The 241st Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army from the remnants of the 28th Tank Division in November/December 1941. It was based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of July 29, 1941 and was reformed in the 27th Army of Northwestern Front. It was soon moved to 34th Army and later to 53rd Army in the same Front, playing a relatively minor role in the battles against German 16th Army's forces in the Demyansk salient into the first months of 1943. Following the evacuation of the salient the division was moved southward to the Steppe Military District, joining the 2nd formation of the 27th Army. It next saw action in Voronezh Front's counteroffensive following the German offensive at Kursk, becoming involved in the complex fighting around Okhtyrka and then advancing through eastern Ukraine toward the Dniepr River. The 241st took part in the unsuccessful battles to break out of the bridgehead at Bukryn and after the liberation of Kyiv it was reassigned to 38th Army, remaining under that command, assigned to various rifle corps, mostly the 67th, for the duration of the war. In the spring of 1944, it won a battle honor in western Ukraine, and during the summer several of its subunits received recognition in the battles for Lviv and Sambir. During the autumn it entered the Carpathian Mountains and took part in the fighting for the Dukla Pass before being transferred, along with the rest of 38th Army, to the 4th Ukrainian Front. This Front advanced through Slovakia and southern Poland in the first months of 1945 and the division's subunits won further distinctions, but the division itself only received one, fairly minor, decoration. It ended the war near Prague and was disbanded during the summer.
Formation By October the 28th was a tank division in name only and its remaining men were fighting as infantry. Sources differ as to the exact date of the division's official reformation, some stating it was in November,Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 88 but Grylev (see Bibliography) gives it as December 13, the same date that Col. Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovskii was appointed to command. This officer had previously led the 28th Tanks and would be promoted to the rank of major general on May 5, 1942. Once formed the division had the following order of battle: 264th Rifle Regiment (later 303rd) 318th Rifle Regiment 332nd Rifle Regiment (from 125th Tank Regiment) 1010th Artillery RegimentCharles C. Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, vol. IX, Nafziger, 1996, p. 40 12th Antitank Battalion 68th Antiaircraft Battery (until 28 February 1943) 32nd Mortar Battalion (until 5 October 1942) 114th Reconnaissance Company (later 241st) 698th Sapper Battalion 898th Signal Battalion (later 792nd Signal Company) 506th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 486th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company (later 286th) 552nd Auto Transport Company 404th Field Bakery 881st Divisional Veterinary Hospital 838th Field Postal Station (later 1538th, 23857th) 689th Field Office of the State Bank (later 1017th) As of December 1 the division was one of just three in 27th Army, along with the 23rd and 33rd Rifle Divisions.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 73 On December 16 the Army was redesignated as the 4th Shock Army,Robert Forczyk, Demyansk 1942-43: The frozen fortress, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2012, Kindle ed. and the 241st was reassigned to the 34th Army, still in Northwestern Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 9 Battle of Demyansk 34th Army was under command of Maj. Gen. N. E. Berzarin. As the Red Army's winter counteroffensive widened from the Moscow area he was ordered to form two division-sized shock groups to support the efforts of 11th and 3rd Shock Armies but otherwise to fix as much of German 16th Army in place as possible with diversionary attacks. The first shock group was based on the 254th Rifle Division which faced the weakened 290th Infantry Division. Beginning on January 10 the 254th infiltrated the positions of the 290th with ski troops through frozen marshes and cut the supplies of three company-sized strongpoints which were gradually eliminated by the rest of Berzarin's forces. Over the following week the 241st advanced to the west of Lake Seliger. The combined advances left the 290th in a long, thin salient between 34th and 11th Armies.Forczyk, Demyansk 1942-43: The frozen fortress, Kindle ed.
At the beginning of February, the 290th Infantry was still holding east of the Pola River but its II Army Corps and several other German units were vulnerable to encirclement at Demyansk. The bridge at Davidovo over the Redya River was the target for 11th Army's 1st Guards Rifle Corps and was taken on February 5, after which the Corps reached the village of Ramushevo on the Lovat River three days later, cutting the last road to Demyansk. The 290th was virtually surrounded with Soviet ski troops operating freely in its rear. To avoid annihilation it was permitted to pull back south from the Pola. On February 25 the full encirclement of II Corps was completed. The STAVKA ordered that Northwestern Front should crush the pocketed force within four or five days; meanwhile reinforcements were arriving from Germany and the airlifting of supplies was well underway.Forczyk, Demyansk 1942-43: The frozen fortress, Kindle ed.
The German attempt to relieve the pocket, Operation Brückenschlag, began on March 21 but the linkup with the besieged grouping was not achieved until April 21. The so-called "Ramushevo corridor" was less than 4km wide and often under Soviet artillery fire so II Corps was still heavily dependent on air supply.Forczyk, Demyansk 1942-43: The frozen fortress, Kindle ed. During April the 241st was reassigned to 53rd Army.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, p. 81 Chernyakhovskii had already taken over the 18th Tank Corps when he left the 241st on June 24; he was replaced two days later by his chief of staff, Col. Pavel Grigorevich Arabei. Chernyakhovskii would go on to command 60th Army and 3rd Belorussian Front, being promoted to the rank of army general and being twice made a Hero of the Soviet Union before being mortally wounded in East Prussia in February 1945. Arabei would be promoted to major general on September 15, 1943. From May to October Northwestern Front made several attempts to sever the corridor. German engineers turned the area into a fortified zone, complete with deep barbed wire obstacles and extensive minefields. 11th Army was on the north side of the corridor while 1st Shock Army held the south side; 34th and 53rd Armies covered the remainder of the salient.Forczyk, Demyansk 1942-43: The frozen fortress, Kindle ed.
One of the victims of those minefields was the deputy commander of the 241st, Maj. Gen. Ivan Pavlovich Shevchuk. He had distinguished himself during the Russian Civil War in the Far East as commander of the 1st Tungussk Partisan Detachment, winning the Order of the Red Banner in 1928, and up to 1938 served as acting chief of the Construction Section of the Pacific Fleet. He had been given command of the 2nd formation of the 55th Rifle Division in December 1941, but his previous experience was not adequate to lead a division in modern warfare. As a result, he was overly "coarse" in his dealings with his subordinates; as well, his unskillful leadership led to excessive casualties during offensive fighting in May 1942. In consequence, Shevchuk was brought before an 11th Army military tribunal. He was relieved of command of the 55th on May 10, but due to his status as a Civil War hero he kept his rank and was appointed as deputy commander of the 241st. In the following months Shevchuk displayed excessive and ostentatious foolhardiness in combat situations, which seemed to indicate he was courting death to atone for his disgrace. If so, he got his wish on October 28, when he embarked on a mounted reconnaissance of the division's frontage. His horse stepped on a German landmine, which killed the horse and blew off both of his legs; he died a few hours later and was buried the next day with full military honors.Aleksander A. Maslov, Fallen Soviet Generals, ed. & trans. David M. Glantz, Frank Cass Publishers, London, UK, 1998, pp. 68-69, 212-13
On January 31, 1943, the German High Command ordered that the Demyansk salient be evacuated, in the wake of the encirclement and upcoming destruction of 6th Army at Stalingrad. By this time most of Northwestern Front's best divisions were battered wrecks. Not knowing the German plan, Marshal G. K. Zhukov was making plans for his Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda to finally crush the salient as a preliminary to the relief of Leningrad. The division had been earmarked for this operation, which began on February 15, but was repulsed with heavy losses. Operation Ziethen began on February 17, at which time the 241st was still near the northwest tip of Lake Seliger, facing the 32nd Infantry Division. 53rd Army attempted to harass the withdrawing forces, primarily with ski troops, but the German withdrawal freed up the reserves they needed to reinforce their lines along the Lovat, and the "pursuit" through the devastated landscape achieved little.Forczyk, Demyansk 1942-43: The frozen fortress, Kindle ed. Redeployment to the South With the end of Ziethen the Red Army was left with redundant forces in the Demyansk area, while German forces were threatening the gains made in the central sector of the front during the late winter. Under the terms of STAVKA Order No. 46088 of March 29 the 241st was named as one of four rifle divisions to be moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for redeployment to the Kursk region.David M. Glantz, After Stalingrad, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2011, p. 433 Consequently, on April 1 it was located in the reserve of Northwestern Front, and a month later it was part of the 2nd formation of 27th Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. By the start of June, as both sides prepared for their summer offensives, it was with that Army in the Steppe Military District.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 81, 122, 147
Into Ukraine
The Battle of Kursk began on July 5, and four days later the Steppe Military District was redesignated as Steppe Front. 27th Army was deployed along a line from Rossoshnoye to Nikolskoye and consisted of six rifle divisions (71st, 147th, 155th, 163rd, 166th and 241st) plus the 93rd Tank Brigade.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Kursk, ed. & trans. R. W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2016, Kindle ed., Book One, Part One, ch. 1
27th Army saw no significant action during the German offensive, and by the beginning of August it had been transferred to Voronezh Front,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 193 which was still holding the southern half of the salient. In preparation for the counteroffensive, which began on August 3, the Army, which had been reinforced with additional armor and artillery assets, was concentrated behind the 40th Army's center in the MarinoKrasnaya YarugaBorisopole area. On the night of the operation's third day the Army was to deploy along the 11km-wide front from Kresanov to Soldatskoye while its main forces concentrated in the center to break through the German defense along the 6km sector KasilovoNovo-Berezovka. The Army was organized in two echelons, with four rifle divisions, a tank brigade, a Guards heavy tank regiment, and other reinforcements in the first echelon. The shock group consisted of the 241st and 163rd Divisions in first echelon, two second echelon divisions (155th and 71st), two tank corps, and the greater part of the reinforcements.Soviet General Staff, The Battle of Kursk, Kindle ed., Book Two, Part Two, ch. 1 Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev