146th Rifle Division

The 146th Rifle Division was formed for the first time as a Red Army rifle division in August 1939, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of the following month, in the Ukrainian Military District as part of a major build-up of the Army prior to the start of World War II. Very soon after being formed it was part of the Soviet force that invaded eastern Poland, and the next year also took part in the occupation of Romanian territories in Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After the start of the German invasion in 1941 it was assigned to 6th Army in Southwestern Front, then reassigned to 26th Army before defending the approaches to Kyiv as part of 37th Army for several weeks until being surrounded and destroyed in September east of the city.

146th Rifle Division (August 16, 1939 – December 27, 1941) 146th Rifle Division (January 27, 1942 – June 1946)
Active	1939–1946
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Engagements	Soviet invasion of Poland Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Operation Barbarossa Battle of Kiev (1941) Battles of Rzhev Battle of Smolensk (1943) Battle of Nevel (1943) Šiauliai offensive Riga offensive Vistula-Oder offensive Battle of Berlin
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner  Order of Suvorov (both 2nd Formation)
Battle honours	Ostrov (2nd Formation)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Maj. Gen. Ivan Mikhailovich Gerasimov Col. Aleksandr Nikolaevich Alekseev Lt. Gen. Yury Vladimirovich Novoselskii Maj. Gen. Nikolai Ivanovich Orlov Col. Dmitri Arsentovich Dulov Col. Nerses Parsievich Baloyan Maj. Gen. Ivan Mikhailovich Nekrasov Maj. Gen. Sergei Isaevich Karapetyan

A second formation began in January 1942, based on a pair of partly formed 400-series divisions, in the Moscow Military District, and entered the fighting as part of 50th Army of Western Front in the last stages of the winter counteroffensive in front of Moscow. It suffered heavily in this fighting and then remained on relatively quiet sectors as part of 49th Army until the withdrawal of German 9th Army from the Rzhev salient. It was service in the same Army in the 1943 summer offensive that liberated Smolensk, and was the first Soviet unit into Spas-Demensk in late August. It was then shifted north for the offensives that would drive the German invaders from north-central Russia, the Baltic states, and Poland. The 146th ended the war fighting in the streets of Berlin, after compiling an enviable record of service, and saw postwar duty in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

1st Formation

The first 146th Rifle Division began forming on August 16, 1939, at Berdychiv in the Ukrainian Military District, under command of Kombrig Ivan Mikhailovich Gerasimov. This officer had previously led the 10th Rifle Division. The division was barely formed when it joined the active army on September 17 as part of Ukrainian Front's 13th Rifle Corps as part of the force that invaded eastern Poland. The following June it was under Southern Front's 36th Rifle Corps when Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were occupied. Just prior to this, Gerasimov's rank was modernized to that of major general.

At the time of the German invasion its order of battle was as follows:

• 512th Rifle Regiment
• 608th Rifle Regiment
• 698th Rifle Regiment
• 280th Artillery Regiment^[1]
• 717th Howitzer Regiment
• 211th Antitank Battalion
• 476th Antiaircraft Battalion
• 126th Reconnaissance Battalion
• 119th Sapper Battalion
• 226th Signal Battalion
• 171st Medical/Sanitation Battalion
• 93rd Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Platoon
• 133rd Motor Transport Battalion
• 101st Field Bakery
• 226th Field Postal Station
• 352nd Field Office of the State Bank

The division was still in 36th Corps, which also contained the 140th and 228th Rifle Divisions. The Corps was in reserve, away from the border, spread from Zhytomyr to south of Shepetivka, with the 146th roughly in the middle near the Sluch River.^[2] By the evening of June 23 it had moved up to Tereshki, and by June 27 it was operating alongside the 14th Cavalry Division, defending the Kremenets area against German tanks and motorized infantry. By the end of June 36th Corps had lost the 228th and had been assigned to 6th Army in Southwestern Front.^[3]

On June 29 the Front commander, Col. Gen. M. P. Kirponos, criticized the performance of 36th Corps, stating in part:

When fired upon in combat, subunits lacking materiel support do not advance, and block up the rear areas and roads... [There are] instances of panic (140th and 146th Rifle Divisions) when, even without seeing the enemy or seeing an insignificant number of the enemy, subunits run to the rear, casting away everything in their path, and subunit and unit commanders fail to undertake required measures to restore order.^[4]

By the middle of July the Corps was facing the German XXXXIV Army Corps northeast of Khmilnyk,^[5] but in late July the division was reassigned to 26th Army, no longer under a corps command but still in Southwestern Front;^[6] it thus avoided the encirclement of 6th Army near Uman. General Gerasimov had commanded the Kiev Fortified Region from January 1938 - August 1939, so it was logical to reassign his division to 37th Army, fighting in the defense lines on the direct northern approaches to Kyiv.^[7] This position gave the men and women of the 146th virtually no hope of escape from the German encirclement, and the division was destroyed in September.^[8]

Gerasimov was captured on September 19 while attempting to escape the pocket and was replaced by Col. Aleksandr Nikolaevich Alekseev. He would remain in captivity until he was freed by American forces on May 4, 1945. He was immediately made part of the Soviet Military Mission in Paris, but before the end of the month came under an investigation that lasted into December when he was arrested and imprisoned, eventually being released on August 1, 1953, in the wake of Stalin's death. He had been dismissed from the Red Army in late 1946, but in 1956 he was officially rehabilitated and shortly after reinstated in the Army with his former rank. He retired on March 5, 1957, and lived until April 19, 1968. His destroyed division officially remained on the Soviet order of battle until December 27, 1941, when it was removed.^[9]

2nd Formation

The second 146th Rifle Division officially began forming on January 19, 1942, in the Moscow Military District, based on the 1st formation of the 416th Rifle Division.^[10] The new division also incorporated the provisional 468th Rifle Division, which had begun forming in December,^[11] at Kagami in the Central Asian Military District, presumably with a large number of Kazakh or Uzbek recruits. The amalgamation of these two bodies took place at Venyov in January. The order of battle was similar to that of the previous formation:

• 512th Rifle Regiment
• 608th Rifle Regiment
• 698th Rifle Regiment
• 280th Artillery Regiment^[12]
• 211th Antitank Battalion
• 126th Reconnaissance Company
• 149th Sapper Battalion
• 249th Signal Battalion (later 226th Battalion, 215th Company, 249th Company)
• 171st Medical/Sanitation Battalion
• 501st Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company
• 133rd Motor Transport Company
• 517th Field Bakery
• 882nd Divisional Veterinary Hospital
• 1718th Field Postal Station
• 1073rd Field Office of the State Bank

Lt. Col. Yury Vladimirovich Novoselskii, who had been leading the 416th since it had begun forming, remained in command after the redesignation. This veteran officer had been in command of the 2nd Mechanized Corps at the outbreak of the war, and after this was disbanded in August became the Red Army's Inspector of Tank Forces. The new division remained in Moscow District in February, then moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, joining the active army on March 24 in the Western Front reserves before being assigned to 50th Army in that front on April 11.^[13]

Attempt to relieve 1st Guards Cavalry

On January 9-10 elements of 50th Army and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps had outflanked the German positions at Yukhnov, eventually surrounding them on three sides while the cavalry reached out to cut the Moscow–Minsk highway in the German rear, then, finding a gap in the German lines, raided toward Vyazma on January 28. In early February the forces of Army Group Center began counterattacking along all axes of Red Army operations and managed to hold Vyazma as Soviet forces were short of food, ammunition, and all other supplies. The Soviet positions north and south of Yukhnov were also retaken. The Front commander, Army Gen. G. K. Zhukov, ordered his 43rd, 49th and 50th Armies to restore the situation there, and on March 5 that place was taken. However, many Soviet forces, including 1st Guards Cavalry, were still trapped in the German rear.^[14]

The 146th entered this situation when it replaced the 173rd Rifle Division near Mosalsk on April 11. Three days later it attacked, with other units of 50th Army, in an effort to cross the Moscow–Minsk highway at the villages of Fomino-2 and Zaitseva Gora in order to link up with 1st Guards Cavalry. At one point only 2,000m remained to be crossed, but on April 15 German reserves threw the attack back,^[15] at a cost to the division of perhaps 75 percent of its "bayonets" (riflemen and sappers). It was pulled from the line and replaced by the 58th Rifle Division. On June 20 General Novoselskii was placed at the disposal of Marshal K. E. Voroshilov, and in November was made commander of Tank Forces for Bryansk Front. He would hold several corps commands in 1943-45 and retired in 1950. The new commander of the 146th was Maj. Gen. Nikolai Ivanovich Orlov, who had been in command of the 5th Guards Rifle Corps. He was in turn replaced on January 17, 1943, by Col. Dmitri Arsentovich Dulov, who had been serving as the division's chief of staff.

The division continued to serve on 50th Army's relatively quiet sector until March 1943.^[16] In that month, the division was on the right flank of its army during the Third Rzhev–Sychevka Offensive Operation, following up the withdrawal of German 9th Army from the Rzhev salient. Following this it was transferred to the adjacent 49th Army for a larger-scale offensive towards Spas-Demensk, but this was suspended by April 1.^[17] By this time the 146th had been transferred to the 49th.

Operation Suvorov

General layout of the Smolensk region during the offensive

Colonel Dulov was reassigned to the 208th Rifle Division on June 8, and was replaced by Col. Nerses Parsievich Baloyan. At the beginning of August the 49th Army consisted of just four rifle divisions, including the 146th, with supporting artillery and the 12 SU-152s of the 1537th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment,^[18] and was under command of Maj. Gen. I. T. Grishin. Western Front was led by Col. Gen. V. D. Sokolovskii. Operation Suvorov began at 0440 hours on August 7 with an artillery preparation which expended 50 percent of the Front's available ammunition in two hours, a harbinger of future difficulties. The main effort was made on the sector from Yelnya to Spas-Demensk by 10th Guards and 33rd Armies. The forces of XII Army Corps (4th Army) were heavily outnumbered, but the terrain was forested and held numerous fortified villages. Although hard pressed, XII Corps managed to prevent a Soviet breakthrough. However, late in the day the 31st Army made significant gains against the inexperienced 113th Infantry Division near Yartsevo.^[19]

The offensive was renewed on August 8 after a half-hour of artillery fire, for minimal gains; 49th Army was not directly involved this day or the next. 10th Army, from its positions near Kirov, managed a 5km breakthrough on August 10, and the right flank of 4th Army began falling back to secondary positions. Late the next day XII Corps started retreating to the Yelnya–Spas-Demensk railway, but by now Western Front was almost out of artillery ammunition. Overnight on August 12/13 Spas-Demensk was abandoned, and in the morning the 146th became the first Soviet unit to enter the town, followed by the 42nd Rifle Division and the 256th Tank Brigade of 33rd Army. This Army and the 49th maintained an advance into the void to the southwest, with 5th Mechanized Corps following. A final effort by the two Armies, joined by 21st Army, on August 14-15 failed to budge XII Corps further on its new continuous front, and this was followed by five days of rain. Combined with the shortage of supplies, Sokolovskii was authorized to suspend the offensive for a week on August 21.^[20]

The second phase of Suvorov began on August 28. By now the 146th had been incorporated into the 62nd Rifle Corps, along with the 344th and 352nd Rifle Divisions; this was part of a larger expansion of Grishin's army, which now had eight rifle divisions and a rifle brigade.^[21] An artillery preparation of 90 minutes began at 0800 hours on a 25km front southeast of Yelnya, which was allotted to 10th Guards, 21st, and 33rd Armies. Sokolovskii focused on the 33rd Army's sector, which was defended by 20th Panzergrenadier Division, and this soon created a gap to be exploited by 5th Mechanized. The 49th and 10th Armies made probing attacks to pin down reserves. The offensive built momentum on August 30 despite renewed rain; by 1330 it was clear to the German command that Yelnya was indefensible and it began to be evacuated. Soviet troops began attacking into the city at 1700 and German rearguards put up just a brief defense. It was now just 75km to Smolensk.^[22]

In the Baltic Fronts

After a lengthy stay in reserve, the 146th was reassigned to the 3rd Shock Army in 2nd Baltic Front in October. It would remain in this army until March 1944, when it would be moved to the 14th Guards Rifle Corps of 1st Shock Army^[23] in the same front. In early July the division, in the same corps and army, was reassigned to the new 3rd Baltic Front. As the Soviet summer offensive began, the division was facing the German Panther line, directly south of the city of Ostrov.^[24] During the following fighting, the 146th Rifle Division was given credit for the liberation of Ostrov, and received its name as an honorific.

In October the division, still in the 14th Guards Rifle Corps, was moved back to 3rd Shock Army, where the division would remain for the duration. While most rifle divisions were receiving larger, more powerful guns in their antitank battalions, the 146th continued to use their 45mm pieces, as there was little scope for armor operations in its sector of the front. Prior to the Vistula-Oder Operation in early January 1945, 3rd Shock Army was moved to the 1st Belorussian Front, and the 146th joined the 7th Rifle Corps, where it would remain until postwar.^[25]

Advance

During the late stages of the Battle of Berlin, the division, with its corps, provided flank support to the 79th Rifle Corps as it fought its way across the Moltke Bridge to capture the Reichstag. The soldiers of the 146th ended the war with the official title of 146th Rifle, Ostrov, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Kutuzov Division. (Russian: 146-я стрелковая Островская Краснознамённая орденов Суворова и Кутузова дивизия.)^[26]

Postwar

After the war, the division continued to serve in the 3rd Shock Army, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In February 1946 it was sent to the Kiev Military District and disbanded there in June 1946.^[27]

In 1954, it reformed from the 10th Machine Gun Artillery Division at Poltavka with the 25th Army in the Far Eastern Military District. ^[28] The division was disbanded on July 25, 1956.^[29]