302nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

302nd Mountain Rifle Division (July 18, 1941 – March 31, 1942) 302nd Rifle Division (March 31, 1942 – May 28, 1945)
Colonel N. P. Kucherenko, Hero of the Soviet Union
Active	1941–1945
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Division
Role	Infantry
Engagements	Battle of the Kerch Peninsula Battle of Stalingrad Operation Uranus Operation Winter Storm Donbass Strategic Offensive Lower Dniepr Offensive Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive Vistula-Oder Offensive
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner  Order of Kutuzov
Battle honours	Ternopol
Commanders
Notable commanders	Col. Mikhail Konstantinovich Zubkov Col. Yefrem Fedosievich Makarchuk Col. Aleksei Pavlovich Rodionov Col. Nikolai Panteleimonovich Kucherenko

The 302nd Rifle Division began service as a specialized Red Army mountain rifle division, which saw service in the disastrous operations in the Crimea in early 1942. It was later converted to serve for the balance of the war as a standard rifle division. The division played a leading role in the 51st Army's breakthrough south of Stalingrad in the opening stages of Operation Uranus, and then in the exploitation following this success; however, it was badly battered and routed in the initial stage of the German Operation Winter Storm. After recovering from this, the division continued to turn in a creditable record of service in the southern sectors of the Soviet-German front for the duration, and was especially recognized for its role in the liberation of the city of Ternopol, for which it received that city's name as an honorific.

The division originally began forming on July 18, 1941 at Krasnodar in the North Caucasus Military District as a mountain rifle division with a specialized order of battle featuring rifle regiments made up of oversized companies (no battalion structure), with supporting arms, capable of independent operations in difficult terrain and backed by light and mobile mountain artillery. Its order of battle was as follows:

Col. Mikhail Konstantinovich Zubkov was assigned as commanding officer on the day the division began forming. Note that as a mountain rifle division it had one more rifle regiment than a standard rifle division. The 302nd was the only mountain rifle division formed from reservists in the early months of the war, and spent until November forming up, an unusually long time in this period of crisis, probably due to lack of specialized training and/or equipment. Its reconnaissance unit included some BT-5 and T-26 light tanks which implies, at least, that it was being equipped with what was available rather than what was authorized.

In November it was assigned to the 51st Army, and saw its first action at the very end of the year. On December 26, elements of the division made opposed amphibious landings from improvised landing craft at Kamysh Burun and at Eltigen south of the town of Kerch on the eastern tip of the Crimea. In spite of heavy German fire, a foothold of 2,175 troops was established at the former port, although the latter attempt was repulsed. A second wave of Soviet landings took place farther west on December 29, and the city of Feodosiya was liberated by units of the 44th Army. Following this, the German corps commander ordered his 46th Infantry Division to retreat from the Kerch peninsula without orders from above. As a result, the 302nd was able to liberate Kerch on December 31.