318th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
| 318th Rifle Division (June 15, 1942 – August 15, 1944) 318th Mountain Rifle Division (August 15, 1944 – 1946) 318th Rifle Division (1946 - 1951) | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1942–1951 |
| Land |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | .svg){kind=small} Red Army |
| Typ | Division |
| Role | Infantry |
| Engagements | Battle of the Caucasus Battle of Novorossiysk Taman Peninsula Crimean Campaign Prague Offensive |
| Decorations |  Order of Suvorov 2nd Class |
| Battle honours | Novorossiysk |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Major General A.A. Grechkin Colonel V.A. Vrutzkiy Colonel M.V. Yevstigneev Major General V.F. Gladkov  |
The 318th Rifle Division began forming on June 15, 1942, in and near Novorossiysk on the coast of the Black Sea, as a standard Red Army rifle division; it was later re-formed as a mountain rifle division, but exactly when this happened is disputed among the various sources. It fought in the area it was formed in until September, 1943, and was granted the name of this city as an honorific. In November of that year it took part in the largest Soviet amphibious operation of the war, across the Kerch Straits into the easternmost part of the Crimea, but its small beachhead was eliminated some weeks later. After the Crimea was liberated in May, 1944, it remained there for several months before it was transferred to the Carpathian Mountains west of Ukraine as a mountain division, and spent the remainder of the war fighting through Czechoslovakia in the direction of Prague. The division continued to serve postwar in this same role, but was converted back to a standard rifle division before it was disbanded in the early 1950s.
Formation
The division started forming on June 15, 1942, in the North Caucasus Military District, based on the 78th Rifle Brigade and the 165th Reserve Rifle Regiment.[1][2] at and near Novorossiysk. Its main order of battle was as follows:
- 1331st Rifle Regiment
- 1337th Rifle Regiment
- 1339th Rifle Regiment
- 796th Artillery Regiment
- 433rd Antitank Battalion[3]
The division was formed in 9th Army, but immediately went into the North Caucasus Front reserves, and then into the Transcaucasus Front.
When Novorossiysk was finally liberated on September 16, the division was awarded its name as an honorific:
"NOVOROSSIYSK"...318th Mountain Rifle Division, Col. V.A. Vrutzkiy (until September 11); and Col. M.V Yevstigneev... The troops who participated in the liberation of Novorossiysk, by the order of the Supreme High Command of September 16, 1943, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 12 artillery salvoes from 124 guns.[4]
Re-formation as Mountain Division
While the division had served in the Caucasus and in 3rd Mountain Rifle Corps in the Crimea as a regular rifle division, it was often referred to as a mountain rifle division, and has been since, in spite of not being organized as such. On August 15, 1944, the 318th was officially converted to the 318th Mountain Rifle Division, with the following order of battle:
- 1331st Mountain Rifle Regiment
- 1337th Mountain Rifle Regiment
- 1339th Mountain Rifle Regiment
- 796th Mountain Artillery Regiment
- 443rd Antitank Battalion
The artillery regiment had two battalions with one battery of 76mm mountain guns and two batteries of 120mm mortars each, while the third battalion had one battery of each. The rifle regiments each had only two battalions with three companies each, averaging 150 men or more per company with a special organization for mountain warfare. In addition, each battalion had a company of 82mm mortars, and another of antitank rifles, and the rifle regiments had a battery each of 107mm mountain mortars for additional support.
In order to fully confirm to the shtat for a Soviet mountain division, the 318th should have been assigned one more rifle regiment. Given the sequence of the numbers of the division's regiments, this would logically have been either the 1333rd or the 1335th. While there is no positive identification of a fourth regiment from either Soviet or German sources, neither of these numbers were used for rifle regiments in any other divisions.[5]
Postwar
By the end of the war, the men and women of the division had earned the full title of 318th Mountain Rifle, Novorossiisk, Order of Suvorov Division (Russian: 318-я горнострелковая Новороссийская ордена Суворова дивизия). In the immediate aftermath, the division served in the 38th Army in the Carpathian Military District.[6]
References
- ^ Charles C. Sharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, Nafziger, 1996, p. 120
- ^ Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p. 115, states the 318th was formed as a mountain division, that the 78th was a mountain rifle brigade, and does not mention the 165th Regiment.
- ^ Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 120
- ^ http://www.soldat.ru/spravka/freedom/1-ssr-4.html Retrieved Dec. 31, 2016
- ^ Sharp, "Red Death", Soviet Mountain, Naval, NKVD, and Allied Divisions and Brigades 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VII, Nafziger, 1995, pp. 17-18
- ^ http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=7387 Retrieved Dec. 31, 2016.
- 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.
