315th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

315th Rifle Division (February 12, 1942 – 1947) 315th Rifle Division (December, 1951 – 1955)
Active	1942–1947, 1951–1955
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Division
Role	Infantry
Engagements	Battle of Stalingrad Operation Uranus Operation Winter Storm Operation Little Saturn Battle of Rostov (1943) Donbass Strategic Offensive Crimean Offensive
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner
Battle honours	Melitopol
Commanders
Notable commanders	Maj. Gen. D.S. Kuropatenko

The 315th Rifle Division was a standard Red Army rifle division formed for the first time on February 12, 1942 in the Siberian Military District before being sent to the vicinity of Stalingrad, where it was engaged in the futile efforts to break through to the besieged city from the north near Kotluban. After rebuilding, it was part of the southern thrust of Operation Uranus in November, helping to encircle the German 6th Army and also to hold off its would-be rescuers. During 1943 and early 1944 the division advanced through the southern Donbass and into Ukraine, where it was honored for its role in the liberation of Melitopol, before taking part in the liberation of the Crimea in April and May, 1944. The men and women of the 315th ended their war on an anti-climactic note, serving for the last year as part of the garrison of the Crimea. However, the unit, and its successors, continued to serve well into the postwar era.

The 315th began forming on February 12, 1942, at Barnaul in the Siberian Military District. When it finished forming in the Altaisk region in May it had 12,439 officers and men assigned, 64.4 percent of whom were under 30 years of age. Its basic order of battle was as follows:

By the end of May the division had moved west and was assigned to the 8th Reserve Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.

In August the 315th was first assigned to the 1st Guards Army, to the north of Stalingrad, but it arrived at the front at a moment of particular crisis, just as the German 6th Army's XIV Panzer Corps completed its advance from the Don River to the Volga River, north of the city, on August 23. Gen. A.I. Yeryomenko, commander of the Southeastern Front, ordered the division to reinforce the defenses of 4th Tank Army, on the north side of the "Volga Corridor". Two days later it was part of Group Kovalenko, along with two tank corps and two other rifle divisions, ordered to attack southwards against the corridor. The attack made little progress.

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