The 16th Guards Rifle Division was formed in February 1942 as an elite infantry formation based on a cadre from the 249th Rifle Division. It continued to serve in this capacity beyond the end of the Great Patriotic War.
It was redeployed while serving in the Kalinin Front, and it remained in the northern half of the front during the war. In the summer, it was assigned to the Western Front's 30th Army to the north of the Rzhev salient and took part in the long and costly struggle for the village of Polunino just east of that town in August. It returned to the fighting in March 1943 in the follow-up to the German evacuation of the salient and was then reassigned to the new 11th Guards Army, where it remained for the duration of the war.
During the summer offensive against the German-held salient around Oryol, it assisted in the liberation of Karachev and received its name as an honorific. By December, after fighting through western Russia, north of Smolensk, the division was in the 1st Baltic Front, attacking south towards Gorodok and winning the Order of the Red Banner in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to seize Vitebsk.
By the start of the offensive against Army Group Center in the summer of 1944, the 16th Guards had been redeployed with its Army to the south of Vitebsk as part of the 3rd Belorussian Front, where it would remain for the duration. Driving westward during Operation Bagration, the division helped to liberate the key city of Orsha and then drove on towards Minsk. With its Army, it advanced through Lithuania to the border with East Prussia, being further decorated with the Order of Suvorov for its crossing of the Neman River. As part of the East Prussian Offensive, the 16th Guards entered the heavily fortified region and helped gradually break the German resistance there, particularly at Insterburg and Königsberg, ending the fighting at Pillau.
The 16th Guards remained in the Kaliningrad Oblast well after the war, until it was finally disbanded in September 1960.
Formation The division, which had been recruited on the basis of a cadre from the NKVD internal troops, was officially raised to Guards status on February 16, 1942, in recognition of its role in the Toropets–Kholm Offensive, the annihilation of the German 189th Infantry Regiment at Okhvat in January, and the subsequent liberation of Toropets. Its sub-units would not receive their Guards redesignations until March 8. Its order of battle, based on the first wartime shtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions, was eventually as follows: 43rd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 917th Rifle Regiment) 46th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 921st Rifle Regiment) 49th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 925th Rifle Regiment) 44th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 779th Artillery Regiment) 21st Guards Antitank Battalion (from 307th Antitank Battalion)Sharp, "Red Guards", Soviet Guards Rifle and Airborne Units 1941 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IV, Nafziger, 1995, p. 49. 408th Mortar Battalion (until March 4, 1942) 19th Guards Antiaircraft Battery (until March 10, 1943) 28th Guards Mortar Battalion (until October 16, 1942) 20th Guards Reconnaissance Company (later the 328th Reconnaissance Battalion) 23rd Guards Sapper Battalion 26th Guards Signal Battalion 22nd Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion 18th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 14th Guards Motor Transport Company 24th Guards Field Bakery 17th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital 812th Field Postal Station 383rd Field Office of the State Bank.
Major General German Tarasov, who had led the 249th Rifle Division since it had been formed in July 1941, remained in command. At the time it was redesignated, the division was in the 4th Shock Army of the Kalinin Front, where it remained until May, when it was moved to the Front reserves for much-needed rebuilding and replenishment.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 44, 63, 82, 101. On March 16, the division received the Order of Lenin, which it had been recommended for while it was still the 249th. Tarasov was reassigned as acting commanding officer of the 24th Army on April 12; he went on over the next two-and-a-half years to serve as the first commander of the 70th Army, ultimately being demoted to deputy commander of the 53rd Army before being killed in action in Hungary in October 1944.Aleksander A. Maslov, Fallen Soviet Generals, ed. & trans. D. M. Glantz, Frank Cass Publishers, London, UK, 1998, pp. 162–163. Colonel Sergei Alekseevich Knyazkov took over command of the 16th Guards.
Battles for Rzhev At the beginning of July, the division was in the reserve 58th Army, and by the end of the month, it had been assigned to the 30th Army, both in the Kalinin Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1942, pp. 122, 143. For the First Rzhev–Sychyovka Offensive Operation, the 30th Army was committed along with the 29th Army of its Front and two armies of the Western Front to break through the defenses of the German 9th Army north and east of Rzhev. The Kalinin Front's offensive began on July 30, with a powerful artillery preparation. The commander of the Front's artillery, Major General N. M. Khlebnikov, recalled:
By the end of the first day, units of the 30th Army had broken through on a front of and to a depth of . However, on the same day, heavy rains began, which continued for several days. Roads became quagmires and small streams widened to significant obstacles. Under these conditions, the Army's units became bogged down in bitter fighting in the area of Polunino, northeast of Rzhev, and its offensive ground to a halt.Svetlana Gerasimova, The Rzhev Slaughterhouse, ed. & trans. S. Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2013, pp. 79–80.
Owing to adverse weather conditions, forces of the Western Front postponed their offensive until 4 August. When the operation commenced, it achieved immediate gains on both sides of the village of Pogoreloye Gorodishche. On the following day, Army General Georgy Zhukov was appointed overall commander of the two Fronts and proposed the liberation of Rzhev by the 30th and 31st Armies by August 9. However, Polunino was not captured until August 21, following combined attacks by the 16th Guards, 2nd Guards Motorized, and 52nd Rifle Division. These formations, having sustained heavy losses, then advanced to the outskirts of Rzhev. After limited regrouping, the 30th Army resumed the offensive at 05:30 on August 24. Over the next two days, it reached the Volga River west of the city and forced a crossing on August 29, but was unable to go farther. On the same day, the Army was transferred to the Western Front. On September 30, the Army continued to attack, gradually gaining several blocks in the northeast sector of the city before finally going over to the defense on October 1. In the course of the fighting through August and September, it suffered total personnel losses of 99,820 to gain on its right flank and on its left.Gerasimova, The Rzhev Slaughterhouse, pp. 82–83, 86–87, 92–99.Petr Mikhin, Guns Against the Reich, Pen & Sword Books, Ltd., Barnsley, UK, 2010, p. 47.
During the offensive, on August 15, Colonel Knyazkov left command of the division, soon taking over the 28th Rifle Division. Colonel Pyotr Shafranov was reassigned from command of the 44th Guards Artillery Regiment to command of the division the following day; he would be promoted to the rank of major general on November 27. The 30th Army played a supporting role only during Operation Mars as it recovered from the summer's bloodletting.David M. Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1999, p. 359. In January 1943, the division was moved to the reserves of the Western Front for further rebuilding, and in February, it was assigned to the 50th Army in the same Front, but considerably farther to the south.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, pp. 37, 62. On March 1, the 9th Army began Operation Büffel, the phased evacuation of the Rzhev salient; the 50th Army played only a limited role in the pursuit, being located near the base of the salient. Its history recounted:
Prior to this date, the 16th Guards had been again transferred, now to the 33rd Army, still in the Western Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 84.
Into Western Russia In April, the division was shuffled once again, now to the 16th Guards Rifle Corps of the 16th Army, in the Western Front.Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 108. It would remain in this Army (and its successor, the 11th Guards Army) for the duration of the war. Before the German offensive at Kursk had ended, the Bryansk and Western Fronts began an offensive against the northeastern flank of the German-held salient around Oryol on July 12. The 11th Guards Army achieved a deep penetration at the boundary between the German 211th and 293rd Infantry Divisions. The Army commander, Lieutenant General Ivan Bagramyan, committed his mobile forces in the afternoon and advanced about . Army Group Center hurriedly brought up the 5th Panzer Division to mount a counterattack in the evening, which was unsuccessful.
The next morning, the 5th Panzer launched a new attack before sunrise. More than half of its tanks and panzer grenadiers attacked over a commanding height and ran into the 16th Guards Corps, which was itself preparing for an attack with strong tank support. The German armor, driving eastward, was blinded by the rising sun and did not see the Soviet tanks and guns until they were at very close range. Within a short time, the German attack was decimated, with 45 tanks completely destroyed. The 16th Guards Corps soon began its own attack, which inflicted heavy losses on the 14th Panzergrenadier Regiment. For the 5th Panzer, this became the "blackest day of the entire Russian Campaign."Roman Töppel, Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War, Helion & Co., Ltd., Warwick, UK, 2018, Kindle ed., ch. 2, sect. Operation Kutuzov
On August 15, both the 16th Guards Corps and the 16th Guards Division were among the units recognized by the Supreme High Command for their roles in the liberation of Karachev, and the division was one of four that were awarded its name as an honorific.http://www.soldat.ru/spravka/freedom/1-ssr-3.html. In Russian. Retrieved December 3, 2019. As early as mid-July, the main forces of the Western Front were preparing for its summer offensive, Operation Suvorov, the timing of which depended in part on the progress of 11th Guards Army in Kutuzov. Ideally, the right flank of Army Group Center would be destabilized and in retreat after evacuating the Oryol salient, but in the event it consolidated along the Hagen line at its base.Robert Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2019, Kindle ed.
On July 30, the 11th Guards Army was transferred to Bryansk FrontCombat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943, p. 189. and advanced towards the Front's namesake city through August and September. On September 1, General Shafranov handed his command over to Major General Efim Vasilevich Ryzhikov. When the Front was disbanded on October 10, the Army accompanied its headquarters northwest to the area east of Velikiye Luki. The headquarters was used to establish the Baltic Front (2nd Baltic Front as of October 20), and the Army remained under its command. At noon on November 18, the Army was reassigned to the 1st Baltic Front.