The 15th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in February, 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 136th Rifle Division, and served in that role until well after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The division had already distinguished itself during the Winter War with Finland in 1940 and had been decorated with the Order of Lenin; soon after its redesignation it also received its first Order of the Red Banner. It was in Southern Front as this time but was soon moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command where it was assigned to 7th Reserve Army in May, then to 28th Army in Southwestern Front in June, then to 57th Army in Stalingrad Front in July. It remained in that Army for the rest of the year, with one brief exception, until it was transferred to Don Front's 64th Army in January, 1943 during the closing stages of the battle of Stalingrad. In March this Army became 7th Guards Army and was railed to the northwest, joining Voronezh Front south of the Kursk salient. In the battle that followed the 15th Guards assisted in the defeat of Army Detachment Kempf, then took part in the summer offensive into Ukraine, winning one of the first battle honors at Kharkov. It remained in either 7th Guards or 37th Army into the spring of 1944. It saw action in the Nikopol-Krivoi Rog Offensive and was awarded the Order of Suvorov before being involved in the frustrating battles along the Dniestr River on the Romanian border. In June the division became part of 34th Guards Rifle Corps in 5th Guards Army and was redeployed north becoming part of 1st Ukrainian Front and taking part in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive into Poland. The 15th Guards made a spectacular advance across Poland during the Vistula-Oder Offensive and was further decorated with the Order of Kutuzov for forcing a crossing of the Oder River. It then saw action in the drive on Berlin in April and the Prague Offensive in May, winning a further battle honor and an unusual second Order of the Red Banner in the process. After the war the division did garrison duty in Austria, then in Ukraine, followed by a move in late 1947 to Crimea and the Kuban where its personnel assisted in rebuilding the local economy and infrastructure for nearly 20 years. It September 1965 it was renumbered as the "51st" and became the 2nd formation of the 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division.
Formation The division was officially raised to Guards status on February 16, 1942 in recognition of its role in the first liberation of Rostov-on-Don on December 2, 1941 and its subsequent attacks across the Mius River.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. 48 Its sub-units would not receive their Guards redesignations until some time later. It inherited the Order of Lenin the 136th had earned in March, 1940. Its order of battle, based on the last peacetime shtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions, was eventually as follows: 44th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 378th Rifle Regiment) 47th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 541st Rifle Regiment) 50th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 733rd Rifle Regiment) 43rd Guards Artillery Regiment (from 291st Artillery Regiment) 20th Guards Antitank Battalion 18th Guards Antiaircraft Battery (until May 1, 1943) 27th Guards Mortar Battalion (until October 20, 1942) 17th Guards Reconnaissance Company 11th Guards Sapper Battalion (from 42nd Sapper Battalion)Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 69. In common with all prewar rifle divisions the 136th had had a howitzer regiment but this was removed in 1941. 25th Guards Signal Battalion 16th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 19th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 13th Guards Motor Transport Company (later 220th Motor Transport Battalion) 4th Guards Field Bakery 12th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 112th Field Postal Station 368th Field Office of the State Bank
The 136th had been under command of Col. Nikolai Porfirevich Raevsky but he was replaced on the day of redesignation by Lt. Col. Pyotr Dmitrievich Kondratev. At this time it was in the 18th Army of Southern Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 29 On March 27 the division was further recognized for its service in the Donbas and along the Mius with the award of its first Order of the Red Banner.
Operation Blue In April the 15th Guards was moved to the 58th Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. By the start of the German summer offensive in the Caucasus in late June it had been assigned to 28th Army in Southwestern Front and was directly facing the 164 tanks fielded by 3rd Panzer Division of German 6th Army's XXXX Panzer Corps. The five rifle divisions of 28th Army were deployed in a single echelon with three tank brigades (numbering in total about 90 tanks) and the 244th Rifle Division near Valuyki on the Oskol River as Southwestern Front's reserve. Under the weight of the attack which began on June 30 the division, along with the 13th Guards and 169th Rifle Divisions, backed by 13th Tank Corps, managed to hold the advance of the XXXX Panzer to less than 10km on the first day. However the German XXIX and VIII Army Corps to the north struck more than twice that distance, tearing a yawning gap between 28th and 21st Army. Over the coming days 28th was forced to fall back towards Valuyki, exposing the flank of the 21st to its north. By July 10 the situation had drastically deteriorated and the 28th Army headquarters was forced to report:Over the next three days the Army reported that elements of the divisions made it back safely. However by this time they mustered only 40 to 400 "bayonets" (riflemen and sappers) each, with only a handful of guns and mortars. Within days the 28th and its depleted units were transferred to the new Stalingrad Front.David M. Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 108, 111, 127-30, 134, 180-81
Battle of Stalingrad Later that month the 15th Guards was transferred to the 57th Army, commanded by Maj. Gen. F. I. Tolbukhin, still in Stalingrad Front. This Army at the time was very small, consisting of the worn-down 15th, the 38th Rifle Division and the 13th Separate Destroyer (antitank) Brigade. It constituted the Front's reserve and was located in Stalingrad itself but on August 1 as 4th Panzer Army advanced from the southwest towards the city it was ordered to new defensive positions to the south with the division watching a line from Lake Sarpa to Raygorod on the Volga. The following day Lt. Colonel Kondratev handed the command of the division over to his chief of staff, Lt. Col. Andrei Evtikhievich Ovsienko. Under the crisis conditions on August 5 the STAVKA ordered new command arrangements including assigning 15th Guards to 64th Army in the re-created Southwestern Front. On August 9 the division took part in counterattack against XXXXVIII Panzer Corps north and south of Tinguta which struck the 14th Panzer and 29th Panzergrenadier Divisions almost simultaneously from three sides, much to their surprise. During a two-day battle the panzer troops lost heavily and were forced to retreat towards Abganerovo, bringing 4th Panzer Army's advance to a halt and a near collapse.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 276-79, 282, 287-89, 556
Within days the 15th Guards returned to 57th Army which was now substantially reinforced with four more rifle divisions (not including the 38th which remained in 64th Army) and several other units. The Army was assigned the task of defending a 70 km-wide sector from State Farm (Sovkhoz) No. 4 (4 km east of Tinguta) and State Farm "Privolzhsky" to Raygorod to prevent the Axis forces from penetrating to Stalingrad from the south. 4th Panzer Army renewed its advance on August 20; by now the substantially rebuilt division was in the Army's first echelon with the 36th Guards Rifle Division. Initially the main attack was against 64th Army which was forced back but was still putting up heavy resistance. As a result, on the next day the 14th Panzer shifted to the east the next day, crossed the Malaya Tinguta River and pushed about 4 km to the north, driving a wedge between 64th Army's 38th Division and the 15th Guards. At the same time the 24th Panzer Division struck the center of the division's defenses at the "Privolzhsky" State Farm and crossed the river farther east. With the assistance of a rifle regiment of the Vinnitsa Infantry School the division managed to withdraw 10 km to take up new defenses stretching westward along the Dubovyi and Morozov ravines from the northwest bank of Lake Sarpa to 74 km Station. As 24th Panzer wheeled to the east towards Tundutovo Station, General Tolbukhin reinforced the division with the fresh 422nd Rifle Division. Between them they brought the German advance to a halt. Despite this stout defense by the evening of August 21 the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps had carved a wedge 15 km wide and 20 km deep between 64th and 57th Armies and threatened to encircle the former from the east. Therefore Southwestern Front sent six antitank artillery regiments to the two Armies, with one to be allocated to each of the front-line divisions.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 306, 365-67
On August 23–24, 4th Panzer Army again regrouped, lunging northwards early on the 25th along the boundary of the 422nd and the 244th Rifle Divisions and advancing 8 km to the Chervlennaia River. Once there, however, concentrated artillery and mortar fire of the two divisions, joined by 15th Guards coming up from second echelon, separated the German tanks from their infantry, while heavy antitank fire and counterattacks by 6th Tank Brigade destroyed or damaged many panzers. The remainder had no choice but to fall back to their jumping-off positions by the end of August 26.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 368-69 On September 8 Lt. Colonel Ovsienko returned to his chief of staff duties and the division came under the command of Col. Nikolai Ivanovich Telegin. The German 6th and 4th Panzer Armies completed the isolation of 62nd Army in the city by September 12 at which time the 64th and 57th occupied the Beketovka "bridgehead" along the Volga directly to its south with the 57th southwest of Ivanovka - Tundutovo - the Dubovyi ravine, facing elements of Romanian VI Army Corps.Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, p. 104
As the battle raged within Stalingrad during late September and early October the STAVKA planned attacks to its north and south to divert German strength and possibly relieve the siege. A composite detachment made up of two detached rifle regiments (from 422nd and 75th Rifle Divisions) and the 155th Tank Brigade, supported by 1188th Antitank Artillery Regiment plus 18th and 76th Guards Mortar Regiments, was in the sector of the 15th Guards, which was also instructed to provide fire support. This detachment assaulted the positions of the Romanian 1st Infantry Division south of Lake Sarpa overnight on September 28/29. The attack achieved almost immediate success, penetrating the Romanian defenses, advancing roughly 5 km, and liberating the villages of Tsatsa and Semkin by 1400 hours on October 1. As a result of this attack, as well as a similar one by 51st Army, the Romanian VI Army Corps was badly damaged and forced back to even less defensible positions. 15th Guards exploited the victory by capturing the Dubovyi ravine region by the same hour and dug in.Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, pp. 342-45