| 13th Guards Rifle Division 39th Guards Mechanised Division 13th Guards Tank Division | |
|---|---|
| 13-я гвардейская стрелковая Полтавская ордена Ленина дважды Краснознамённая орденов Суворова и Кутузова дивизия | |
 Soviet Guards badge | |
| Active | 1942–1989 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Allegiance | Soviet Army |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Engagements | Battle of Kharkov Battle of Stalingrad Battle of Kursk Battle of the Dnieper Operation Bagration Battle of Berlin |
| Decorations |  Order of Lenin Order of the Red Banner (twice) Order of Suvorov Order of Kutuzov |
| Battle honours | Poltava[1] |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | |
The13th Guards Poltava Order of Lenin Twice Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Rifle Division (Russian:13-я гвардейская стрелковая Полтавская ордена Ленина дважды Краснознамённая орденов Суворова и Кутузова дивизия) was aninfantrydivision of theRed Army that was highly decorated duringWorld War II.
Formed in January 1942 from the87th Rifle Division (Second Formation) in January 1942, the division suffered heavy losses in theSecond Battle of Kharkov and the subsequent Soviet retreat. Rebuilt, the division entered theBattle of Stalingrad in mid-September, in which it distinguished itself during several months of urban combat in the city center and atMamayev Kurgan. After the end of the battle in early February, the division was withdrawn for rebuilding and in July 1943 joined the5th Guards Army with which it spent the rest of the war. The division fought in theBattle of Kursk and the subsequent Soviet advance into Ukraine, capturingDresden in the last days of the war.
After the end of the war, the division was reorganized as the13th Guards Mechanised Division. It became part of the Soviet occupation forces in Austria during theCold War and served there until the Soviet withdrawal from the country in 1955. The division was disbanded and merged into the39th Mechanised Division, which was redesignated as the39th Guards Mechanized Division to perpetuate the traditions of the 13th Guards. The division fought in the suppression of theHungarian Revolution of 1956 and was stationed in Hungary for the rest of the Cold War. It was converted into the21st Guards Tank Division in 1957 and returned to its wartime number as the13th Guards Tank Division in 1965. As the Cold War drew to a close, the division was withdrawn to Crimea in 1989 and disbanded there under Soviet military reductions.
On 6 November 1941, the87th Rifle Division (Second Formation) was re-formed and placed under the command of former commander of 5th Airborne BrigadeAlexander Rodimtsev. On 19 January 1942, the 87th Rifle Division was officially awarded Guards status and was re-designated as the 13th Guards Rifle Division.[2]
In May 1942, the 13th Division was involved in the Soviet counter-offensive at Kharkov, where they fought on its northern axis, thus escaping the encirclement and destruction of a substantial portion of the Soviet forces engaged, followed by the Russian defeat. During this offensive, the division suffered more than fifty-percent casualties, most of which were sustained in the repelling of fierce German counter-attacks. It was during one of these attacks that anArtilleryCaptain of the 13th earned the firstOrder of the Great Patriotic War 1st Class to be awarded. Following his unit's success during this offensive, Colonel Rodimtsev was subsequently promoted to Major General. The division was withdrawn from the front on 16 July to be rebuilt.
On 13 September of that year, Germaninfantry divisions made their first advance intoStalingrad, marking the opening salvos of theBattle of Stalingrad. By the end of the day the German71st Infantry Division had reached the city centre, north of the Tsaritsa Gorge. AStavka directive ordered the 13th Guards Division (in the midst of its resupply and reinforcement) to theVolga River and Stalingrad. After being briefed byLieutenant GeneralVasily Chuikov, the commander of the62nd Army, Rodimtsev famously and determinedly declared: "I am a Communist! I have no intention of abandoning the city [Stalingrad]!"
Because of the recent influx of new recruits, the division was now largely inexperienced and untrained, and lacked both maps and knowledge of Stalingrad's rubble-strewn streets, which would prove enormously difficult to overcome in the struggle ahead. However, thanks to his experience fighting in theSpanish Civil War, Major General Rodimtsev was well versed inurban warfare. At 17.00, 14 September, the forward elements of the 13th Guards swiftly crossed the river to reinforce a line that was being held by a mere 15 tanks and few hastily assembled combat groups. It is estimated that more than half of the first wave perished during the river crossing, more than 3,000 being killed in just the first 24 hours. Ultimately, after extremely heavy losses on both sides, the German advance was repelled. Rodimtsev's soldiers recaptured the Mill and secured the central river crossing for other regiments of the 13th Guards.
The following morning one of Rodimtsev's junior officers,Lieutenant Anton Kuzmich Dragan was personally ordered by Chuikov to hold a key railroad station in downtown Stalingrad against an impending German assault. Dragan proceeded to gather aplatoon of less than fifty men and moved them over to the railroad station. Here, the small but determined force prepared itself for the German attack.
Soon after digging in, a substantial force of German infantrymen arrived to seize control of the station. The Russians proceeded to repeatedly frustrate the Germans in an epic room-by-room struggle for control of the depot for nearly three weeks. Breaking through walls, crawling over rafters, and burrowing under the floorboards, the Russians would yield but a portion of the structure to the Germans, only to emerge elsewhere and start the struggle all over again.
Exchanging gunfire down hallways, hurling grenades back and forth between rooms, Dragan's men inflicted significant casualties on the Germans. In spite of this heroic resistance, Dragan's platoon was eventually reduced to a handful of men. After running out of ammunition, and with their rations gone, one of the Soviet Guardsmen took out his bayonet and carved on a wall,
Under cover of darkness, Dragan and the five remaining soldiers under his command eventually slipped out of the building, made their way through the German lines, and were reunited with the remainder of the division.
The battle at theMamaev Kurgan began approximately three weeks after the brutal fighting between the German and Russian infantrymen had begun in the outskirts of Stalingrad, on 15 September. During this portion of the battle, the division fought several Wehrmacht divisions for control of the park's central hilltop summit, which changed hands multiple times. Meanwhile, other divisional units fought in different sectors of Stalingrad. The division was in the midst of the combat throughout the city in the remains of the bombed-out buildings and factories, on the slopes of the Mamaev Kurgan hills, in theRed October Tractor Plant and in the key strategic building known as "Pavlov's House" (Yakov Pavlov was the commanding NCO of the platoon which defended the building). Most accounts state that of the 10,000 men of the division that crossed the Volga into the Battle of Stalingrad, only between 280 and 320 of them survived the struggle.
Following the Soviet victory at Stalingrad and the destruction of theGerman 6th Army, the 13th Guards were again pulled from the lines for re-fit and re-supply. Alongside the5th Guards Army (Voronezh Front), the division was held in reserve south ofKursk, in order to counter the forthcoming German offensive there –Operation Citadel. The original intention was for these two formations tocounter-attack the Germans after the German assault had been ground down by the front line Soviet units, but both formations were committed to prevent a possible breakthrough. After several days of continuous fierce fighting (including the tankbattle at Prokhorovka, in which the division's small number of armored units participated in), they successfully ground the eliteWaffen-SS formations to a standstill. Meanwhile, the rifle battalions of the 13th held the line around Oboyan, repelling attacks from their trenches. Relatively few casualties were sustained because the Germans were focusing their attention on Prokhorovka by the time they had moved up from the reserve area in the rear.
Shortly thereafter, the 13th Guards Rifle Division advanced south-westwards, where they participated in the Red Army's assault to liberateUkraine from German control. The division took part in thePoltava-Kremenchuk Operation [ru] in which they gained control of the town ofPoltava after extremely fierce fighting, it was liberated on 23 September 1943. This is indicated by the designation of13th Guards Rifle Division, Poltava (given in September 1943), which shows that the division was cited for their actions in seizing Poltava. After Poltava the division took part in thebattle of the Dnieper. It was assigned to accomplish a false crossing of the Dnieper River to confuse the Germans and allow for crossings further north and south. Elements of the division crossed the river on floats and rafts to reach the island of Peschanny to the north-west ofKremenchuk where German infantry had occupied the west side of the island and had to be dislodged in hand-to-hand combat. The division forces sustained heavy losses in this operation when they were pinned down by enemy fire (even the deputy commander of the divisionPavel Gayev was killed in action on the battlefield when commanding the operation[3]).
After theKremenchuk the division fought in theKirovograd offensive, theUman–Botoșani offensive, and theLvov–Sandomierz offensive.[4] For its capture ofNovoukrainka and the key rail junction ofPomoshnaya during the Uman–Botoșani Offensive, the division was awarded theOrder of Suvorov 2nd class on 29 March. It received a second Order of the Red Banner on 1 April 1944 for the capture ofPervomaysk. In July the division and the army fought in theLvov–Sandomierz offensive as part of the1st Ukrainian Front.[5]
During the Red Army's final drive into Germany, the division was a part of the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps or was under direct command of the5th Guards Army (2nd Ukrainian Front). This force drove the Germans back through northern Ukraine and central Poland in to the northern regions of Germany itself.
The division fought in theVistula–Oder offensive, capturingBusko-Zdrój andCzęstochowa, and crossing the German border on 19 January 1945. In February and early March 1945 the 13th Guards fought in theUpper Silesian offensive and theLower Silesian offensive. During theBerlin Offensive, from 16 to 21 April, the division, as part of the army shock group, forced theNeisse and theSpree, advancing 60 km to cut theDresden–Lübbenautobahn northwest ofSenftenberg. The 13th Guards reachedTorgau on theElbe on 23 April, its troops met with American units. For its "courage and valor" in the breakthrough of German defenses on the Neisse, the division was awarded theOrder of Kutuzov 2nd class on 28 May. The division then turned southwards with the 5th Guards Army in thePrague offensive, in which it captured the strategic rail junction ofDresden on 8 May. During the war, over 20,000 soldiers of the division were decorated, and nineteen received the highest Soviet award,Hero of the Soviet Union.[5]
The division became part of theCentral Group of Forces after the war and by 1 November 1945 had been converted into the 13th Guards Mechanised Division. The division was stationed in Vienna until 1955, when the group was disbanded following the Soviet withdrawal from Austria.[6] The division was disbanded and its personnel and equipment became part of the39th Mechanised Division of the38th Army in theCarpathian Military District on 9 September 1955. On 4 December, the 39th Mechanised was redesignated as a Guards unit and inherited the lineage of the 13th Guards.[7] In 1956, duringOperation Whirlwind, the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the 38th Army covered the Austrian and Yugoslavian borders of Hungary on the right bank of theDanube. After the end of the invasion, the division became part of theSouthern Group of Forces atVeszprém, where it remained for much of theCold War. In December 1956, the 39th Guards became the 21st Guards Tank Division. In January 1965, the 21st Guards was renumbered as the 13th Guards Tank Division,[4] restoring its World War II designation. According to American military sources corroborated by Vitaly Feskov and others, in September 1989, the division was transferred toSovietske, Crimea in theOdessa Military District. It was disbanded there in December. The division's 130th Guards Tank Regiment, 56th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion, and 77th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion became part of the19th Guards Tank Division in Belarus.[8][9]
The division's final honorifics in 1988 included 'Poltava', Order of Lenin, Twice Red Banner, Suvorov and Kutuzov.
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