334th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

334th Rifle Division (August 1941 – November 1945)
Major General N. M. Mishchenko
Active	1941–1945
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Division
Role	Infantry
Engagements	Battle of Moscow Toropets-Kholm Offensive Battle of Smolensk (1943) Dukhovshchina - Demidov Offensive Operation Operation Bagration Baltic Offensive Riga Offensive Vistula-Oder Offensive Battle of Königsberg
Decorations	Order of Suvorov 2nd class
Battle honours	Vitebsk
Commanders
Notable commanders	Maj. Gen. N. M. Mishchenko Col. V. T. Gnedin Guards Col. E. Ya. Birstein

The 334th Rifle Division was formed in August, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division in the Volga Military District. For most of the war it followed a very similar combat path to that of the 332nd Rifle Division, sometimes serving on adjacent sectors. It fought in the Battle of Moscow and during the winter counteroffensive was assigned to 4th Shock Army, where it would remain until November, 1943. During this offensive it helped carve out the Toropets Salient, where it would remain until the autumn of 1943 when it helped to liberate Velizh and began advancing westward again. In the first days of the 1944 summer offensive the 334th shared credit with several other units in the liberation of Vitebsk and was awarded that name as an honorific. The unit advanced into East Prussia in January, 1945, distinguishing itself in the siege of the heavily-fortified city of Königsberg and the clearing of the Baltic coast. It continued to serve briefly into the postwar period.

The division began forming at Kazan in the Volga Military District in August, 1941. Its order of battle was as follows:

On September 16 Colonel N.M. Mishchenko was appointed to command the division, a position he would hold until May 9, 1944, a remarkably long term of service in the early part of the war. Mishchenko was promoted to Major General in May, 1942. His division was moved to Gorkii in the Moscow Military District in late October to complete its training and equipping, and variously assigned to several reserve armies that were forming in the Moscow District at that time.

In December the 334th was moved north by rail and assigned to the newly formed 4th Shock Army in Northwestern Front. When 4th Shock attacked in January, 1942, the division reported a strength of 12,000 officers and men armed with 167 mortars, 14 HMGs, 347 LMGs, and 80 antitank rifles. During training, each rifle regiment had organized "assault" submachine-gun companies from Communist Party members and Komsomols – younger men with high morale, if not more training and experience. The German forces in this sector were badly overextended and under-supplied, and the 334th helped 4th Shock, and its running mate, 3rd Shock Army, drive deep into the left flank of Army Group Center, liberating Toropets and advancing almost to Velikiye Luki before finally running out of steam. By February - March 1942, while fighting north of Velizh, the division had collected enough trophy German 105mm light howitzers and ammunition to form a battery of these guns in the 908th Artillery Regiment. 4th Shock would remain in this general area, just north and west of Velizh, until November, 1943, in Kalinin Front. Had Operation Mars in November, 1942, fared better, the 334th would likely have taken part in an operation code-named either Jupiter or Neptune to destroy all of Army Group Center east of Smolensk.