29th Motor Rifle Division
The 29th Polotskaya Order of Suvorov Motor Rifle Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces.
On 28.09.1920 the division was formed at Omsk as the 4th Rifle Division (Приказ по войскам Сибири № 284). It became the 1st Siberian Rifle Division on 26.10.1920 (Приказ по войскам Сибири № 406), and then the 29-ю сд on 15.11.1920 (Приказ Помглавкома по Сибири № 450). Officially redesignated as a mechanised division on 4 July 1940. With 6th Mechanised Corps, 10th Army, Western Front on 22 June 1941. Poirer and Connor appear to say it was wiped out near Minsk in July 1941. It was formally disbanded on 19 September 1941.[1]
It was then recreated from the 7th Moscow People's Militia Division in July 1941, and again wiped out at Vyazma in October 1941.
On December 5, 1941 recreation of the 29th Rifle Division began in Akmolinsk, Kazakhstan, and its organization was completed on January 16, 1942. It was reformed on the basis of the very short lived 459th Rifle Division.[2] The division was made up of 106th, 128th, 299th Rifle and 77th Artillery Regiments. Other units included the 125th Anti-Tank, 78th Saper, 124th Signal, and 29th Medical Battalions, and the 104th Reconnaissance Company. The division was held in reserve until June 1942, when its men were deemed to have received sufficient training.
In July 1943 29th Rifle Division was ordered to move to Stalingrad and join the 64th Army. In August 1942 units of the division first met with the Germans. During Battle of Stalingrad they killed 5,242 and took 13,447 captive.
On February 2, 1943 the Battle of Stalingrad was finally over. Due to the heroism of the soldiers, the 29th Rifle Division (2nd formation) was redesignated the 72nd Guard Rifle Division by Directorate of the General Staff order №104 on March 1, 1943.
| 29th Rifle Division | 72nd Guard Rifle Division |
|---|---|
| 106 Rifle Regiment | 222 Guards Rifle Regiment |
| 128 Rifle Regiment | 224 Guards Rifle Regiment |
| 77 Artillery Regiment | 155 Guards Artillery Regiment |
The 29th Rifle Division was recreated in 1943 and saw action at Kirovograd. It gained the honorific 'Polotsk'. With 6th Guards Army of the Kurland Group (Leningrad Front) May 1945.
In summer 1945, the 123rd Rifle Corps, with the 29th Rifle Division, arrived in the Volga Military District. Corps headquarters was established at Kuibyshev and 29th Rifle Division at Shikhany.[3] The division became the 63rd Mechanised Division by 1955, then the 110th Motor Rifle Division was activated on 4 June 1957 in Shikhany, Saratov Oblast, from the 63rd Mechanised Division.[4] From 1957 to 1960 the division was part of the 40th Army Corps, Volga Military District.
On 17 November 1964 it was renamed the 29th Motor Rifle Division.[4] In April 1968 it was moved to Kamen-Rybolov, Primorsky Krai, and joined the 5th Red Banner Army.
It was disbanded in 1994.
References
- ↑ RKKA.ru, 29th Rifle Division (formed 1920)
- ↑ Grylev, A., Gen. Maj., Perecheni No.5 of the General Staff: Rifle, mountain, motor-rifle and motorised divisions included in the active army during the years of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, Military-scientific directorate of the General Staff, Moscow, 1970, via www.soldat.ru, Perechen, verified 4 June 2008, p. 20.
- ↑ V.I. Feskov et al 2013, p.508.
- 1 2 Michael Holm, 29th Motor Rifle Division and V.I. Feskov, Golikov V.I., K.A. Kalashnikov, and S.A. Slugin. The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II, from the Red Army to the Soviet (Part 1: Land Forces). (Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской (часть 1: Сухопутные войска)). Tomsk, 2013. p. 205. (Table 5.2.2). Improved version of 2004 work with many inaccuracies corrected.
