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1st Guards Motor Rifle Division

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1st Rifle Division (1918 - 1920)?
1st Moscow Rifle Division (c.1926-27 - 1940)
1st Moskva Motor Rifle Division (1940 - 1941)
1st Guards Moskva Motor Rifle Division (1941 - 1943)
1st Guards Moskva Rifle Division (1943 - 1957)
1st Guards Moskva Motor Rifle Division (1957 - 2002)
Active1918 - 1920, 1926 - 2002
Country Soviet Union (1918 - 1920, 1926 - 1991)
 Russia (1991 - 2002)
Branch Red Army (1918 - 1920, 1926 - 1991)
Russian Ground Forces (1991 - 2002)
TypeInfantry
SizeDivision
Part of11th Guards Army (1945 - 1998)
EngagementsWorld War II

The 1st Guards Prolitariat Moscow-Minsk Order of Lenin, twice Red Banner Orders of Suvorov (II) and Kutuzov (II) Motor Rifle Division (Template:Lang-ru) was a division of the Red Army and Russian Ground Forces active from c.1918 to 2002.

History

The division was first formed at Petrograd, November 1918. It fought around Olonets with the 6th and 7th armies from November 1918 into 1920. Defended the Aleksandrovsk-Melitopol railroad line on the Southern Front in August 1920. Awarded the Order of the Red Banner in October 1920. Reorganized as a brigade of the 15th Rifle Division in November 1920.

Interwar period

It was then re-formed either in December 1924 or at the beginning of 1927 in the Moscow Military District,[1] gaining the title of the "1st Moscow Proletariat Red Banner Rifle Division". Pavel Batov was a battalion and then regiment commander in the division in the late 1920s. In August 1939 it raised cadres for 115th and 126th rifle divisions.

In the mid 1930s the 1st Division was also the first to use modern headgear and weapons for the rising WPRA.

World War II

It was re-raised from its single remaining regiment in September 1939 (second formation), but in January 1940 formed the 1st Moscow Motor Rifle Division. On 22 June 1941 it was part of the 7th Mechanised Corps, alongside the 14th and 18th tank divisions in the Moscow Military District, assigned to the 20th Army.[2] It was the first Soviet formation to use T-34 tanks, at Borisov, on June 30, 1941. It fought at Orsha, between Minsk and Moscow, and at Yartsevo in Sep 1941.

On September 21, 1941 it was renamed the "1st Guards Moscow Motor Rifle Division".[3] It fought at Vyazma, Bryansk, and Rzhev. On November 1, 1942 it was part of 20th Army, Western Front.[4] After the Rzhev-Sychevka offensive operation in 1942 it was renamed (again) as the "1st Guards Rifle Division", in January 1943.[5] In 1943 it saw the Oryol, Bryansk and Gorodok offensives. Later it fought in Byelorussia, Gumbinnen, East Prussia, and Kurland. Awarded 'Minsk' honorific in July 1944. With the 11th Guards Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front in May 1945.

Post war

The division was for all of the post-war period stationed in Kaliningrad. It formed part of the 11th Guards Army. It became the 1st Guards Moscow MRD (again) in 1957. Of the regiments of the war period, the 171st Guards was eliminated, but instead in March 1959 came the 12th Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment. Virtually all of the time the division was truncated.[6]

For much of the 1990s the 1st Guards MRD was reduced to a strength of only 4,400 men, but in 2002 was reduced in size again to the 7th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, and, circa 2009-10, was reduced yet again, this time renamed as the 7th Independent "Proletarian Moscow-Minsk" Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Baltic Fleet (Template:Lang-ru).

Notes

  1. ^ Slaughterhouse says December 1926
  2. ^ http://www.tashv.nm.ru/BoevojSostavSA
  3. ^ Keith E. Bonn (ed.), Slaughterhouse, Aberjona Press, 2005, p.358
  4. ^ http://www.tashv.nm.ru/BoevojSostavSA/1942/19421101.html
  5. ^ This was the second formation of 1st Guards Rifle Division. This should not be confused with the first formation of the 1st Guards Rifle Division, formed from the 100th Rifle Division, which was later reorganized as the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union).
  6. ^ Micheal Holm, 1st Guards Motorised Rifle Division, 2015.

References

  • Poirier and Connor, The Red Army Order of Battle
  • Bonn, Keith E. (2005). Slaughterhouse: Handbook of the Eastern Front. Bedford, PA: Aberjona Press. ISBN 0-9717650-9-X.
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