91st Rifle Division

Last updated
91st Rifle Division
ActiveFirst Formation: 1939–1941
Second Formation: 1941–1953
Country Soviet Union
Branch Red Army (to 1946)
Soviet Army (after 1946)
Engagements World War II

First Formation:

Second Formation:

Decorations Order of Red Banner.svg   Order of the Red Banner (Second Formation)
Battle honours Melitopol (Second Formation)

The 91st Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and Soviet Army, formed twice. The division was first formed in 1939, fought in the Winter War, and was destroyed in the Vyazma Pocket during the Battle of Moscow. It was reformed in December 1941 and fought in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Crimean Offensive, earning the honorific "Melitopol" and the Order of the Red Banner. The division was downsized into a brigade postwar but became a division again in 1953. It became a motor rifle division in 1957.

Contents

First Formation

The 91st Rifle Division was formed in Achinsk by 1 December 1939 in the Siberian Military District from elements of the 94th Rifle Division as part of the 52nd Rifle Corps, under the command of Colonel Nikita Lebedenko. The division became a motor rifle division on 5 January 1940. The division fought in the closing stages of the Winter War and returned to Achinsk in April 1940, when it became a rifle division again. On 26 June 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union four days earlier, the 91st Rifle Division began loading onto trains. On 29 June it left Achinsk. Between 8 and 10 July the trains arrived in Yelnya and Sychyovka. The division and its corps, which also included the 119th Rifle Division, joined the 24th Army. [1]

The 91st Rifle Division was active with 52nd Rifle Corps (24th Army) in June 1941, [2] and then transferred to 19th Army, Western Front before being destroyed at Vyazma. The Soviet defense, still under construction, was overrun and spearheads of the 2nd and Third Panzer Groups met at Vyazma on 10 October 1941. [3] [4] Four Soviet armies (the 19th, 20th, the 24th, and 32nd) were trapped in a huge pocket just west of the city. [5] It was formally disbanded in December 1941.

Second Formation

On 5 December 1941 the 464th Rifle Division was formed in Dagestan in the North Caucasus Military District, near the cities of Makhachkala and Bataysk. On 27 January 1942 the division was redesignated the 91st Rifle Division (Second Formation) in the North Caucasus Military District. [6] On 19 November 1942, the division was fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, part of the 51st Army of the Stalingrad Front under General N.I. Trufinov. [7] On 1 April 1944, the division was part of the 1st Guards Rifle Corps of 51st Army and appears to have become involved in the Battle of the Crimea. [8]

In August 1945, the 91st Rifle Division (Military Unit Number 34562) moved to the Kazan Military District at Sarapul with the 10th Rifle Corps. In 1946, it became the 14th Rifle Brigade, after being transferred to the Ural Military District as a result of the disbandment of the Kazan Military District. In October 1953, the brigade became the 91st Rifle Division again. On 4 June 1957, the division became the 91st Motor Rifle Division after relocating to Perm. [9] In 1959 it was disbanded. [10]

In 1960 the newly formed 8th Rocket Division was given the division's awards and honors. [11]

Related Research Articles

The 1st Red Banner Army was a Red Army field army of World War II that served in the Soviet Far East.

The 4th Army was a Soviet field army of World War II that served on the Eastern front of World War II and in the Caucasus during the Cold War. It was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union, with its divisions being withdrawn to Russia and disbanded.

The 4th Mechanized Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.

A mechanised corps was a Soviet armoured formation used prior to the beginning of World War II and reintroduced during the war, in 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leningrad Military District</span> Military unit

The Leningrad Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Caucasus Military District</span> Military unit

The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces, which became in 2010 the Southern Military District and lately also included the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siberian Military District</span> Military unit

The Siberian Military District was a Military district of the Russian Ground Forces. The district was originally formed as a military district of the Russian Empire in 1864. In 1924 it was reformed in the Red Army. After the end of World War II the district was split into the Western and Eastern Siberian Military Districts. In 1956 the district was reformed. In 2010 it was divided between the two newly formed Central and Eastern Military Districts.

The 5th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army, formed twice. The division was formed in 1918, initially as the 2nd Penza Infantry Division. After becoming the 5th Rifle Division a month later, it fought in the Counteroffensive of Eastern Front in spring 1919 and later operations in Siberia. In the spring of 1920, the division was relocated west and fought in the Polish–Soviet War, participating in the Battle of Warsaw. The division was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner for its actions during the wars in 1929. In September 1939, it fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland and was then sent to Lithuania under the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty. After Operation Barbarossa, the division fought in the Baltic Operation and the Leningrad Strategic Defensive. During the winter of 1941-1942, it participated in the Battle of Moscow, fighting in the Kalinin (Tver) area. During the summer of 1942, the division fought in the Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive and became the 44th Guards Rifle Division for its actions there on 5 October.

A rifle corps was a Soviet corps-level military formation during the mid-twentieth century. Rifle corps were made up of a varying number of rifle divisions, although the allocation of three rifle divisions to a rifle corps was common during the latter part of World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odesa Military District</span> Military unit

The Odesa Military District was a military administrative division of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This district consisted of Moldavia and five Ukrainian oblasts of Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Crimea and Zaporizhzhia. In 1998 most of its territory was transformed into the Southern Operational Command.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">51st Army (Russia)</span> Military unit

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 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 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 32nd Army was a formation of the Soviet Army during World War II. The army was formed twice during the war, disbanded as part of the post-war demobilization and then reformed in 1969 to protect the Soviet-Chinese border.

The 29th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.

The 62nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army, formed four times and active during World War II and the postwar period. The division was formed in 1936 and fought in the Winter War and Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. It was destroyed during the Battle of Kiev in summer 1941. The division was reformed in November 1941. It fought in the defense against the German offensive Case Blue during the summer of 1942. After suffering heavy losses, it was withdrawn from combat but was sent back to fight in the Battle of Stalingrad in November. The division suffered heavy losses and was disbanded on 2 November. The division was reformed a third time from a rifle brigade in April 1943. It fought in Operation Suvorov, Operation Bagration, the East Prussian Offensive and the Prague Offensive. It was disbanded in the summer of 1945. The 62nd was reformed a fourth time by renaming the 360th Rifle Division, but became the 108th Motor Rifle Division in 1957.

The 4th Guards Motor Rifle Division was a motorized infantry division of the Soviet Army during the Cold War.

The 367th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as a standard Red Army rifle division, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. It began forming in August 1941 in the Chelyabinsk Oblast. After forming, it was initially assigned to the 28th (Reserve) Army, but was soon reassigned to Karelian Front, where it remained until nearly the end of 1944. The division had mostly a relatively quiet war on this defensive front, but later saw action against the German forces trying to hold northern Finland, being awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its services. The division ended the war in 14th Separate Army on garrison duties in the far north.

References

  1. Yelinskaya, Tatiana Nikolaevna, ed. (2009). Красноярск – Берлин. 1941 – 1945 [Krasnoyarsk to Berlin, 1941 to 1945] (in Russian). Krasnoyarsk: Polikor. pp. 30–33, 47. ISBN   978-5-91502-018-3.
  2. Niehorster, http://www.niehorster.org/012_ussr/41_oob/stavka-reserves/army_24.html
  3. Clark Chapter 8,"The Start of the Moscow Offensive", p.156 (diagram)
  4. Glantz, chapter 6, sub-ch. "Viaz'ma and Briansk", pp. 74 ff.
  5. Vasilevsky, p. 139.
  6. See Goff, James F., The mysterious high-numbered Red Army rifle divisions, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Vol. 11, No.4, December 1998, pp. 195–202
  7. Beevor, Antony (1998). Stalingrad. Viking, London. pp. 435–437. ISBN   978-0-14-103240-5.
  8. "Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1 April 1944". www.teatrskazka.com. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  9. Feskov et al 2013, pp. 149, 163, 507–508, 512–513.
  10. http://www.ww2.dk/new/army/msd/91msd(1).htm
  11. http://www.ww2.dk/new/rvsn/8md.htm