User:Ryan.opel/90th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

90th Rifle Division
Active	Sep 1936 - 1946
Country	Soviet Union
Allegiance	Red Army
Branch	Infantry
Size	Division
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner
Battle honours	Winter War Great Patriotic War Baltic Operation (1941)

History

Formed in September 1936 in the Leningrad Military District.

The 90th Rifle Division had won the Order of the Red Banner for helping to break the Mannerheim Line in Finland in March 1940.

On 22 June 1941 the division headquarters was in the forest 5 km northeast of Shilale in Lithuania, with division units in camps at Kvedarna, Pagramantis, and Kaltinenai and three rifle battalions on line near the border as a covering force. The division was unique among units in the west in that it still had its own tank battalion in June 1941, but as the battalion was equipped entirely with T-26 light tanks and amphibious tankettes, it didn't last long once the fighting started. The division retreated with the rest of the 10th Rifle Corps back to the Luga area, where it joined the Luga Group in early July, and by the end of the month was at Kingisepp.

The 90th was assigned to the 55th Army on 31 August 1941, covering the southern approaches to Leningrad, and it remained there, under that army, until January 1943.

In 1943 the division was shuttled back and forth between 2nd Shock Army and 67th Army in Leningrad Front, and when the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive started on 14 January 1944, it was in 2nd Shock Army. In late January 1944 the division was assigned to the 108th Rifle Corps, then in 42nd Army of the Leningrad Front, and it remained in that corps for the rest of the war. With 108th Corps, 90th Rifle Division was assigned to the 21st Army of Leningrad Front and took part in the June 1944 offensive that drove the Finns back from Leningrad and took Vyborg. By this time the 19th Rifle Regiment had been replaced in the division by the 137th Rifle Regiment, which won the Order of the Red Banner and the honorific title: 'Vyborgskii" for taking the city of Vyborg in Finland. Casualties were so heavy in these attacks that in July 1944 the 108th Rifle Brigade was disbanded and used to reinforce the 90th Division's regiments.

In September 1944 the 90th Rifle Division was moved to the 2nd Shock Army, in 2nd Belorussian Front under which it fought for the rest of the war.

The division was probably disbanded along with the 2nd Shock Army in 1946.

Subordinate Units

As of 22 June 1941.

19th Rifle Regiment (replaced by 137th RR)

137th Rifle Regiment (assingend in 1944)

173rd Rifle Rigement

286th Rifle Regiment

96th Light Artillery Regiment

146th Howitzzer Regiment

206th Antiaircraft Battalion

66th Antitank Battalion

17th Sapper Battalion

54th Tank Battalion

69th Signal Battalion