Kombrig Sergei Ivanovich Denisov Col. Anatolii Nikolaevich Chervinskii Col. Pyotr Grigorevich Kasperovich Col. Nikolai Georgievich Tsyganov Maj. Gen. Vasilii Andreevich Revyakin Col. Grigorii Ivanovich Sinitsyn
Military unit
The 164th Rifle Division was originally formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the Byelorussian Military District, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of the previous September. In January 1940 it was moved north during the Winter War with Finland, but saw limited combat there. At the start of the German invasion in June 1941 it was in 17th Rifle Corps of 12th Army of the Kiev Special Military District in the Carpathian Mountains along the border with Romania, and so avoided the armored thrusts of Army Group South. Nevertheless, it was forced to retreat in early July as Soviet forces to the north and south fell back or were overrun. Now part of 18th Army of Southern Front the 164th fell back through southern Ukraine into October, when it was finally caught by panzers on the open steppe and scattered. It was effectively destroyed by October 30, but officially remained on the books until nearly the end of December.
1st Formation
The division first began forming in November 1939, at Orsha in the Byelorussian Military District. Its commander, Sergei Ivanovich Denisov, was promoted to the rank of Kombrig on November 4; he had previously led the 20th Mechanized Brigade. On November 27, while barely formed, the division entrained for Petrozavodsk where it arrived a month later. The Winter War with Finland had begun on November 30, and on January 12, 1940, it was assigned to 1st Rifle Corps in 8th Army. In the first days of March the 164th was included in a force that was to operate against a Finnish grouping in the Loimola area. During this operation Lt. Aleksandr Antonovich Rozka, a member of the Komsomol, distinguished himself sufficiently to become a Hero of the Soviet Union. A platoon commander in the 230th Antitank Battalion, on March 9 he led a group of his men in an attack on a fortified height which led to the capture of two heavy and five light machine guns, plus 40 rifles. He was awarded his Gold Star on May 19, and went on to serve in the defense of Leningrad, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel before his retirement in 1955. He lived and worked in Kamianets-Podilskyi until his death on January 31, 1970, at the age of 54.[1]
The war ended on March 13, before the division saw much more action. In April it was again loaded up and sent south to the Odessa Military District, where it soon took over a sector of the Prut River along the Romanian border. On January 15, 1941 Kombrig Denisov left the division to become an instructor at the Military Academy of Mechanisation and Motorisation. His rank was modernized to major general of tank troops on November 10, 1942, and in the spring of 1943 he was briefly the acting commander of 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, but he was killed in action on June 22. Col. Anatolii Nikolaevich Chervinskii followed him in command of the 164th.
Prior to the German invasion the division was assigned to 12th Army's 17th Rifle Corps, which also contained the 60th and 96th Mountain Rifle Divisions.[2] Its order of battle on June 22, 1941, was as follows:
531st Rifle Regiment
620th Rifle Regiment
742nd Rifle Regiment
494th Artillery Regiment
473rd Howitzer Artillery Regiment (until October 20, 1941)[3]
Late on June 21 the commander of Kiev Special Military District (soon Southwestern Front), Col. Gen. M. P. Kirponos, began sending orders to his armies to open their "red packets" of wartime instructions even though he had not yet been authorized to do so by the STAVKA. Under these instructions the 17th Corps was to move some 100km across wooded, mountainous terrain to take up positions along the frontier. The chief of staff of 12th Army, Gen. B. Arushnya, spoke to Kirponos by phone around 0400 hours on June 22, reporting that the situation along the Army's sector was "still quiet". An hour later he was contacted by Kirponos' chief of staff:
General Maksim Purkayev called me up on the "Bodo" [encoded radio] and conveyed the conventional signal for putting the border cover plan into operation: "KOVO 1941". I immediately reported this to the Commandarm [Army commander Maj. Gen. P. G. Ponedelin] in the presence of the Member of the Military Council. We notified the groups and the units straightaway.[6]
Once it reached the Prut the 17th Corps was facing elements of the Romanian 3rd Army, which had already attempted to force crossings with no success. On June 25 the division was transferred with its Corps to the 18th Army which was being formed in Southern Front (former Odessa Military District).[7] The 164th would remain under these commands until it was disbanded.[8]
Beginning on July 1 the Romanians renewed their efforts to force the river, particularly at the Lipcani-Rădăuți Bridge. Chervinskii had been under orders to preserve the crossing for a planned offensive into Romania, but this turned into a stalemate where machine gun and mortar fire prevented both sides from crossing or destroying it. After taking losses, including two tanks, the Romanian force switched its attention to Novoselitsy, which was held by the 144th Reconnaissance Battalion and included a lodgement on the "Romanian" side of the river. An artillery duel ensued; this ended about 2200 hours after which the scouts reported sounds indicating an attack was imminent. In fact, this was a ruse to cover a crossing attempt by German troops on another sector, but it also failed. The 164th held off all Axis crossing operations until July 5, after finally destroying the bridge, but due to other Soviet forces falling back to the north and south it was forced to retreat to the Dniestr River, which it crossed on the night of July 5/6.[9]
By July 7, 17th Corps had taken up positions southwest of Kamianets-Podilskyi, and by four days later it had retreated past that place, now facing the Hungarian VIII Army Corps. As of July 14 the 164th was attempting to hold a sector on the Dniestr on the right flank of 55th Rifle Corps'169th Rifle Division. By now the 60th Mountain Division had become detached from 17th Corps and rejoined 12th Army;[10] as a result it would be encircled in the Uman Pocket in early August and destroyed. As the retreat continued, elements of this and other divisions of 17th Corps came under Chervinskii's command, including the 651st Mountain Rifle Regiment of 96th Mountain Division.[11]
Retreat through south Ukraine
By July 27 the 164th was organizing to cross the Southern Bug River in the vicinity of Haivoron. Chervinskii exercised insufficient supervision over the operation, and the bridge was destroyed prematurely, leaving most of the 494th Artillery Regiment (20 cannon, 12 mortars, two tractors, three motor vehicles, and part of the supply train) plus many of the personnel of 651st Mountain Regiment, isolated on the west bank. On October 17 he was replaced by Lt. Col. Vladimir Yakovlevich Vladimirov, and two days later he was tried by a military tribunal of 18th Army, found guilty of negligence, and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp, deferred until the end of military operations. From the end of the month he commanded two rifle regiments of the 51st Rifle Division before being made commander of the 78th Naval Rifle Brigade in February 1942. In June this brigade served as the basis of the new 318th Rifle Division and Chervinskii remained in command, but became missing in action in July during the early stages of the German summer offensive.[12]
Southern Front largely escaped the debacle suffered by Southwestern Front east of Kiyv in September and the 164th continued to retreat with 18th Army during this period. Following this victory the OKH ordered Army Group South to attack simultaneously toward Kharkiv, the Donbas, and Rostov-on-Don, with its left wing forces, while the right wing encircled Southern Front and invaded the Crimea. 1st Panzer Army attacked off the march from the Poltava area and soon smashed the defenses of 12th Army before exploiting toward Melitopol, encircling six divisions of the Front's 18th and 6th Armies on October 7. Over the next three days elements of the 18th were able to break out toward Taganrog, pursued by panzers which halted on the Mius River to regroup on October 13.[13] During this fighting the division was effectively overrun and scattered, and Lt. Colonel Vladimirov officially left his command on October 30.[14] However, in common with most divisions of Southwestern and Southern Fronts that were destroyed in this period, the 164th was not finally written off until December 27.
2nd Formation
The 435th Rifle Division began forming in December 1941 until January 4, 1942 at Achit in the Ural Military District. On the latter date it was redesignated as the new 164th Rifle Division.[15] Its order of battle was very similar to that of the 1st formation:
213th Signal Battalion (later 213th Signal Company)
140th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
43rd Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Platoon
284th Motor Transport Company (later 172nd)
148th Field Bakery
913th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
1669th Field Postal Station
1090th Field Office of the State Bank
Col. Pyotr Grigorevich Kasperovich was appointed to command on the date of redesignation. The division remained in the Ural District until April, when it began moving west by rail, initially assigned to the 1st Reserve Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, but moving to Western Front's 31st Army in July, just it time to take part in the Front's summer offensive toward Rzhev.[17][18]
First Rzhev-Sychyovka Offensive
Attack of Western Front, August 4, 1942
Western Front began its part in this operation on August 4. A powerful artillery preparation reportedly knocked out 80 percent of German weapons, after which the German defenses were penetrated on both sides of Pogoreloe Gorodishche and the 31st Army's mobile group rushed through the breaches towards Zubtsov. By the evening of August 6 the breach in German 9th Army's front had expanded up to 30km wide and up to 25km deep. The following day the STAVKA appointed Army Gen. G. K. Zhukov to coordinate the offensives of Western and Kalinin Fronts; Zhukov proposed to liberate Rzhev with 31st and 30th Armies as soon as August 9. However, heavy German counterattacks, complicated by adverse weather, soon slowed the advance drastically.[19] On August 12 Colonel Kasperovich left the 164th and was replaced a week later by Col. Nikolai Georgievich Tsyganov. Kasperovich would be promoted to the rank of major general of artillery on November 18, 1944, and would end the war as 1st Shock Army's commander of artillery. Tsyganov had previously served as deputy commander of 20th Guards Rifle Division.
On August 23 the 31st Army, in concert with elements of the 29th Army, finally liberated Zubtsov. While this date is officially considered the end of the offensive in Soviet sources, in fact bitter fighting continued west of Zubtsov into mid-September. At dawn on September 8, 29th and 31st Armies went on a determined offensive to seize the southern part of Rzhev. Despite resolute attacks through the following day against the German 161st Infantry Division the 31st made little progress. It suspended its attacks temporarily on September 16 but resumed them with three divisions on its right flank on September 21–23 with similar lack of success. Over the course of the fighting from August 4 to September 15 the Army suffered a total of 43,321 total losses in personnel.[20] By the end of September the depleted division had been moved to the Western Front reserves.[21]
Into Western Russia
In October the 164th joined 49th Army, still in Western Front.[22] On January 3, 1943, Colonel Tsyganov left the division and was placed at the disposal of the Front's Military Council, where he remained for a few months before being named as chief of staff of 8th Guards Rifle Corps. He would later lead the 11th Guards Rifle Division and was made a Hero of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1945, eventually rising to the rank of colonel general in 1961. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. Vasilii Andreevich Revyakin, who had most recently led the 1st Guards Motorized Rifle Division.
During March the 49th Army played a minor part in the pursuit as 9th Army withdrew from the Rzhev salient (Operation Büffel), before coming up against the fortified positions at its base. In April, as the fighting settled into an extended lull, the 164th was transferred to 33rd Army, which was under command of Lt. Gen. V. N. Gordov and was also in Western Front.[23] The STAVKA chose to stand on the defensive in the Kursk region and absorb the attacks of 9th Army and 4th Panzer Army before going over to the counteroffensive. Western Front prepared for its own offensive in the direction of Smolensk and 33rd Army was substantially reinforced with armor and artillery by the beginning of August.[24]
Operation Suvorov
General layout of Smolensk region during the battle.
Operation Suvorov began on August 7. 33rd Army was still facing the defenses of the Büffel-Stellung east of Spas-Demensk. At this time its divisions averaged 6,500 - 7,000 personnel each (70-75 percent of their authorized strength). Gordov formed his main shock group from the 42nd, 164th and 160th Rifle Divisions and the 256th Tank Brigade but these ran into tough resistance from the 480th Grenadier Regiment of the 260th Infantry Division in the Kurkino sector. Only the 164th achieved a limited success, taking the village of Chotilovka at 2000 hours and threatening to drive a wedge between that German regiment and its neighboring 460th Grenadier Regiment until the 480th threw in its reserve battalion and stopped any further advance. By early afternoon the Front commander, Col. Gen. V. D. Sokolovskii was becoming frustrated about the inability of most his units to advance. The offensive resumed at 0730 hours on August 8 after a 30-minute artillery preparation, and the 164th attacked toward Sluzna in an effort to outflank the defenses on Hill 233.3, and overnight this village was abandoned to avoid encirclement. However the garrison fell back to a new line which blocked every effort of the division to continue the advance.[25]
Gordov continued attacking on August 9–10 with the shock group on a very narrow front but was stymied at Laski and Gubino; the intervention of an ersatz German battalion appears to have narrowly prevented a Soviet breakthrough. As both sides weakened the fighting continued into the morning of August 13 when the 42nd Division and the 256th Tanks were the first units of 33rd Army into Spas-Demensk. The 164th continued to advance into the void southwest of the town as German forces fell back to their next line of defense. Sokolovskii was forced to call a temporary halt on August 14 to replenish stocks, especially ammunition.[26]
Sokolovskii's revised plan put his Front's main effort in the center with the 21st, 33rd, 68th and 10th Guards Armies attacking the German XII Army Corps all along its front until it shattered, then push mobile groups through the gaps to liberate Yelnya. Virtually all the units on both sides were now well below authorized strength and Suvorov was becoming an endurance contest. Ammunition and fuel were still short on the Soviet side given the competing demands of other fronts.[27]
At 0800 hours on August 28 the Western Front began a 90-minute artillery preparation across a 25km-wide front southeast of Yelnya in the sectors of the 10th Guards, 21st and 33rd Armies. Instead of the obvious axis of advance straight up the railway to the city Sokolovskii decided to make his main effort in the 33rd Army sector near Novaya Berezovka. This assault struck the 20th Panzergrenadier Division directly, forcing it backward and away from its junction with the right flank of IX Army Corps. As soon as a gap was forced General Gordov committed the 5th Mechanized Corps at Koshelevo which began to shove wrecked German battlegroups out of its path. Overall the Army managed to advance as much as 8km during the day. On August 29 the 5th Mechanized completed its breakthrough and Gordov was able to add the 6th Guards Cavalry Corps to the exploitation force. By 1330 hours on August 30 it became clear to the German command that Yelnya could not be held and orders for its evacuation were issued within minutes; the city was in Red Army hands by 1900. From here it was only 75km to Smolensk. However, German 4th Army was able to establish a tenuous new front by September 3 and although Sokolovskii continued local attacks through the rest of the week his Front was again brought to a halt by logistical shortages.[28]
Liberation of Smolensk
The offensive was renewed at 0545 hours on September 15 with another 90-minute artillery preparation is support of the 68th, 10th Guards, 21st and 33rd Armies against the positions of IX Corps west of Yelnya. This Corps was attempting to hold a 40km-wide front with five decimated divisions. The 78th Assault Division buckled under the onslaught, but the Soviet armies gained 3km at the most, instead of a clear penetration. Nevertheless, at 1600 on September 16 the IX Corps was ordered to fall back to the next defense line. Sokolovskii now directed the 21st and 33rd Armies to pivot to the southwest to cut the Smolensk–Roslavl railway near Pochinok. On the morning of September 25 Smolensk was liberated. During the following days the 33rd Army pushed on toward Mogilev.[29]
^Charles C. Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 81
^Artyom Drabkin and Alexei Isaev, Barbarossa Through Soviet Eyes, trans. C. Summerville, Pen & Sword Books Ltd., Barnsley, UK, 2012, p. xiii
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