The 219th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was redesignated about 10 weeks after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Due to a chronic lack of vehicles, and especially tanks, the division had been effectively serving as a motorized rifle brigade since June 22, so the redesignation was a formality and it was soon destroyed in the encirclement battle east of Kiev.
A new 219th was formed in January 1942, based on the 441st Rifle Division and the rifle division shtat (table of organization and equipment) of December 6, 1941. It spent several months forming in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command before it was sent to the active front as part of 6th Army near Voronezh. During the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive in January 1943 it took part in the destruction of the 2nd Hungarian Army and was soon after moved to the Kursk region and defended the south face of the salient as part of 40th Army. It then moved north to join Kalinin Front and fought through the winter in the battles west of Nevel. After the summer offensive in 1944 began it was granted a battle honor and within weeks the Order of the Red Banner as well. The 219th fought through Latvia and in early 1945 was part of 22nd Army containing the Courland Pocket. Before the German surrender it was moved south to the Odessa area where it was disbanded later in the year.
219th Motorized Division The division began forming in March 1941, as part of the prewar buildup of Soviet mechanized forces at Akhtyrka in the Kharkov Military District as part of the 25th Mechanized Corps. Once formed its order of battle was as follows: 710th Motorized Rifle Regiment 727th Motorized Rifle Regiment 136th Tank Regiment (until August 24, 1941) 673rd Artillery RegimentCharles C. Sharp, "The Deadly Beginning", Soviet Tank, Mechanized, Motorized Divisions and Tank Brigades of 1940 - 1942, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. I, Nafziger, 1995, p. 65. This source describes the 673rd as a Howitzer Regiment. 45th Antitank Battalion 232nd Antiaircraft Battalion 287th Reconnaissance Battalion 382nd Light Engineering Battalion 592nd Signal Battalion 217th Artillery Park Battalion 374th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 696th Motor Transport Battalion 165th Repair and Restoration Battalion 57th Regulatory Company 476th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 219th Divisional Artillery Park 692nd Field Postal Station 518th Field Office of the State Bank Maj. Gen. Pavel Petrovich Korzun was appointed to command on March 11. This officer had previously commanded the 9th Cavalry Division before serving for over a year as an instructor at the Frunze Military Academy. The division may have had a few tanks assigned to it by the start of the German invasion as there were some 300 on strength with 25th Corps. Maj. Gen. S. M. Krivoshein, the Corps commander, quickly grouped all his tanks in the tank divisions of the Corps, leaving the 219th as, effectively, a reinforced motorized rifle brigade. Along with the rest of the Corps it was chronically short of artillery, antiaircraft guns and trucks.Sharp, "The Deadly Beginning", p. 65
On June 22 the 25th Corps (50th and 55th Tank Divisions, 219th Motorized, 12th Motorcycle Regiment) was assigned to 21st Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 10 By July 10 the Army had come under the command of Western Front and was concentrating in the area of Zhlobin.David M. Glantz, Barbarossa, Tempus Publishing Ltd., Stroud, UK, 2001, p. 36Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 23 The Front commander, Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, had ordered an extensive counteroffensive against the advance of Army Group Center but only 21st Army, on the Front's left (south) flank, achieved any success. At 0241 hours on July 13 the Army commander, Col. Gen. F. I. Kuznetsov, ordered his forces to expand the offensive against the right flank of 2nd Panzer Group in the Bykhaw area while recapturing Babruysk and Parichi. The 219th was to concentrate in the Rudnia, Borkhov and Pribor region, 15-25km west of Gomel, while 50th Tanks prepared to attack on the Bykhaw and Babruysk axis.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2010, Kindle ed., ch. 3
In Western Front's operational summary of 2000 hours on July 18 the 21st Army was reported as attacking toward Babruysk against four German divisions while the 219th was concentrating in the Chachersk and Voronovka region 60km east-southeast of Rahachow. On July 22 Kuznetsov issued further orders to 25th Mechanized Corps to retake Propoisk and cut the German supply route between that place and Krychaw. The division tried but failed to capture Malyi Propoisk (10km south of Propoisk) in the face of arriving reinforcements. The next day it was transferred to 4th Army and, along with 28th Rifle Corps and part of 20th Rifle Corps seized the northeast outskirts of Propoisk. By July 26 this effort was suspended and the Army went over to the defensive.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 6
By the beginning of August the 219th had returned to 21st Army which was now part of the newly-formed Central Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 33 Later that month it was being referred to as a rifle division in official communications, although it had not yet been redesignated.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2012, pp. 89-90 During the previous weeks it was assigned to 28th Corps, which had joined 21st Army, and had retreated to the south under attack by the German XXXXIII Army Corps, reaching the line of the Seym River by August 11.David Stahel, Kiev 1941, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2012, pp. 262-63 On August 27 the new commander of the Army, Lt. Gen. V. I. Kuznetsov, reported that the 219th was located at Gorodok and Senkovka, 70-75km northeast of Chernihiv.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, p. 120 Central Front had been disbanded on August 25 and 21st Army was now under command of Bryansk Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 42 The situation facing the Army was rapidly deteriorating as the XXIV Motorized Corps had inserted itself in the gap between it and the Front's main forces along the Desna. General Kuznetsov reported on August 29 that 28th Corps was defending along a line from Gutka Studenetskaya through Elino to Novye Borovichi; together with 66th Rifle Corps it was attempting to hold a 100km-wide line with a handful of battered rifle divisions. Despite this, over the following days the STAVKA continued to issue attack orders to the Front which were doomed to failure. Early on August 30 the 219th was reported as holding along part of its sector but having been pushed back to Sinkovka on the 28th.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, pp. 369-71, 373-75, 383 1st Formation By this time the 2nd Panzer Group had begun its drive to the south to link up with 1st Panzer Group and encircle Southwestern Front east of Kiev. 28th Corps continued defending along the Snov River on August 30 and appears to have eliminated a German force that had infiltrated its positions on September 1 but this was of little relevance to the overall situation. During September 4 the 219th was defending from Tikhonovichi to Lazovka east of Snovsk. Kuznetsov ordered his Army to withdraw across the Desna at 1300 hours on September 5.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, pp. 388-89, 459-61, 463, 465 The division was reinforced with the 375th Reserve Rifle Regiment to replace the 136th Tank Regiment on September 9,Sharp, "The Deadly Beginning", p. 65. This reinforcement is not shown in Grylev. and was officially redesignated as the 219th Rifle Division but this made no substantial difference to its position since the two panzer groups met at Lokhvytsia on September 16. Most of 21st Army was pocketed, including the 219th, and it was destroyed by the end of the month although it officially remained in the Red Army order of battle until November 16.Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX, Nafziger, 1996, p. 32. Grylev states the division remained on the books until December 27. General Korzun escaped the encirclement and went on to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and command the 3rd and 47th Armies before being killed in action on September 16, 1943.Aleksander A. Maslov, Fallen Soviet Generals, ed. & trans. D. M. Glantz, Frank Cass Publishers, London, UK, 1998, p. 106
2nd Formation The 441st Rifle Division began forming in December 1941 at Kirsanov in the South Ural Military District.Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 99 On January 14, 1942 it was redesignated as the 2nd formation of the 219th. When it completed forming it had an order of battle similar to the 219th Motorized and the 1st formation: 375th Rifle Regiment 710th Rifle Regiment 727th Rifle Regiment 673rd Artillery RegimentSharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, Nafziger, 1996, p. 87 45th Antitank Battalion 136th Mortar Battalion (until October 10, 1942) Separate Machine Gun Battalion (from July 9, 1942 to May 1, 1943) 488th Reconnaissance Company 382nd Sapper Battalion 592nd Signal Battalion (later 670th Signal Company) 374th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 88th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 77th Motor Transport Battalion 454th Field Bakery 919th Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1683rd Field Postal Station 1096th Field Office of the State Bank The division was under the command of Col. Vasilii Nikolaevich Varichev until April 23 when Maj. Gen. Vasilii Petrovich Kotelnikov took over. This officer had previously served as commander of the 3rd Leningrad Militia (Opolcheniye) Division. In May it was assigned to the 3rd Reserve Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command until June when it was moved to the 6th Reserve Army, which joined the active front on July 9 as the 3rd formation of the 6th Army, assigned to Bryansk Front. The Army was deployed along the Don River south of Voronezh.Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 87Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 108-09, 115, 139, 142 As of the beginning of August the Army had been moved to Voronezh Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 147Based on STAVKA archives, Glantz identifies the 219th as one of seven divisions that arrived in Don and Southwestern Fronts in October from the Reserve of the Supreme High Command after being rebuilt following heavy losses in the spring and summer battles. Endgame at Stalingrad, Book One, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2014, p. 541. This is an error for the 212th Rifle Division.
Operation Little Saturn