The 168th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the Leningrad Military District in August - September 1939, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of the latter month. It was the highest-numbered rifle division to take part in the Winter War against Finland, and attempted to advance west along the north shore of Lake Ladoga as part of 8th Army, but was encircled near Kitelä and remained in this pocket, struggling for survival, for the duration of the conflict. At the start of the Continuation War it was deployed in the same general area along the new USSR/Finland border as part of 7th Army in Northern Front. The Finnish Army crossed the border on June 25, 1941, and the 168th soon found itself again encircled on the shore of Ladoga. In the third week of August it was evacuated to Leningrad and assigned to Leningrad Front's 55th Army. During November it took part in the first offensive to try to break the German/Finnish siege by attacking out of a small bridgehead over the Neva River and then exploiting toward Sinyavino to link up with 54th Army attacking eastward. This effort soon became a bloodbath despite the commitment of reinforcements and a number of tanks. At the end of the year the remnants of the division were removed from the bridgehead and moved through the city and then marched across the frozen Gulf of Finland to reinforce the Front's Coastal Operational Group in the Oranienbaum Bridgehead, where it would remain until January 1944, when it took part in the offensive that drove Army Group North away from the city. It began the offensive as part of 2nd Shock Army, but after linking up with the forces striking west out of Leningrad the 168th was moved to 42nd Army and under this command drove south and west toward Pskov before coming up against the defenses of the Panther Line. In June it was moved back north of Leningrad to face Finland as part of 21st Army in the offensive that drove that nation out of the war. In August it rejoined 42nd Army, now as part of 2nd Baltic Front and took part in the offensive through the Baltic states toward Riga, where it won a battle honor. Until the final weeks of the war the 168th was part of the forces containing the German grouping in the Courland Pocket, when it was moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. It was finally disbanded in January 1946.
Formation The division first began forming in August 1939, at Cherepovets in the Leningrad Military District, based on a cadre from the 14th Rifle Division. Its order of battle (as of 1941) was as follows: 260th Rifle Regiment 402nd Rifle Regiment 462nd Rifle Regiment 453rd Artillery Regiment (until December 4, 1941, then 412th) 412th Howitzer Artillery Regiment (until December 4, 1941) 220th Antitank BattalionCharles C. Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 83 351st Antiaircraft Battery (later 176th Antiaircraft Battalion, until May 15, 1943) 187th Reconnaissance Company (later 187th Battalion) 215th Sapper Battalion 209th Signal Battalion (later 906th Signal Company) 216th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 157th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Platoon 231st Motor Transport Company (later 231st Battalion) 150th Field Bakery (later 299th Motorized Field Bakery) 284th Divisional Veterinary Hospital 93rd Divisional Artillery Workshop 187th Field Postal Station 200th Field Office of the State Bank Col. Andrei Leontevich Bondarev was appointed to command on August 23. This officer had previously led the 43rd Rifle Division.
Winter War
The division was deployed to 8th Army, to the northeast of Lake Ladoga. The Army had six divisions under command, with the 18th and 168th on the left flank under command of 56th Rifle Corps. They were to work together to advance in the direction of Sortavala in an effort to outflank the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. The 168th's route followed a road along the lake shore, and this would spare it the fate of the 18th.John R. Elting, Battles For Scandinavia, Time-Life Books, Inc., Alexandria, VA, 1981, pp. 28-29
The Army also had two tank brigades under command and faced the Finnish IV Corps. This Corps was thinly spread and the strength the Red Army was able to deploy on this sector came as a nasty surprise. A new rail line had been extended during the fall from 8th Army's main supply base at Petrozavodsk up to the border near the town of Suojärvi. The Finnish Army commander, Field Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim, had expected nothing more than reconnaissance forces in this area and quickly realized that 56th Corps could outflank the entire IV Corps from the northeast, or push west through Tolvajärvi into the interior. This presented a crisis for the Finns, and by the time it was stabilized Mannerheim had been forced to commit over 30 percent of his total available reserves; this would adversely affect his ability to reinforce the defenders of the Isthmus. He wrote on the night of December 1, the second day of the War: The sheer size and power of the Soviet attacks all along the front very nearly overwhelmed the Finns during the first days.William R. Trotter. A Frozen Hell, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, NY, 2000, pp. 39, 52-53, 93
As Mannerheim understood, during December 1 Bondarev's division passed Salmi and was moving through Pitkäranta toward Kitelä against negligible resistance. However, the greater threat was assessed as being from the 139th Rifle Division on the road to Tolvajärvi, and it was decided to take a stand there. This led to the Battle of Tolvajärvi, which climaxed on December 12 with a Finnish victory. Meanwhile, the commander of IV Corps, Maj. Gen. J. W. Hägglund, had led his soldiers back to the Kollaa line by December 7. However, he had plans for a counteroffensive in which the 168th would be encircled at Kitelä while the 18th Division and other units were driven back across the border. In the event, this led to the other units, after being broken apart, digging in in encirclement, in what became known as mottis. While "motti tactics" were heralded as a tactical innovation, Hägglund later wrote that he only planned to trap the 168th, and the other 11 mottis "just happened." While they represented a tactical victory they were also, more often than not, strategic failures, as the Finns did not have the resources to destroy them.Trotter. A Frozen Hell, pp. 94-95, 109-17, 131-33. Motti translates as "a pile of logs to be chopped into firewood." The Great Motti As the situation of IV Corps stabilized, Hägglund began to put his original plan into action on December 12. Leading into the right flank of 56th Corps some 12km behind the front line was a north-south secondary route called the Siira road, which offered an excellent approach route to the Uomaa road. Eight Finnish battalions were assembled near Kotajärvi, but the approach march was badly managed. The terrain was difficult even by Finnish standards, and the infantry soon became tired; heavier equipment and extra ammunition was left for follow-up troops to bring forward. Only three battalions managed to make any headway at the road junction against heavy Soviet shellfire, and 18th Division was soon organizing counterattacks from both east and west that included the 34th Tank Brigade. The next evening the worn-out Finns broke contact and fell back up the Siira road, unable even to hold their minimal gains. Units of the 18th set out in pursuit, but not beyond the range of their artillery. The attack should have served to alert the Red Army command that a counteroffensive was in the works, but their forces failed to take any countermeasures.Trotter. A Frozen Hell, p. 134
Hägglund made a second attempt on December 17, this time in a conventional frontal assault against the main line of 8th Army between Ruokojärvi and Syskyjärvi, but this made little progress in the face of superior Soviet firepower. As Finnish casualties mounted the operation was called off, although it may have served as a feint to distract from Hägglund's real objective against 56th Corps. Mannerheim, meanwhile, was losing patience and sent orders to speed things along. By now a victory had been won at Tolvajärvi and the Kollaa line was holding; as well the weather had turned in favor of the Finns with heavy snowfalls making it difficult to keep Soviet supply routes open. Hägglund's plan was, first, to attack at Uomaa village to cut 18th Division's communications and establish a roadblock facing east to prevent the arrival of reinforcements. The main assault would be made by two Task Forces, "A" (Autti), and "H" (Hannukselka), named for their commanders. These would hit the 18th's line on a 15km-wide stretch of the Uomaa road, break through at several points, and then drive south the Ladoga shore, cutting off the 168th. At this point Hägglund was confident that the two divisions would either launch local counterattacks, which he was confident his troops could hold against, or withdraw entirely from the Ladoga shore back to Soviet territory. This latter would free a Finnish division to reinforce the Isthmus front.Trotter. A Frozen Hell, p. 135
The operation began on December 26 with a feint attack near Syskyjärvi. The next day a raid in force struck Uomaa village; the defenders of 18th Division put up a stiff defense, falling back on fortified buildings in the village center. The Finns detached a screen of troops to keep the garrison surrounded before moving east to set up the roadblock. Meanwhile, Colonel Autti avoided the mistake of moving his force through the woods, and instead formed them up astride the Siira road just beyond line-of-sight from the Soviet positions, and after an artillery preparation sent them in a flat-out charge down the road. The charge hit the line and broke through. By twilight (nearly all this fighting took place in semi- or full-darkness) they were able to bring the Uomaa road under small arms fire, and the next morning they took the road junction. By January 3, 1940, the defenders had been pushed into a figure-eight-shaped motti west of the junction. Colonel Hannukselka's force was similarly successful and by the end of the first week of January the 18th had been broken up unto multiple mottis along the Uomaa road, while on January 11 the 168th was confined to what became known as the "Great Motti" south and east of Kitelä. In this position the division still had access to Lake Ladoga.Trotter. A Frozen Hell, pp. 135-36