61st Guards Rifle Division

The 61st Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 159th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

The division was formed in the 3rd Guards Army of Southwestern Front and immediately continued operations in the Soviet winter counteroffensive. In the spring of the year the Front was forced over to the defensive, but by August the division was part of the 34th Guards Rifle Corps of the same Army, fighting into the Donbas and towards the Dniepr River and winning a battle honor in the process. In late October 3rd Guards Army was moved to 4th Ukrainian Front and the 61st Guards helped force several crossings of that river in the Zaporozhe area. During the winter it took part in the fighting around Nikopol and Krivoi Rog in the Dniepr bend before being reassigned, with its Corps, to the 6th Army in the 3rd Ukrainian Front. In April, as that Army advanced towards the Dniestr River the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its part in the liberation of Odessa. When the final offensive that drove Romania out of the Axis began the 61st Guards was in the 66th Rifle Corps of 37th Army, still in 3rd Ukrainian Front. In November, as the campaigns into the Balkan states continued the division made its final transfer, to the 6th Guards Rifle Corps of 57th Army, still in 3rd Ukrainian Front. It ended the war advancing into Austria, was moved to Romania postwar, and was disbanded in December, 1946.

Formation The 159th was redesignated as the 61st Guards on January 15 and officially received its Guards banner on February 21. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows: 181st Guards Rifle Regiment (from 491st Rifle Regiment) 187th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 558th Rifle Regiment) 189th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 631st Rifle Regiment) 129th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 597th Artillery Regiment) 67th Guards Antitank Battalion (from 136th Antitank Battalion)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. 69 77th Guards Antiaircraft Battery (until May 23, 1943) 62nd Guards Reconnaissance Company 70th Guards Sapper Battalion 88th Guards Signal Battalion (later 88th Guards Signal Company) 65th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 63rd Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 59th Guards Motor Transport Company 60th Guards Field Bakery 64th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1667th Field Postal Station 1087th Field Office of the State Bank Maj. Gen. Mikhail Borisovich Anashkin, who had led the 159th since mid-August, remained in command of the division until February 12, shortly before he was assigned to command the new 19th Rifle Corps. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. Leonid Nikolaievich Lozanovich who would remain in command until December, 1944. Fighting for Voroshilovgrad When redesignated the 159th was under command of the 14th Rifle Corps and it would remain under that headquarters into February.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 16, 39 On January 8 the commander of Southwestern Front, Col. Gen. N. F. Vatutin, had reported to the STAVKA on his plans to further develop the winter counteroffensive:By the beginning of February the 3rd Guards Army held a bridgehead over the Northern Donets River south of Voroshilovgrad from which it broke out in a drive to liberate that city.David M. Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2011, pp. 135-37 In the plan for the offensive the 14th Rifle Corps (now consisting of the 14th and 61st Guards Divisions) was not part of the Army's shock group but was instead to reach a line from Georgievskoe to Orekhova to Semeikino to guard its flank from any attack from the southwest. By February 4 the 14th Corps, supported by the 169th Tank Brigade, was operating in the area of heights 207, 202.8 and 206.9. Two days later German forces counterattacked the 61st Guards but were repelled; on February 7 a more powerful attack was made by elements of the 3rd SS Panzer Division supported by 40 tanks which broke through the Soviet front and captured Orlovka, Belo-Skelevatyi and Nizhnii and Verkhnii Gabun. This attack brought the advance on Voroshilovgrad to a halt.Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., Part V, ch. 1

At 0500 hours on February 12 the 14th Corps renewed its offensive. The 558th Rifle Regiment of the 61st Guards, along with the training battalion of 14th Guards and two battalions of the 229th Rifle Brigade, attacked the German garrisons in Belo-Skelevatyi and Orlovka and drove them out with heavy casualties. At the same time the 14th Guards seized the village of Popovka and the Corps as a whole began advancing rapidly to the southwest, with the 61st Guards reaching a line from Glafirovka to the Karl Liebknecht State Farm by the end of February 14. On the morning of the same day the fighting for the city proper had begun and by evening it was completely in Soviet hands.Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., Part V, ch. 1 The advance of 3rd Guards Army continued over the next week; on the morning of February 21 General Vatutin reported, in part, that the 61st (which was now in 18th Rifle Corps) and 60th Guards Divisions, 279th Rifle Division, and the 229th Rifle Brigade had conducted a regrouping overnight and into the morning before going over to the attack from Kripaki and Smelyi toward Krivorozhe in the evening.Glantz, After Stalingrad, p. 162 Vatutin and the STAVKA had every intention of pressing on towards Stalino, but on February 20 the German 4th and 1st Panzer Armies began the counteroffensive that would become the Third Battle of Kharkov. While this was primarily aimed at Voronezh Front, Southwestern Front also faced attacks and the overall crisis made any further Soviet advance impossible.John Erickson, The Road to Berlin, Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd., London, UK, 1983, pp. 49-54

Into Ukraine

By the beginning of March the division had returned to 14th Rifle Corps, where it remained into April when it was transferred to the 34th Guards Rifle Corps; it would remain under this command for the next 13 months.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 65, 88, 113 During the pause in operations during the spring of 1943 the division was substantially rebuilt and in June it was noted that 95 percent of its personnel were of Kazakh nationality, with the remainder mostly Russian.Glantz, Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005, p. 596

When the Donbas Offensive began on August 13 the 61st Guards helped 3rd Guards Army force a crossing of the Donets. Following this it drove across the eastern Ukrainian plains towards Dniepropetrovsk and the Dniepr bend.Sharp, "Red Guards", p. 69 During this advance, on September 8 the division was awarded an honorific:By the beginning of October the division had just run up against a bridgehead that the German forces were attempting to hold on the east bank of the Dniepr east of Zaporozhe. The STAVKA demanded that this bridgehead be eliminated as quickly as possible. The Front commander, Army Gen. R. Ya. Malinovsky, asked for and was granted the use of the 8th Guards Army for this purpose, stating that with it he could take the objective "in two days". The attack began at 2200 hours on the night of October 13 with 8th Guards in the center, 12th Army advancing from the north and 3rd Guards Army from the south. Malinovsky met his deadline with time to spare as 1st Panzer Army's forces abandoned Zaporozhe, destroying the dam and the railway bridge as they withdrew to the west bank.Erickson, The Road to Berlin, pp. 138-39

Following the Zaporozhe bridgehead battle the 3rd Guards Army was transferred to the 4th Ukrainian Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 282 This Front had begun a new offensive against the German 6th Army on October 9 with the objectives of liberating Melitopol and cutting off the German 17th Army in the Crimea. The fighting for Melitopol continued until October 23, after which two of the Front's armies drove west across the Nogay Steppe, splitting 6th Army in two. The northern portion fell back toward the Dniepr, forming a bridgehead south of Nikopol which was soon invested by 3rd Guards Army on the right (north) flank of the Front. During November substantial German reserves were moved into the bridgehead in anticipation of an offensive to restore communications with Crimea. This came to nothing in the face of Soviet threats elsewhere, but the bridgehead remained strongly held.Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, Center of Military History United States Army, Washington, DC, 1968, pp. 176-79, 184, 186 Nikopol-Krivoi Rog Offensive A cold wave in the first week of January, 1944 firmed up the ground enough for the 4th and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts to begin moving against the remaining German positions in the Dniepr bend. 3rd Ukrainian began its assault on January 10, but this had largely failed by the 13th. On the same day the 4th Ukrainian attacked the bridgehead but made minimal gains before both Fronts called a halt on January 16. The offensive was renewed on January 30 against a bridgehead weakened by transfers and 4th Ukrainian drove a deep wedge into its south end. On February 4 the German 6th Army ordered the bridgehead to be evacuated.Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, pp. 240-42 Later that month the 34th Guards Corps, along with the 61st Guards, was transferred to the 6th Army in 3rd Ukrainian Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1944, p. 78 Battle for Odessa With the diversion of 4th Ukrainian Front into the Crimea, 3rd Ukrainian took up the southern flank as the Red Army pressed onward into western Ukraine. On March 26 General Malinovsky ordered a renewed offensive in the direction of Odessa, which included the 6th Army. At this time the 34th Guards Corps consisted of the 61st and 59th Guards and 243rd Rifle Divisions. On April 4 Cavalry-Mechanized Group Pliyev and the lead elements of 37th Army captured the town of Razdelnaia, again splitting German 6th Army in two. 6th Army was now ordered to envelop Odessa from the northwest. After heavy fighting the 5th Shock Army entered the city's northern suburbs on the evening of April 9. Overnight the forward elements of 8th Guards Army, 6th Army, and the Pliyev Group also drew up to the Odessa defenses. With the Soviet trap closing the German LXXII Army Corps began breaking out to the west, allowing the Soviet forces to liberate the city by 1000 hours on April 10 after only minor fighting.Glantz, Red Storm Over the Balkans, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2007, pp. 110, 114, 118, 120-22 On April 20 the 61st Guards would be awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its part in the fighting for Odessa. First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive Once the 6th Army completed its part in the liberation of Odessa, Malinovsky ordered it to spend a week resting and refitting west of the city and then to move west to the Dniestr to reinforce the Front's advance on Chișinău. On about April 14 the Army commander, Lt. Gen. I. T. Shlemin, received orders to move across the river to occupy positions south of Tiraspol that had been vacated by the 6th Guards Rifle Corps of 37th Army. The Army's immediate objectives would be the German strongholds at Fantina-Mascui and Grădinița and the 8km of front between them. For a variety of reasons Shlemin's forces were delayed in making their crossing and their offensive was delayed until April 25. 6th Army faced a battlegroup formed from the German 15th Infantry Division.Glantz, Red Storm Over the Balkans, pp. 152-53