| 16th Rifle Division (May 1918–July 1941) 16th 'Lithuanian' Rifle Division 44th Rifle Brigade (1947 – Dec 1950) | |
|---|---|
| Active |
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| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | .svg) Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | Division 10,250 |
| Nicknames | 'Jewish' 'Lithuanian' 'The division with the sixteen Lithuanians' |
| Engagements | |
| Decorations |  Order of the Red Banner(2nd formation) |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Valerian A. Frolov (1937–1939) Feliksas Baltušis-Žemaitis (1943) Adolfas Urbšas (1945) |
The16th Rifle Division (Russian:16-я стрелковая Литовская Клайпедская Краснознамённая дивизия,romanized: 16-ya strelkovaya Litovskaya Klaypedskaya Krasnoznamonnaya diviziya;Hebrew:דיוויזיית הרובאים הליטאית ה-16;Lithuanian:16-oji 'Lietuviškoji' divizija) was a formation in theRed Army created duringWorld War II. The division was formed twice, and was given the title 'Lithuanian' during its second formation.
It was originally established atTambov in May 1918. It was wiped out atMga in July 1941. Reformed and given the title 'Lithuanian', the division participated in several battles againstNazi Germany, includingKursk,Belarus, and theBaltic. In the immediatepost-war, the division became a brigade but re-became a division in 1950. It was disbanded in 1956.
The division was originally formed in 1918.
At the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa the 16th Rifle Division (1st formation) was part ofNorthwestern Front's27th Army, reporting directly to Army headquarters along with the67th Rifle Division and 3rd Rifle Brigade.[1] It was destroyed atMga amid the first German drive on Leningrad.
When the 16th Division was reformed after its destruction, it was named 'Lithuanian' for political purposes.
AfterLithuania, along withLatvia andEstonia, wereoccupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940, theLithuanian Army was reorganized into theLithuanian People's Army and soon theRed Army's29th Rifle Corps. At the start ofOperation Barbarossa in June 1941, Lithuanians massively deserted, killed non-Lithuanian commanders and joined the anti-SovietJune Uprising.[2] Out of the 16,000 soldiers of the 29th Rifle Corps, only 2,000 retreated with the Red Army.[2] The Corps' remnants retreated toVelikiye Luki by mid-July.[2] The corps was officially disbanded on 23 September 1941.[2]
Despite this disaster, Lithuanian communists, includingAntanas Sniečkus andMečislovas Gedvilas, sought to establish a new Lithuanian unit. Similar national military units formed from the ethnicities of the other Baltic republics were the8th Estonian Rifle Corps and the130th Latvian Rifle Corps. In mid-1943, compared to the7th and149th Estonian (81% and 63% Estonian respectively) and43rd Latvian Guards (38.8% Latvian) Rifle Divisions, the 'Lithuanian' division had the lowest percentage (36.5%) of the titular Baltic ethnicity.[3] The purpose of the divisions was not only military but also political as their members were important for the planned post-war Sovietization of the occupied Baltic states.[4]
The 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division was created on 18 December 1941.[5] The decision to form it was made by theState Defense Committee, following requests by the Central Committee of theCommunist Party of Lithuania and theLSSR's government.[2] It was decided that it would be formed in theMoscow Military District, inBalakhna,Gorky Oblast.[2][6] Personnel came from remnants of the184th Rifle Division (former29th Rifle Corps), the Lithuanians that were longtime inhabitants of Russia and any Lithuanian-speaking refugees that had fled Lithuania after theGerman invasion.[7] However, out of 23,000 refugees from Lithuania, 15,000 of them were Jewish.[7] Lithuanians born in Russia and Lithuanian-born Russians were drafted into the division, because there was insufficient numbers of Lithuanians to form a division.[8] The officers were recruited from among the Vilnius Infantry Academy's graduates, who the Soviet government immediately evacuated following the beginning of the German invasion toNovokuznetsk,Kemerovo Oblast.[2]
Throughout 1942, the division was being formed and trained, still located in the Moscow Military District.[5] In December 1942, the division was made part of theBryansk Front.[5] Thereafter, it was part of theCentral Front.[5]
Formation and training of the division came to an end by February 1943 and the division entered the war on 21 February 1943 at Alekseyevka, 50 km southeast ofOryol. This brought the division into the path of the Wehrmacht'sOperation Citadel. The division fought in theBattle of Kursk, where it served with the42nd Rifle Corps of the48th Army, Soviet Central Front.[5]
In the first days of the battle, the 16th Rifle Division withstood the attack of the German383rd Infantry and18th Panzer Divisions, that were accompanied by 120 planes.[9] After suffering serious losses, the Soviet armies eventually emerged victorious. Between 20 February and 24 March 1943, the division lost 1,169 dead and 3,275 injured men.[10] During this battle a private named Viktoras Jacenevičius, was wounded, taken prisoner and then tortured to death by the Germans. He was posthumously awarded the titleHero of the Soviet Union.[citation needed]
AfterOryol was captured as part ofOperation Kutuzov, the division was removed from the Central Front in August–September 1943.[5] On September 28, the division was once more part of the army and was made part of theKalinin Front's4th Shock Army, which soon became the1st Baltic Front.[5]
DuringOperation Bagration, the division was placed in the reserves.[5] Along with the3rd Belorussian Front, the 1st Baltic Front invadedBelarus and much of Lithuania. Later in June, the division was made part of the 4th Shock Army, but it was not deployed to heavy combat due to the division's political importance.[11] However, in July, the division was assigned as part of the second Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.[5] On 2 August 1944, division had arrived atŠiauliai's suburbs, which was home to their commander,Vladas Karvelis. The division was stationed there for one month, and reinforced with Lithuanianforced conscripts.
In mid-August the city of Šiauliai was hit by the GermanŠiauliai offensive. TheWehrmacht divisions were armed with 900 armoured vehicles andartillery pieces. For three days the 16th Division stood its ground, and in the end as the German attack ran out of steam the Division emerged victorious. On 31 October the division was awarded theOrder of the Red Banner for "courage and valor" in breaking through German defenses west of Šiauliai.[12]
As the Red Army occupied Lithuania a second time, conscription into the Red Army began on Lithuanian territory in August 1944.[2] In total, 108,378 Lithuanians were conscripted in August 1944–April 1945.[2] Thus, the number of Lithuanians in the 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division increased from 32.2% on 1 July 1944 to 68.4% on 27 April 1945.[2] A part of the conscripted Lithuanians were made into the50th Lithuanian Reserve Rifle Division.[13]
On 31 January 1945, the Lithuanian division received orders to join the fight against the Germans in theCourland Pocket. The German resistance was strong and elements ofArmy Group Courland did not surrender to the Soviets until 8–9 May at theend of World War II in Europe.
The division was part of22nd Guards Rifle Corps,6th Guards Army towards the end of the war on 1 May 1945.[14]
After the war, many former soldiers of the division's went toPalestine.[8]
According to various sources, 50%,[15] up to 80%[16] or even 85%[17] of the division wasJewish. Initially, about 45% to 50% of the division was Jewish, with the Jews making up the absolute majority in the infantry regiments.[18] Thus, the division wasnicknamed "The division with the sixteen Lithuanians"[17] or the "Jewish Division".[18] According to a veteran of the division, there was a policy of sending Jews to fight and keeping Lithuanians behind the front as the Soviet military wanted to preserve the Lithuanian character of the division.[19] The Jewish author Miriam Weinstein wrote that 90% of the division's casualties were Jews.[16] By the time the division reached Lithuania, the division was only about 20% Jewish.[8]
As of 1 January 1943, of the 10,250 soldiers and officers of the division, 7,000 of them wereethnic Lithuanians and/or inhabitants of the Lithuanian SSR. The total ethnic make-up of the division was:
Although other sources cite figures of 2378 Jews (23.2%) in the division, it is still the highest number of ethnic Jews amongst all divisions of the Red Army.[20] Jews made 13% (136 persons) of all officers in the division and 34.2% of all soldiers in the infantry regiments. 12 soldiers of a division have been awarded the title,Hero of the Soviet Union, of them, four were Jews:
The division's official language, commands and orders were in Russian.[2] Yiddish was sometimes used indrill commands and less formal orders.[18]
Following World War II, the division was made part of theSteppe Military District's92nd Rifle Corps.[5] In 1947, it became the44th Rifle Brigade at Vilnius, now with the2nd Guards Rifle Corps.[21] In December 1950, it became a division again.[22] It was disbanded on 7 July 1956.[23]
| No. | Portrait | Commander | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Baltušis-Žemaitis, FeliksasMajor general Feliksas Baltušis-Žemaitis (1897–1957) | 3 April 1942 | 17 August 1943 | 1 year, 136 days |
| 2 |  | Karvelis, VladasMajor general Vladas Karvelis (1901–1980) | 18 April 1943 | 7 September 1944 | 1 year, 142 days |
| 3 | | Urbšas, AdolfasMajor general Adolfas Urbšas (1900–1973) | 8 September 1944 | 11 May 1945 | 245 days |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Divisions of the Soviet Union 1945–1957 | |||||||||
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