9th Guards Rifle Division

The 9th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in November, 1941, based on the 1st formation of the 78th Rifle Division and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was first assigned to the 16th Army just before the start of the winter counteroffensive west of Moscow before being very briefly reassigned to the 33rd Army and then to the 43rd Army during the fighting around Rzhev. In May, 1942 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its services, one of the first rifle divisions to be so recognized. After partially rebuilding it was railed south to Southwestern Front to help meet the German summer offensive. It gave very creditable service in the 38th Army as an infantry division facing armored divisions but suffered significant losses before it was returned to the Moscow Military District in September. In November it was assigned to Kalinin Front and played an important role in the liberation of Velikiye Luki during the winter, primarily in helping to block several attempts to relieve the besieged city. It remained in that Front (renamed 1st Baltic Front in October, 1943) for most of the rest of the war, for the most part in both the 5th and 2nd Guards Rifle Corps, before moving with the latter to 6th Guards Army, where it remained for the duration, fighting through the Baltic states during the summer and autumn offensives of 1944. In March, 1945 it joined the Courland Group of Forces of Leningrad Front on the Baltic coast containing the German forces encircled in northwest Latvia. Following the German surrender it was disbanded later in 1945.

Formation The division was officially raised to Guards status on November 26, 1941, although its sub-units would not be redesignated until February, 1942. Its order of battle, based on the last prewar (April 5, 1941) shtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions, was eventually as follows: 18th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 40th Rifle Regiment) 22nd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 258th Rifle Regiment) 31st Guards Rifle Regiment (from 131st Rifle Regiment) 28th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 159th Light Artillery Regiment)Charles C. Sharp, "Red Guards", Soviet Guards Rifle and Airborne Units 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IV, Nafziger, 1995, p. 45 210th Howitzer Artillery Regiment (until March 20, 1942) 2nd Guards Antitank Battalion 20th Guards Mortar Battalion (until August 6, 1942) 6th Guards Machine-gun Battalion (from October 27, 1942 to February 10, 1943) 12th Guards Reconnaissance Company 3rd Guards Sapper Battalion 4th Guards Signal Battalion 11th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 5th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 479th Motor Transport Company (later 70th Motor Transport Battalion plus 10th and 168th Motor Transport Companies) 1st Guards Field Bakery 14th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 485th Field Postal Station 451st Field Office of the State Bank Afanasii Pavlantevich Beloborodov, who had led the 78th Rifle Division since July 12 and was promoted to the rank of major general on the same day the division was redesignated as Guards, carried on in command. In his memoirs he recounted:

Battle of Moscow The 78th was assigned to 16th Army at the time it was redesignated and was holding Istra on November 25 as the only division of the Army still on the west bank of the Istra River, straddling the road to Volokolamsk. By the end of November 26 forces of the 10th Panzer Division had been able to cross the river in some areas. The now-9th Guards fought for the city overnight, both within it and along the eastern bank of the river south of town along a line up to in length. By 0400 hours on the next day it was forced to withdraw to Istra's eastern outskirts. On November 28 the division was forced to abandon the city entirely and fall back eastward to a line from Aleksino to Zhevnevo ( west of Dedovsk) where it consolidated. During this fighting it came under regular bombing attacks from groups of 6–8 German aircraft.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. 3

In his memoirs Marshal G. K. Zhukov, then commander of Western Front, recounts an incident from the fighting at this time. A phone call was received at his headquarters from Stalin, who asked if he was aware that Dedovsk had been captured. Zhukov replied in the negative at which point Stalin accused him of not knowing what was happening on his Front, ordering the retaking of the town and demanding that Zhukov leave his headquarters to take care of the matter personally. After calling Lt. Gen. K. K. Rokossovsky, commander of 16th Army, he learned that Stalin was mistaken and that the 9th Guards had probably lost part of the village of Dedovo. Zhukov tried to explain the misunderstanding but Stalin angrily insisted that he carry out his previous orders, while also taking the commander of the 5th Army to direct the artillery. Beloborodov was dismayed to see such senior officers but duly attacked at dawn on December 1 with a rifle company and two tanks to evict a German platoon from a handful of houses.Geoffrey Jukes, The Defense of Moscow, Ballantine Books Inc., New York, 1970, pp. 143, 146

Over the following days the center and left flank forces of 16th Army, including the 9th Guards, were involved in heavy fighting in the area to the south of Solnechnogorsk and to the east of the Istra reservoir. The German panzer forces were seeking to break out of Kochergino and Yesipovo to the southeast. By the end of November 30 the division, along with the 8th and 7th Guards and 18th Rifle Divisions, was waging a fierce struggle along part of the line from Lyalovo to Alabushevo to Barantsevo to Zhevnevo. During December 2-3 the German forces managed to take Kryukovo after heavy street fighting but were unable to break through 16th Army's lines. The 9th Guards was engaged in heavy fighting with German infantry and tanks on the eastern outskirts of Nefedevo ( north of Dedovsk) with the 36th Rifle Brigade arriving in support. Although this place was briefly given up, on December 5 a counterattack by the division, backed by the 17th Tank and 40th Rifle Brigades, retook it, as well as Turovo, by noon and continued to advance on Petrovskoe as the German forces began to go over to the defense.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow, Kindle ed., part III, ch. 3 Winter Counteroffensive On the evening of December 6 General Rokossovsky reported to the Western Front command that the Army would go over to the attack at 1000 hours the next day and described his objectives (in part):The German forces put up fierce resistance along the entire front. The division was involved in heavy fighting for Rozhdestveno which involved bayonet attacks. The German forces, having consolidated in the houses and employing small arms and mortar fire, defended fiercely and the division's attack was unsuccessful. Despite such local successes the German forces as a whole began to withdraw to the west. On December 9 Rokossovsky created two shock groups to operate against the flanks and rear of the German forces; the second consisted of the 9th Guards, 17th Tank and 36th and 40th Rifle Brigades plus the 89th Tank Battalion to retake Istra and then attack to the north. The attack began the next day and by December 11 the pace of the German retreat was accelerating; 16th Army reached a line from Kurilovo to Maksimovka to Istra, which was liberated by the 9th Guards that day. Over the next five days the Army fought for possession of the Istra reservoir, which had its dyke destroyed by the German forces. The division made several attempts to cross to the western bank of the river which were unsuccessful in part due to its artillery falling behind due to the winter weather. By the end of the 13th it was better prepared to force a crossing. Overnight on December 14/15 it got two rifle regiments across the river covered by fire from the third and was fighting for Ilino and Yabedino, west of Istra. By now the German positions along the Istra were deeply outflanked and their retreat continued, pursued by 16th Army towards Volokolamsk through to December 20. During this period the 9th Guards captured 199 motor vehicles, nine artillery pieces and nine tanks. By the 22nd it was closing up to the Ruza River, which formed the next German defense line. The next day the 16th Army regrouped to its right flank to resume the offensive on December 24, but the German line proved hard to crack and this effort gained little ground over the next days.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow, Kindle ed., part IV, ch. 2

At the start of January, 1942 the division was on its Army's left flank linking to 5th Army to its south. On January 2 it reached a line from Danilkovo to Zakhryapino and over the next two weeks advanced from that line to the southwest which helped to force the German defenders to fall back from the Ruza in the direction of Gzhatsk. The 9th Guards continued to pursue and by January 20 had taken the villages of Soslavino, Isakovo and Potapovo while advancing in the direction of Myshkino. In three weeks the 16th Army had advanced along its center and from along its flanks.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Moscow, Kindle ed., part V, ch. 4, 6 Later in January the division was transferred to the 33rd Army, still in Western Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 27 Rzhev-Vyasma Operation At the time of the transfer a strike group of three rifle divisions of 33rd Army had penetrated the German front south of Medyn in an effort to seize Vyasma, a vital rail hub in the German rear.Svetlana Gerasimova, The Rzhev Slaughterhouse, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2013, pp. 38-39 9th Guards was ordered to force-march in four days to reach Medyn, starting on January 27. At this time the rifle regiments were reduced to 250-300 personnel each, with several hundred horses missing and most of the motor transport in need of repair. Upon reaching Medyn General Beloborodov was ordered to join the battle from the march by entering a corridor up to long and about wide that led to the positions of the strike group. The leading 131st Rifle Regiment had entered the corridor on February 2 just as a counterstrike was launched by the 5th Panzer Division and other forces to cut it. Almost immediately Beloborodov received new orders moving the division to the command of 43rd Army; he was also to remove his forces from the corridor and strike back at the German pincers. In the event only one battalion of the 131st made it out while the other two and two companies of the sapper battalion were encircled.http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/beloborodov2/06.html. In Russian. Retrieved September 20, 2019.