The 170th Rifle Division was originally formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the Ural Military District in September 1939, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of that same month. The division was relocated west with the 22nd Army in June 1941. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the division took part in the Battle of Smolensk as part of the Western Front. fighting north of Polotsk. During early July 1941 it was encircled along with its 51st Rifle Corps near the town of Nevel and struggled to break out at the cost of considerable losses in personnel and equipment. After the first battles around Velikiye Luki it was partly rebuilt with the escaped elements of the other divisions of its former Corps, but it was again encircled in late August and reduced to remnants. By the beginning of October this cadre had been moved to 24th Army in Reserve Front for another rebuilding, but during Operation Typhoon it was so severely depleted that it had to be disbanded a few days later.
A new 170th was formed between December 1941 and January 1942. In April it joined the 34th Army in the Northwestern Front, which was engaged in the dismal fighting around Demyansk. In July it was reassigned to 11th Army in the same Front and took part in three futile and costly offensives in August, September and November to sever the corridor that joined German 16th Army to its forces inside the pocket. After these forces evacuated Demyansk in February 1943, the 170th was assigned to 53rd Army and moved south to join Central Front inside the Kursk salient. In June it was moved to 48th Army of that Front and it would remain in this Army, with one brief exception, for the duration of the war, mostly as part of 42nd Rifle Corps. The division saw little combat during the German Kursk offensive, but went over to the offensive itself on July 15 when Central Front joined the operation against the German-held Oryol salient. This objective was reached around August 18, and within days the 170th began an advance through northeastern Ukraine toward eastern Belarus. In November, as part of the renamed Belorussian Front it won a battle honor for its part in the liberation of Rechytsa. Through the winter it participated in several battles through the frozen swamps and along the many river lines of this region, after February 1944 as part of the renamed 1st Belorussian Front. During the summer offensive the 170th operated on the northern axis of advance toward the city of Babruysk, assisting in an encirclement operation in the RahachowZhlobin area, and then advancing on Babruysk where it mopped up the German forces that had been trapped there. For these accomplishments it was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 2nd Degree. In the second phase of the offensive the division advanced through Baranavichy in the direction of Brest. In January 1945, as part of 2nd Belorussian Front during the Vistula-Oder offensive, the 170th attacked out of a bridgehead over the Narew River toward Mława, and then in late January reached the Frisches Haff, cutting off the German forces in East Prussia; for its role in this success it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In the last months of the war it was in 3rd Belorussian Front and took part in the elimination of a group of German forces southwest of Königsberg, for which several of its subunits received decorations. It remained in the East Prussia area until it was disbanded in August.
1st Formation The division was first organized at Sterlitamak in the Ural Military District in September 1939, based on a cadre from the 98th Rifle Division, as part of the major pre-World War II mobilization of the Red Army. The division was mostly composed of Bashkir soldiers and was commanded by Kombrig Tikhon Konstantinovich Silkin; this officer would have his rank modernized to major general on June 4, 1940. Divisional headquarters and most units were based at Sterlitamak. The 422nd Rifle and 512th Howitzer Regiments were at Belebey, and the 717th Rifle Regiment was at Davlekanovo. The 294th Light Artillery Regiment was based at Miass.
On June 22, 1941, its order of battle was as follows:
391st Rifle Regiment 422nd Rifle Regiment 717th Rifle Regiment 294th Light Artillery Regiment 512th Howitzer Regiment 210th Antitank BattalionCharles C. Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 84 286th Antiaircraft Battalion 134th Reconnaissance Battalion 182nd Sapper Battalion 210th Signal Battalion 154th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 140th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Platoon 49th Motor Transport Battalion 132nd Field Bakery 481st Field Postal Station 366th Field Office of the State Bank
Battle of Smolensk As the German invasion began on June 22, 1941, the 170th was moving west from the Urals as part of the 22nd Army's 62nd Rifle Corps,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 10 and was scheduled to arrive, with its Corps, at Sebezh by July 2.David M. Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1998, p. 108David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009, map on p. 238 This Army was under the command of Lt. Gen. F. A. Yershakov. By the beginning of July the division had been reassigned to the army's 51st Rifle Corps, joining the 98th and 112th Rifle Divisions. By July 10 the Army had been assigned to Western Front,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, pp. 18, 23 where it took up positions on the Front's far right (north) flank.
Late on July 11 it was reported that the Front's forces:The 170th, on the north flank of the 22nd Army and therefore the extreme right flank of the Front, was said to have attacked with its right wing at 1000 hours, while continuing to fight along its previous positions with its left wing. The Army was facing the German VIII Army Corps and XXXIX Motorized Corps. At 0300 hours on July 12, Lt. Gen. G. K. Malandin, the Front's chief of staff, sent instructions to Yershakov and to 19th Army to his south to prepare for a counterstroke on Vitebsk, to start at 0800. These plans were completely preempted when the LVII Motorized Corps, with the cooperation of 9th Army's L and XXIII Army Corps, drove the 22nd Army out of its defenses along the Western Dvina River northwest of Polotsk, cut it into two parts, and threatened both with encirclement. The German armored units bypassed Polotsk and pushed north toward Nevel. Western Front's commander, Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, ordered Yershakov to withdraw to new defenses.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2010, Kindle ed., ch. 3 First Battle of Velikiye Luki Timoshenko issued new orders on July 14 urging that the German penetrations be cut off and eliminated. Yershakov was to withdraw his 98th and 112th Divisions to "smooth out the front". Over the next two days he became more realistic, and directed his deputy, Lt. Gen. A. I. Yeryomenko, to establish a new defense line from Nevel south to just north of Smolensk.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 3 On July 15, General Silkin was removed from his command, replaced by Col. Nikolai Matveevich Laskin, chief of 22nd Army's combat training section. After taking Nevel on July 15, following a battle with the 170th and the 48th Tank Division, the LVII Motorized Corps was ordered to capture Velikiye Luki. This was accomplished at nightfall on July 18 with an isolated thrust by 19th Panzer and 14th Motorized Divisions.Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, pp. 260-61, and map on p. 265 The loss of Nevel had already pocketed 51st Corps, the 179th Rifle Division of 62nd Corps, plus three divisions of Northwestern Front's 27th Army. The commander of Army Group North believed, from the papers found on a captured courier, that a total of 13 divisions were trapped, but the OKH was less optimistic. The elimination of this pocket would effectively dispose of any threat to the Army Group's right flank as it advanced on Leningrad.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 3
After the loss of Nevel the 170th, 179th and 48th Tanks withdrew toward Velikiye Luki in some disorder but aided by the comparatively good road between these two places. 14th Motorized was especially overextended and vulnerable to counterattack, and the escaping troops pressed against the light screen it had erected south of Nevel and 12th Infantry Division's blocking positions north of that place. On July 19 the STAVKA ordered 29th Army to begin preparing an attack from the Toropets area toward Velikiye Luki with three divisions. Overnight on July 19/20 this force overran a sector lightly held by 14th Motorized and broke into the clear. 19th Panzer sent a battlegroup to intercept but this ran into unexpectedly stiff resistance. It then abandoned the city itself.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 6
Meanwhile, on July 21 Yershakov was ordered to tie down German forces with local attacks beginning the next day. On July 24, Timoshenko reported the liberation of the city, with the attackers taking up defensive positions along the Lovat River to the north and south. In the process of withdrawing from encirclement, 51st Corps had lost its headquarters as well as the bulk of the 98th and 112th Divisions. The 170th was reported as fighting along a line from Stankovo to Lake Udrai with one group at 0600 hours on July 21 while a second group remained in encirclement and was attempting to escape. At 2000 on July 23 Yershakov effectively admitted that only remnants of the Corps had been able to break out; the division had been attacking to the southwest from the Kozhemiachkino area in and effort to assist its corps-mates to escape.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., chs. 4, 5, 6
On July 26 the 170th moved to the Dokuhino area, where it absorbed the remnants of the 98th and 112th Divisions. The following day Yershakov reorganized his Army to defend along the Lovat through Velikiye Luki to Lake Dvina, which was 45km to the southeast. He was directed to hold the city "at all cost". German 9th Army now took up the front south of the city from LVII Motorized but made no immediate effort to retake it. Late on August 3, Western Front reported that the 170th, now back under 62nd Rifle Corps, had repelled an attack by a regiment of German infantry. A further report on August 7 stated that the positions of 22nd Army remained unchanged, with limited artillery exchanges and reconnaissance by both sides.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., chs. 6, 7
Second Battle of Velikiye Luki Stalin approved a plan on August 15 by Timoshenko to renew the counteroffensive by Western Front, although the task allotted to 22nd Army was largely to continue to hold its positions. This began on August 17. Two days later Hitler and the OKH ordered Army Group Center to shift the bulk of 3rd Panzer Group to reinforce Army Group North's faltering drive toward Leningrad and also eliminate the perceived threat to Army Group Center's left flank. This set up a cat-and-mouse game between the two sides, with the German immediate objective of crushing 22nd Army and defeating 29th Army into the bargain.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 9