The 196th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed as part of the prewar buildup of forces, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939. It began forming just months before the German invasion in the Odessa Military District. When the German invasion began it was in the 7th Rifle Corps, in the District reserves. The Corps was soon moved to the reserves of Southwestern Front, and by mid-July the division had joined 26th Army as a separate division. It took part in battles on both sides of the Dniepr River during August until it was finally encircled and destroyed in September, although it remained on the books of the Red Army until December.
A new 196th was created from the 424th Rifle Division, which had been formed in the South Ural Military District in November. After several months of forming up and training it was moved west, eventually joining the 7th Reserve Army, with was redesignated in early July as the 62nd Army in Stalingrad Front. Late that month, it was briefly encircled in the Great Bend of the Don River west of Kalach and suffered considerable losses in breaking out to the east bank, including the death of its commander. Throughout August and September it took part in the fighting that drove its Army step by step back to Stalingrad itself, ebbing in strength, until it took up positions in the salient around Orlovka, west of the Dzerzhinskii Tractor Factory, by now reduced to a composite rifle regiment. In the last days of September it was ordered to leave the salient and moved east of the Volga, before heading north to begin a lengthy rebuilding. In March 1943 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its role in the defense of Stalingrad. By this time it had arrived in the reserves of Leningrad Front, and was eventually assigned to 55th Army and later 67th Army. In September, under this command, it played a secondary role in the battle that finally liberated the heights around Sinyavino. At the start of the winter offensive that drove Army Group North away from Leningrad the 196th was part of 2nd Shock Army in the Oranienbaum bridgehead, but it was transferred to 42nd Army after the linkup south of Ropsha. Not long after, the division was awarded a battle honor. During most of 1944 it rotated through a large number of Corps and Army commands in both 3rd Baltic and Leningrad Fronts until it finally returned to 67th Army in the latter after the capture of Riga, where two of its regiments also gained battle honors. It served the remainder of the war in Latvia, helping to contain the German forces trapped in the Courland Pocket. It was disbanded in the Kiev Military District in 1946.
1st Formation The division began forming on March 14, 1941, as part of the prewar buildup of Soviet forces, at Dnepropetrovsk in the Odessa Military District. Its order of battle was as follows: 863rd Rifle Regiment 884th Rifle Regiment 893rd Rifle Regiment 725th Artillery Regiment 739th Howitzer Artillery RegimentCharles C. Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 94 228th Antitank Battalion 484th Antiaircraft Battalion 262nd Reconnaissance Battalion 353rd Sapper Battalion 572nd Signal Battalion 99th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 190th Degassing Platoon 285th Motor Transport Battalion 340th Field Bakery 724th Field Postal Station 562nd Field Office of the State Bank Maj. Gen. Konstantin Efimovich Kulikov took command the day the division began forming, and held this post for the duration the 1st formation. This officer had been leading the 39th Rifle Division in late 1938 when he was arrested and imprisoned during the Great Purge. Released the next year, he was made head of the Dnepropetrovsk Reserve Officers' Advanced Training Course, where he remained until shortly before the 196th began forming. His chief of staff was Lt. Col. Vasilii Mitrofanovich Shatilov.
Battle of Kyiv At the start of the German invasion the division was in the 7th Rifle Corps with the 116th and 206th Rifle Divisions in the reserves of Odessa Military District.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 12 After a little over a week of frantic mobilization, at the end of June the entire Corps was moved north and assigned to the reserves of Southwestern Front.Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 94 As of July 1 the 116th Division had been replaced by the 147th Rifle Division.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 17
The 196th and 206th Divisions made up 7th Corps on July 10, under command of 6th Army.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 24 At this time the division was en route to Cherkasy on the Dniepr River, arriving there on July 11. It was now loaded onto 17 trains at Korsun station and moved by rail to Guta-Dmitrinskaya on July 19, where it joined 26th Army.Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 94 At this time this Army, along with the 6th and 12th Armies, was threatened with encirclement near Uman. 26th Army managed to avoid this fate by falling back toward Kyiv, and by the end of July 23 the 196th was attempting to hold south of Bohuslav against the divisions of the III Motorized Corps. The next day it counterattacked with some success, retaking several villages.David Stahel, Kiev 1941, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2012, pp. 84-85 As of August 1 it had left 7th Corps and was fighting as a separate division in 26th Army.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 33
During August, the 196th was reassigned to the new 38th Army, still in Southwestern Front.Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 94 By the end of August 11 it was back at Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi,Stahel, Kiev 1941, pp. 84-85 which it liberated with the help of a tank company. By August 19, it had fallen back again, to Cherkasy, which it was contesting with its remaining 1,500 men. After crossing to the east bank of the Dniepr it was pulled back to a reserve position in the Semenivka area by early September. 1st Panzer Group broke out of its bridgehead at Kremenchuk on September 12 and began driving north to link up with 2nd Panzer Group deep in the rear of Southwestern Front. The two linked up on September 15 and the 196th was caught in the trap.Stahel, Kiev 1941, pp. 210, 219-20, 228-29
General Kulikov led several attempts to break out of the pocket, but these were largely unsuccessful. Lt. Colonel Shatilov managed to escape, and wrote after the war:Shatilov would go on to command the 182nd and 150th Rifle Divisions and reached the rank of colonel general before his retirement in 1964. Kulikov was wounded and captured on September 27; he was eventually sent to Flossenbürg concentration camp in February 1943 and died there, probably of tuberculosis, on or around June 30, 1944. The 196th had been destroyed, but it lingered in the Red Army order of battle until December 27,Walter S. Dunn Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2007, p. 70 like many of the divisions lost in the Kyiv battle.
2nd Formation A new 196th was designated in January 1942, based on the 424th Rifle Division, which had formed on November 22, 1941, in the South Ural Military District.Dunn Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, p. 99 Its order of battle was similar to that of the first formation: 863rd Rifle Regiment 884th Rifle Regiment 893rd Rifle Regiment 725th Artillery RegimentSharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. X, Nafziger, 1996, p. 77 228th Antitank Battalion 262nd Reconnaissance Company 353rd Sapper Battalion 455th Signal Battalion (later 562nd Battalion, 453rd Company) 99th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 506th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 239th Motor Transport Company 423rd Field Bakery 888th Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1678th Field Postal Station 1251st Field Office of the State Bank (later 1079th) Kombrig Dmitrii Vasilevich Averin was transferred from the 199th Rifle Division on January 9 to take command. At about this time it was reported that the personnel of the division were roughly 80 percent of Kazakh nationality, with the bulk of the remainder being Russian.David M. Glantz, Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005, p. 593 It remained in the South Ural District into April, when it was moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for the first stage of its deployment. At the beginning of June it was in the 6th Reserve Army.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 38, 57, 76, 93, 113 A month later it was in 7th Reserve Army, which was designated as 62nd Army on July 10 and assigned to Stalingrad Front.Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 77
Battle of Stalingrad 62nd Army was under command of Maj. Gen. V. Ya. Kolpakchi and consisted of six rifle divisions (196th, 192nd, 147th, 181st, 184th, and 33rd Guards). In orders from the STAVKA on July 12 it was stated, in part:This order set the stage for the battle in the Great Bend of the Don.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2009, pp. 186-87
Fighting in the Don Bend German 6th Army was ordered to continue its eastward advance as soon as possible after July 17, but this was delayed by heavy rains; it was not until the 20th that LI Army Corps' lead divisions were able to engage and defeat the forward elements of 62nd Army on the Tsutskan River. By late on the next day five of the Army's divisions were deployed uniformly south to north across the Great Bend of the Don from Surovikino on the Chir River to Kletskaya on the Don. The 196th was responsible for a 30 km-wide sector directly south of Surovikino; it had 11,428 personnel on strength, the lowest in the Army by a small margin. On July 22 the XIV Panzer Corps and VIII Army Corps caught up and by the evening Kolpakchi reported that his divisions were engaging German tanks and infantry all along the line. The 3rd and 60th Motorized and 16th Panzer Divisions advanced rapidly the next day, tearing through 62nd Army's forward security belt and advancing 24–40 km, about halfway to the crossing points over the Don at Trekhostrovskaya and Kalach. By this time the 6th Army commander, Army Gen. F. Paulus, was planning to encircle 62nd Army west of the Don with his XIV Panzer and VIII Corps as a preliminary to an advance on Stalingrad.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 219-23, 225, 543
Paulus' two pincers made substantial advances on July 24. His two motorized divisions sliced through the 192nd Division on the Army's left wing and moved more than 50 km southeast to within 10 km of Kalach. 16th Panzer and the 113th Infantry Division penetrated the center of the line and forced Kolpakchi's forces back another 15 km towards the Don. By the end of the day the 33rd Guards, 192nd and 184th were loosely encircled on the high ground in the Maiorovskii region along with the 40th Tank Brigade and 644th Tank Battalion. At this critical moment XIV Panzer Corps had to slow its advance due to acute fuel shortages and stiff resistance north of Kalach. Early the next day, Kolpakchi organized a counterattack to support the 13th Tank Corps and halt and drive back 6th Army's northern pincer before it reached Kalach. The 196th and the 649th Tank Battalion were to attack northward along the Liska River toward Skvorin, 25 km northwest of Kalach and help the 13th Tanks rescue the encircled grouping. However, this effort, along with other counterattacks, were too disjointed to have any prospects of real success.Glantz, To the Gates of Stalingrad, pp. 227-29