, receiving that place name as an honorific. After battling through Ukraine and into the Balkan states, the 333rd completed its combat path on a relatively quiet note doing garrison duties in the Balkans.
Formation
The 333rd Rifle Division began forming at Kamyshin on the Volga, on August 20, 1941, in the North Caucasus Military District. Although the division received its first commander, Col. Ivan Mikhailovich Afonin, in late August, it was almost a month later before enough of a division had been organized that the Soviet general staff began to carry it even as a "forming" division.[1][2] Its full order of battle was as follows:
1116th Rifle Regiment
1118th Rifle Regiment
1120th Rifle Regiment
897th Artillery Regiment
1st Antitank Battalion
396th Reconnaissance Company
614th Sapper Battalion
785th Signal Battalion (later 172nd Signal Company)
419th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
412th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company
162nd Motor Transport Company
188th Field Bakery
757th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
361st Field Postal Station
789th Field Office of the State Bank
Ten percent of its personnel were older veterans while half were young recruits, and many were of non-Russian nationalities. It was originally intended to be assigned to 10th Army, which would have put it into the December counteroffensive south of Moscow.[3] However, in late October the division was retained by 57th Army, in which it had been forming near Stalingrad, and it remained in reserve with that army until December.[4]
Combat service
In January, 1942, during the Soviet winter counteroffensive, the 333rd was transferred to 9th Army in Southern Front. It joined in attacks which broke into the German front on the northern Donets River, reaching the vicinity of Slavyansk before being halted by German counterattacks.
Second Battle of Kharkov
9th Army, and Southern Front in general, had no direct role in the Soviet offensive to liberate Kharkov in May, but still suffered significant casualties in the German counteroffensive against the salient based at Izium and Barvenkovo. As of May 11 the 333rd had two rifle regiments and most of its artillery regiment at the south shoulder of the salient near the German strongpoint of Maiaki, north of Slavyansk; the 1118th Rifle Regiment and a battalion of the artillery regiment was serving as 9th Army's reserve at Barvenkovo. From May 7–15, Southern Front made an unsuccessful attempt to take Maiaki using most of the 333rd plus much of the remaining 9th Army reserves, including 5th Cavalry Corps. Lt. Gen. I. K. Bagramyan, chief of staff of Southwestern Front, would later blame this action for the ensuing failure and disaster of the Kharkov offensive because it put those reserves in a position where they were unable to immediately react to the German counteroffensive which struck 9th Army on May 17.[5]
This attack pierced the lines well west of Maiaki, and by the end of the day had captured most of Barvenkovo from the 1118th Regiment and units of the
Sukhoi Torets River, and were supported by units of the 341st Rifle Division. Meanwhile, the main forces of the division, along with 51st Rifle Division, repelled enemy attacks aimed at crossings over the Northern Donets River in their sectors. Despite such local successes, by day's end the 9th Army had been shattered, with many elements partly or completely encircled.[6]
On May 18, German mobile forces penetrated the 5th Cavalry Corps' positions at the juncture of 30th and 60th Cavalry Divisions and moved north towards Izium, leaving the 333rd in their wake. On the following day the 1118th Regiment, now backed by elements of 23rd Tank Corps, continued to resist at the junction of 9th and 57th Armies northwest of Barvenkovo, while main forces concentrated just west of Izium. The division was still in these positions on May 22 when the German forces closed the pocket, leaving the 1118th Regiment hopelessly encircled while the 1116th and 1120th Regiments remained in relative safety outside. On the 24th the latter regiments took up positions along the Donets to try to assist any Soviet troops trying to break through the corridor, but only small numbers were able to do so over the next several days.[7]
Operation Blue
In June the division began rebuilding its 1118th Rifle Regiment, under command of Lt. Col. Pavel Mikhailovich Volosatykh; he would remain in command of the regiment for the next year.
Not long after this, the much-depleted 333rd was pulled back into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding. The division came under the command of Colonel M.I. Matveev on July 26. As of August 31 it was in 4th Reserve Army, about 300 km northwest of Stalingrad; it was later transferred to 10th Reserve Army. On October 1 the STAVKA ordered the division to be assigned to the new Don Front, along with six other rebuilt rifle divisions. On October 22, a new Southwestern Front was formed, west of Don Front, and on the 25th the 333rd was transferred to this Front.[10]
Operation Uranus
As the buildup to
22nd Panzer Division. Meanwhile, the main Romanian force ceased fighting at 2320 hrs. on November 23, and over the next 12 hours over 27,000 officers and men surrendered.[11]
With this duty done, the rifle divisions in the rear of 21st Army began closing up to the area of
65th Army. The 333rd joined 119th Rifle Division's attack on the German defenses outside the town of Surovikino, which continued until the end of the month. Battalion-sized assaults by the division against Group Schmidt's defenses forced Schmidt to withdraw roughly halfway back to the town. As the day progressed, the division slid one of its rifle regiments southeast towards Golovskii, 10 km southeast of the town, attempting to identify a weak spot in the German defenses and exploit it by pushing southward across the river. On November 29, Col. Matveev concentrated all three of his rifle regiments east of Surovikino and then moved them 8 km southwest along the bank of the Chir overnight. The next day, attacking at dawn, the division liberated Dmitrievka Station, 10 km southeast of Surovikino, and forced their way across the Chir to capture the villages of Golovkii and Ostrovskii, south of the river, from German Group Kortner. These positions were soon fortified, and proved deep enough to bring additional forces across the Chir.[12]
By the beginning of December it had become clear to the STAVKA that the number of enemy troops encircled at Stalingrad was far greater than they had anticipated, that the pocket would not be liquidated quickly, and that attempts to relieve the pocket were likely. The closest German forces to the pocket were on the lower Chir, so Southwestern and Don Fronts were ordered to begin an offensive on December 7 and continue it until those forces were incapable of conducting a relief operation. The most important preliminary task was to enlarge the 333rd's bridgehead so that 1st Tank Corps could be concentrated in it. Accordingly, the division, along with 6th Guards Cavalry Division, liberated the villages of Savinskii and Lisinskii, doubling the width and depth of the bridgehead. When the Chir (Tormosin) Offensive began on the 7th, the 333rd was deployed with 1120th Rifle Regiment on the left, facing 1st Battalion of the German 336th Infantry Division's 687th Regiment; 1118th Regiment in the center, opposite 3rd Battalion of 686th Regiment; and 1116th Regiment on the right, facing battalion-sized Battlegroup von Buddenbroch from 7th German Air Force Field Division. 1st Tank Corps and 8th Motorcycle Regiment were formed up directly in the division's rear.[13]
Battle for State Farm 79
The offensive began promptly at 0900 hrs. when the 333rd quickly penetrated the boundary between Group Stahel's Group Schmidt and the 336th Infantry south of Ostrovskii. 1st Tank Corps rushed into the penetration, crushing Battlegroup von Buddenbroch, and advancing 6 to 7 km to occupy State Farm (Sovkhoz) No. 79, setting up an action that would become well known to English-speaking readers with the publication of von Mellenthin'sPanzer Battles in the 1950s. By the end of the day, the tank brigades of 1st Tank put up all-round defenses on the outskirts of the sovkhoz, in anticipation of resuming the offensive the next day; meanwhile, its 44th Motorized Infantry Brigade had been left to assist the 333rd in its continuing efforts against the German 336th.[14]
XXXXVIII Panzer Corps was alerted to the Soviet offensive shortly after it began; at the time it was off-loading elements of
47th Guards Rifle Division. Although these attacks shrank the bridgehead, they failed to crush it. Over the following days, the 47th Guards continued to reinforce the bridgehead while it was being contained by the 336th Infantry and elements of 11th Panzer while the rest of that division wore itself down to-ing and fro-ing across the steppes, trying to beat back other Soviet crossings of the Chir. On December 13, shortly after dawn, the 333rd and the other forces in the bridgehead launched a sudden, strong attack which broke through the boundary between 686th Infantry Regiment and the 110th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, encircling a battalion of the latter and creating a crisis for the panzer corps. A counterattack on the 14th relieved the encircled battalion, but this re-concentration of 11th Panzer allowed 5th Shock Army, to the east, to seize Rychkovskii and Verkhne-Chirskii, with relative ease. Since this area would have been the jumping-off point for a drive to relieve Stalingrad on this axis, the Soviet strategic objective had been met. 11th Panzer remained tied down at Ostrovskii until the 17th.[15]
5th Tank Army played a subordinate role in Operation Little Saturn, which began on December 16. The army was to join the offensive as soon as the situation permitted. The division continued to hold its positions near Ostrovskii until December 30, when it began to advance again against the 336th Infantry. The Red Army General Staff's daily summary for the following day noted that the 333rd had re-liberated State Farm 79.[16]
Operations in Ukraine and the Balkans
The division remained in 5th Tank Army, in Southwestern Front, until April, 1943. In that month it was reassigned to 12th Army in the same Front.[17] On April 5, 1943, the division came under the command of Col. Anisim Mikhailovich Golosko. He would remain in command for the duration, being promoted to Major General on September 15 of the same year.