146th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

146th Rifle Division (16 August 1939 - 27 December 1941) 146th Rifle Division (27 January 1942 – 1946)
Active	1939–1946
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Division
Role	Infantry
Engagements	Operation Barbarossa Battle of Kiev (1941) Battles of Rzhev Battle of Smolensk (1943) Šiauliai Offensive Riga Offensive Vistula-Oder Offensive Battle of Berlin
Commanders
Notable commanders	Mjr. Gen. I.M. Gerasimov

The 146th Rifle Division was formed for the first time as a standard Red Army rifle division in mid-1939, as part of a major build-up of the Army prior to the start of World War II. After the start of the German invasion in 1941 it defended the approaches to Kiev for several months until being surrounded and destroyed in September. A second formation began in January, 1942, and the new division spent the following year on a relatively quiet sector before joining the offensives that would drive the German invaders from north-central Russia, Lithuania, and Poland. The 146th ended the war fighting in the streets of Berlin, after compiling an enviable record of service, and saw postwar duty in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

The first 146th Rifle Division began forming on Aug. 16, 1939, at Berdichev in the Ukrainian Military District. Its order of battle was as follows:

In September the division took part in the occupation of eastern Poland, and in 1940 in the similar operation in Bessarabia.

On June 22, 1941 the division was in reserve in 36th Rifle Corps, away from the border, but by the evening of the 23rd it had moved up to Tereshki, and by the 27th it was operating alongside the 14th Cavalry Division, defending the Krements area against German tanks and motorized infantry. By the end of June it had been assigned to 6th Army in Southwestern Front. In late July it was reassigned to 26th Army, and in August to 37th Army, fighting in the defense lines on the direct northern approaches to Kiev. This position gave the men and women of the 146th virtually no hope of escape from the German encirclement, and the division was destroyed in September, although not officially removed from the Soviet order of battle until Dec. 27.

The second 146th Rifle Division officially began forming on Jan. 19, 1942, in the Moscow Military District, based on the 1st formation of the 416th Rifle Division. The new division also incorporated the provisional 468th Rifle Division, which had begun forming in December at Kagami in the Central Asian Military District, presumably with a large number of Kazakh or Uzbek recruits. The amalgamation of these two bodies took place at Venyov in January. The order of battle remained the same as the 1st formation, except the 280th became a standard, rather than a light, artillery regiment, the howitzer regiment and antiaircraft battalion were gone, and the sapper battalion was renumbered as the 149th.

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