The 91st Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in April 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 257th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It ended the war in the far east of Asia following the Soviet invasion of Manchuria with a highly distinguished record.
The 257th had distinguished itself as part of 3rd Shock Army in the battle and siege of Velikiye Luki during the winter of 1942-43 and was redesignated as a result in April 1943. After rebuilding in the reserves of Kalinin Front as part of 2nd Guards Rifle Corps it was transferred to the 39th Army where it served for the duration of the war under various corps commands. During the late summer offensive around Smolensk it received its first battle honor and then fought through the autumn and the winter of 1943–44 in a series of grinding battles on the approaches to Vitebsk. During Operation Bagration in the summer it helped to finally secure the liberation of that city and was rewarded with the Order of the Red Banner. It then advanced into the Baltic states, winning a further distinction for its part in the battle for Kaunas, and in October crossed the Neman River into the northeastern part of East Prussia. When the offensive resumed in the first months of 1945 the 91st Guards took part in the battles for that German state and was decorated with the Order of Lenin in February, a rare award for a rifle division. Following the German surrender the 39th Army was moved by rail to the Transbaikal Military District in preparation for the invasion and occupation of Japanese-held Manchuria. When this campaign began in August the division made a successful crossing of the Khingan Mountains and was recognized with a second battle honor. Despite this fine record of service the 91st Guards was disbanded before the end of 1945.
Formation The 257th Rifle Division was officially redesignated as the 91st Guards Rifle Division on April 18; it would receive its Guards banner on May 16. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows: 275th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 943rd Rifle Regiment) 277th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 948th Rifle Regiment) 279th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 953rd Rifle Regiment) 195th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 793rd Artillery 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. 81 97th Guards Antitank Battalion 94th Guards Reconnaissance Company 106th Guards Sapper Battalion 175th Guards Signal Battalion (later 139th Guards Signal Company) 101st Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 97th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 100th Guards Motor Transport Company 94th Guards Field Bakery 93rd Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 2216th Field Postal Station 609th Field Office of the State Bank The division remained under the command of Maj. Gen. Mikhail Ivanovich Ozimin, who had commanded the 257th since March 11. At this time the 91st was a separate rifle division in 3rd Shock Army of Kalinin Front. By the beginning of June it had been moved to the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps in the Front reserves where it remained into July when it was assigned to 39th Army in the same Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 107, 133, 159, 187 On August 7 the Corps, which also contained the 9th and 17th Guards Rifle Divisions, would come under command of Maj. Gen. A. P. Beloborodov.
Into Western Russia Western Front began its summer offensive on August 7 in the direction of Smolensk but made only limited progress of 15–25km against heavy German resistance by August 11. At 0730 hours on August 13 Kalinin Front joined the offensive from the north, attacking the XXVII Army Corps of German 4th Army north of Dukhovshchina. The Front's main effort was made by 39th Army on its left flank with five rifle divisions of 2nd Guards and 83rd Rifle Corps, supported by two tank brigades, two tank regiments, and two sapper brigades. The 43rd Army conducted a supporting attack on the right. The German corps had three infantry divisions defending a 40km-wide front with one in reserve but all were significantly under strength.Robert Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2019, Kindle ed.
Kalinin Front only had enough ammunition to carry out a 35-minute artillery preparation, which failed to suppress the well-prepared German defenses. In the first few hours Beloborodov's divisions managed to penetrate the first trench line of the 52nd Infantry Division southeast of Spas-Ugly and overrun one German battalion but overall 39th Army was only able to advance about 1.5km before being stopped by counterattacks. Over the following three days the defenders received considerable air support, antitank assets and lead elements of the 25th Panzergrenadier Division which enabled them to stabilize their lines after losing only about 3km at a cost of over 3,000 casualties. A period of rain set in from August 15-20 which worsened the supply situation of the two Soviet fronts. On August 21 the commander of Western Front, Col. Gen. V. D. Sokolovskii, who was in overall command of the offensive, was authorized to suspend it for a week.Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance, Kindle ed.
It wasn't until September 14 that Kalinin Front was able to re-enter the fighting. Lt. Gen. N. E. Berzarin had by now taken over command of 39th Army. The XXVII Army Corps was spread thinly on a 81km sector with five divisions totalling about 10,000 front-line troops. After a 20-minute artillery preparation the 39th Army attacked the 52nd and 197th Infantry Divisions with four rifle divisions, smashing one German regiment and creating a breach in the front into which the Front's mobile forces were committed, causing the 52nd Division to collapse across a wide area. The next day the Army expanded its penetration as the German corps began falling back to the Hubertus Line. On the morning of September 16 the 2nd Guards Corps and the 84th Rifle Corps linked up at Klevtsi, 11km north of Dukhovshchina, although the 197th Infantry escaped the pincers. The 2nd Guards Corps with the Dremov Mobile Group pushed south, brushing aside German rearguards;Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance, Kindle ed. the city was evacuated overnight and the 91st Guards was given its first honorific two days later:
Battles for Vitebsk General Ozimin left command of the division on September 24. He went on to lead two rifle corps, be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and was made a Hero of the Soviet Union before being killed in a traffic accident in 1946. Col. Veniamin Lvovich Beilin took over command the following day but he was in turn replaced by Lt. Col. Pyotr Grigorievich Karamushko on October 15. As of October 1 the 91st Guards was serving as a separate division in the 39th Army. Smolensk had finally been liberated on September 25 and following this the forces of Western Front and the left wing of Kalinin Front mounted an advance toward the border of Belarus, with the immediate objectives of Orsha and Vitebsk. 39th Army had its 84th Corps and 5th Guards Rifle Corps in the lead with the 91st Guards, 32nd Rifle Division and 124th Rifle Brigade in reserve, with orders to exploit success wherever it occurred. The Army faced the German VI Army Corps' 246th and 256th Infantry Divisions, defending a sector from east of Mikulino to south of Rudnya.David M. Glantz, Battle for Belorussia, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2016, pp. 26, 43-45
During the last days of September and early October 39th Army made considerable progress, taking Rudnya on September 29 and liberating Liozna on October 9 after a two-day struggle. This was followed by a vigorous advance before reaching a new German defensive line from west of Surazh to Janavičy to Babinavichy. At this point the 91st Guards was on the Army's right (north) flank linking up with the 306th Rifle Division of 43rd Army. Given the attrition caused by over nine days of heavy combat the commander of Kalinin Front, Army Gen. A. I. Yeryomenko, ordered a pause for regrouping before continuing the drive on Vitebsk. A postwar history of 39th Army written by Lt. Gen. V. R. Boiko states that the Army's Guards regiments were particularly depleted due to being "constantly deployed on the main axis." The Army resumed its attacks on October 15 but the first of these were only of a local nature. Three days later the 84th Corps, which now included the 91st Guards, began a more general effort westward along the Liozna road but this was halted on October 20 without achieving any notable success, and by the end of the month the front had stabilized. Kalinin Front had by now been redesignated as 2nd Baltic Front.Glantz, Battle for Belorussia, pp. 45-49, 55-56, 59Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 274 Polotsk-Vitebsk Offensive The 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts began new operations in early November; the objective for 1st Baltic was first to take Vitebsk and then to advance toward Polotsk. 39th and 43rd Armies were positioned primarily to the north of the SmolenskVitebsk railroad and highway against the defending VI Army Corps. When the assault began on November 8 the 39th Army had the 84th and the 5th Guards Corps deployed abreast, supported by a composite mobile corps made up of three mechanized and tank brigades under command of Col. I. F. Dremov. Despite the attacking forces being eroded to about half their authorized strengths they still enjoyed a fivefold superiority in infantry and an absolute superiority in armor and artillery. On the first day the 184th Rifle Division and 124th Rifle Brigade were repulsed by the 246th Infantry Division, but this was intended as a diversion. The next morning the Army's main forces attacked and ripped through the defenses of the 206th Infantry Division just north of the highway.Glantz, Battle for Belorussia, pp. 131, 137, 141-42
This joint assault on November 9 by the 39th and 43rd Armies breached the German line along a 10km-wide front and by evening the lead elements of the attacking force had reached Poddube, just 10km east of the defense lines around Vitebsk proper. The 206th Infantry's front was a shambles by nightfall and the 14th Infantry Division's right flank was both turned and wide open. While the 43rd Army's advance was largely contained at Poddube on November 11 the 39th managed to continue another 5km along the highway as far as Karamidy and the banks of the Losonina River, 10km east of Vitebsk. General Berzarin now committed the Dremov Group to combat which led to a complex battle with elements of the 18th Panzer Division and battlegroups of the 206th and 246th Infantry. By November 17 the German forces were able to restore a fairly continuous front and the Soviet assault expired in exhaustion.Glantz, Battle for Belorussia, p. 142 Vitebsk (Gorodok) Offensive On December 8 the STAVKA directed the new commander of 1st Baltic Front, Army Gen. I. K. Bagramyan, to go over to the defense so his armies could regroup and refit prior to another offensive to take Vitebsk as well as the town of Gorodok to the north. The forces of his Front, including the 91st Guards, were by now seriously under strength from near-continuous fighting since early October. The new offensive on Vitebsk would also involve the 33rd Army of Western Front and would begin on December 19.Glantz, Battle for Belorussia, pp. 209-11, 213 Lt. Col. Karamushko was reassigned as deputy commander of 9th Guards Rifle Division after Col. Aleksandr Borisovich Rodionov took over command of the division on December 15. During the month, as part of 39th Army's regrouping, the division was transferred to the 5th Guards Rifle Corps.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1944, p. 12