221st Rifle Division
Military unit / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 221st Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was redesignated about four weeks after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. After several further redesignations the division, which had always been a rifle division for all intents and purposes, was destroyed during Operation Typhoon in October 1941.
221st Motorized Division (March 11 – July 15, 1941) 221st Rifle Division (April 16 – November 1, 1942) 221st Rifle Division (June 29, 1943 – October 1945) | |
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Active | 1941–1945 |
Country | Soviet Union |
Branch | Red Army |
Type | Infantry |
Role | Motorized Infantry |
Size | Division |
Engagements | Operation Barbarossa Battle of Smolensk (1941) Case Blue Battle of Stalingrad Donbas strategic offensive (August 1943) Melitopol Offensive Proskurov-Chernivtsi Offensive Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive East Prussian offensive Battle of Königsberg Samland offensive Soviet invasion of Manchuria |
Decorations | Order of the Red Banner (2nd formation) Order of Suvorov (2nd formation) |
Battle honours | Mariupol (2nd formation) Khingan (2nd formation) |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Col. Gersh Moiseevich Roitenberg Col. Pavel Ivanovich Bunyashin Col. Ivan Ivanovich Blazhevich Maj. Gen. Vladislav Nikolaevich Kushnarenko |
The first official 221st Rifle Division was formed in the spring of 1942 in the Ural Military District from a mix of several Central Asian nationalities. It arrived in Stalingrad Front in late August and was immediately thrown into the offensives that were attempting to break through the German corridor from the Don River to the city in order to relieve 62nd Army. The Kotluban offensives were expensive failures and by the end of October the division was so badly depleted that it was disbanded.
A new 221st was formed in 5th Shock Army of Southern Front in late June 1943, based on a rifle brigade. After assisting in the breakthrough of the German defenses along the Mius River it advanced through the southeastern Ukraine and won a battle honor for the liberation of Mariupol. From here the division followed an unusual combat path, serving as a sort of utility unit on several sectors of the front, first west of Kiev where it won the Order of the Red Banner, then well to the north as part of 7th and 21st Armies in the final offensives against Finland. It then joined 39th Army in 3rd Belorussian Front, taking part in the campaigns in East Prussia in 1945 winning a further decoration in the process. Before the German surrender it began moving with this Army across the Soviet Union to serve in the invasion of Manchuria in August, where it won a second battle honor. Within months of the Japanese capitulation it was disbanded in the far east.