The 375th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. It began forming in August, 1941 in the Urals Military District. It reached the fighting front in December, coming under command of the 29th Army in the vicinity of the Rzhev salient and it took part in the bloody and tragic battles for this heavily-fortified position until March, 1943, mostly as part of 30th Army. Following the German evacuation of the salient the 375th got a brief spell in reserve before being reassigned to Voronezh Front in the buildup to the Battle of Kursk. When the offensive began it held a crucial sector on the extreme left flank of 6th Guards Army where the II SS Panzer Corps attempted to break through south of the salient. Following the German defeat the division joined in the counteroffensive towards Kharkov in August and won its first battle honor. It continued to advance through Ukraine and into Romania over the next eight months, being brought to a halt east of Iași in the spring of 1944. In late August the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts crushed the defending German and Romanian forces, and on the last day of the month the 375th played a leading role in the capture of the Romanian capital, Bucharest; it won its second battle honor and two of its rifle regiments were awarded decorations. For the duration of the war the division fought its way through Romania and Hungary, finally advancing into Austria with 7th Guards Army. Its record of admirable service was capped with the award of the Order of the Red Banner soon following the German surrender, but it was nevertheless disbanded shortly thereafter.
Formation Like the 373rd Rifle Division, the 375th began forming in August, 1941 in the Urals Military DistrictWalter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p. 79 at Kamyshlov in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, based on the first wartime shtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions. Its order of battle was as follows: 1241st Rifle Regiment 1243rd Rifle Regiment 1245th Rifle Regiment 932nd 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. 100 244th Antitank Battalion (from May 13, 1942) 431st Reconnaissance Company 436th Sapper Battalion 820th Signal Battalion (later 84th Signal Company) 454th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 447th Chemical Protection (Anti-gas) Company 484th Motor Transport Company 223rd Field Bakery 792nd Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1443rd Field Postal Station 742nd Field Office of the State Bank Maj. Gen. Vasilii Grigorevich Vorontsov was assigned to command of the division on September 1, and he would remain in this post until February 27, 1942. The division was briefly assigned to the 28th Reserve Army in November, but when it arrived at the front in late December it came under command of the 29th Army in Kalinin Front.Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 100
Battles for Rzhev The Sychevka-Vyasma Offensive Operation, which was planned "to encircle, and then capture or destroy the enemy's entire Mozhaisk - Gzhatsk - Vyasma grouping", began the fighting for what later became known as the Rzhev salient. On January 12, 1942, 29th Army entered a breach created by 39th Army in the German positions west of the city and began advancing in its direction.Svetlana Gerasimova, The Rzhev Slaughterhouse, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2013, pp. 26-28 However, at some point in January the 375th was transferred to 30th ArmyCombat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 26 and so avoided the fate of the 29th, which was encircled and mostly destroyed in February. After a complex regrouping 30th Army began attacking southwards, west of Rzhev, before the end of January in an attempt to join up with the 29th. During February and March the 30th was ordered into repeated attacks to help eliminate the German grouping around Olenino, with little success.Gerasimova, Rzhev Slaughterhouse, pp. 37, 43, 45. On p. 37 Gerasimova mentions two divisions from the 29th being attached to the 30th. On February 28 Maj. Gen. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov took over command of the division from General Vorontsov.
First Rzhev–Sychyovka Offensive Operation According to STAVKA High Command Directive No. 170182 to the commander of Kalinin Front, dated March 22:As of May 1 the division was held in Kalinin Front reserves, where it remained as of June 1; by the start of July it was back in the lines as part of 58th Army, still in the same Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 82, 101, 122
The new offensive, which began on July 30 on Kalinin Front's sector, did not include 58th Army. On August 1 the Army only had the 375th and the 27th Guards Rifle Divisions under command, and was disbanded later in the month, at which point the division rejoined 30th Army, which was now in Western Front but still operating north of Rzhev.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 144, 168 The offensive had begun in a promising manner for 30th Army, which broke through on a 9 km front to a depth of 6 – 7 km on the first day. Then heavy rains began and continued for several days which caused the attack to literally bog down in the area of Polunino, north of Rzhev. The arrival of fresh forces, including the 375th, allowed the Army to finally take Polunino on August 21 and then to plan a new attempt to take Rzhev in cooperation with the rebuilt 29th Army. On August 25/26 the 30th reached the Volga 5 to 6 km west of the city and on the 29th established a bridgehead on the right bank, but over the following weeks was unable to actually capture and clear Rzhev. During August the Army lost more than 80,000 men in this fighting. Through September repeated attacks gained several blocks in the northeast of the city at the cost of nearly 20,000 more casualties. On October 1, 30th Army finally went over to the defense.Gerasimova, Rzhev Slaughterhouse, pp. 80, 87, 92, 94-95, 98-99
Operation Mars On October 4 General Sokolov died of an unstated illness. He was replaced two days later by Col. Pyotr Dmitrievich Govorunenko, who would remain in command until December 6, 1943. Due to the very heavy losses it had suffered in the summer fighting 30th Army was not given an offensive role in the Second Rzhev–Sychyovka Offensive Operation (Operation Mars). However in the last stages of the offensive, after the Red Army attacks had failed on all other sectors, the 39th Army was still making limited gains in its diversionary efforts in the Molodoi Tud sector northeast of Olenino. By the second week of December Gen. G. K. Zhukov was looking for any success anywhere in his collapsing offensive and on December 8 ordered his 39th and 30th Armies once again to crush the enemy Olenino grouping, while the 30th was also to break through on a sector from Koshkino to Burgovo and capture Rzhev by the 23rd. In preparation the 375th, with the 380th and 220th Rifle Divisions in support, pounded the German defenses south of the Volga. From December 9 to 12 this effort failed to make any progress, while 39th Army had gained some ground near the village of Gonchuki. Therefore the 220th and 16th Guards Rifle Divisions were transferred to this sector, bringing the attacks from the Volga bridgeheads to an effective halt. Meanwhile German counterattacks had cut off a large Soviet mobile group south of Gonchuki and late on the 12th the 375th was also moved westward to help restore the situation. On the next day the division, joined by the 380th, the 49th Mechanized Brigade, plus several tank brigades and regiments, struck the defenses of the German 87th Infantry Division between Koshkino and Burgovo. While the tanks managed to penetrate the forward line in several places, enemy fire separated the infantry support, leading to just minor gains. Intense fighting continued until December 17, with the "damaged" 375th being shifted to the Gonchuki sector. Finally General Zhukov ordered this last gasp of Operation Mars to stop on December 23.David M. Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1999, pp. 266-74
Battle of Kursk On the first day of 1943 the 375th remained part of 30th Army in Western FrontCombat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 13 but this would soon change. At this time soon-to-be Marshal Zhukov was planning Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda, an ambitious plan to drive Army Group North away from Leningrad. Under STAVKA Order No. 46026 of January 31, the division is listed as one of ten to be redeployed to Northwestern Front. Before this could get underway, on February 5 STAVKA issued a new directive to establish the Central Front by February 15 under command of Col. Gen. K. K. Rokossovski, with the 375th as one of the rifle divisions assigned. Within days it became part of the 21st Army, and by February 23 it was unloaded from its trains and was in the Kalinino region about 15 km east of Livny.Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009, pp. 399, 258-59, 265, 287
The STAVKA issued a directive on March 7 for a combined offensive by Central, Briansk and Western Fronts in the direction of Oryol. Rokossovski ordered four divisions of 21st Army, including the 375th, to begin to advance on March 10, in cooperation with the new 70th Army. By this time, however, the German 2nd and 2nd Panzer Armies were regaining their balance and starting to cover the massive gap in the front. 21st Army reached the Fatezh area by the 11th, but by now news was arriving that Army Group South's offensive against Voronezh Front was threatening to retake Kharkov, and the Army was redirected to the south to join that Front.Glantz, After Stalingrad, pp. 338-39, 354-55, 364-65 21st Army was redesignated as the 6th Guards Army on April 16, and by the end of the month the 375th would be assigned to the new 23rd Guards Rifle Corps.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 111
Operation Citadel In the buildup to the German summer offensive, the 375th was given a particularly challenging task; it formed the left flank of the first echelon of 6th Guards Army, tying in with the right flank 81st Guards Rifle Division of 7th Guards Army. Since unit boundaries are usually seen as weak points in any defense, the Front commander, Army Gen. N. F. Vatutin, aimed to turn this to his advantage by heavily fortifying and reinforcing the two flank divisions in anticipation of the enemy attack. They were deployed with swampy terrain, the confluence of the Northern and Lipovyi Donets Rivers, in their rear, and by the start of the offensive had 19-23 artillery pieces (76mm calibre or larger) per kilometre, greater than any other sector of the front. And the entire boundary was backstopped by 69th Army in third echelon.Valeriy Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2018, p. 27
As the anticipated attack grew closer, the Soviet forces became desperate for hard information on the start date. Reconnaissance patrols were sent out by all the front-line divisions, without results. Finally, before noon on July 4, word came up the line of communications that a patrol of the 375th had captured a combat engineer of the 168th Infantry Division who was lifting mines between the front lines, and revealed that his division was to go on the offensive on the morning of July 5. He also stated he had seen many tanks in Belgorod.Zamulin, The Battle of Kursk - Controversial and Neglected Aspects, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2017, p. 180