160th Rifle Division (1940 formation)

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Not to be confused with the 160th Rifle Division (1941 formation), the 160th Rifle, Brest, Order of the Red Banner Division.
160th Rifle Division (July 16, 1940 - April 18, 1943)
Active1940–1943
Country 
Kursk-Oboyan Operation
Case Blue
Operation Little Saturn
Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh offensive
Voronezh–Kastornoye offensive
Operation Star
Third Battle of Kharkov
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Maj. Gen. Ivan Mikhailovich Skugarev
Col. Mikhail Borisovich Anashkin
Col. Mikhail Petrovich Seryugin
Col. Aleksei Ivanovich Baksov

The 1940 formation of the 160th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, formed as part of the prewar buildup of forces, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939. The division completed its formation at Gorki in the Moscow Military District and at the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was in the same area, assigned to the 20th Rifle Corps in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. It was moved west by rail to join the 13th Army of Western Front in the first days of July 1941 in the Mogilev area. At the end of the month the division was assigned to the reserves of Central Front before becoming part of Operations Group Akimenko in the reserves of Bryansk Front. In mid-September it was encircled and forced to break out; in the process it lost its commanding officer, much of its command staff and so many men and heavy weapons that it was briefly written off. Its number was reallocated to the 6th Moscow Militia Division and for the next 18 months there were two 160th Rifle Divisions serving concurrently. By the start of Operation Typhoon at the end of September it was in Operations Group Ermakov; while falling back to southwest of Kursk it managed to avoid encirclement but remained barely combat-effective due to its heavy losses.

The 1940 formation went into reserve at the end of November and was rebuilt to the December 1941 shtat. At the end of December it returned to the fighting in

Kharkov. It was then caught up in the German counteroffensive that retook the city and was again badly mauled, but had performed with enough distinction in difficult conditions that it was redesignated as the 89th Guards Rifle Division
on April 18, 1943.

Formation

The division actually started forming at Astrakhan in the North Caucasus Military District in August 1939 but was not considered complete until after it was moved to Gorki in July 1940, with the final steps completed the following month. As of June 1941 it had the following order of battle:

  • 443rd Rifle Regiment
  • 537th Rifle Regiment
  • 636th Rifle Regiment
  • 566th Light Artillery Regiment[1]
  • 290th Antitank Battalion
  • 406th Antiaircraft Battery (later 459th Antiaircraft Battalion)
  • 499th Machine Gun Battalion (from October 10, 1942)
  • 186th Reconnaissance Battalion
  • 266th Sapper Battalion
  • 657th Signal Company (later 176th Signal Battalion)
  • 191st Medical/Sanitation Battalion
  • 262nd Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company
  • 661st Motor Transport Company
  • 149th Field Bakery (later 424th Motorized Field Bakery)
  • 512th Field Postal Station
  • 437th Field Office of the State Bank

Maj. Gen. Ivan Mikhailovich Skugarev was appointed to command on July 16, 1940. This officer had previously commanded the 37th Rifle Division before being arrested in September 1937 during the Great Purge. He was imprisoned for a year before being released to serve as a senior instructor at the Military Economics Academy. He was still in command at the start of Operation Barbarossa and the division was fortunate to still be in the Gorki area well to the east of the frontier. At this time it was assigned, with the 137th Rifle Division, to the 20th Rifle Corps under direct command of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.[2]

Battles for Mogilev and Bryansk

20th Rifle Corps, which now included the

XXIV Panzer Corps and was falling back to the Sozh with the 160th farthest east.[4]

In the chaos of arrival, offloading and reorganization while under attack the division was already badly scattered. General Skugarev was attempting to defend Chavusy with part of his forces while the 537th Rifle Regiment attempted to hold along the Resta River before being bypassed on both sides and ordered to retreat. After Chavusy was lost Skugarev attempted to get his men back across the Sozh at Krychaw, a task made immensely complicated by an almost total breakdown in communications. The 160th was able to hold out along this line until August 4 when it was ordered back east of Gomel to the reserves of Central Front for replenishment. In just these few weeks of fighting the 443rd Rifle Regiment had been largely destroyed, the 566th Artillery Regiment and the 290th Antitank Battalion had lost most of their guns, and the division as a whole was down to 5,000 of its initial 14,000 personnel.[5]

After the move to the Novobelitskiy district the division came under the direct command of Central Front. The Front's mission was to protect the junction between the Western and

127th Rifle Division and the 753rd Antitank Regiment. On that date the STAVKA ordered the Front to attack with all its forces towards Roslavl and Starodub to destroy the German forces in the Pochep area and then exploit toward Krychaw and Propoisk. While these orders were utterly unrealistic and resulted in failure,[7][8] in the first days of September the 127th Division, which was positioned south of Dorogobuzh, began moving south and took part in the Yelnya offensive. Meanwhile, the 160th remained in place.[9]

In the last days of August the bulk of the 2nd Panzer Group and the 2nd Army began moving south in a movement that would lead to the Kiev encirclement. Group Akimenko was on the south flank of Bryansk Front west of Rylsk and well out of the direct path;[10] however, the Front commander, Lt. Gen. A. I. Yeryomenko, was under pressure from the STAVKA to divert German strength and therefore continued to order effectively suicidal attacks to the west. Yeryomenko's task was further complicated when the 17th Panzer Division captured Glukhov on September 9, shattering the communications between the armies of the Front.[11] The 160th was caught up in this fighting and largely encircled. In the effort to break out the division took heavy casualties and on September 18 General Skugarev was taken prisoner. This officer would remain in German PoW camps for the duration of the war; after the German surrender he was briefly arrested before being released and returning to service up to his retirement in 1947.[12]

In the chaos that had been enfolding the Red Army since the invasion the 160th was briefly understood as having been destroyed, especially given the loss of its commander and much of its command cadre. On September 26 its number was reassigned to the 6th Moscow Militia Division (Dzerzhinskii) which was in the 24th Army reserves.[13] However, on September 20 Col. Mikhail Borisovich Anashkin was moved from the position of chief of staff of the 282nd Rifle Division to command the remnants of the 160th and as of October 1 it was rebuilding in Operational Group Ermakov, still in Bryansk Front.[14] With the permission of the STAVKA Yeryomenko ordered the Front's forces to go over to the defense as of 1330 hours on September 28, with the indication that "within the next several days an enemy offensive toward Bryansk and toward Sevsk or L'gov must be expected." At this time Group Ermakov numbered 33,562 men and had 103 tanks and 132 guns and mortars, although it isn't clear if this includes the casualties suffered on September 27, which amounted to 4,913 men killed, wounded or missing.[15]

Operation Typhoon

The expected offensive began on September 30 before any effective defensive measures could be taken. Group Ermakov faced the 17th and

2nd Guards (formerly 127th) and 160th Rifle Divisions in the direction of Lokot Station, Esman and Svessa. Stalin agreed with the plan and promised two tank brigades and two rifle divisions by way of Oryol. In the circumstances the 160th and 2nd Guards had insufficient strength for this task and General Ermakov was moving back to Rylsk, out of communication except by liaison aircraft. Further orders on October 3 demanded that 2nd Guards attack regardless while the 160th took over its sector and remained in place.[16]

By October 5 the division was located west of Oryol after the 4th Panzer Division had seized the city and the XLVII Panzer Corps was driving north between there and Bryansk in the process of encircling the 13th and 3rd Armies. Two days later it fell back toward the northeast as the advance of 4th Panzer stalled along the road to Mtsensk.[17] By the middle of the month it had retreated to the southwest of Kursk, still under command of 13th Army.[18] Near the end of November it was reassigned to 40th Army in Southwestern Front,[19] where it would remain through the following months[20] as it was rebuilt to the December 1941 shtat. This involved converting the 566th to a standard divisional artillery regiment, changing the 186th Reconnaissance Battalion to a company, and gathering together most of the rifle regiments' mortars to form the 532nd Mortar Battalion. During this period 40th Army was stationed in the Voronezh area.[21]

Case Blue

During April 1942 the 40th Army was moved to the reformed Bryansk Front.

XLVIII Panzer Corps struck at the boundary between it and the 121st Rifle Division, driving the latter off to the north. XLVIII Panzer Corps fielded roughly 325 tanks while 40th Army had only about 250 in its entire sector. The 160th and the 212th Rifle Division to its south faced the 24th Panzer Division with the Großdeutschland Division escheloned to its left which jointly destroyed their defenses before advancing 16 km to the Tim River where the 24th Panzer seized a railroad bridge intact.[23]

40th Army's commander, Maj. Gen.

284th Rifle Division defending along this river north and south of Kastornoye.[24]

By late on July 1 the situation facing 40th Army and its neighbors to the south was producing consternation within the STAVKA. Overnight the Front headquarters belatedly authorized Parsegov to pull his left wing back to the Olym and

Voronezh River. While as many as half of 40th Army's personnel successfully reached and crossed the Don the 160th was one of the few units that still existed as organized combat formations.[25]

Operation Little Saturn

The situation around Voronezh soon became a stalemate as the German mobile forces were required to push eastward toward Stalingrad. As of the beginning of August 6 Army was part of the newly formed Voronezh Front.[26] On August 19 Colonel Anashkin was moved to command of the 159th (later 61st Guards) Rifle Division; he would eventually reach the rank of lieutenant general, would command several rifle corps and be made a Hero of the Soviet Union before his retirement in 1946. He was replaced the next day by Col. Mikhail Petrovich Seryugin who had been serving as the deputy commander of the 212th Rifle Division.

At the start of December, after the German

Italian 8th Army, reach the Kantemirovka region, and protect the right flank of that Front's forces. 6th Army now contained five rifle divisions, including the rebuilt 160th, two tank corps plus a tank brigade and two tank regiments, one tank destroyer brigade, the 8th Artillery Division and additional artillery assets, and was supported by the entire 2nd Air Army. As the situation evolved during early December, particularly with the commitment of 2nd Guards Army to counter the German attempt to relieve the Stalingrad pocket, Operation Saturn became Operation Little Saturn, but the role of 6th Army remained much the same.[28]

The offensive began on December 16. 6th Army faced four Italian divisions dug in on the west bank of the hard-frozen Don. Shock groups deployed on the Army's left (south) wing and

17th Tank Corps) did not include the 160th, which would play a supporting role.[29]

Soviet artillery struck the Italian positions before dawn at which time the attack began; however, the artillery was hindered in its spotting by heavy fog along the ice-covered river and in the first 24 hours the Italian forces did a creditable job in limiting the attackers to penetrations of little more than 3 km. 6th Army regrouped its divisions and resumed its offensive the next day with armor thoroughly integrated with the infantry, leading to a complete rout of the Axis forces throughout its main attack sector. The 17th Tank Corps was committed late in the afternoon at the boundary of the 3rd and 5th Italian Divisions and reached 20 km into the Italians' rear area by the end of the day. By the end of December 18 the Soviet armor had broken into the clear, 17th Tanks was halfway to Kantemirovka, and the Italian infantry divisions had simply disintegrated from fear and exhaustion.[30]

6th Army was transferred to Southwestern Front on the morning of December 19. By now it was clear that the Axis forces of Army Group B lacked the resources to halt Little Saturn and began a fighting withdrawal to the west and south, although sizeable groupings were being encircled in several towns and villages. By December 24 the Soviet mobile corps had remarkably exploited as much as 200 km into the Army Group's rear. During the last days of the year the 6th Army protected the Kantemirovka region as planned while 1st Guards Army besieged Axis forces pocketed at and around Gartmashevka Station, Chertkovo and Millerovo.[31]

Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive

After regrouping its southern forces in the first days of 1943 the STAVKA was determined to defeat the Axis forces (primarily the 2nd Hungarian Army and remnants of Italian 8th Army) operating along the Voronezh–Kursk and Kharkov axes. The first task was to crush the forces defending the area of Ostrogozhsk and Rossosh, which would primarily involve forces of Voronezh Front.[32] In this offensive the role of 6th Army would be reversed; instead of being an army of Voronezh Front protecting the north flank of Southwestern Front it would be an army of the latter protecting the south flank of the former. It was facing the remnants of the II Italian Army Corps.[33] The 160th was still operating as a separate division in 6th Army, which now had only five rifle divisions and one rifle brigade on strength.[34]

The new offensive began on January 13. The immediate objective of 6th Army was

270th Rifle Division was slated to launch a supporting attack on the third day from the area south of Pavlovsk in the general direction of Saprina in order to surround and destroy the Axis grouping along the sector from Belogore to Pasekovo in cooperation with 6th Army's 160th and 127th Rifle Divisions[35] and the 180th Rifle Division of 3rd Tank. During the first day the 160th and 127th were to tie down enemy forces with artillery and small arms fire before going over to the attack on the second day. The two divisions were controlled by the 6th Army's deputy commander.[36]

During January 15 the Axis forces put up strong resistance along 3rd Tank Army's right flank where the 180th Division was attacking.

387th Infantry Division and the Italian Ravenna Division was attempting to hold the town of Mitrofanovka which drew the attention of the 180th Division and other elements of 3rd Tanks through the morning of January 16. Once this resistance was broken the remnants of this grouping fell back to the north, trying to reach the positions of the Italian Alpine Corps east of Rossosh. The 160th took up the pursuit along with the 180th Division and the 37th Rifle Brigade and by the end of the day had reached Krinichnaya. On the same day as per STAVKA VGK Directive No. 30017 the 160th and the 62nd Guards (former 127th Division) were transferred to Voronezh Front and came under command of 3rd Tank Army.[37]

The goal of 3rd Tanks' right flank rifle formations on January 17 was to eliminate the Axis forces still resisting southeast of Rossosh. The 62nd Guards and 160th attacked along the right (west) bank of the Don and captured a line from Staraya Kalitva to outside Shevchenko. By the end of the day the Axis grouping (German 387th and

Oskol River to take up jumping-off positions for the Front's new offensive on the Kharkov axis. During this march the 160th continued mopping up refugees from the encirclement, including an attack on January 23 toward Podgornoe with the 62nd Guards and the 219th Rifle Division which effectively ended organized resistance of the encircled force.[38]

Operation Star

Uda River and 3rd Tank Army took control of the city.[39] On February 18 Colonel Seryugin was wounded and hospitalized. He was replaced in command of the 160th by division deputy commander Col. Aleksei Ivanovich Baksov, but would return to the division on 9 April.[40][41] As of the beginning of March the 3rd Tank Army had been moved to Southwestern Front.[42]

The German counteroffensive began on February 19 with the 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich striking behind the advance guards of 1st Guards and 6th Armies east of Dnepropetrovsk. Over the following days the remainder of the SS Corps joined the thrust northward. The offensive made significant gains and by February 26 had reached the south flank of Voronezh Front west of Kharkov. Starting on March 1 the 4th Panzer Army covered 80 km in five days despite the onset of the spring thaw; east of Krasnograd it trapped and badly damaged three rifle divisions (including the 160th) and three tank brigades of 3rd Tank Army. The SS Corps retook Kharkov on March 13 after three days of street fighting.[43] The remnants of the division fell back to the east, coming under the command of 69th Army in Voronezh Front.[44] Despite its losses in this counteroffensive the 160th had distinguished itself in the previous breakthrough and exploitation operations under miserable winter conditions so that, on April 18, it was redesignated as the 89th Guards Rifle Division.[45]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Charles C. Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 79
  2. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 11
  3. ^ David M. Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2010, Kindle ed., chs. 2, 3
  4. ^ David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009, p. 258
  5. ^ https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=130269086. Page 2. In Russian.
  6. ^ Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 4
  7. ^ Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2012, pp. 373-74, 377, 565
  8. ^ Lev Lopukhovsky, The Vias'ma Catastrophe, 1941, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2013, Kindle ed., part 1
  9. ^ Stahel, Kiev 1941, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2012, pp. 158, 168
  10. ^ Stahel, Operation Typhoon, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2013, p. 44
  11. ^ Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, pp. 474, 490
  12. ^ "Biography of Major-General Ivan Mikhailovich Skugarev - (Иван Михайлович Скугарев) (1895 – 1964), Soviet Union". www.generals.dk. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  13. ^ Sharp, "Red Volunteers", Soviet Militia Units, Rifle and Ski Brigades 1941 - 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, vol. XI, Nafziger, 1996, p. 115
  14. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 52
  15. ^ Lopukhovsky, The Vias'ma Catastrophe, 1941, Kindle ed., part 2
  16. ^ Lopukhovsky, The Vias'ma Catastrophe, 1941, Kindle ed., part 3
  17. ^ Stahel, Operation Typhoon, pp. 72, 79
  18. ^ Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 80
  19. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 75
  20. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 12, 29, 47, 66
  21. ^ Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 80
  22. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 84
  23. ^ Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 110, 126-29
  24. ^ Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 127, 129-31, 135
  25. ^ Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 137-39, 145, 147
  26. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 147
  27. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 238
  28. ^ Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book Two, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2014, pp. 25-26, 29-31
  29. ^ Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book Two, pp. 227-31
  30. ^ Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book Two, pp. 233-36
  31. ^ Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book Two, pp. 237, 239, 243
  32. ^ Soviet General Staff, Rollback, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, Kindle ed., part III, ch. 2
  33. ^ Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2011, p. 18
  34. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 16
  35. ^ Note this was the 2nd formation of this division, which would be redesignated as the 62nd Guards Rifle Division on January 15.
  36. ^ Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., part III, ch. 2
  37. ^ Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., part III, chs. 13, 14; part VI
  38. ^ Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., part III, ch. 14. Note that the 62nd Guards is referred to as the 127th throughout this chapter and the Italian 3rd is at one point referred to as Hungarian.
  39. ^ Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, Center of Military History United States Army, Washington, DC, 1968, pp. 84-85, 89-90
  40. ^ Baksov & Ayollo 1943, p. 2.
  41. ^ Seryugin & Ayollo 1943, p. 2.
  42. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 65
  43. ^ Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, pp. 94-97
  44. ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 87
  45. ^ Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 80

Bibliography

External links

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