62nd Guards Rifle Division

The 62nd Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 127th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

The division was in the 6th Army of Southwestern Front on the day it was redesignated but was assigned to the 3rd Tank Army of Voronezh Front the following day. This force was badly damaged in Army Group South's counteroffensive south of Kharkov in March, 1943 and the division had to be withdrawn for a substantial rebuilding before being reassigned to the 26th Guards Rifle Corps of 6th Army back in Southwestern Front. It saw little action before being withdrawn again to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command and moved to the 37th Army which joined Steppe Front in September, fighting towards the Dniepr River and playing a leading role in a successful crossing in the Soloshino to Mishurin Rog area. During the month-long battle for Cherkassy at the end of the year the division served in the 52nd Army. In January, 1944 the 62nd Guards was reassigned to the 4th Guards Army and remained under that command for most of the duration of the war. It was awarded a battle honor and soon after its first decoration for its part in the battles for the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket and within weeks also received the Order of the Red Banner after forcing a crossing of the Dniestr River. When the final offensive that drove Romania out of the Axis began the division was in the 21st Guards Rifle Corps of 4th Guards Army, in 2nd Ukrainian Front. During the campaigns in Hungary in the winter of 1944-45 it took part in the encirclement of Budapest, helped fight off several Axis attempts to break the siege, and eventually received its name as a second honorific. The 62nd Guards picked up a third decoration advancing into northern Hungary and Austria and took part in the fighting for Vienna; despite this admirable record of service the division was disbanded in July, 1946.

Formation The 127th was redesignated as the 62nd Guards on January 15 and officially received its Guards banner in February. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows: 182nd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 547th Rifle Regiment) 184th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 549th Rifle Regiment) 186th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 555th Rifle Regiment) 131st Guards Artillery Regiment (from 1034th 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. 70 69th Guards Antitank Battalion (later 69th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion) 64th Guards Reconnaissance Company 71st Guards Sapper Battalion 90th Guards Signal Battalion 67th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 65th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 61st Guards Motor Transport Company 66th Guards Field Bakery 63rd Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1967th Field Postal Station 1156th Field Office of the State Bank Col. Georgii Mikhailovich Zaitsev, who had led the 127th since mid-April, 1942, remained in command of the division and was promoted to the rank of major general on January 19. At the start of January the 127th had been in 6th Army of Southwestern Front, but the new 62nd Guards was moved to the 3rd Tank Army in Voronezh Front on January 16 on the fourth day of the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh offensive.Soviet General Staff, Rollback, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, Kindle ed., Part III, section 14 3rd Tank still had the early mixed tank army composition with five rifle divisions, the others being the 48th Guards, 111th, 160th and 184th.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 16, 38

Third Battle of Kharkov On January 21 the commander of Southwestern Front and coordinator of the Red Army offensive on this sector, Col. Gen. N. F. Vatutin, sent his Report No. 00179/op to the STAVKA containing his plan to liberate Kharkov. It stated in part:The report further stated that 3rd Tank would launch its main attack in the direction of Valuyki and Merefa with the intention of outflanking and taking the city from the southwest. The 62nd Guards was one of four rifle divisions to be in the first echelon of the advance and while the mobile units were to capture Kharkov on the fifth or sixth day the rifle divisions were expected to arrive on the eighth or ninth day.Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., Part VI, section 12

Due to winter conditions and supply difficulties the Front's offensive did not meet the pace laid down by Vatutin on January 21, but in his Report No. 0054 late on February 16 he was able to state that: "As a result of five days of intensive fighting and having routed the enemy's pick SS units by an attack from the west, east and southeast, our forces captured the city of Kharkov during the first half of the day." The report went on to state that the 12th Tank Corps and 111th Rifle Division had cleared the southeastern part of the city and that the 62nd Guards was being left as a garrison while the remainder of 3rd Tank was moving on to a line from Pesochin to Korotich to Berezovoe to Yuzhnyi.Soviet General Staff, Rollback, Kindle ed., Part VI, section 28 On the afternoon of February 19 Soviet reconnaissance aircraft began to report concentrations of German armor in the Krasnograd area, but this was interpreted as preparations for a withdrawal.John Erickson, The Road to Berlin, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, UK, 1983, pp. 50-51

The German Army Group South began its offensive the next day, striking the right flank of 6th Army as General Vatutin forbade any withdrawal despite his forces being significantly weakened after months of fighting; as an example two tank brigades of 3rd Tank had just six tanks operational between them. The situation worsened over the following days as the German forces drove to the north and on the afternoon of February 28 broke through to the Donets River. 3rd Tank was now moved to Southwestern Front for an ill-fated counterattack on the panzer forces ripping into 6th Army but by March 4, with only about 50 tanks remaining, was almost entirely surrounded itself. 6th Army, despite heavy losses, fell back to the Donets between Andreyevka (northwest of Izium) and Kransnyi Lyman. On March 7 the 4th Panzer Army began its drive on Kharkov and during the next 48 hours created a gap between 69th Army and the remnants of 3rd Tank, whose rifle divisions were contesting this advance as best they could. The 1st Czechoslovak Independent Battalion, attached to 3rd Tank, was now fighting southwest of Kharkov in the Merefa area between the 62nd and 25th Guards Divisions. By March 10 German units were in the northern suburbs of Kharkov and the division was forced to fall back towards the Donets.Erickson, The Road to Berlin, pp. 53-54

In the course of this withdrawal, General Zaitsev suffered a broken leg from enemy fire while visiting an observation post. He was discovered and taken prisoner on March 16 and spent the rest of the war in German camps. Liberated by the US Army in May, 1945 he was repatriated and arrested by the NKVD before being cleared of any wrongdoing by December. He went on to study at the Frunze Military Academy and eventually retired in 1955. On April 5 he was succeeded in command of the division by Col. Ivan Nikonovich Moshlyak, who had been made a Hero of the Soviet Union as a lieutenant in 1938 following the Battle of Lake Khasan. The division had rejoined the battered 6th Army on March 17 and as of April 1 was part of the 30th Rifle Corps. Later that month it was reassigned to the 26th Guards Rifle Corps where it remained into July when it was withdrawn into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding, joining the 37th Army.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 88, 113, 139, 165, 206 When this was completed the 62nd Guards was noted as having 40 percent Russian personnel, while the remaining 60 percent were of several Asian nationalities, and 60 percent were very young men of the year groups 1923–24.David M. Glantz, Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005, p. 596

Battles for the Dniepr By the beginning of September the 37th Army had organized all four of its divisions (62nd, 92nd, 110th Guards and 53rd Rifle) into the 57th Rifle Corps.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 235 As the Red Army advanced through eastern Ukraine that month the Army was released from the Reserve of the Supreme High Command to reinforce Steppe Front (as of October 20 2nd Ukrainian Front). The Army began its offensive operation on September 24 along the approaches to the Dniepr River in conjunction with the neighboring 53rd and 7th Guards Armies.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of the Dnepr, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2018, p. 243

Steppe Front was facing the German 8th Army and part of the 1st Panzer Army which at this time were withdrawing toward Kremenchug in order to cross the Dniepr and organize a defense on its right (west) bank. 37th Army was in the Front's second echelon and was tasked with seizing a bridgehead southeast of that city following initial crossings by 69th Army. This Army had been weakened in previous fighting and was disregarded as a threat by the German command. 37th Army's commander, Lt. Gen. M. N. Sharokhin, was ordered to force march to the 69th's sector and capture a bridgehead between Uspenskoye and Mishurin Rog on September 27. For this purpose the Army was heavily reinforced from the 69th Army, including the 89th Guards Rifle Division and a great deal of artillery. As of September 25 the 62nd Guards recorded a strength of 8,368 men; 491 light and 166 heavy machine guns; 85 82mm and 24 120mm mortars; 41 45mm antitank guns; 36 76mm cannons and 12 122mm howitzers. This was very similar to that of the other Guards divisions in 57th Corps.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of the Dnepr, pp. 245, 247-49