The 244th Rifle Division was the second of a group of 10 regular rifle divisions formed from cadres of NKVD border and internal troops as standard Red Army rifle divisions, very shortly after the German invasion, in the Moscow Military District. It was largely based on what would become the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of July 29, 1941, with several variations. Initially assigned to the 31st Army, it was soon reassigned to 30th Army in Western Front northeast of Smolensk; under this command it took part in the first Dukhovshchina offensive against German 9th Army before being transferred to 19th Army in the third week of August for the second attempt to take this objective. After this failed the division went over to the defense at the boundary between the 19th and 30th Armies, where it was overwhelmed by 9th Army and 3rd Panzer Group at the outset of Operation Typhoon and soon destroyed.
A new 244th was formed in late December 1941 from the redesignation of a 400-series rifle division at Stalingrad and was moved west in March 1942 to join the 28th Army east of Kharkiv, eventually becoming part of Southwestern Front. It formed part of the northern shock group intended to liberate the city in May 1942, but was struck by a counterattack from the 3rd Panzer Division and fell apart; it was soon disbanded again.
The third formation of the 244th took place within weeks, also in Southwestern Front, and may have incorporated survivors of the second formation under new leadership. It was formed while the German summer offensive was already underway and barely escaped being disbanded for a third time. Instead, it was sent to the 57th Army of Southeastern Front south of Stalingrad, and helped to blunt the drive of 4th Panzer Army toward the city. It then fell back into the southern suburbs, and eventually the city itself, defending strongly until it was evacuated in October. What little remained was then pulled back to the Moscow area for yet another rebuilding before being assigned to 1st Guards Army for the last part of the winter counteroffensive. With most of Southwestern Front it pushed deep into eastern Ukraine before being struck by Army Group South's "backhand blow" in mid-February 1943, ending up partly encircled and nearly destroyed again. The 244th was rebuilt during the lull in operations in the spring and then joined in the offensives into the Donbas and toward the Dniepr in the summer and autumn as part of 66th Rifle Corps of 12th Army, winning a battle honor in the process. It would remain in this Corps for most of the rest of the war. When 12th Army was disbanded the division was moved to 6th Army and it won a pair of decorations during the winter and spring campaigns in southern Ukraine in 1944. When this Army was in turn disbanded the 244th joined 37th Army where it remained, with one brief exception, into the postwar. It took part in the August offensive into Moldavia and then advanced into Bulgaria where the 37th took up occupation duties for the duration of the war. In 1946 it was converted to a mechanized division which was disbanded in 1947.
1st Formation The 244th Rifle Division first began forming within days of the start of the German invasion on June 29, 1941, at Dmitrov, in the Moscow Military District.Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 75 This was based on an NKVD order of that date: Although the initial order for its formation came from the NKVD, when it left for the front in early July it was completely under Red Army administration. Its order of battle was as follows: 907th Rifle Regiment 911th Rifle Regiment 913rd Rifle Regiment 776th 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. 42 304th Antitank Battalion 523rd Antiaircraft Battalion 325th Reconnaissance Company 414th Sapper Battalion 666th Signal Battalion 264th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 245th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 467th Auto Transport Battalion 283rd Field Bakery 809th Field Postal Station 711th Field Office of the State Bank Col. Nikolai Timofeevich Shcherbakov, an NKVD officer, was appointed to command, and would be promoted to the rank of major general on July 15.Commanders of Corps and Divisions (see Bibliography) has no listing for the 1st Formation, identifies the 2nd Formation as the 1st, and the 3rd Formation as the 2nd. The division was assigned to the newly forming 31st Army on July 15Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 42 and officially entered the fighting front on July 20.
Judging from reports on other NKVD-based divisions, the 244th was far from complete when it entered combat. The commander of 30th Army, Maj. Gen. V. A. Khomenko, reported on August 5 regarding his 250th and 251st Divisions that they had been required to move up to 350 km on foot to their concentration areas and "were taken from their assembly points in the very midst of assembly, and, incomplete, they did not approach being 'knocked together' and went into battle unprepared for combat." In addition, the 251st had only about 400 NKVD cadre soldiers.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 4
Battle of Smolensk The 31st Army, commanded by Maj. Gen. V. N. Dalmatov, was initially composed of four NKVD divisions, the 244th, 246th, 247th and 249th. On July 30 the Reserve Front was formed, under command of Army Gen. G. K. Zhukov, and the Army, which now also included the 119th Rifle Division, was assigned to it. It was given responsibility for a line from the Moscow Sea to Kniazhi Gory to Shiparevo and Shchuche, with its headquarters at Rzhev. By this time the bulk of the remnants of 16th and 20th Armies had emerged from semi-encirclement near Smolensk.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., chs. 2, 8
Dukhovshchina Offensives Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, commander of Western Front, began planning for a renewed effort toward Smolensk on August 14 which was intended to recapture Dukhovshchina en route to the city. The STAVKA ordered this to be coordinated with Zhukov's Reserve Front on August 17 in order to engulf the entire front from Toropets in the north to Bryansk in the south. In the event, due to the chaotic situation, Timoshenko was forced to conduct the operation in piecemeal fashion and was unable to establish close cooperation with Zhukov. In preparation for this offensive General Khomenko was tasked with producing a plan for his 30th Army, in reply to which Timoshenko directed, in part, on August 16:The division became part of 30th Army effective that date, while the offensive began 24 hours earlier.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 9
Timoshenko issued his first report on the operation to the STAVKA at about 1030 hours on August 17, in which his chief of staff reported:In fact, even without taking the 244th into account, the 30th Army went over to the attack in piecemeal fashion, and due to intense machine gun, mortar and artillery fire in most sectors achieved only limited results, although the 107th Tank Division managed to make a 4 km-deep penetration against the 106th Infantry Division.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 9
At 1400 hours on August 18, Khomenko issued orders to General Shcherbakov directing that he prepare to operate from Karpovo, which had been taken by 107th Tanks the previous day, toward Dukhovshchina:During the day the division reached the Turinka region, 20–25 km south of Bely, at 0930 hours. Khomenko also reported to the Front that rain in the Army's sector, beginning at 1540 hours, was making road movement difficult, particularly for the 244th. Partly as a result of its failure to appear on August 19 the Army's remaining divisions stalled against heavy German resistance, although the 107th Tanks gained an additional 2 km to the eastern outskirts of Shelepy. In his report at 1330 Khomenko stated the division had concentrated its main forces in the Novo-Vysokoe region, 10–12 km east of Shelepy and one rifle regiment in the Sloboda and Torchilovo sector, and that its horse-drawn echelon was expected to arrive at 1800.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 9
The offensive continued on August 20 along the Shelepy axis, led by the 251st and 162nd Rifle Divisions, with the 244th and the 45th Cavalry Division "preparing to exploit success along the main axis". This was, in effect, papering over the fact that Shcherbakov still had not got his men and equipment in place to help lead the attack. Given this, the next day Timoshenko decided the division would be more usefully employed in reinforcing 19th Army to the south, which was continuing to make progress:At this time the 166th was one of the formations conducting a successful defense against a counterblow by the 7th Panzer Division. As a relatively fresh division the 244th was given a large assignment for August 22: to protect 19th Army's right flank while also attacking with its main forces toward Zanino 2 and Isakovka to capture the Moseevka and Borniki line by day's end.Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 10
For August 23 the 244th, along with most of the rest of 19th Army, was directed to fulfil the missions assigned two days earlier. However, the previous day the 22nd Army, in the vicinity of Velikiye Luki to the north, came under attack from the 3rd Panzer Group, which had moved in that direction behind 9th Army over the previous days. The 22nd was soon in considerable trouble, and this would spell the end of the Dukhovshchina offensive. At 1700 hours it was reported that the division was defending the Shupeki, Zaria and Priglovo sector on the 19th Army's right wing while attacking unsuccessfully elsewhere, and later exchanging fire with German centers of resistance in the Kuchino, Shcherdina and Priglovo sector; it reported lossed of four men killed, 21 wounded with three horses killed and two wounded. In Western Front's operational summary issued at 2000 on August 24 the 244th's performance was stated as much the same as the day before, due to having "encountered fresh enemy reserves from the depths." By the evening Timoshenko understood that, without reinforcements, his most important shock groups had "shot their bolt."Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 1, Kindle ed., ch. 10
Despite this, the division resumed its attack at 0800 hours on August 25 after a 30-minute artillery preparation, overcame intense mortar and artillery fire and captured Novo-Losevo as the defenders of 5th Infantry Division withdrew westward in the vicinity of Zanino 2. The 244th's mission for the following day was to destroy the German strongpoints in the Kuchina, Levashovo and Kazarina region, 26–30 km north of Yartsevo. In the event, it reached the western edge of the woods east of Novo-Losevo 1. It the course of this Shcherbakov reported the discovery of the booby-trapped corpses of 15 Red Army soldiers in the region north of Borniki. At 1350 the 45th Cavalry was committed to combat at the boundary between the 244th and 166th Divisions. On August 27 the 19th Army attacked at noon but encountered stubborn resistance; despite this, by 1700 the 244th captured Markovo, Kuchina, Levashova and Shakhlovo. Timoshenko ordered the offensive to continue on August 28 and now, led by the 45th Cavalry, the 244th and 166th succeeded in taking 35th Infantry Division's strongpoint at Shakhlovo on the upper Loinia River. The 244th conducted operations overnight