32nd Rifle Division
|
32nd Rifle Division |
|
|---|---|
| active | 1934 to 1942 |
| Country |
 Soviet Union
|
| Armed forces |
Red Army
|
| Armed forces | Land Forces |
| Type | division |
The 32nd Rifle Division (32nd SD, in Russian 32-я стрелковая дивизия (1-го формирования)) was a major military unit of the Red Army from 1934 to 1942 . It was set up in 1934 in Vladivostok as the Siberian Rifle Division and served as part of the 39th Rifle Corps in the Far East military district of the USSR . There she took part in a series of border skirmishes on the Manchurian border near Lake Chassan . In 1941 it consisted of the 17th, 113th and 322nd Rifle Regiments, as well as the 133rd and 154th Artillery Regiment.
Defense during the German company "Taifun"
.JPG)
While the 32nd Rifle Division served under the 25th Army in the Far East military district, the German Reich attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The German Army Group Center was in front of Smolensk in September , as Hitler had ordered the capture of Kiev to secure the southern flank. This allowed the Red Army to build its defenses west of Moscow . At the beginning of October 1941, the offensive on Moscow in the Taifun company was continued. The 32nd Rifle Division was ordered to the west and moved by rail to the defensive line at Moshaisk . There was the center of Moscow's First Defense Line, which stretched about 300 kilometers from Kalinin to Kaluga . The Commander-in-Chief of the 5th Army, which secured the section at Moshaisk, was General Dmitri Danilowitsch Lelyushenko . On October 10, 1941, the advance commandos of the 32nd Rifle Division had reached the Borodino sector , about 110 kilometers from Moscow, where they dug in for defense. In September 1812, the Borodino battlefield was the historical scene between Napoleon Bonaparte and the Russian Tsar. Colonel Victor Ivanovich Polosuchin (born February 28, 1904 Novokuznetsk ; † February 18, 1942 Moshaisk ), commander of the 32nd Rifle Division, speculated on delaying the German advance until another line of defense could be built in the rear. The German attack took place with the 10th Panzer Division and the SS Division “Das Reich” on October 13, 1941 with the focus on the village of Jelnja II in the area of the 17th Rifle Regiment. The bitterly fought battle of Borodino lasted five days from October 13 to 18, 1941 and ended with the 32nd Rifle Division being completely destroyed. Mozhaisk fell on October 18, 1941 and the Red Army had to withdraw further east. The 32nd Rifle Division inflicted heavy losses on the German attack formations and slowed down the advance on Moscow decisively through the dogged defense and "self-sacrifice" which was transfigured to the point of myth formation. The survivors of the division remained on the front line until November 1941, fighting in the winter battle for Moscow.
Re-established as the 29th Guards Rifle Division
The Stawka renamed the 32nd Rifle Division after the victorious Battle of Moscow in the 29th Guards Rifle Division and awarded the 17th Rifle Regiment the Order of Red Banner for special bravery . In January 1944, the 29th Guards Rifle Division reappeared as part of the 37th Army in Ukraine. Towards the end of 1944 the unit was relocated to the Baltic Sea area, where it took part in the reconquest of Riga . At the end of the war, the division was subordinate to Colonel BM Lasarew and the 10th Guard Army (Lieutenant General Kazakow ) in the Baltic region.
post war period
After the Second World War , the 29th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as a mechanized division and renamed the 144th MOT Guards Rifle Division in 1965. She was stationed in Tallinn . After the end of the Soviet Union, the 144th MOT Guards Rifle Division was withdrawn to Jelnja in the Moscow military district, where it was to serve as the 4944th base for the storage of weapons and equipment. It was planned to bring them back to full division strength in the event of a crisis. As part of the Russian military reform of 2008, the unit was dissolved.
Web links
- Organization of the 29th Guards Rifle Division (Russian)
- В огне битвы под Москвой - Report on the deployment of the 32nd Rifle Division in the Battle of Moscow (Russian)
literature
- John Erickson: The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War with Germany, Phoenix Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-304-36541-8 .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Borodino, Moscow Oblast - Бородино́, Моско́вская о́бласть.
- ↑ Mozhaysk defense operation 1941, 10-30.10. ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ not to be confused with Jelnja I in Smolensk Oblast.
- ^ RIA Novosti, Battle of Moscow, Harbinger of Victory
