The 82nd Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in March 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 321st Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War, including briefly in the Soviet Army.
It was redesignated after the Battle of Stalingrad in recognition of the division's service during the battle, specifically the encirclement and the siege of the German forces in the city, and later for its pursuit of the defeated Axis forces in Operation Little Saturn. It re-entered the fighting in July 1943 as part of the 29th Guards Rifle Corps of 8th Guards Army during the battles for the liberation of the Donbas region and won a divisional honorific in October. During the winter it saw extensive action in the great bend of the Dniepr River before advancing toward Odessa in the spring, where it won its first divisional decoration. The 82nd Guards continued a record of distinguished service through the rest of the Great Patriotic War. Following the fighting along the Dniestr River in the spring of 1944 it was reassigned with its Army to the 1st Belorussian Front and took part in the later part of the Soviet summer offensive, eventually helping to carve out the bridgehead across the Vistula River at Magnuszew. From this springboard, after heavy defensive fighting, it advanced across western Poland and into Germany in early 1945 and gained many distinctions in the battles for Poznań. On the approaches to Berlin it cleared the town of Müncheberg which gave its Front an opening to the German capital. Following the Battle of Berlin the division and its subunits received further distinctions in the aftermath of the German surrender and it continued to serve postwar in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany but despite an admirable record it was gradually disbanded from mid-1946 to mid-1947.
Formation The 82nd Guards was one of nearly twenty Guards rifle divisions created in the aftermath of the fighting for Stalingrad. It was officially redesignated on March 19, 1943 in recognition of the 321st Rifle Division's steadfast qualities in the encirclement and siege of the German 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad, and in particular its pursuit of the defeated Axis forces from the Caucasus steppes. It officially received its Guards banner on April 11. At that time its order of battle became as follows: 242nd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 484th Rifle Regiment) 244th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 488th Rifle Regiment) 246th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 493rd Rifle Regiment)Charles C. Sharp, "Red Guards", Soviet Guards Rifle and Airborne Units 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, vol. IV, Nafziger, 1995, p. 78 185th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 986th Artillery Regiment) 86th Guards Antitank Battalion 83rd Guards Reconnaissance Company 91st Guards Sapper Battalion 111th Guards Signal Battalion 88th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 85th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 87th Guards Motor Transport Company 84th Guards Field Bakery 80th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1857th Field Postal Station 1176th Field Office of the State Bank The 489th Antiaircraft Battery which had been part of the 321st was disbanded the same day the division received its banner. The division continued under the command of Maj. Gen. Ivan Alekseevich Makarenko, who had commanded the 321st since August 24, 1942. At the time it was formed it was noted that 70 percent of the division's personnel were of Yakut or Buryat nationality.David M. Glantz, Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005, p. 596
When the division was redesignated it was under command of the 5th Tank Army in Southwestern Front, and remained in that Army into April, when it was reassigned to 62nd Army as that army was being reformed as the 8th Guards Army. The 82nd was quickly assigned to the new 29th Guards Rifle Corps,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 65, 88, 113, 139 and remained under these two commands for the duration of the warSharp, "Red Guards", p. 78 and into the postwar era.
Into Ukraine 8th Guards Army saw its first action in the Izium-Barvenkovo Offensive which began on July 17 but apart from gaining several new bridgeheads over the Donets River this attack was largely abortive. A second effort began on August 13 and although Southwestern Front was initially unable to penetrate the front of 1st Panzer Army south of Izium the Southern Front broke through the recreated 6th Army beginning on August 18. By August 23 1st Panzer was also in trouble with its army corps south of Izium reduced to a combat strength of just 5,800 men and unable to hold a continuous line. On the 31st Field Marshal E. von Manstein was finally authorized to withdraw both armies to the Kalmius River, effectively beginning the race to the Dniepr. In a slashing attack on the morning of September 6 Southwestern Front rammed through a mechanized corps and nine rifle divisions north of the boundary between the two German armies, unhinging the Kalmius line.Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, Center of Military History United States Army, Washington, DC, 1968, pp. 155, 160, 162, 164-65
During the Battle of the Dniepr, 8th Guards Army closed on the city of Zaporozhye, which had been von Manstein's headquarters in early September. On Hitler's orders 1st Panzer Army held a bridgehead over the river centered on the city. Southwestern Front's first attack on October 1 made minor gains that were soon erased by counterattacks. This led to a week-long pause in operations for regrouping. On the morning of October 10 the 8th and 3rd Guards Armies renewed the offensive against the bridgehead beginning with a very powerful artillery preparation. While the bridgehead line held the casualties on both sides were very heavy and the commander of 1st Panzer Army again requested permission to withdraw, which was refused. A night attack on the 13th, supported by another massive artillery bombardment, compelled the German forces to abandon the city the next day.Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, pp. 165, 174-77 In recognition of its role in this success, the men and women of the division were awarded the city's name as an honorific:In the fighting for Zaporozhye Starshina Feodosii Andreevich Shchur, an assistant platoon commander of a machine gun company of the 244th Guards Rifle Regiment, distinguished himself both in the fighting for the German bridgehead and later in establishing a foothold on the west bank of the Dniepr. He was credited with the destruction of two German machine guns and as many as 60 German soldiers and officers, some in hand-to-hand combat. In recognition he would be made a Hero of the Soviet Union on February 22, 1944. Shchur survived the war but was killed in a mine rescue operation in the Chelyabinsk region in 1954.http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=14445. In Russian, English translation available. Retrieved December 20, 2020. On October 20 Southwestern Front was redesignated as 3rd Ukrainian Front. Battles in the Dniepr Bend Both 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts attempted to rush the cities of Nikopol and Krivoi Rog in December but this was unsuccessful. 3rd Ukrainian faced a well-fortified line along the Kamianka River. On January 10, 1944 it attacked in the direction of Apostolove but this effort also failed after a week. A revised plan called for the 46th Army, 8th Guards Army and the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps to remount the offensive on Apostolove with the objective of reducing Nikopol in cooperation with 4th Ukrainian Front. This new effort began on January 30 and the defense system covering the two cities was finally cracked on February 5 when Apostolove was taken, splitting the 6th Army. 46th and 8th Guards Armies now turned west toward the Inhulets River while elements of 4th Ukrainian Front cleared Nikopol on February 9. Krivoi Rog was covered in part by defenses along the Inhulets which were breached by 8th Guards at Shyroke on February 6 but it wasn't until February 22 that the city was liberated by 37th Army. At this point 3rd Ukrainian Front was poised to strike along the Mykolaiv - Odessa axis.John Erickson, The Road to Berlin, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, UK, 1983, pp. 165–66, 179-80
Battles on the Dniestr On April 1 General Makarenko was assigned to attend the Voroshilov Academy and handed his command to Lt. Col. Matvei Yakovlevich Karnaukhov; this officer in turn would be replaced by Maj. Gen. Georgii Ivanovich Khetagurov on May 9. As the Odessa Offensive continued in early April the 8th Guards Army was advancing through difficult conditions along the southernmost sector of the front in Ukraine, along the northern shores of the Black Sea. Mykolaiv had been liberated on March 28 and shortly after several German and Romanian divisions were trapped at Rozdilna. The Front's center and left flank armies now advanced directly on Odessa and on April 10 that city was liberated by a three-pronged attack by 8th Guards, 6th and 5th Shock Armies.Erickson, The Road to Berlin, p. 187 For its role in the liberation of Odessa, on April 20 the 82nd Guards would be awarded the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 2nd Degree.
Following this, 8th Guards Army advanced to the estuary of the Dniestr River by the 13th. This was a strategic dead end, and in early May, during the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, the army was ordered north along the east bank of the river to relieve 5th Guards Army in the bridgehead it held at Tașlîc. This relief occurred over the nights of May 5, 6 and 7. The 82nd Guards did not enter the bridgehead immediately, but remained with 29th Guards Corps (27th, 74th and 82nd Guards) holding the east bank between Tașlîc and Grigoriopol. All this activity was not missed by the Axis forces on the west bank, and very early on May 10 the XXXX Panzer Corps launched a powerful attack to drive in the bridgehead. Over the next three days this assault drove the bridgehead back until it was about 11km wide but only 1-3km deep. On the morning of May 14 the division entered the bridgehead near Puhăceni and relieved the 39th Guards Rifle Division, helping to stabilize the situation. Due to this setback, among others, the Soviet offensive was halted, and would not resume until August.Glantz, Red Storm Over the Balkans, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2007, pp. 116, 140, 288–89, 293–94, 296-304
Operation Bagration At a STAVKA conference held in Moscow in the last days of May it was decided to reassign the 8th Guards Army to the left wing of the 1st Belorussian Front as part of the preparations for the main Soviet summer offensive.Erickson, The Road to Berlin, p. 204 The Army would remain in this Front for the duration of the war. This movement was not completed until late June,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1944, p. 192 after the first phase of the offensive was completed, but in time to take a leading role in the Lublin–Brest Offensive. The 8th Guards was one of five combined-arms armies and a tank army ordered to be prepared to attack by July 17 in the direction of Siedlce and Lublin, with part of these forces to capture Brest in conjunction with the Front's right wing forces. The 11th Tank Corps was designated as the Army's mobile group.Soviet General Staff, Operation Bagration, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2016, Kindle ed., vol. 1, ch. 1; vol. 2, ch. 6