| 414th Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1941–1956 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | .svg) Red Army |
| Type | Division |
| Role | Infantry |
| Engagements | Battle of the Caucasus Kuban Bridgehead Kerch–Eltigen Operation Crimean Offensive |
| Decorations |  Order of the Red Banner |
| Battle honours | Anapa |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Col. Grigory Ivanovich Sherstnev Col. Ivan Fedorovich Ioskevich Col. Nikolai Georgievich Selikhov Col. Pyotr Ivanovich Metalnikov Col. Georgy Gavrilovich Kurashvili Maj. Gen. Valerian Sergeevich Dzabakhidze |
The414th Rifle Division was twice formed as an infantry division of theRed Army; very briefly in the winter of 1941/42, then from the spring of 1942 until after May 1945. It was officially considered aGeorgian National division, having nearly all its personnel of that nationality in its second formation. After its second formation it remained in service in the Caucasus near the borders of Turkey and Iran in the44th Army until the summer of 1942, when it was redeployed to help counter the German drive towardGrozny. As GermanArmy Group A retreated from the Caucasus in January 1943 the division was reassigned to the37th Army inNorth Caucasus Front, and during the fighting in theTaman Peninsula during the summer it served in both the58th and18th Armies, earning a battle honor in the process. It entered the Crimea during the Kerch–Eltigen Operation in November, and was awarded theOrder of the Red Banner following the offensive that liberated that region in April and May 1944, fighting in the11th Guards Rifle Corps of theSeparate Coastal Army. After the Crimea was cleared the Coastal Army remained as a garrison and the 414th stayed there for the duration of the war. Postwar, it was relocated toTbilisi, being renumbered as the 74th Rifle Division in 1955 and disbanded the following year.
The 414th Rifle Division began forming for the first time on December 15, 1941, in the area ofKotlas, in accordance with an order of theArkhangelsk Military District. It was composed of conscripts fromArkhangelsk andVologda Oblasts and personnel transferred from the 29th Reserve Rifle Brigade atVologda. Colonel Grigory Ivanovich Sherstnev was assigned as commander on the day the division began forming.[1] Sherstnev had gained considerable fame in August when he led a group of student officers from the Odessa Military School in successfully holding back an enemy attack at Pomoshchnaia Station in southern Ukraine.[2] Having completed its formation by January 10, 1942, the 414th was renumbered as the second formation of the28th Rifle Division late that month; Sherstnev continued in command of the latter.[3]
The 414th began forming again from February to April 18, 1942, atMakhachkala in theNorth Caucasus Military District.[4] Its order of battle,[5] based on the first wartimeshtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions, was as follows:[6]
The division was again officially named as a Georgian unit and its personnel were noted in April as being 95 percent of that nationality[8] It was first commanded by Col. Ivan Fedorovich Ioskevich who took up the post on April 18.[1] It remained in the reserves ofTranscaucasus Front until June, when it was assigned to the 44th Army in the same Front, which was on the border with Turkey, far from the fighting fronts.[9]
In August, as the German Army Group A was advancing into the Caucasus region as part ofOperation Blue, 44th Army was moved north and assigned to the Front's Northern Group of Forces. On August 161st Panzer Army began a drive onMozdok with itsXXXX Panzer Corps, aiming as well for theTerek River on the route to Grozny. 44th Army was committed to the Terek front from east of Mozdok to the Caspian Sea coast north of Makhachkala with three rifle divisions (414th,416th and223rd), four rifle brigades and scant armor support. Mozdok was taken from elements of the9th Army on August 25 but reinforcements allowed that Army to hold along the south bank of the Terek. By the following day 1st Panzer Army had come to a virtual standstill. In the first days of September the Soviet defenses were reorganized and by now the 44th Army's front along the Terek ran from northwest of Grozny toKizlyar facing the3rd Panzer Division and elements ofLII Army Corps screening the panzer army's left flank.[10]
The LII Corps began its thrust across the Terek in the Mozdok sector at 0200 hours on September 2 as a start to a new offensive on Grozny andOrdzhonikidze, but it was not until late on 18th that the Corps'111th Infantry Division, backed by the 3rd Panzer, managed break through the Soviet defenses at the western end of its bridgehead. The offensive was renewed on September 25 by the13th Panzer Division but continued to move at a slow pace. On September 29, to secure the defense of the two cities and prepare to go over to the counteroffensive theSTAVKA ordered a redeployment:
"The 414th and347th Rifle Divisions, 11th Guards Rifle Corps, 84th and 131st Rifle Brigades, and 5th Guards Tank in the Nizhnye Achaluki, Psedakh and Zamanrul regions [south of Mozdok and the lower Terek River]."
The planning for the counterattack took place during October 23–25 and the 414th was intended to remain in reserve with the 11th Guards and10th Guards Rifle Corps to reinforce success. In the event the 1st Panzer Army launched its own attack on October 25 and this planning fell into abeyance. The German offensive made steady gains but was halted on the western outskirts of Ordzhonikidze on November 5. As of November 1 the division was still being held in the reserves of the Northern Group of Forces.[11]
On November 9 Colonel Ioskevich handed his command of the division to Lt. Col. Ivan Pavlovich Babalashvili, but this officer in turn was replaced by Col. Nikolai Georgievich Selikhov on December 13.[1] In January 1943 as the German forces retreated from the Caucasus the division was moved to the 37th Army on the new North Caucasus Front, but in February it was again reassigned, now to 58th Army in the same Front.[12][13] On February 18 Col. Pyotr Ivanovich Metalnikov took over command from Colonel Selikhov. By this time the German17th Army had completed its withdrawal to the "Goth's Head" position in theKuban region. The fighting here would go on intermittently until the German forces completed their evacuation to the Crimea in October. While this was underway, on September 21 the division was awarded a battle honor:
"ANAPA"... 414th Rifle Division (Col. Kurashvili, Georgy Gavrilovich)... The troops who participated in the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, during which they captured Anapa and other settlements, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 21 September 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns."[14]
The division was part of 18th Army at this time.[15] Colonel Kurashvili had taken command from Colonel Metalnikov on June 20.[1]
The amphibious assault across theKerch strait into eastern Crimea began on November 1, just days after the last German forces evacuated the Taman. Since there was relatively little shipping available the operation was run on a shoestring,[16] and the 414th was not part of the initial landing forces. As of the beginning of December the division was in the20th Rifle Corps of the Separate Coastal Army;[17] it would remain in this Army for the duration of the war. Coastal Army crossed into the bridgehead gained by the56th Army early that month, but its advance was halted just east of the town ofKerch, where it would remain until the main offensive began in April.[18] On January 7, 1944, Col. Stepan Artemovich Beruchashvili took over the division from Colonel Kurashvili, but in a final change of command on February 22 Beruchashvili handed over to Maj. Gen. Valerian Sergeevich Dzabakhidze.[1]
At the start of the Crimean offensive on April 8 the 414th was in 11th Guards Rifle Corps with the2nd and32nd Guards Rifle Divisions, the 83rd Naval Infantry Brigade and the 85th Tank Regiment. The main forces of4th Ukrainian Front struck the German-Romanian positions on thePerekop Isthmus and across theSivash and soon began gaining ground. On the Kerch peninsula the GermanV Army Corps began retreating on the night of April 9/10 with over 160 km to cover to reach relative safety aroundSevastopol and with the Coastal Army hard on its heels. The German force reached positions on the Parpach Narrows on the 12th, but could not hold them and with the2nd Guards Army heading forSimferopol in its rear the V Corps was ordered toFeodosia orSudak from where it could be evacuated by sea; some 10,000 men were able to escape from the latter port. The German corps reached the eastern outskirts of Sevastopol on April 16, but had lost 70 percent of its artillery and heavy weapons and thousands of men in the retreat.[19]
The Coastal Army launched a strong attack against V Corps' positions aroundBalaklava on April 19 but made little progress. On May 5 the 4th Ukrainian Front began its final assault. Late on May 8 Hitler finally authorized the evacuation of the remainder of 17th Army. The next morning Coastal Army continued attacking, backed by the19th Tank Corps as the German forces abandoned Sevastopol and retreated to theChersonese Peninsula, hoping for evacuation. On the morning of May 13 the final German/Romanian positions were overrun.[20] On May 24 the 414th was recognized for its role in the liberation of Sevastopol with the award of the Order of the Red Banner.[21] Following this the Coastal Army was retained in the Crimea as a garrison, and the division did not see any further fighting, remaining there in theReserve of the Supreme High Command until the end of the war.[22]
Stationed atDzhankoy, the division became part of theTaurida Military District when the Separate Coastal Army headquarters was used to form the latter on July 9, 1945.[23] It transferred toTbilisi by September 1946, joining the13th Rifle Corps of the reformed Transcaucasus Military District. Retaining its status as a Georgian national division for the remainder of its existence, the 414th transferred to the newly formed22nd Rifle Corps when the 13th Corps became a mountain unit in 1949 and was renumbered as the 74th Rifle Division in 1955. The latter was disbanded in mid-1956, along with the remaining national divisions.[24]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Divisions of the Soviet Union 1945–1957 | |||||||||
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