417th Rifle Division
417th Rifle Division (March, 1942 – 1945, October, 1953 – 1955) | |
---|---|
Active | 1942–1945, 1953-1955 |
Country | Order of Suvorov |
Battle honours | Sivash |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Alekseevich Filatov Col. Ivan Afanasevich Shevchenko Col. Nikolai Sergeevich Vasilev Maj. Gen. Fyodor Mikhailovich Bobrakov |
The 417th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the
Formation
The 417th began forming from March to May 15, 1942, at
- 1369th Rifle Regiment
- 1372nd Rifle Regiment
- 1376th Rifle Regiment
- 1055th Artillery Regiment[2]
- 445th Antitank Battalion
- 223rd Reconnaissance Company
- 351st Sapper Battalion
- 922nd Signal Battalion (later 513th Signal Company)
- 520th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
- 224th Chemical Protection (Anti-gas) Company
- 570th Motor Transport Company
- 481st Field Bakery
- 585th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
- 1867th Field Postal Station
- 1186th Field Office of the State Bank
The division did not have a commander assigned until May 15 when Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Alekseevich Filatov was appointed to the post; he was replaced on July 23 by Col. Semyon Pavlovich Storozhilov. It remained in the reserves of Transcaucasus Front until August, when it was assigned to the 9th Army in the Northern Group of Forces in the same Front.[3]
Battle of the Caucasus
On August 1 the German
The 1st Panzer Army renewed its offensive in the direction of Mozdok on August 16. At this time the division had been subordinated to the 9th Army and was positioned in its second echelon due south of that city. The 3rd Panzer Division reached the northern bank of the Terek in the Mozdok region late on August 23 and captured the city two days later. After a week of confused fighting the 1st Panzer Army soon came to a virtual standstill and the Soviet defenses began reorganizing. The commander of 9th Army was replaced but its forces continued to hold the south bank of the Terek, apart from two German-held bridgeheads.[5]
By the beginning of September the 9th Army consisted of the
In the savage fighting on September 6 the 258th Battalion lost 22 of its tanks, mostly Valentines. The German battlegroup also suffered heavy losses, with one battalion of the 111th reduced to only 80 men. With the German bridgehead also under attack the battlegroup was forced to withdraw. The new commander of 9th Army, Maj. Gen.
On September 20 Colonel Storozhilov handed his command to Col. Grigorii Osipovich Lyaskin, but this officer was in turn replaced by Col. Ivan Afanasevich Shevchenko six days later. Late on September 21 the 13th Panzer was halted north of Planovskoe by extensive Soviet minefields and obstacles. By this time 1st Panzer Army was badly overstretched and the relentless pressure of the 417th and the 10th Guards Corps forced 3rd Panzer to withdraw from the Mekenskaia region to new defenses closer to Mozdok. On October 3 von Kleist signaled that any further advance on Ordzhonikidze would require reinforcements. Meanwhile, on September 29 the STAVKA accepted that the Northern Group of Forces was no longer capable of further offensive action due to losses suffered during its many counterattacks and Lt. Gen. I. I. Maslennikov, commander of the Northern Group, received orders to go over to the defense of the region. By October 23 it appeared to Maslennikov that the German panzer army remained a spent force and he was proposing a counterattack with a group that would include the 417th. In the event this was forestalled two days later when the "spent" Germans launched a renewed drive to the southwest and then to the east; this attack was halted at the gates of Ordzhonikidze on November 5.[8]
Into Ukraine
Later in November the division was transferred to the 44th Army,[9] but in December, as the German retreat from the Caucasus began, it was transferred once again to 58th Army, still in the Northern Group of Transcaucasus Front.[10] In January, 1943 that Army was reassigned to the North Caucasus Front. On February 2 Colonel Shevchenko handed his command to Col. Nikolai Sergeevich Vasilev. In May the 417th was moved to the 37th Army in the same Front.[11] In that same month, in two final changes of command, Colonel Vasilev was reassigned to command of the 216th Rifle Division, and was briefly replaced by Col. Yevgeny Nikolayevich Skorodumov before Col. Fyodor Mikhailovich Bobrakov took over on May 23. Bobrakov would be promoted to the rank of major general on January 17, 1944 and would remain in command for the duration of the war.
In July the division was moved to the reserves of North Caucasus Front and was then moved north to the reserves of Southern Front in August. On September 15 it returned to 44th Army, now as part of the 63rd Rifle Corps; it would remain in this Corps, with two brief reassignments, for the duration.[12] In November it returned to the reserves of the renamed 4th Ukrainian Front where it joined 67th Rifle Corps, before being moved again in December to the 37th Rifle Corps in 3rd Guards Army. In January, 1944, it was back in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command where it rejoined 63rd Corps in 69th Army, before the Corps was reassigned to the 51st Army in February. The 417th would remain in this Army for the duration.[13]
Crimean Offensive
Meanwhile, elements of 4th Ukrainian Front had reached the
In January another bridge was completed across the Sivash, capable of handling tanks and heavy artillery. In February the 63rd Corps crossed into the bridgehead, and its commander, Maj. Gen. Pyotr Koshevoy, described the conditions there:
"Here the picture was quite bleak. There was not a tree or a bush... Around us stretched a boundless steppe as flat as a table and a drained white expanse of shallow salt lakes. There were not even any weeds visible... We could see all the way to the horizon. It seemed that the troops were completely open to enemy observation and fire... Nor were there any sources of fresh water in the bridgehead."
In fact the 17th Army command was aware of the arrival of 63rd Corps. When the final Soviet offensive began on April 8 all three rifle corps of 51st Army were in the bridgehead, with 63rd Corps on the left (east) flank facing the Romanian 19th Infantry Division. The artillery opened fire at 0800 hours, delivering a punishing 2-and-a-half hour preparation against the Axis positions. Despite this pounding the 51st Army's main attack was stymied, while 63rd Corps' efforts were more successful. German sources claim that the Romanian forces panicked and ran, while Soviet sources state they fell back in good order. In any case the retreat of 19th Romanian allowed the command of the Army to reinforce the breakthrough with the 32nd Guards Tank Brigade. On the following day masses of Sturmovik attacks and a brigade of Katyushas helped the 63rd Corps to overwhelm the Romanian positions and by noon a small group of tanks was driving south towards Simferopol, followed at dawn on April 11 by the 19th Tank Corps.[15] In recognition of its role in the breakout, the 417th was awarded the battle honor "Sivash".
Battle for Sevastopol
Sevastopol was not prepared for another siege such as the Soviets had endured in 1941-42; this was not understood by the 4th Ukrainian Front's command and it paused its operations to bring up artillery for a deliberate attack. On April 16 the 51st Army attacked the center of the Axis line but made little progress and another effort on the 23rd fared similarly. The final offensive began at 0930 hours on May 5 with a massive two-hour artillery preparation. 51st Army launched holding attacks this day, then on May 7 pushed back the northern part of the V Army Corps and reached the Sapun Heights with 63rd and two other rifle corps. At 1030 hours the 417th attacked but encountered very strong automatic-weapons and mortar fire from still-intact German positions. Lt. Mikhail Dzigunsky, a rifle platoon commander of the 1372nd Rifle Regiment, succeeded in knocking out three German positions but was killed attempting to destroy a fourth; he was the first of six men to earn the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union on the Sapun Heights. The 63rd Corps continued to fight its way through German barbed wire and trenches throughout the day and by 1800 hours its forward elements were within 100-200 metres of the crest but the Corps was almost out of ammunition. Unaware that the attack was nearly exhausted the German forces made the mistake of pulling back to regroup. Koshevoy's men surged forward and seized the heights, capturing the commander of the 117th Grenadier Regiment in the process, and 10th Rifle Corps was brought up to solidify their hold. German counterattacks the next day, backed by the last of their assault guns, regained some ground but were smothered under artillery and air attacks. With this failure it was clear that Sevastopol could no longer be held, and Hitler grudgingly authorized a complete evacuation, which ended on May 13.[16] On May 24 the 417th was recognized for its role in the liberation of Sevastopol with the award of the Order of the Red Banner.[17]
Baltic Offensives
Following the liberation of the Crimea in late May, 4th Ukrainian Front found itself in a strategic dead-end. In a major redeployment, 2nd Guards and 51st Armies were shifted to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, and were then railed northwards in anticipation of the coming summer offensives. In late June the 51st Army was assigned to the 1st Baltic Front; at this time the 417th was still in 63rd Corps, where it would remain for the duration.[18] Exploiting into the gap in the German front created by the destruction of Army Group Centre, by mid-July 51st Army had advanced past the eastern Lithuanian border near the city of Švenčionys. Over the next three weeks the division made a significant advance into northern Lithuania, reaching the vicinity of Linkuva by August 1.[19] On August 9 it was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 2nd Degree, for its part in the liberation of Panevėžys.[20]
When
Postwar
In the summer of 1945 the division was relocated to
References
Citations
- ^ Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 108
- ^ Sharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed from 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, Nafziger, 1996, p. 133
- ^ Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 133
- ^ David M. Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 416, 423, 433. It is possible the figure "500" is an error for "5,000".
- ^ Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 432-437
- ^ Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 549-51
- ^ Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, pp. 551-54
- ^ Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, pp. 555-56, 558-59, 576-77, 580-83
- ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 242
- ^ Glantz, Operation Don's Main Attack, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2018, p. 24
- ^ Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 133
- ^ Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 133
- ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1944, pp. 21, 57, 80
- ^ Robert Forczyk, Where the Iron Crosses Grow, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2014, pp. 245, 247-48, 273
- ^ Forczyk, Where the Iron Crosses Grow, pp. 267-68, 272-77
- ^ Forczyk, Where the Iron Crosses Grow, pp. 280-81, 285, 287-88, 293
- ^ Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union 1967, p. 355.
- ^ Sharp, "Red Swarm", pp. 133-34
- ^ The Gamers, Inc., Baltic Gap, Multi-Man Publishing, Inc., Millersville, MD, 2009, pp. 15, 21
- ^ Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union 1967, p. 450.
- ^ The Gamers, Inc., Baltic Gap, pp. 27-28, 35
- ^ Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1945, pp. 78, 112
- ^ Feskov et al. 2013, p. 149.
- ^ Feskov et al. 2013, p. 151.
- ^ Feskov et al. 2013, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Feskov et al. 2013, pp. 512–513.
Bibliography
- Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union (1967). Сборник приказов РВСР, РВС СССР, НКО и Указов Президиума Верховного Совета СССР о награждении орденами СССР частей, соединениий и учреждений ВС СССР. Часть I. 1920 - 1944 гг [Collection of orders of the RVSR, RVS USSR and NKO on awarding orders to units, formations and establishments of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Part I. 1920–1944] (in Russian). Moscow.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.
- Grylev, A. N. (1970). Перечень № 5. Стрелковых, горнострелковых, мотострелковых и моторизованных дивизии, входивших в состав Действующей армии в годы Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945 гг [List (Perechen) No. 5: Rifle, Mountain Rifle, Motor Rifle and Motorized divisions, part of the active army during the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat. p. 164
- 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. p. 296