91st Rifle Division | |
---|---|
Active | First 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 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.
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.
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]
The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, within Russia′s Southern Military District, that was reinstated in 2017 as a successor to the 8th Guards Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which was formed during World War II and was disbanded in 1998 after being downsized into a corps. Military Unit в/ч 61877.
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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 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 81st Guards Rifle Division is an infantry division of the Russian Ground Forces, previously serving in the Red Army and the Soviet Army. It was formed after the Battle of Stalingrad from the 422nd Rifle Division in recognition of that division's actions during the battle, specifically the encirclement and the siege of the German forces in the city. The 81st Guards continued a record of distinguished service through the rest of the Great Patriotic War, and continued to serve postwar, as a rifle division and later a motor rifle division, until being reorganized as the 57th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade in 2009 in the Russian Ground Forces. Most of its postwar service was in the Soviet (Russian) far east, where it was originally formed as the 422nd.
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.
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The 56th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army of the Soviet Union, formed three times.