The 50th Guards Rifle Division was an elite infantry division of the Red Army during World War II that continued as part of the Soviet Army during the early Cold War. The division was converted into the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division and in the late 1950s, the division was based in Brest, Belarus. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the division became part of the Belarusian Ground Forces and was reduced to a brigade and then a storage base before being disbanded in 2006.
The division was first formed in November 1942 from the 2nd formation of the 124th Rifle Division, and it served in that role until after the Great Patriotic War. The division was created within the 21st Army of the Southwestern Front, but soon moved to the 5th Tank Army. It played a leading role in the defeat of the 3rd Romanian Army in Operation Uranus. It was later transferred to the 3rd Guards Army when that was formed, and was under this Army as it advanced into the Donbas in late winter. In April 1943, the division was moved again to the 51st Army in the Southern Front, where it was assigned to the 3rd Guards Rifle Corps, which it remained with for the duration of the war.
The division remained in the south of Ukraine into early 1944, in the 51st or later the 5th Shock Army, and won a battle honor, its first Order of the Red Banner, and the Order of Suvorov in the process. It was then moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding before returning to the front in May 1944 and joining the 28th Army, where it remained for the duration. The 50th Guards took part in the summer offensive in Belarus and later the abortive Gumbinnen-Goldap Operation. In January 1945, the division fought into East Prussia and assisted in the battles southwest of the city of Königsberg, winning two further decorations, including a rare second Order of the Red Banner, before the 28th Army was redeployed westward to take part in the Berlin Operation. By now, it was part of the 1st Ukrainian Front and spent the last days of the war advancing on Prague. During the summer, it was reassigned to the Belorussian Military District, and it remained in Belarus until it was reorganized as the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1957.
Formation The 50th Guards Rifle Division officially received its Guards title on November 17, just two days before the start of Operation Uranus. Its subunits would not be redesignated until December 26 and fought under their old designations through most of Uranus; following that, the division's order of battle would be as follows:
148th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 406th Rifle Regiment) 150th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 622nd Rifle Regiment) 152nd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 781st Rifle Regiment) 119th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 469th Artillery Regiment) 58th Guards Antitank Battalion (from 202nd Antitank Battalion)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. 64 66th Guards Antiaircraft Battery (until April 25, 1943) 54th Guards Reconnaissance Company 56th Guards Sapper Battalion 80th Guards Signal Battalion 59th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 55th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 57th Guards Motor Transport Company 53rd Guards Field Bakery 47th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 566th Field Postal Station 343rd Field Office of the State Bank Colonel Aleksandr Ivanovich Belov remained in command of the division after redesignation; he had commanded the 124th since July and would be promoted to the rank of major general on November 27. Belov's division gained its Guards status in large part due to its offensive successes in the fighting for the Serafimovich bridgehead south of the Don River against the 3rd Romanian Army. Beginning on the night of October 13/14, the division, along with the 14th Guards Rifle Division, began an intense probing attack against the Romanian forces which continued until the 16th. The intention was to draw German forces away from Stalingrad, but not incidentally, these attacks, along with another by 76th Rifle Division on October 24–27, inflicted 13,154 casualties on the 3rd Army, roughly the equivalent of what the British 8th Army would suffer in the concurrent Second Battle of El Alamein.David M. Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 354, 775
During earlier fighting in the bridgehead on October 3, Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Arsentyevich Kuznetsov of the 622nd Rifle Regiment had led a group of his submachine-gunners in a successful battle in the area of Senyutkino Farm against two enemy-held bunkers. On the second day of Operation Uranus, he further distinguished himself by leading his men into the rear of a retreating Romanian artillery battalion, which was soon mostly destroyed or captured, including 16 serviceable guns. Kuznetsov then directed his group to attack Sredne Tsaritsynsky Farm using the captured artillery and took it after a 15-minute fight, adding more prisoners and trophies to the total. He was personally credited with 88 killed and 64 prisoners, but also received five wounds. The journalist Ilya Ehrenburg wrote an account of this action entitled "Good morning, Guards!" On February 14, 1943, Kuznetsov was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. A month later, he was severely wounded and concussed, and he spent most of the rest of the war in political work.https://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=2612. In Russian, English translation available. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
Operation Uranus Shortly after redesignation, the 50th Guards was moved from the 21st Army to the 5th Tank Army, which would be the main shock group of the Southwestern Front. Before the main offensive began on November 19, all four of the army's first-echelon rifle divisions conducted a reconnaissance-in-force with reinforced rifle battalions on the night of November 17/18. Overcoming Romanian forward security outposts and eliminating obstacles as they were encountered, the division advanced nearly into the positions of the Romanian 5th Infantry Division to 250 m south of the burial mound at Marker +1.2 and Hill 222, east-northeast of Kalmykovskii. This reconnaissance was effective in uncovering and removing minefields and other engineering works and identified many strongpoints in the main defensive line, as well as weak spots.Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book One, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2014, pp. 186-87
When the actual offensive began on November 19, the division had a strength of about 8,800 personnel, of which about 6,500 were infantry and sappers. It was stationed on the left flank of the army, between the 119th Rifle Division and the 21st Army. All three rifle regiments were deployed in the first echelon in numerical order from left to right. It was supported by 74 tanks of the 216th Tank Brigade as well as the 510th Tank Battalion; the plan was to create a breach that the 26th Tank Corps could pass through.
The attack began between 0848 and 0850 hours Moscow time. During the first hour, the division overcame the Romanian first defensive positions with relative ease. The combined infantry and armor attack seized the ridge line between Kalmykovskii and Verkhne Fomikhinskii, tore a gaping hole through the defenses of 5th Romanian, and captured Hill 223 by 1100 hours, forcing the Romanian division to withdraw the remnants of its left wing to new positions to the southwest. Now the Romanian resistance became stiffer, as the 50th and 47th Guards and the 119th Divisions reached their second defensive position, while the 14th Guards was stalled even farther back. It was becoming apparent to the commander of the 5th Tank Army, Lt. Gen. P.L. Romanenko, that the artillery preparation had not been as effective as planned. Accordingly, he decided that if the offensive was to succeed, he would have to commit his 1st and 26th Tank Corps.
These corps stepped off at 1400 hours, west of the 50th Guards' sector, and effectively obliterated two regiments of the Romanian 14th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, the 216th and 19th Tank Brigades supported the division in its struggle to seize Hills 217 and 223 in a fight that lasted until 1800 hours. Thereafter, the 216th and the 406th Rifle Regiment wheeled eastward and were involved in fighting in the Tsaritsa River valley by the day's end. The remainder of the division, with 19th Tanks, advanced to positions east of Hill 208, southeast of Klinovoi, where it faced the remnants of the 14th Romanian's right-wing regiment, which was now supported by a handful of tanks from the 1st Romanian Armored Division.Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book One, pp. 192-95, 201-03, 208-11, 213-14
During the first half of November 20, the 1st Tank Corps ran up against elements of the reinforcing 22nd Panzer Division. Meanwhile, the 216th and 19th Tanks supported the division and the left-wing regiment of 119th Division in containing the Romanian 5th Infantry and 1st Armored as part of an encirclement operation east of the Tsaritsa. Ultimately, the Soviet force was to link up with 21st Army's 277th and 333rd Rifle Divisions, advancing westward from Kletskaya. Continuing their assaults eastward and southeastward into the afternoon, the two rifle divisions faced near-constant counterattacks and probes from the Romanian armor and a composite regiment made up of remnants of the 6th and 13th Romanian Infantry Divisions trying in vain to find an escape route to the southwest. The 1st Armored was under orders from XXXXVIII Panzer Corps to break out and rejoin it in the Donshchinka region, but was blocked by the Soviet force, backed by a 76mm tank destroyer regiment and a flamethrower tank battalion. By now, the near-encircled Romanian forces had come under command of Gen. M. Lascăr, commander of the 6th Infantry.Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book One, pp. 231-33, 235, 244
When the battle resumed on November 21, the 50th Guards was facing the northwest sector of Group Lascăr's salient, still supported by 216th Tanks along and west of the Tsaritsa, while the remainder of the 26th Tank Corps began exploiting towards Kalach. The division and brigade deployed along a sector west of and along the river and drove eastward against the positions of the Romanian 5th Infantry. After repelling several Romanian counterattacks during the morning, the division crossed the Tsaritsa with two regiments, penetrated the Romanian defenses, and pushed forward another , roughly halfway to its objective of Golovsky. This was also the objective of the 333rd Division, and a linkup would complete the encirclement of Group Lascăr. Before this could happen, the 119th and 277th Divisions joined hands to the south and achieved the same purpose. The survivors of five infantry divisions and the 1st Armored were completely enveloped by 2000 hours. The 50th Guards continued its advance, which became critical, as Golovsky had become the hub for supply and other operations for Group Lascăr. The 6th Romanian Infantry sent a battalion of infantry and several artillery pieces to defend the town.Glantz, Endgame at Stalingrad, Book One, pp. 274-78