The 415th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the autumn of 1941 in the Far Eastern Front. It was considered to be a "sister" division to the 413th, and was one of the divisions of Siberians sent west to help defend Moscow during the winter of 1941-42. It spent much of the next year in the same general area, west of the capital, taking part in the mostly futile battles against the German-held salient at Rzhev during late 1942. Following the evacuation of the salient in March, 1943 the 415th was assigned to the 61st Army, where it remained for most of the rest of the war. It took part in the summer offensives through western Russia and into eastern Belarus during the fall and winter, earning a battle honor in January, 1944. During the later stages of the next summer offensive, Operation Bagration, it distinguished itself in the liberation of Pinsk and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Following this it was redeployed northward, still in 61st Army, and took part in the offensives through the Baltic states. In the spring of 1945 the division also earned the Order of Suvorov, 2nd Degree, for its part in the capture of several towns in northeastern Germany. The 415th had a distinguished career as a combat unit, ending its combat path near Berlin, but was disbanded in the summer of 1945.
Formation The 415th Rifle Division began forming on September 8, 1941 at Vladivostok, in 25th Army on the Pacific coast. It appears to have begun forming as the "Voroshilov" Rifle Division before being assigned a divisional number.Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 82 Its order of battle, based on the first wartime shtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions, was as follows: 1321st Rifle Regiment 1323rd Rifle Regiment 1326th Rifle Regiment 686th Artillery RegimentCharles C. Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed from June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II. Vol. IX, Nafziger, 1996, p. 114 292nd Antitank Battalion 311th Antiaircraft Battery (until June 30, 1943) 208th Reconnaissance Company 687th Sapper Battalion 611th Signal Battalion (later 772nd Signal Company) 346th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 348th Chemical Protection (Anti-gas) Company (later 211th) 329th Motor Transport Company (later 4th) 529th Field Bakery (later 336th) 172nd Divisional Veterinary Hospital 38th Field Postal Station (later 15315th, 15262nd) 3rd Field Office of the State Bank Col. Georgii Aleksandrovich Latyshev was appointed to command on the day the division began forming. It was considered to be ready for combat by the end of October, and shipped out to the west as part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command in the first days of November. It was one of six divisions transferred from Far Eastern Front to the fighting front from September to November. Contrary to the German understanding at the time, there were no wholesale transfers from the far east to the Moscow front.Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, pp. 82-83 Prior to this move Colonel Latyshev left his command on November 1. Until mid-1943 this position would see a high rate of turnover, as follows: Maj. Gen. Pyotr Andreevich Aleksandrov (November 2, 1941 - March 2, 1942) Lt. Col. Grigorii Ivanovich Kanachadze (March 3 - April 22, 1942) Col. Nikolai Ivanovich Tuzov (April 23 - May 9, 1942) Lt. Col. Nikolai Alexeevich Krymskii (May 10 - June 12, 1942) Col. Vasilii Nikitovich Zatylkin (June 13 - August 20, 1942) Col. Vasilii Filippovich Samoplenko (August 21 - December 11, 1942) Col. Aleksandr Ivanovich Golovanov (December 12, 1942 - January 1, 1943) Lt. Col. Georntii Nesterovich Tzitaishvili (January 2 - June 25, 1943) Col. Nikolai Kuzmich Maslennikov (June 26 - July 30, 1943)
Battle of Moscow The 415th was first assigned to 49th Army in Western Front, along with the 7th Guards Rifle Division, on November 10 in order to strengthen that Army's right flank. Beginning on November 14 these right-flank forces, along with the 2nd Cavalry Corps and the 112th Tank Division, fought a series of meeting engagements with German forces attempting to capture Serpukhov. The German attack was stymied at the cost of significant losses and a week later the Soviet units went over to the defensive. The division was specifically assigned to defend the sector from Sidorenki to Burinovskii station and prevent German tanks and infantry from breaking through in the direction of Burinovo and Kalugino. General Aleksandrov was ordered to prepare antitank strongpoints near Terekhun, the wooded area east of Burinovo, in the woods near Burinovskii station, Stanki station and near Kalugino; in addition a switch position was to be constructed along the northern bank of the Nara River along the sector from Dubrovka to Butyrki and a rear position along a line from Shakhlovo to Kalugino. The front-line defenses were to be completed by December 1, with the second-line positions completed by December 5.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow 1941-1942, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, Kindle ed., part III, ch. 5
As of December 7, as the left wing of Western Front was preparing to go over to the counteroffensive, 49th Army had 5 rifle divisions (5th Guards, 415th, 60th, 194th and 238th) with 350 field and antitank guns, deployed on a 70 km-wide front. The 415th, on the Army's right (north) flank, faced the 137th Infantry Division east of Vysokinichi. The Army was to go over to a general offensive on the morning of December 16, largely with its left wing forces while the 5th Guards and 60th Divisions were to launch a supporting attack and the 415th was to tie down the German division with limited attacks to prevent reserves being transferred to the south. When the offensive began it faced resistance everywhere particularly on the right flank. 5th Guards and 60th made very little progress, while the left flank reached and crossed the Oka River by the 19th. On the same day the 415th and 5th Guards were ordered to continue their tying-down operations. During December 20–22 the division was defending with two regiments of the 60th along the line from Burinovskii station to the woods north of Ostrov. On December 24 it went over to the offensive and, operating in individual detachments, began slowly moving forward as German resistance weakened. By the morning of the 26th it reached a line from Kurkino to Troyanovo to Makarovo before again running into stubborn German resistance. On December 28 it liberated Makarovo and continued attacking to the west.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow, Kindle ed., part IV, ch. 4
The 415th encountered the heaviest resistance along the Alozha River about 1 km west of Makarovo and after forcing a crossing its offensive developed more successfully. It took the village of Chernaya Gryaz with elements of the 60th Division and by the morning of December 30 had reached a line 5 km west of that village and continued advancing. The next day by order of Western Front the division was transferred to the adjacent 43rd Army, where it would remain until July. From January 1–9, 1942 the 415th cooperated with the 194th Rifle Division of 49th Army in overcoming German minefields and other obstacles and pressing on, reaching and capturing the villages of Afonasovo and Starosele on January 4, after which the 194th was also re-subordinated to 43rd Army. These left flank units, backed by the 18th Tank Brigade, were directed on Maloyaroslavets, which had been liberated on January 2.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow, Kindle ed., part V, ch. 5
On January 9 the 43rd Army issued orders to continue the offensive towards Medyn and Myatlevo. The objective was to "encircle and destroy the Kondrovo-Yukhnov-Medyn enemy group and develop the blow to the northwest." The Army was directed be fighting for the Medyn area by the end of January 10 and have possession of Myatlevo 24 hours later, and committed an airborne corps, four rifle divisions and two tank brigades to the effort. Given earlier losses, this amounted to about 15,000 infantry and sappers, 400 machine guns, about 100 mortars, 50 guns and up to 40 tanks. They faced the remnants of 29th Motorized and 10th Panzer Divisions covering the withdrawal of the XX Army Corps. On the first day the 415th reached Stanki where German forces resisted stubbornly. The advance continued on January 12 and during the next day the 5th Airborne encircled the garrison in Medyn, which broke out in small groups overnight towards Myatlevo with the loss of about 2,000 men and substantial equipment. As of January 15 the division was fighting unsuccessfully for the villages of Bogdanovo and Ivanishchevo along the Shanya River and the Army's drive bogged down along this line. As a result of several regroupings in an effort to surround the village by January 21 the division was the only one remaining facing Myatlovo. By this time the German forces were making more serious efforts to break out of their encirclement in the Yukhnov area. The capture of Myatlevo was vital to get into the retreating Germans' flank and rear, but the 415th was insufficient to the task. It was therefore reinforced with the 1st Guards Motorized Rifle Division from 33rd Army. A methodical attack brought the division to the approaches to the village on January 27, when the 1st Guards arrived. In the final attack plan the 415th was to demonstrate an envelopment from the left flank as a distraction, allowing the 1st Guards to mount a quick frontal blow and break in. The attack went according to plan and Myatlevo was in Soviet hands by 0400 hours on January 29. The division was left to mop up the German remnants while the 1st Guards pursued along the Warsaw highway.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow, Kindle ed., part V, ch. 9
While the winter offensive had served to eliminate the immediate threat to Moscow, the cost to the Red Army was high. By January, the character of the 415th as a Siberian unit had changed. Due to the influx of casualty replacements the division was noted in this month as being 70 percent Georgian.David M. Glantz, Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005, p. 594
Battles for Rzhev The 415th was transferred to 20th Army, still in Western Front, in July, along the eastern face of the Rzhev Salient, then to the adjoining 29th Army in November,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 144, 236 but in the last gasps of Operation Mars in December the division was ordered back to the 20th to help make one last desperate attempt to break the German positions and capture Sychyovka. On December 11 the relatively-fresh 415th made an attack on a 4km front between Bolshoe Kropotovo and Zherebtsovo alongside the 243rd, 247th and 30th Guards Rifle Divisions in the first echelon. The 415th, attacking in the Maloe Kropotovo and Podosinovka sectors, would be backed by the re-formed 6th Tank Corps with 100 tanks in two brigades to exploit once the division breached the German line. At 1100 hours the 22nd Tank Brigade, attacking in the wake of the division, penetrated west of Maloe Kropotovo but came under heavy German fire which stripped away the accompanying riflemen and knocked out about 25 tanks. The combined forces of the rifle divisions made scanty gains of 500 - 1,000 metres at significant cost, and failed to capture a single German-held fortified village. Three days later, the offensive was shut down for good.Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1999, pp. 253, 256, 263-64 In the period from November 25 to December 18 the division lost 692 men killed and 1,865 wounded, for a total of 2,557 casualties.Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009, p. 90
Into Western Russia and Belarus