75th Guards Rifle Division
| 23rd Motor Rifle Division (NKVD) ? – 9 Sep 1941 8th Motor Rifle Division NKVD 5 Jan 1942 – 9 May 1942 13th Motor Rifle Division NKVD May 1942 – 2 Aug 1942 95th Rifle Division (2nd Formation) 2 Aug 1942 – 1 Mar 1943 75th Guards Rifle Division 1 Mar 43 – 11 Jun 1946 17th Guards Rifle Brigade 12 Jun 1946 – 1952 75th Guards Rifle Division 1952 – ? 64th Guards Mechanized Division ? – ? 75th Guards Tank Division ? – Nov 1989 |
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|---|---|
| Active | Formed in September 1942 (Tula) Disbanded in 1989 |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | more 10,000 (Second World War) |
| Part of | Central Front 1943, Voronezh Front 1943, 1st Ukrainian Front 1943-44, 1st Belorussian Front 1944-45, 3rd Baltic Front 1944 |
| Engagements | World War II: Battle of Kursk (Operation Kutuzov); Battle of the Dnieper (Chernigov-Pripyat Offensive; Battle of Kiev); Kalinkovichi-Mozyr Operation; Operation Bagration; Riga Offensive; Warsaw-Poznan operation; Vistula–Oder Offensive; East Pomeranian Offensive; Battle of Berlin. |
| Battle honours |
Guards unit The Honorary Title Bakhmach Order of Suvorov, 2nd class Order of the Red Banner Order of the Red Banner |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Lieutenant-General Vasilii Akimovich Gorishny, former Colonel V.A. Gorishny |
The 75th Guards Rifle Division (Russian: 75-я гвардейская стрелковая дивизия 75-ya gvardyeĭskaya strelkovaya diviziya) was a Red Army infantry division during World War II and afterwards, which later became the 75th Guards Tank Division and was finally disbanded in the 1990s.
The division was formed in the Tula area (Tesnitskie camp) 1 March 1943 on the basis of units of the 95th Rifle Division (II Formation), which was given the honorary title of "The Guard" for courage and the heroism in the defense of Stalingrad. Its structure included the 90th, 161st, and 241st Rifle Regiments, the 57th Artillery Regiment, which became 212th, 231st and 241st Guards Rifle, 159th Guards Artillery Regiments correspondingly and other smaller units.
In July - August 1943, as part of the 13th Army of the Central Front, the division fought in the Battle of Kursk. Facing one of the main German thrusts (the Ponyri 2 area), divisional units resisted the German attack effectively and persistently. For its exemplary fighting performance the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 21 July 1943. 5 soldiers of the division were made Heroes of the Soviet Union (all posthumously), and 173 officers and men recognized with awards and medals.
The division's soldiers then successfully helped clear left-bank Ukraine during the Chernigov-Pripyatsk (Черниговско-Припятской) operations of the Soviet Central Front. For helping clear Bakhmach the division was given the Honorary Title Bakhmach (Бахмачской) on 9 September 1943. On 25 September 1943 parts of the division forced the Dnieper River in the Tarasovichi area, seized a bridgehead and during October, fought intensely to expand it. For courage shown in battle, 57 officers and men of the division were made Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 829 recognized with awards and medals.
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