52nd Rocket Division

23rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division (15 January 1943–9 September 1955) 97th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division (9 September 1955–1960) 52nd Rocket Division (30 May 1961–1 December 2002)
Emblem of the 52nd Rocket Division
Active	1943–1960 1961–2002
Land	Soviet Union Russland
Branch	Red Army (Soviet Army from 1946) Strategic Rocket Forces (from 1961)
Typ	Division
Role	Air defense (1943–1960) Intercontinental ballistic missile (1961–2001)
Part of	31st Rocket Army (1970–2002)
Garrison/HQ	Zvyozdny (Bershet) (1961–2002)
Anniversaries	27 June (formation)
Engagements	World War II
Decorations	Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd class  Order of the Red Star
Battle honours	Ternopol Berlin

The 52nd Rocket Division (Russian: 52-я ракетная дивизия) was a division of the Soviet and Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, active from 1961 to 2002. 

The division traced its lineage to the formation of the Red Army's 23rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division during World War II in January 1943. 

World War II

The 23rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (RVGK) began forming on 15 January 1943 in Moscow at the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Training Center. It was formed from personnel of the Sevastopol Anti-Aircraft Artillery School and VNOS (Air Warning, Observation, and Communications) troops, and was commanded by Colonel Nikolay Sitnikov. Writer Sergey Smirnov served with the division from its formation. The 23rd completed its formation on 21 February, and included the 1064th, 1336th, 1342nd, and the 1348th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiments. Two days later it joined the Northwestern Front, and was transported by rail to Kresttsy station, arriving there on 26 February. The division was tasked with providing air defense for 27th Army's supply stations in the Staraya Russa area and the airfields of the 6th Air Army in the areas of Zhernovka, Vypolzovo, Kresttsy, and Guzatino. It was spread out along 110 kilometers of railway line and up to 120 kilometers in the rear area, creating considerable command and control problems.

German aviation became more active from 1 March, and He 111 and Ju 88 bombers, as well as Bf 109 and Fw 190 fighters overflew locations defended by the 23rd multiple times a day at an altitude of five to six kilometers. The newly formed units of the division, which had previously conducted training, began combat operations. On 5 March the 2nd and 3rd Batteries of the 1064th Regiment repulsed multiple air attacks in the Parfino area. During April, the division repulsed seventeen German air raids, of which seven included several aircraft and ten of lone aircraft. Later that month the 23rd was transferred from the Northwestern Front to the RVGK and relocated to Voronezh Oblast. On 25 May it became part of the Steppe Front, providing air defense to the 27th Army, which had also relocated from the Northwestern Front.

In early August, with the 27th Army, the division advanced towards Grayvoron. It fought in fierce fighting in the crossing of the Vorskla River. Graivoron was captured on 7 August; during the battles in the area the 23rd claimed twelve enemy aircraft and 60 of its men were decorated. For most of the rest of the month, the division fought in stubborn fighting for the Vorskla crossings near Akhtyrka; the crossings changed hands multiple times. During these actions the men of the 23rd often had to use their guns in direct fire mode against German tanks and infantry. In the Akhtyrka fighting the division claimed 29 German aircraft and 72 of its men were decorated.

The 23rd then fought in the Battle of the Dnieper in the fall, responsible for providing air defense for the advance and supply lines of ground forces in the area of Zarubintsy and Grigoriyevka in the battles for the Bukrin bridgehead. After the capture of Kiev during the Battle of Kiev in early November the division fought in heavy fighting for Shepetovka, claiming seven enemy aircraft before the town was captured on 11 February 1944. For their actions in the Shepetovka fighting, 32 soldiers of the 1342nd Regiment were decorated. During the Proskurov–Chernovitsy Offensive, the division helped capture Ternopol on 19 April, and was awarded the name of the city as an honorific for its actions.

In the summer, the 23rd fought with the 60th Army, tasked with the initial breakthrough in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive. At the time it was commanded by Colonel Y. M. Lyubimov. The offensive began in mid-July, with the division covering the breakthrough of the 3rd Guards Tank Army and the 4th Guards Tank Army in the attack on Lvov, which was captured on 27 July. It claimed eighteen enemy aircraft downed and 4,745 German soldiers captured during the offensive, and for "exemplary fulfillment of command tasks" its 1064th Regiment was awarded the honorific Lvov. By the same decree, dated 10 August, the 1342nd and 1348th Regiments received the Order of the Red Banner.

In early January 1945, the division advanced out of the Sandomierz bridgehead, where it had ended the summer fighting, in the Sandomierz–Silesian Offensive. The 1st Ukrainian Front's attack was directed towards Kraków and southern Silesia. The former city was taken on 19 January, with the division claiming 32 enemy aircraft downed and capturing 2,280 soldiers in the offensive. For its actions, the 1064th Regiment received the Order of Kutuzov, 3rd class. After the capture of Kraków, the division continued advancing towards Ratibor, reaching the Oder on 2 February. Between 21 February and 14 March it helped defend the Dabrowskie Coal Basin region from German counterattack. For participating in the capture of the coal basin and of southern Upper Silesia, the 23rd was awarded the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 2nd class. In the subsequent attack on Ratibor, the division provided air defense for the crossing of the Oder by Soviet troops. Ratibor was captured on 30 March, and the division claimed 28 enemy aircraft downed in the fighting. For "exemplary performance of command tasks" in the attack on Ratibor the 23rd Division was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

From 16 April, the division fought in the Battle of Berlin. Between 21 and 30 April it provided air defense for the ground troops. The soldiers of the division also fought in urban warfare in the streets of Berlin, participating in the capture of eight city blocks. During the battle, the 23rd claimed sixteen aircraft downed and killed numerous German soldiers. For "courage and valor" in the capture of Berlin, the 23rd was awarded the name of the city as an honorific. Between 3 and 5 May, it moved to the Dresden area as part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, where the surrounded German 9th Army was attempting to break out to the west. It fought in the capture of Meissen on 6 May and Dresden on 7 May; the latter was its last combat of the war. For actions in the capture of Dresden, the 1336th Regiment received the honorific Dresden and the 1342nd Regiment the Order of Alexander Nevsky. During the war, the 23rd was credited with downing 352 enemy aircraft, killing 3,695 enemy soldiers, capturing 12,090, destroying ten artillery batteries and seventeen tanks.

Anti-Aircraft Artillery Postwar

After the capture of Dresden, the division was relocated to Korneuburg and Stockerau near Vienna. Until 1955, the division served there as part of Soviet occupation forces in Austria in the Central Group of Forces. In May 1955, the Soviet troops were ordered to withdraw from Austria, and in September the 23rd was relocated to Shepetovka in the Carpathian Military District. On 9 September it was renumbered as the 97th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division. In 1958, it was rearmed with new Surface-to-air missiles. Around that time the division began disbanding, a process completed by 1960.

Strategic Rocket Forces

On 19 November 1960, the 206th Rocket Brigade was activated at Bershet, Perm Oblast, including elements of the 97th Division in its cadre. It was initially placed under command of the 24th Artilley Range Administration, but from 10 May 1961 it joined the 5th Independent Rocket Corps. On 30 May 1961 it was expanded into the 52nd Rocket Division. On 27 July 1962 the 52nd received the battle flag of the 23rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division.

Removing an SS-24 from a railcar at Bershet, 2003

The 52nd Rocket Division joined the 31st Army in 1970 and was disbanded in 2002. The disbandment of units started in February 2002, after a long history in which the division had consistently received the latest intercontinental ballistic missile systems available. In 1988 it began to receive rail-mobile ICBMs. One of the 52nd's four regiments was taken off alert duty and the first section of its railway strategic missile trains ("Military railway rocket complexes", BZhRKs) were sent to be scrapped. The division's last commander, Major General Boris Sinenko, expressed his colleagues' misgivings at the time, wondering whether the "decision was timely."

References

Bibliography

• Dudarenko, M.L.; Perechnyov, Yu. G.; Yeliseyev, V.T. (1985). Освобождение городов: Справочник по освобождению городов в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945 [Liberation of the Cities: A Handbook of the Liberation of Cities during the Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Feoktistov, Yu. N. (2001). Borzenkov, A.S. (ed.). Оренбургская стратегическая [Orenburg Strategic] (in Russian). Perm: Perm Book Publishing House. ISBN 5-93683-001-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.
• Gurkin, V.V.; et al. (1972). Боевой состав Советской армии: Часть III (Январь — декабрь 1943 г.) [Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, Part III (January–December 1943)] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gurkin, V.V.; et al. (1988). Боевой состав Советской армии: Часть IV (Январь — декабрь 1944 г.) [Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, Part IV (January–December 1944)] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)