The 89th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in April 1943, based on the 1940 formation of the 160th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It would fight its way into the heart of Berlin prior to the German surrender.
The 160th had distinguished itself in Operation Little Saturn and the subsequent Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive and despite being partly destroyed during the German counteroffensive that retook Kharkov in March 1943 it was deemed worthy of Guards status. This redesignation also ended the situation where two divisions bearing the number 160th had been serving concurrently for 18 months. At the start of the Battle of Kursk the 89th Guards was in Voronezh Front on the far left flank of 6th Guards Army in reserve but during the fighting was transferred to the 48th Rifle Corps of 69th Army. When the Red Army went over to the offensive in early August the division was awarded one of the first honorifics for its part in the liberation of Belgorod and within weeks a further battle honor for helping to retake Kharkov. It then joined the summer offensive through eastern Ukraine to the Dniepr River where more than two dozen of its personnel became Heroes of the Soviet Union as a result of crossing operations near Kremenchug. Through the winter it would take part in the battles in the great bend of the Dniepr, now as part of the 37th Army of 2nd Ukrainian Front. During the advance through western Ukraine in the spring of 1944 to the Dniestr River the division was transferred to 53rd Army, still in 2nd Ukrainian Front, but the Front's first effort to penetrate into Moldavia was stymied. The second effort in August was a major victory and the 273rd Guards Rifle Regiment would be awarded an honorific. Following this the 89th Guards was transferred to the 5th Shock Army where it mostly served in the 26th Guards Rifle Corps for the duration of the war. Prior to the Vistula-Oder Offensive that Army was itself transferred to 1st Belorussian Front. In early February the division helped to expand a bridgehead over the Oder River near Küstrin and remained in that position until the final offensive on Berlin began in mid-April. The division and its units collected further honors during this offensive and ended the war in the center of the city. In November 1945 it began reorganizing as the 23rd Guards Mechanized Division but this short-lived formation was disbanded near Moscow in March 1947.
Formation Following its disastrous battle with the SS Panzer Corps east of Krasnograd the remnants of the 160th fell back farther to the east in late March 1943, coming under the command of 69th Army in Voronezh Front. On April 18 it was officially redesignated as the 89th Guards Rifle Division; it would receive its Guards banner on May 11. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows: 267th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 443rd Rifle Regiment) 270th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 537th Rifle Regiment) 273rd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 636th Rifle Regiment) 196th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 566th 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. 80 98th Guards Antitank Battalion (later 98th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion) 91st Guards Reconnaissance Company 104th Guards Sapper Battalion 158th Guards Signal Battalion (later 6th Guards Signal Company, then again 158th Guards Signal Battalion) 94th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 93rd Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 95th Guards Motor Transport Company 92nd Guards Field Bakery 96th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 519th Field Postal Station (later 52500th Field Postal Station) 437th Field Office of the State Bank The division remained under the command of Col. Mikhail Petrovich Seryugin, who had just returned from the hospital after being wounded in February while commanding the division. Deputy division commander Col. Aleksei Ivanovich Baksov, who had been acting commander of the 160th, was appointed to command of the 67th Guards Rifle Division on June 1; he would later be made a Hero of the Soviet Union and command the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps. At this time the 89th was a separate rifle division in 6th Guards Army of Voronezh Front,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 137 still rebuilding from its losses in the spring.Valeriy Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2011, p. 567
Battle of Kursk Once the STAVKA had decided to defend the Kursk salient against a German offensive detailed plans were put in place for a defense in depth. Specific attention was paid to guarding the boundaries between the Soviet fronts and armies with backing forces. Of particular concern was the junction of Voronezh Front's 6th and 7th Guards Armies northeast of Belgorod. Initially the 73rd Guards and 375th Rifle Divisions were placed on the forward edge with the 89th and 81st Guards Rifle Divisions in second echelon.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Kursk, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2016, Kindle ed., book 1, pt. 1, ch. 2 On May 5 the 81st Guards, which was numerically stronger, was moved forward to take up the positions of the 73rd Guards around Staryi Gorod, the "old town" of Belgorod on the east bank of the Northern Donets River.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2018, p. 52 The 89th Guards, which was still understrength from the March battles and was not fully recovered when the German offensive began, remained in second echelon in the vicinity of Melikhovo and Sabynino.Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth, p. 108
The attack started at dawn on July 5. 6th Guards Army faced the 4th Panzer Army with II SS Panzer Corps on its right flank, and 7th Guards Army faced Army Detachment Kempf. The Front commander, Army Gen. N. F. Vatutin, was determined to prevent these two forces from linking up and driving to the northeast in the direction of Prokhorovka. The breakthrough operations in the first stage of the offensive proceeded with great difficulty; the 81st Guards in particular made a spirited defense. In order to stem the advance more decisively Vatutin proposed a counterattack to begin on July 8 and to involve the 89th Guards and several other forces, including the 2nd Guards Tank Corps, which received the following orders (in part) at 0050 hours:2nd Guards Tanks had already been reduced from 216 tanks on July 5 to just 24 "runners" on July 8. Nevertheless a battalion of the 26th Guards Tank Brigade, a motorized rifle battalion of the 4th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, and elements of the 89th Guards forced a crossing of the Lipovyi Donets River in the area of Visloe and from the march conducted an attack in the direction of the Smelo k trudu Collective Farm and took Hill 209.5, but there it met with fire and counterattacks from up to 50 panzers. Bitter fighting continued for the rest of the day but the Soviet force was unable to advance further. During the evening a dispatch from 48th Rifle Corps to the headquarters of Voronezh Front noted that the German forces in the Luchki and Nechaevka areas were digging in and placing barbed-wire obstacles.Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth, pp. 138-40, 142-43, 153
Both sides regrouped during July 9 while German reconnaissance activity convinced General Vatutin that their next major blow would come on the Prokhorovka axis. Remaining aware of the importance of preventing Army Detachment Kempf from linking up with II SS Panzer Corps, at 1130 hours on July 10 he transferred a large number of his units, including the 89th Guards, to 69th Army, his backstop between 6th and 7th Guards Armies. This Army was ordered to hold along a line from Vasilevka to Shopino to Kiselevo to Myasoyedovo.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Kursk, Kindle ed., book 1, pt. 2, ch. 3 This order had been anticipated as far back as 0150 hours on July 9 when the 69th Army commander, Lt. Gen. V. D. Kryuchenkin, warned the commander of 48th Rifle Corps, Maj. Gen. Z. Z. Rogozny, that further forces would be arriving under his command.Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth, p. 185 The 375th Division's positions had been partly encircled due to the collapse of the 92nd Guards Rifle Division and it had to undertake a dangerous redeployment after dawn on July 10 which was covered by the fire of the 89th Guards. The 81st Guards was also falling back from its positions at Staryi Gorod toward a defensive line held by the division along the southern fringe of a wooded area northwest of Khokhlovo.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 451-52, 458
Kryuchenkin decided on the night of July 10/11 to further regroup his forces and withdraw part of them from the dangerous sack that had formed as the result of the previous days' fighting in the area north of Belgorod. The sector from Visloe to Ternovka to Belomestnaya to Petropavlovka to Khokhlovo was turned over to the division and by morning it had occupied defensive positions between the Lipovyi and Severskii Donets along the front Kalininnorthern outskirts of BelomestnayaKiselevo.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Kursk, Kindle ed., book 1, pt. 2, ch. 3 In the orders issued to III Panzer Corps for that day the 168th Infantry Division was to cover the left flank of the Corps' assault wedge, overcome the line of the 89th Guards, and emerge in the depth of 48th Rifle Corps' defenses. Up to this point in the battle the division had suffered relatively few losses and was still fully combat-capable.Zamulin, The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient, pp. 489-90 During the afternoon, following a series of repeated and unsuccessful attacks, the German division, with armor support from the 19th Panzer Division, managed to seize Khokhlovo and Kiselevo and pushed the outposts of the 89th Guards to the eastern bank of the Severskii Donets. After dusk these units crossed over to the river's western bank. During the day the main force of the III Panzer Corps, driving north from the Melikhovo area, broke through the 305th Rifle Division's front and by the onset of darkness had a significant force of tanks in the Verkhny Olshanets area, creating another dilemma for the 48th Corps.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Kursk, Kindle ed., book 1, pt. 2, ch. 3 Meanwhile a late-day counterattack by the 89th Guards, the 276th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 92nd Guards, and the 96th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade managed to retake most of Kiselevo.Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth, pp. 402-03 Breakthrough at Rzhavets