 14th Rifle Division, and served briefly in that role during the final campaigns in northern Germany during the Great Patriotic War.
 | This article on military history is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
