| 213th Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1941–1946 |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Role | Motorized Infantry |
| Size | Division |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Battle honours | Novoukrainka |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Ivan Buslayev |
The213th Rifle Division (Russian:213-я стрелковая дивизия) was formed as an infantry division of theRed Army duringWorld War II after a motorized division of that same number was destroyed about seven weeks following the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
This division began forming in March-April 1941 in theKiev Special Military District as part of the19th Mechanized Corps. Col. Vasilii Mikhailovich Osminskii was appointed to command on March 11 and he would remain in this position until the division was disbanded. Once formed its order of battle was as follows:
The 132nd had only one battalion of 42T-26 tanks and while the 301st was equipped with a company of 13T-37 tankettes it had no armored cars or motorcycles. The 671st had only one battery of four122mm howitzers and the 205th only one battery of four37mm guns.[2]
When Operation Barbarossa began on June 22 the 19th Mechanized Corps (40th and43rd Tank Divisions, 213th Motorized Division, 21st Motorcycle Regiment) was under the direct command of the redesignatedSouthwestern Front.[3] The 213th was positioned atVinnytsia with the tank divisions deployed northward as far asZhytomyr.[4] At this time the division was at close to full strength in manpower, with 10,021 personnel assigned, but had only 140 trucks of all types on hand, making it "motorized" in name only. In addition to the ongoing shortages in heavy equipment the rifle regiments had only about half of their authorized machine guns and mortars and the division had no antitank guns at all. Within 48 hours of the German invasion it was being identified in Soviet sources as an ordinary rifle division. By this time it had been detached to Operational GroupLukin which was protecting a large Red Army supply base atShepetivka.[5]
By day's end on June 24 the 40th Tank Division had advanced as far west asHoshcha and was followed by the 213th which had enteredRivne by the end of June 27. The13th Panzer Division had broken through 40th Tanks nearMlyniv earlier that day with Rivne as its immediate objective. In fighting over the next two days theIII Motorized Corps drove the two tank divisions back to the east beyond Hoshcha but at the same time theXXXXVIII Motorized Corps forced the 213th off to the southeast as it advanced on Ostriv.[6] By this time the 19th Mechanized Corps had come under command of5th Army in Southwestern Front,[7] but in its scattered condition effective command and control was largely impossible. As of July 7 what remained of the division was located roughly 30km south of Shepetivka, facing the16th Panzer and111th Infantry Divisions.[8] On July 10 the division was further weakened when its 132nd Tank Regiment (never actually more than a battalion) was detached to the Kiev Fortified Sector.[9]
As Army Group South reached this objective in mid-July the 213th was still resisting in theBerdychiv area.[10] By the beginning of August the division had been detached from 19th Mechanized and was subordinated to6th Army ofSouthern Front.[11] At this time the 6th was in the process of being encircled in theUman Pocket along with the12th Army and by August 8 the division was effectively destroyed,[12] being officially stricken from the Red Army order of battle on September 19.
The 213th Rifle Division began forming on 15 December 1941 atKattakurgan, assigned to theCentral Asian Military District. It was commanded by Major GeneralPyotr Shevchenko. The 213th included the 585th, 702nd, and 693rd Rifle Regiments, the 671st Artillery Regiment, and the 387th Sapper Battalion, along with other smaller units. It remained in the district until early 1943, guarding the Soviet–Afghan border nearKerki andTermez. The 213th was transferred to theReserve of the Supreme High Command (RVGK) on 25 February of that year.[14] In mid-March, it joined the64th Army (soon to become the7th Guards Army) of theVoronezh Front and was sent to the Gremyachye area. At the end of March, its units fought in fierce offensive battles to seize the railway station of Kreyda, then in April and May, as part of the25th Guards Rifle Corps of the army, defended the line of theSeversky Donets nearBelgorod. Shevchenko was sent to the rear for treatment of an illness in June and was replaced by ColonelIvan Buslayev.[15]
The 213th fought against the attacks of the4th Panzer Army andArmy Detachment Kempf during theBattle of Kursk in July. Remaining with the 7th Guards Army for the Soviet offensive that began in August, it transferred to the37th Army of the2nd Ukrainian Front in November after theBattle of the Dnieper. The division spent most of 1944 with the48th Rifle Corps of the52nd Army. After advancing through Romania in August and September of that year, the 52nd Army transferred to the RVGK and was moved north to join the1st Ukrainian Front by November. With the 52nd Army, the division fought in theVistula–Oder Offensive in January, theUpper Silesian Offensive in March, theSiege of Breslau, and thePrague Offensive in May.[14]
After the end of the war, from late June, the 52nd Army was withdrawn to Poland and then to western Ukraine. Later that year, the 213th was stationed atLvov, still with the 48th Rifle Corps. When the headquarters of the 52nd Army became that of the8th Tank Army on 12 June 1946, the division was disbanded with its corps.[16]
