59th Guards Rifle Division

The 59th Guards Kramatorsk Order of Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Motor-Rifle Division of the Soviet Union's Red Army was initially formed near Krasnodar in March 1942 as the 197th Rifle Division (2nd formation). On the division's formation Colonel (from 14.10.1942 major-general) M. I. Zaporozhchenko took command, who stayed with the division until February 1943. Its second commander was Major-General G. P. Karamyshev from February 1943 up to the end of the war.

On the formation of the 197th Rifle Division the major subunits were the 828th, 862nd, 889th Rifle, 261st Artillery Regiments, as well as other support units. Upon becoming Guards the designations of the subunits changed to the 176th, 179th, and 183rd Guards Rifle and 127 Guards Artillery Regiments, and 66th Guards Independent Sapper Battalion.

The division was assigned initially to the 63rd Army (since November 1942 the 1st Guards Army, and since December 1942 3rd Guard Army), 6th Army, and eventually the 46th Army within which it ended the war.

The division saw combat for the first time during the Battle of Stalingrad from July to December 1942 as part of the 63rd Army (which became the 1st Guards Army on 1 November 1942). During fierce fighting in the Veshenskaya area, parts of the division along with other Soviet units repelled the approach of the German forces. Having forced the Don river in the El'yanskoye area, the division seized a bridgehead which was subsequently used to stage a Soviet counter-attack. In these engagements the division destroyed up to 2,000 enemy troops, and much military equipment and weapons. The division participated in Operation Little Saturn between 16 and 30 December 1942.

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