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The 307th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as a standard Red Army rifle division, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. The division distinguished itself in the intense defensive fighting around the village of Ponyri during the Battle of Kursk. It was credited with the liberation of the town of Novozybkov on Sept. 25, 1943. After battling its way through Belorussia during Operation Bagration, it was moved to East Prussia, where it took part in the Battle of Königsberg in the spring of 1945, ending the war on the Baltic coast near the Zemland Peninsula. == Formation == The division began organizing at Ivanovo in the Moscow Military District on July 12, 1941, and was at the front by the middle of the next month. Its order of battle was as follows: * 1019th Rifle Regiment * 1021st Rifle Regiment * 1023rd Rifle Regiment * 837th Artillery Regiment * 365th Antitank Battalion * 580th Sapper Battalion * 733rd Signal Battalion * 301st Medical Battalion * 384th Reconnaissance Company〔Charles C. Sharp, ''"Red Tide", Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX'', Nafziger, 1996, p 70, and Russian Wikipedia〕 Col. V.G. Terent'ev was the first divisional commander assigned. The 307th was very quickly moved to the front, arriving in 13th Army of Bryansk Front at Starodub by Aug. 15. The division would remain in that Front, apart from one month, until March, 1943, and in that Army until July of the same year. During this entire period the division remained in the same general part of the front, between Voronezh and Tula-Oryol.〔Sharp, p 70〕 When it first arrived at the front, the division operated as a separate formation, but by Sept. 1 it had been subordinated to 45th Rifle Corps.〔David M. Glantz, ''Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2'', Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2012, pp 116, 406〕 Gen. A.I. Yeryomenko, the Army commander, began ordering counterstrokes on Aug. 27 against German forces of Second Panzer Group that had recently captured Starodub. Over the following weeks the rifle divisions of 13th Army launched numerous attacks with limited armor support against the German flank in what was clearly an uneven contest to try to disrupt the enemy armored drive south to encircle the Red Army forces defending Kiev. In these actions the 45th Rifle Corps made little progress while suffering significant losses, and on Sept. 7 Yeryomenko wrote: 13th Army was too far south to be caught up in Operation Typhoon, but instead was gradually pushed eastward during October and November by the south flank forces of Army Group Center until it reached the area of Yelets. After the German advance was halted at Moscow, Marshal S.K. Timoshenko led a counteroffensive by 3rd and 13th Armies against those same forces, driving them westward during December.〔Michael Jones, ''The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat'', John Murray (Publishers), London, 2009, pp 142, 175〕 During 1942 the front in this sector was stable, with both sides committing their major forces elsewhere. This changed in the aftermath of Stalingrad. Soviet formations on the southern half of the front exploited the victory by thrusting westward, and on Feb. 12, 1943, the 307th was pushing northwards from the area of Kursk in the general direction of Oryol, but a week later had been brought to a halt.〔Glantz, ''After Stalingrad'', Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2009, pp 249, 270〕 As was the case with many other successful Red Army formations during this period, the division was considered for elevation to Guards status, but the following report from the chief of the 13th Army's political department dashed that chance: Even this scathing report did not prevent Laz'ko from being promoted to the rank of Major General on Feb. 22. The division would miss out on the distinction of Guard status, but would compile a worthy record nevertheless, beginning with its next battle. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「307th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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