The 157th Rifle Division was first formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in August 1939 in the North Caucasus Military District, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) that would become official the following month. It was still in that District when the German invasion began in June 1941. It entered the fighting in September when it was shipped to reinforce the Separate Coastal Army defending the port of Odesa. After taking part in several actions it was evacuated to Sevastopol and soon went into battle again in a last-ditch effort to prevent German 11th Army from overrunning the Crimea. This failed, and the 157th was forced to trek through the Crimean Mountains to reach Sevastopol, from where it was evacuated back to the Caucasus. At the end of December its 633rd Rifle Regiment formed part of the assault landing force that retook the port of Feodosia and caused the local German corps commander to evacuate the Kerch Peninsula. A German counterattack recaptured the port within weeks, and the front line eventually settled along the Parpach Isthmus until May when a new offensive threw the 157th and the rest of its Front out of Crimea. After a brief rest back in the North Caucasus the division was ordered north to the Don River as the German summer offensive pushed into the Caucasus steppe. Retreating to the east it moved to 64th Army in Southeastern Front in August, fighting against 4th Panzer Army on the southern approaches to Stalingrad. It fell back to the so-called Beketovka bridgehead over the Volga south of the city and remained there until the start of the Red Army counteroffensive in November. As part of Stalingrad Front it advanced westward before coming up against German positions on the southern edge of what was now the Stalingrad Kessel (Pocket). In the last days of Operation Ring in January 1943 the 157th pushed into the southern part of the city where it recaptured the grain elevator that had been lost in September. Before the German surrender it was removed for redeployment elsewhere, and on March 1 it became the 76th Guards Rifle Division.
A new 157th was formed in the Moscow Military District in May 1943, based on a pair of rifle brigades, one of which had no combat experience. As it formed it came under command of 68th Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command but the Army was assigned to Western Front in July, prior to the start of the summer offensive toward Smolensk. During the course of this operation it was reassigned to 33rd Army, and then to 21st Army in late September. It briefly returned to the 68th until that Army was disbanded in early November, then moved to 5th Army and back to the 33rd as the Front shuffled its forces in its futile efforts to liberate Orsha. It then turned its attentions to cutting off the forces of 3rd Panzer Army in and around Vitebsk, but in difficult fighting through the winter of 1943-44 this proved equally futile. When Western Front was disbanded in the spring the 33rd was assigned to the new 2nd Belorussian Front. At the outset of Operation Bagration the 157th was employed as the infantry component of a special mobile group which served as the vanguard of the Front in the liberation of Mogilev. During the pursuit of the defeated Army Group Center it moved with its Army to 3rd Belorussian Front and was under these commands when it won a battle honor for the battles near Kaunas and across the Neman River. Following the abortive Gumbinnen operation into East Prussia the division returned to 5th Army, and it would remain under this command into the postwar. During the Vistula-Oder offensive in January 1945 the 157th distinguished itself in finally penetrating the East Prussian defenses and was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, while several of its subunits also received decorations during this operation. During April the division saw action in clearing Samland, then loaded on trains as part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, moving across the USSR to take part in the invasion of Manchuria. It received the Order of Suvorov following this operation, and remained in the far east until July 1946, when it was converted to a coastal defense unit.
1st Formation The 157th began forming on August 19, 1939, in the North Caucasus Military District, based on a rifle regiment from the 74th Taman Rifle Division. At the outbreak of war it was moved to Taman and began constructing defenses on the Black Sea coast. At this time its order of battle was as follows: 384th Rifle Regiment 633rd Rifle Regiment 716th Rifle Regiment 85th Light Artillery Regiment (later 422nd Artillery Regiment) 212th Antitank Battalion 175th Antiaircraft Battery (later 272nd Antiaircraft Battalion) 141st Reconnaissance Battalion [including 15 light tanks] (later 190th Reconnaissance Company) 150th Sapper Battalion 199th Signal Battalion 133rd Medical/Sanitation Battalion (later 152nd) 149th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) CompanyCharles C. Sharp, "Red Legions", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed Before June 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. VIII, Nafziger, 1996, p. 78 124th Motor Transport Company 367th Field Bakery 157th Divisional Veterinary Hospital 492nd Field Postal Station 217th Field Office of the State Bank Col. Vasilii Vasilevich Glagolev had been appointed to command on the day the division began forming. He had previously led the 76th Cavalry Regiment and most recently had served as chief of staff of the 12th Cavalry Division. On August 15 he was moved to command of the 42nd Cavalry Division and was succeeded by Col. Dmitrii Ivanovich Tomilov. Glagolev would later lead four different armies during the war, rising to the rank of colonel general, and was made chief of Soviet Airborne Forces postwar. Tomilov had previously been acting commander of the 86th Rifle Division and came to the 157th from the position of chief of the Combat Training Section, North Caucasus Military District.
Siege of Odesa By September 17 the division had reached a strength of 12,600 personnel, and on this date Tomilov received orders to prepare to move by sea to the besieged city of Odesa.Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 78 As part of the invasion plan, Romanian 4th Army had been tasked with advancing into Ukraine, confronting and defeating Red Army forces west of the Southern Bug River, and capturing the city in a lightning strike.Jonathan Trigg, Death on the Don, The History Press, Stroud, UK, 2013, p. 85 This offensive, in conjunction with Romanian 3rd and German 11th Armies, had begun on July 2 and gradually pushed back the Soviet 9th and 18th Armies until the line stabilized temporarily between the Prut and Dniestr Rivers.David M. Glantz, Before Stalingrad, Tempus Publishing Ltd., Stroud, UK, 2003, pp. 45-46 Gen. G. Nicolae Ciupercă's 4th Army, with 160,000 personnel, faced a daunting prospect as Odesa was heavily fortified with three lines of defense, and the STAVKA was determined to hold it. Eventually the 3rd Army would also have to be committed, along with German reinforcements. The Separate Coastal Army had been formed on July 9 to direct the defense, which began when the port was isolated on August 5; this Army would have to be reinforced and supplied by sea, but Romania had insufficient naval forces to interfere meaningfully. The 1st Armored Division struck the outer defenses on August 10 and came close to taking the city in one stroke, but Soviet reinforcements soon made its position untenable. Further assaults on August 16, 24, 28, and 30 were stopped cold, and General Ciupercă was sacked, being replaced by Gen. Iosif Iacobici. German reinforcements arrived, as did 15,000 Red Army personnel, and when the fighting resumed on September 12 the Romanians again took heavy losses to artillery fire and local counterattacks while gaining very little ground.Trigg, Death on the Don, pp. 85-89 From August 28 to September 11 the Romanian forces suffered 31,552 casualties, making a total of 58,859 since the start of the siege.David Stahel, Kiev 1941, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2012, p. 137
The 157th began arriving from September 22 to 28,Sharp, "Red Legions", p. 78 on transports escorted by the cruisers Krasny Krym, Krasny Kavkaz, Chervona Ukraina, and other warships. It went into action immediately in a combined operation with the 3rd Marine Brigade, which landed at Grigorievka and Chebanka in the rear of the 15th Infantry Division after a 30-minute bombardment from naval guns. This, plus a failed landing further to the east, drew off Romanian reserves. At 0640 hours on September 22 the leading regiment of the 157th attacked the 13th Infantry Division along the rail line from Odesa to Bierezovka. The 22nd Infantry Regiment was taken by surprise. The commander of one of its battalions was killed and his men panicked and fled to the southern outskirts of the village of Kubanka, unhinging the entire position of 5th Corps, leading to the retreat of the 15th Infantry as well. The advance of the 157th's regiment and the 3rd Marines was halted by the 5th Corps reserve of two battalions plus motorized units. The 13th Infantry lost 1,300 casualties, and 5th Corps' heavy artillery was pushed back out of range of the Odesa harbor area.
On September 29 German forces broke into the Crimea via the Isthmus of Perekop, and the STAVKA realised that Odesa would soon be untenable. Evacuation was first ordered for October 6, but was rescheduled for October 14. A diversionary attack was launched on October 2 on a front by the 157th, the 25th Rifle Division, and the 2nd Cavalry Division against the sector of the Romanian lines held by the Frontier Guard Division and the left flank of the 6th Infantry Division after a powerful artillery preparation. The Red Army forces advanced along the road from Dalnik to Perselenet supported by tanks and aircraft. The sight of tanks caused two Romanian machine gun battalions and one battalion of Frontier Guards to retreat in disorder, but the 6th Infantry held firm. Romanian counterattacks on October 3–4 were able to restore the situation, but Coastal Army evacuated its first 86,000 troops in the meantime. A further Romanian attack on October 8/9 gained ground despite Soviet counterattacks with tanks. General Iacobici issued orders on October 12 for a general assault but two days later the Romanian General Staff noted increased activity by the Black Sea Fleet. Romanian patrols pushed forward on October 15, meeting heavy fire at first, but at 1030 hours the next day elements of the 7th Infantry Division entered the city. A total of some 350,000 soldiers and civilians had been evacuated, including the men of the 157th, which had begun to leave on October 3.Robert Forczyk, Where the Iron Crosses Grow, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2014, p. 54
Crimean campaigns