The 131st Rifle Division was first formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in August 1939 in the Kiev Special Military District, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of the following month. In May 1940 the division was converted to a motorized division, which officially took place on June 1. In March 1941 it was assigned to Maj. Gen. K. K. Rokossovsky's 9th Mechanized Corps and was under this command west of Kyiv when the German invasion began in June. Rokossovsky immediately took measures to provide additional transport to the division so it was able to intervene in the fighting around Lutsk on June 24, but this was unable to do more than delay the German advance, at considerable cost in men and machines. Over the following weeks it fell back to the northeast, gradually losing strength until on July 29 it was again designated as the 131st Rifle Division. In this capacity it continued to fight into mid-September when it was trapped, along with its 5th Army and Southwestern Front, in the Kyiv encirclement.
A new division had been formed in the Ural Military District in late December and it was soon designated as the new 131st Rifle Division. After a diversion to the north the division moved back southward, becoming part of 1st Reserve Army, which would become 64th Army in July. When it arrived at the fighting front it joined Stalingrad Front, but was soon moved to that Front's 1st Tank Army. When this Army was disbanded it returned to the 64th Army briefly, then to 62nd Army. Although encircled west of the Don River in early August it was mostly able to escape to the east bank where it took up defenses until the last week of the month, when it was forced to retreat to the outskirts of Stalingrad itself. In early September it was involved in the fighting in the southernmost part of the city, in particular the suburbs of Minina and Kuporosnoye, before falling back to the area of the Food Combine and Lumber Factory. Decimated in this fighting, the remnants were evacuated across the Volga in the third week of the month and then sent to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for a substantial rebuilding. During this process it was moved well to the north, joining 55th Army of Leningrad Front in February 1943. During the remainder of the year it saw relatively little combat, moving to 2nd Shock Army of the same Front in September. At the start of the offensive that finally threw Army Group North back from Leningrad in January 1944 the 131st played a leading role in the breakout from the Oranienbaum Bridgehead and was soon awarded a battle honor for the liberation of Ropsha; it would also be awarded the Order of the Red Banner in March. By this time it was bogged down in the difficult battles for Narva, moving first to 59th Army, and then to 8th Army, before returning to 2nd Shock. After a long pause in operations until late July the city was quickly taken, and all four of the division's regiments were awarded its name as an honorific. In September it advanced into northern Estonia, finally rejoining 8th Army for the duration of the war. Late that month it was committed to the amphibious operation to secure Saaremaa and the other Baltic islands, a campaign that continued into late November. The 131st spent the duration of the war, and a couple of years thereafter, stationed there as part of 10th Guards Army, gradually disbanded in 1947.
131st Motorized Division The division was originally formed at Novohrad-Volynskyi in western Ukraine in the late summer of 1939 during the Red Army's pre-war buildup, but in the spring of 1940 orders came to begin its conversion to a motorized division. At this time it was under command of Col. Nikolai Vasilevich Kalinin. In March 1941 it was assigned to the 9th Mechanized Corps in the same general area. It was unusual in that it had three motorized regiments instead of the usual two. On April 28 the Corps commander, Maj. Gen. K. K. Rokossovsky, reported on the readiness of his units, noting that he had just three percent of required engineers and 22 percent of materiel support technicians.David M. Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1998, p. 118 At the start of the German invasion the 131st was at full strength for personnel, but had only 595 trucks and 69 tractors of all types, and of its allotment of 104 BT tanks, only 41 percent were serviceable.Charles C. Sharp, "The Deadly Beginning", Soviet Tank, Mechanized, Motorized Divisions and Tank Brigades of 1940 - 1942, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. I, Nafziger, 1995, p. 59 Its order of battle was as follows: 53rd Motorized Rifle Regiment 593rd Motorized Rifle Regiment 743rd Motorized Rifle Regiment 58th Tank Regiment 409th Artillery Regiment 182nd Antitank Battalion 303rd Antiaircraft Battalion 115th Reconnaissance Battalion 218th Light Engineer Battalion 154th Signal Battalion 18th Artillery Park Battalion 225th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 140th Auto Transport Battalion 99th Repair and Recovery Battalion 32nd Regulation Company 238th Motorized Field Bakery 460th Field Postal Station 395th Field Office of the State Bank 9th Mechanized was assigned to 5th Army, and also contained the 20th and 35th Tank Divisions and 32nd Motorcycle Regiment.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 9 On June 22 the 131st and 35th were still in and about Novohrad-Volynskyi, while the 20th was positioned northwest of Shepetivka.Artyom Drabkin and Alexei Isaev, Barbarossa Through Soviet Eyes, trans. C. Summerville, Pen & Sword Books, Ltd., Barnsley, UK, 2012, p. xiii
Battle of Brody Rokossovsky was awoken at 0400 with the delivery of a telegram from 5th Army headquarters authorizing him to open a top secret operational packet. This contained a directive from the STAVKA to bring 9th Mechanized to immediate combat readiness and set out toward RivneLutskKovel. On his own responsibility he ordered the nearby main supply dumps to be opened to access food, fuel, and ammunition. He also requisitioned motor vehicles from the civilian economy in order to more adequately transport the 131st:The situation of the tank divisions (and 58th Tank Regiment) was more difficult as their vehicles, entirely BT and T-26 types, were old and largely worn out from training, with engines and tracks near the end of their usefulness.Dr. Boris Sokolov, Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2015, pp. 75, 79
In his memoirs the then Col. I. Kh. Bagramyan, chief of operations of Southwestern Front (former Kiev Special Military District), recalled events near the end of June 24:The Corps began by launching an attack toward Lyniv which failed to retake any ground but managed to check the advancing III Motorized Corps along the RivneLutsk highway, although at considerable cost.Sokolov, Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky, pp. 80, 82
By the end of June 27 the 14th Panzer Division had regrouped and forced the 131st out of Lutsk and toward the east, taking up positions at Palche by July 1.David Stahel, Kiev 1941, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2012, pp. 71-72 By this time Maj. Gen. R. N. Morgunov, deputy commander of Southwestern Front, was reporting that "9th Mechanized Corps is functioning as a rifle corps and defending along the Stuba River in the Klevan' region." On the other hand, during July 7 Col. Gen. M. P. Kirponos, commander of the Front, reported to the STAVKA that the tank strength of 9th Mechanized had declined to 164 vehicles, which was actually better than most such corps.Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, pp. 138, 144 On July 2 Colonel Kalinin, who had just been awarded the Order of the Red Banner, left the 131st, soon becoming the chief of staff, and then deputy commander and acting commander, of the 31st Rifle Corps, being promoted to the rank of major general on August 12. He would later lead the 91st and 159th Rifle Divisions, apart from serving in several other positions, before the end of the war. Col. Pavel Ivanovich Morozov took over the division on July 3; he had previously been Kalinin's deputy commander.
Kirponos ordered a counterattack on July 10 by 5th Army, involving the 31st Rifle Corps and three mechanized corps, including the 9th, and the 131st was able to regain the village of Nesolon, where it continued to hold until July 15. By now its strength amounted to 1,283 personnel, with 12 tanks, 27 artillery pieces, and 319 vehicles remaining. After this the Corps continued falling back east of Novohrad-Volynskyi, reaching the area southwest of Korosten by July 23.Stahel, Kiev 1941, pp. 84-85 Reality was finally faced on July 29 when the division was officially reorganized as the 131st Rifle Division.Sharp, "The Deadly Beginning", p. 59. Commanders of Corps and Divisions (see Bibliography) gives the date of the reorganization as July 3, but this is contradicted by all other sources.
1st Formation The reorganized division was under direct command of 5th Army,Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1941, p. 33 and had an order of battle very similar to that of its previous incarnation: 58th Rifle Regiment 593rd Rifle Regiment 743rd Rifle Regiment 409th Artillery Regiment 182nd Antitank Battalion 303rd Antiaircraft Battalion 115th Reconnaissance Battalion 218th Sapper Battalion 154th Signal Battalion 225th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 140th Auto Transport Battalion 520th Field Postal Station 345th Field Office of the State Bank Colonel Morozov would remain in command until the division was disbanded. By August 11 it had retreated to positions north of Korosten under pressure from 79th Infantry Division. By this time elements of Army Group South had been stalled in front of the Kiev Fortified Region since late June. Furthermore, the continued existence of 5th Army appeared to constitute a threat to the flanks of both it and Army Group Center to the north. In the third week of the month Hitler decided to strike south with the 2nd Panzer Group in order to link up with 1st Panzer Group advancing from the Dniepr well south of Kyiv to encircle the bulk of Southwestern Front. By now 5th Army was deployed on a line generally to the northwest and northeast of Chernihiv, facing German 2nd Army, although the 131st had been moved south to positions along the Dniepr northwest of Oster.Stahel, Kiev 1941, pp. 83-85, 113-14, 210, 262 Its strength on August 25 was reported as 4,500 personnel, 40 artillery pieces of all calibers, 17 mortars, and roughly 70 machine guns.Sharp, "The Deadly Beginning", p. 59
By the beginning of September the German operation was well underway but even on September 11 Stalin was forbidding Kirponos from making any sort of retreat. The next day 1st Panzer Group decisively broke out of its bridgehead at Kremenchuk, and on September 13 lead elements of 3rd Panzer Division reached Lokhvytsia from the north; this would soon be the link-up point of the two panzer groups. That night Stalin again insisted that 5th Army cease any preparations for withdrawal. On September 15 the encirclement was complete and four entire Soviet armies, including the 5th, were trapped; the latter was deep in the cauldron with little chance to escape. Kyiv fell on September 19, and two days later the remnants of 5th and 21st Armies were concentrated south of the PyriatynLokhvytsia road.Stahel, Kiev 1941, p. 215-20, 224, 228-29, 260 In the ensuing chaos Colonel Morozov and much of his staff were able to get free, but only small groups and individuals managed to do the same. The 131st remained on the books until December 27 when it, along with the other formations lost in the debacle, was officially written off. Morozov had already taken command of the 339th Rifle Division, and would go on to lead the 83rd Mountain, 20th Mountain, and 181st Rifle Divisions before the war's end.
2nd Formation