73rd Guards Rifle Division

The 73rd Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in March 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 38th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

As the 38th it had fought in the Battle of Stalingrad and distinguished itself during Operation Ring in the 64th Army. It remained assigned to that Army when it was redesignated as the 7th Guards Army. Unusually, the division, as well as its four regiments, were all granted honorific titles following the battle. It moved north to the Kursk area joining Voronezh Front and played an important role in the defense of the Northern Donets River south of the salient as part of the 25th Guards Rifle Corps during Operation Zitadelle. Following this victory it fought in the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive in August and continued advancing toward the Dniepr River into the early autumn. Over the winter it took part in the complex battles in the great bend of the Dniepr, now as part of the 57th Army's 64th Rifle Corps in 2nd Ukrainian Front; it would remain under these Army (with one brief reassignment) and Corps commands for the duration of the war. The 73rd Guards advanced east to the Dniestr River in the spring of 1944 and then in July took part in the offensive that drove Romania out of the Axis. Entering Bulgaria and then Yugoslavia it assisted partisan brigades in the liberation of Belgrade, for which it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In November the division made an assault crossing of the Danube for which it was further rewarded with its second honorific. The 73rd Guards ended the war in Austria and was disbanded in June 1946.

Formation The 38th was redesignated as the 73rd Guards on March 1, a month after the German surrender at Stalingrad, and officially received its Guards banner on April 21. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows: 209th Guards Abganerovo Rifle Regiment (from 29th Rifle Regiment) 211th Guards Basargino Rifle Regiment (from 48th Rifle Regiment) 214th Guards Voroponovo Rifle Regiment (from 343rd Rifle Regiment) 153rd Guards Urazovo Artillery Regiment (from 214th 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. 74 80th Guards Antitank Battalion 124th Antiaircraft Battery (until April 20, 1943) 161st Machine Gun Battalion (until April 21, 1943) 77th Guards Reconnaissance Company 84th Guards Sapper Battalion 104th Guards Signal Battalion (after December 7, 1944 104th Guards Signal Company) 78th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 74th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 76th Guards Motor Transport Company 75th Guards Field Bakery 71st Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1705th Field Postal Station 1101st Field Office of the State Bank Maj. Gen. Ganii Bekinovich Safiulin, who had commanded the 38th since June 15, 1942, remained in command. In reply to a request from the Don Front's Military Council and local authorities of Stalingrad Oblast the STAVKA had conferred the honorific "Stalingrad" on the division as a whole and individual titles on its regiments from four villages in the Oblast. As 64th Army moved north towards Kursk the German counteroffensive at Kharkov was unfolding. As elements of the SS Panzer Corps entered Belgorod on March 18 forces of the Soviet 69th Army were taking up a defense along the east bank of the Northern Donets. The next day the 73rd Guards began to assemble in the Shebekino - Miasoedovo area and on March 24 the 64th Army took over the 69th's defense sector. On April 17 the 64th officially became the 7th Guards, General Safiulin was moved to command of the new 25th Guards Rifle Corps and Col. Semyon Antonovich Kozak took over command of the division.Valeriy Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2018, pp. 30-31

Battle of Kursk In the last gasp of the German offensive the SS Corps had gained a bridgehead over the Donets at Mikhailovka, south of the Staryi Gorod (Old Town) of Belgorod. The commander of Voronezh Front, Army Gen. N. F. Vatutin, made repeated demands of Lt. Gen. M. S. Shumilov, commander of 64th Army, that this bridgehead be eliminated. While it only contained about 9 sq. km. of firm ground it did compromise the Red Army defenses along the river. On April 16 two regiments of the 73rd Guards made a last effort to retake Mikhailovka, but failed. Following this the division set out to construct a system of defense in this sector according to the plans of the rest of the Army. On the night of May 4/5 the division was relieved of its first echelon positions by the 81st Guards Rifle Division and moved back to the Corps' second echelon; at this time the 73rd Guards was the weakest division of the 7th Guards Army with 6,824 personnel on strength. Over the following months the Corps was deployed on the Army's right flank with the 81st Guards on the right (north) flank, the 78th Guards Rifle Division on the left, and the 73rd in reserve. The division fortified a line from outside Sheino to Miasoedovo to the "Solovev" collective farm to the Korenskaya Dacha wooded ravine to outside Nikolskoe. The rifle regiments were arrayed in a single line and the 153rd Guards Artillery was deployed to support the 81st Guards, which was heavily reinforced with other artillery units as well.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 42-44, 51-53

By the start of the German offensive on July 5 the division had been able to rebuild its strength closer to establishment. It now had 8,617 personnel, 864 horses and 103 motor vehicles, and was equipped with 3,675 rifles, 2,241 sub-machine guns, 441 light and 140 heavy machine guns, 165 antitank rifles, 48 light, 64 medium and 20 heavy mortars, 45 antitank guns, 12 76mm regimental guns, 21 76mm cannons and 11 122mm howitzers. 7th Guards Army came under attack from Army Detachment Kempf, part of Army Group South, and 25th Guards Corps specifically faced the 7th, 6th and 19th Panzer Divisions of Gen. H. Breith's III Panzer Corps. 6th Panzer was partly deployed in the Mikhailovka bridgehead facing the 81st Guards, while the 19th Panzer was positioned to attack at the boundary of the 81st and 78th Guards in the direction of Miasoedovo, which was covered by the 73rd Guards; the latter was also an objective of 7th Panzer. The overall German plan was to link up with the II SS Panzer Corps which was attacking the 6th Guards Army to the north, and encircle and destroy the Red Army forces in between.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 34-38, 140-142

Overnight on July 4/5 a sapper of the German 168th Infantry Division deserted and was brought to General Safiulin's 25th Guards Corps headquarters, where he reported that the offensive would begin in the morning. At 0330 hours a preemptive artillery bombardment began against Army Detachment Kempf; the 153rd Guards Regiment fired 306 76mm and 87 122mm shells at the German assembly areas which helped to disrupt the concentration of 6th Panzer into the Mikhailovka bridgehead. During the morning the 81st Guards was successful in repulsing both the 6th's and 19th Panzer's assault groups but to the south bitter fighting was underway on the boundary with the 78th Guards where several dozen tanks of 7th Panzer from the Solomino area had broken through to the Razumnoye railyard and the rifle battalion holding Nizhnii Olshanets was partly encircled. Colonel Kozak was alerted to intervene according to pre-battle plans, either by counterattack or by backstopping the 78th Guards. Before noon he had assembled his division on a line running from the woods north of the "Batratskaya Dacha" State Farm to the woods south of there.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 147, 149, 151, 190

Orders for the counterattack arrived from Safiulin at noon:In addition Kozak received operational control of the 161st Guards Cannon Artillery Regiment and the 315th Guards Mortar Regiment. The assembly of this group of forces went slowly, including the mobile units. At 1500 hours the columns of the 209th and 214th Guards Regiments were only nearing the "Batratskaya Dacha" State Farm and still had more than 5 km to cover on foot. Most of the attached artillery had failed to arrive in the division's sector even by 1900 hours. Even as Kozak's troops were moving up the 7th Panzer Division kept advancing and after 1500 combat was already going on in the depth of the 78th Guards' defenses. By 1700 Nizhnii Olshanets was completely isolated and the lead panzers were closing on Krutoi Log, the main defensive position in the sector. However, heavy artillery fire was slowing their progress.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 205-06

Battle for Krutoi Log Just as the lead tanks of 7th Panzer reached the Razumnoye - Krutoi Log road Colonel Kozak was located at the forward observation post of the 78th Guards on Hill 209.6, 2.5 km northeast of Gremyachy. Kozak sent out several reconnaissance teams, one of which reported that Krutoi Rog had fallen and that 25 tanks, mounted with infantry, had arrived on the eastern outskirts of the village. This proved to be mistaken but on its basis Kozak made a number of important decisions as recorded in the divisional combat diary:While subsequent events are difficult to follow, this was a change to the mission of the 167th Tanks which had been preparing to advance with the latter two rifle regiments toward Krutoi Log. Instead it attacked alone at 1730 hours toward Razumnoye with 27 T-34s and 5 T-70s. In heavy fighting over 2 hours and 30 minutes with German tanks backed by artillery 20 T-34s and 4 T-70s were destroyed or knocked out. German losses are disputed; seven Tigers were claimed but this appears unlikely. Kozak reported that at about 1850 hours the headquarters of one regiment of the 78th Guards was moving into the church in Krutoi Log, that units of 7th Panzer had taken Hill 164.7 and several tanks had entered Generalovka. To counter these moves he committed the remnants of the 167th Tanks and the 3rd Battalion of his 209th Guards Regiment which by 2200 hours had freed the village and the hill. The day's fighting ended at about 2300 hours.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 216-17, 219-21, 223

For July 6 General Shumilov initially issued orders to create a shock group based on the 73rd Guards in order to counterattack the III Panzer Corps but lost confidence in this plan in large part due to the lack of artillery on this axis; as one example the 153rd Guards Artillery Regiment was still in the 81st Guards' sector although Shumilov soon ordered its return to the 73rd. As well, sometime before midnight orders came down from I. V. Stalin to General Vatutin to cancel various counterattack plans across the Front. Colonel Kozak also made a number of decisions to strengthen his antitank defenses. He ordered the remaining 12 T-34s and one T-70 of the 167th Tanks and the 22 SU-122s of the 1438th SU Regiment to dig in on the south and southwest fringe of the woods lying 1 km north of Krutoi Log to create an antitank region in the positions of the 209th and 214th Guards Regiments opposite the front of the 7th Panzer. At the same time the 201st Tank Brigade had arrived on the division's left flank along with the 1669th Destroyer Antitank Artillery Regiment and the 1529th Heavy Self-propelled Artillery Regiment (SU-152sSharp, "Red Hammers", p. 77): these began to set up a second antitank region in the area of the "Poliana" State Farm to cover the boundary with the 213th Rifle Division.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 244-47