170th Rifle Division (Soviet Union): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The '''170th Rifle Division''' was originally formed as an [[infantry]] [[Division (military)|division]] of the [[Red Army]] in the [[Ural Military District]] in September 1939, based on the ''shtat'' ([[table of organization and equipment]]) of that same month. ItThe division was stillrelocated west with the [[22nd Army (Soviet Union)|22nd Army]] in thisJune district1941. atAfter Germany invaded the timeSoviet ofUnion, the Germandivision invasion astook part ofin the [[22ndBattle Armyof Smolensk (Soviet Union1941)|22ndBattle Armyof Smolensk]] andas beganpart moving west by rail, joiningof the [[Western Front (Soviet Union)|Western Front]] when it arrived at the. fighting front well to the north of [[Polotsk]]. During early July 1941 it was encircled along with its [[51st Rifle Corps]] near the town of [[Nevel (town)|Nevel]] and struggled to break out at the cost of considerable losses in personnel and equipment. After the first battles around [[Velikiye Luki]] it was partly rebuilt with the escaped elements of the other divisions of its former Corps, but it was again encircled in late August and reduced to remnants. By the beginning of October this cadre had been moved to [[24th Army (Soviet Union)|24th Army]] in [[Reserve Front]] for another rebuilding, but during [[Operation Typhoon]] it was so severely depleted that it had to be disbanded a few days later.

A new 170th was formed between December 1941 and January 1942. In April it joined the [[34th Army (Soviet Union)|34th Army]] in the [[Northwestern Front]], which was engaged in the dismal fighting around [[Demyansk]]. In July it was reassigned to [[11th Army (Soviet Union)|11th Army]] in the same Front and took part in three futile and costly offensives in August, September and November to sever the corridor that joined German [[16th Army (Wehrmacht)|16th Army]] to its forces inside the pocket. After these forces evacuated Demyansk in February 1943, the 170th was assigned to [[53rd Army (Soviet Union)|53rd Army]] and moved south to join [[Central Front]] inside the Kursk salient. In June it was moved to [[48th Army (Soviet Union)|48th Army]] of that Front and it would remain in this Army, with one brief exception, for the duration of the war, mostly as part of [[42nd Rifle Corps]]. The division saw little combat during the German Kursk offensive, but went over to the offensive itself on July 15 when Central Front joined the operation against the German-held [[Oryol]] salient. This objective was reached around August 18, and within days the 170th began an advance through northeastern Ukraine toward eastern Belarus. In November, as part of the renamed Belorussian Front it won a battle honor for its part in the liberation of [[Rechytsa]]. Through the winter it participated in several battles through the frozen swamps and along the many river lines of this region, after February 1944 as part of the renamed [[1st Belorussian Front]]. During the summer offensive the 170th operated on the northern axis of advance toward the city of [[Babruysk]], assisting in an encirclement operation in the [[Rahachow]]{{endash}}[[Zhlobin]] area, and then advancing on Babruysk where it mopped up the German forces that had been trapped there. For these accomplishments it was awarded the [[Order of Suvorov]], 2nd Degree. In the second phase of the offensive the division advanced through [[Baranavichy]] in the direction of [[Brest, Belarus|Brest]]. In January 1945, as part of [[2nd Belorussian Front]] during the Vistula-Oder offensive, the 170th attacked out of a bridgehead over the [[Narew|Narew River]] toward [[Mława]], and then in late January reached the [[Vistula Lagoon|Frisches Haff]], cutting off the German forces in East Prussia; for its role in this success it was awarded the [[Order of the Red Banner]]. In the last months of the war it was in [[3rd Belorussian Front]] and took part in the elimination of a group of German forces southwest of [[Königsberg]], for which several of its subunits received decorations. It remained in the East Prussia area until it was disbanded in August.

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== Battle of Smolensk ==

As the German invasion began on June 22, 1941, the 170th was moving west from the Urals as part of the 22nd Army's [[62nd Rifle Corps]],<ref>[http://www.soldat.ru/files/f/boevojsostavsa1941.pdf Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941], p. 10</ref> and was scheduled to arrive, with its Corps, at [[Sebezh]] by July 2.<ref>David M. Glantz, ''Stumbling Colossus'', University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1998, p. 108</ref><ref>David Stahel, ''Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009, map on p. 238</ref> This Army was under the command of Lt. Gen. [[Filipp Yershakov|F. A. Yershakov]]. By the beginning of July the division had been reassigned to the army's 51st Rifle Corps, still in 22nd Army, joining the 98th and [[112th Rifle Division|112th Rifle Divisions]]. By July 10 the Army had been assigned to Western Front,<ref>[http://www.soldat.ru/files/f/boevojsostavsa1941.pdf Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941], pp. 18, 23</ref> where it took up positions on the Front's far right (north) flank.<ref name=":3" />

Late on July 11 it was reported that the Front's forces:<ref name=":3" />{{quotation|fought with attacking enemy units in the [[Sebezh]], Osveia, Borkovichi, [[Haradok|Gorodok]], [[Vitebsk]], Barsuki Station, and Borkolobovo region, while directing its main efforts at liquidating the enemy's advancing Vitebsk grouping.}}The 170th, on the north flank of the 22nd Army and therefore the extreme right flank of the Front, was said to have attacked with its right wing at 1000 hours, while continuing to fight along its previous positions with its left wing. The Army was facing the German [[VIII Army Corps (Wehrmacht)|VIII Army Corps]] and [[XXXIX Panzer Corps|XXXIX Motorized Corps]]. At 0300 hours on July 12, Lt. Gen. [[German Malandin|G. K. Malandin]], the Front's chief of staff, sent instructions to Yershakov and to [[19th Army (Soviet Union)|19th Army]] to his south to prepare for a counterstroke on Vitebsk, to start at 0800. These plans were completely preempted when the [[LVII Panzer Corps|LVII Motorized Corps]], with the cooperation of [[9th Army (Wehrmacht)|9th Army's]] [[L Army Corps (Wehrmacht)|L]] and [[XXIII Army Corps (Wehrmacht)|XXIII Army Corps]], drove the 22nd Army out of its defenses along the [[Daugava|Western Dvina River]] northwest of Polotsk, cut it into two parts, and threatened both with encirclement. The German armored units bypassed Polotsk and pushed north toward [[Nevel (town)|Nevel]]. Western Front's commander, Marshal [[Semyon Timoshenko|S. K. Timoshenko]], ordered Yershakov to withdraw to new defenses.<ref name=":3">Glantz, ''Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1'', Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2010, Kindle ed., ch. 3</ref>

===First Battle of Velikiye Luki===

Timoshenko issued new orders on July 14 urging that the German penetrations be cut off and eliminated. Yershakov was to withdraw his 98th and 112th Divisions to "smooth out the front". Over the next two days he became more realistic, and directed his deputy, Lt. Gen. [[Andrey Yeryomenko|A. I. Yeryomenko]], to establish a new defense line from Nevel south to just north of [[Smolensk]].<ref>Glantz, ''Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1'', Kindle ed., ch. 3</ref> On July 15, General Silkin was removed from his command and placed at the disposal of 22nd Army, and on July 21, after the recapture of Velikiye Luki, he was made commander of its garrison. His subsequent fate is obscure. According to surviving PoWs, Yershakov stated, prior to his own death in captivity, that Silkin had died in battle when the city was again captured on August 29. German reports say that a Soviet command headquarters blew itself up in a dugout during this fighting. He has been considered missing in action since October 1941.{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2015|pp=400–401}}

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* 355th Signal Battalion (later 210th Signal Battalion, 353rd Signal Company)

* 154th Medical/Sanitation Battalion

* 536th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) [[Platoon]]

* 49th Motor Transport Company

* 452nd Field Bakery

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===Operation Kutuzov===

[[File:Operation Kutusov (map).jpg|thumb|left|Map of Operation Kutuzov. Note position of 48th Army.]]

48th Army was ordered to attack with its left flank 42nd Rifle Corps along the sector Sondrovka{{endash}}outside Krasnaya Slobodka in the direction of Yasnaya Polyana and Shamshin and by the end of July 17 to reach a line from Nagornyi to Shamshin, after which it was to develop the offensive toward Zmievka[[Zmiyovka, Oryol Oblast|Zmiyovka]]. At 0600 hours on July 15, following a 15-minute artillery fire onslaught, Central Front went over to the attack. Despite stubborn resistance, by 0800 Soviet forces had penetrated up to 2–3km on some sectors; 42nd Corps made considerable progress toward Kunach. The advance continued over the next week despite the defenders making good use of terrain and pre-existing defenses and after forcing the [[Neruch River]] on July 22 the right flank forces of 48th Army liberated the town of Bogodukhov on July 24 while its center and left flank reached a line from [[Glazunovka, Oryol Oblast|Glazunovka]] to Gremyachevo. Following this the Army sped up its advance to the northwest from the line of the Zmievka{{endash}}[[Ponyri, Ponyrovsky District, Kursk Oblast|Ponyri]] railroad.<ref>Soviet General Staff, ''The Battle of Kursk'', Kindle ed., book 1, part 2, ch. 2; book 2, part 1, ch. 4</ref>

During this advance, on July 27–29 ''[[Starshina]]'' Georgii Maksimovich Kudashov, a platoon commander of the 3rd Machine Gun Company of 391st Rifle Regiment, distinguished himself in the fighting for the village of Filosovo. Breaking in with a group of soldiers he soon found his group was surrounded. Kudashov organized a perimeter defense and, for two days, repelled all attacks despite being wounded twice, including the loss of his left eye. As relief was arriving from his battalion he personally destroyed a German firing point from the rear. On January 15, 1944, he was made a [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]. His injury made it impossible to return to the front, so he was employed on the railway system, where he had worked before the war. He entered the reserve in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant and moved back to [[Shepetivka]], where he had lived pre-war. He died there in 2007 at the age of 88.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kozhukhar |first=Oleg |title=Кудашов Георгий Максимович |url=https://warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=17383 |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=Heroes of the Country}}</ref>