12th Guards Tank Division

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "12th Guards Tank Division" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

12th Guards Tank Division
Active	1946–1991
Country	3rd Red Banner Army

The 12th Guards Uman Orders of Lenin Red Banner and Suvorov Tank Division was a tank division of the

. It drew its history from the World War II 16th Tank Corps. It was redesignated successively as 12th Guards Tank Corps (1943) and 12th Guards Tank Division (1946).

History

The division was initially formed as 17th Tank Corps in the

It took part in the counter-attacks against the Germans advancing on Stalingrad in the later summer of 1942, the winter counter-offensives of 1942/43, the

Vistula-Oder

and Berlin Operations, ending the war in the Berlin area.

Cold War

As part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 2nd Guards Tank Army. On 6 July 1945, it was reorganized into the 12th Guards Tank Division at

In 1960, the 59th Separate Tank Training Battalion was disbanded. The 639th Separate Missile Battalion was formed in 1961. On 19 February 1962, the 64th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion was created. The 136th Separate Guards Sapper Battalion became an engineer-sapper unit in 1968. In November of that year, the 803rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and 843rd Guards Artillery Regiment moved from the

Division headquarters was located in the town of Neuruppin. On the outskirts of town, closer to Altruppin was the location of the three regiments: 48th Guards Tank Regiment, the 353rd Guards Tank Regiment and 332nd Guards Tank Regiment. After the withdrawal from Germany, the 12th Guards Tank Division was disbanded. The commander of the 48th Guards Tank Regiment in 1989 was Colonel Kuhnovets. It was to be deactivated in the Moscow Military District, and the division actually disbanded around 1991.

In December 1990, the division moved to Vladikavkaz and became part of the North Caucasus Military District. It was disbanded in February 1991. The 200th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and 18th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion were transferred to the 19th Motor Rifle Division. The 933rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment was directly subordinated to the 42nd Army Corps.^[2]

Unit list

In 1988, the division comprised the following major units:^[2][4]

• 12th Guards Tank Uman Division (Neuruppin) (disbanded 1991)
  • 48th Guards Tank Vapnyarsko-Varshavsky Regiment (Neuruppin)
  • 332nd Guards Tank Warsaw Red Banner Order of Alexander Nevsky Regiment (Neuruppin)
  • 353rd Guards Rank Vapnyarsko-Berlin Regiment (Neuruppin)
  • 200th Guards Motor-Rifle Fastov Regiment (Burg)
  • 117th Artillery Regiment (Mahlwinkel)
  • 933rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Upper Dnieper Regiment (Burg)
  • 18th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Demblin Battalion (Mahlwinkel)
  • 490th Separate Guards Communications Battalion (Neuruppin)
  • 136th Separate Guards Demblin Engineer Battalion (Neuruppin)
  • 129th Separate Chemical Defence Battalion (Neuruppin)
  • 1074th Separate Material Supply Battalion (Wulkow)
  • 64th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion (Neuruppin)
  • 208th Separate Medical Battalion (Neuruppin)
  • 90th Separates Motorized Battalion (Neuruppin)

In Popular Culture

The division is first mentioned in the Cold War novel, The Red Effect by author Harvey Black, and is commanded by the fictitious Major General Oleg Turbin.

Notes

References

• Craig Crofoot, Group of Soviet Forces Germany, V3.0.0, 2007, manuscript available via www.microarmormayhem.com
• Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union (1964). Командование корпусного и дивизионного звена советских вооруженных сил периода Великой Отечественной войны 1941 – 1945 гг [Commanders of Corps and Divisions in the Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Frunze Military Academy.
  OCLC 35371247
  .
• Graham H. Turbiville, 'Restructuring the Soviet Ground Forces: Reduction, Mobilization, Force Generation,'
  Military Review
  , December 1989