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101st Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

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Active
  
1938–48

Branch
  
Red Army

Size
  
Division

Country
  
Soviet Union

Type
  
Mountain Infantry

Part of
  
2nd Red Banner Army

The 101st Rifle Division was a unit of the Soviet Red Army initially formed as a mountain rifle division on 28 August 1938 within the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city.

Contents

History

Initially the division included the 138th Rifle Regiment formed in 1938 from the 292nd rifle regiment of the Pacific Ocean Fleet, which had been created in 1937 from the 10th Separate Territorial Rifle Battalion of the 4th Bashkirs|Bashkir regiment. In 1940, the division was removed from the roll of first line formations. In June 1942 the division was reorganized into a field rifle division. In 1943 the HQ of the 101st division included: the 128th Mixed Aviation Division, Petropavlovsk Military Naval Base, border security detachment, the 428th howitzer artillery regiment, the 302nd separate rifle regiment, three separate artillery divisions (battalions), the 5th separate rifle battalion, and a number of storage facilities. From 15 January 1945 the division was included in the composition of the Northern Group of Forces of the Far Eastern Front and subordinated to the Kamchatka Defensive Rayon of the Front (Russian: Камчатский Оборонительный район (КОР) ДВФ).

For model fulfillment of assignments and displaying combat mastery during the taking of the islands Shumshu and Paramushir in the course of the Kuril Landing operation, the Presidium of the Highest Council of the USSR, declared by order of NKO № 0164, the division was awarded the Order of Lenin on 28 September 1945.

The division became part of the 137th Rifle Corps postwar at Paramushir. In 1948 it was converted into the 6th Machine Gun Artillery Division. The division was disbanded in 1953, following the 1952 Severo-Kurilsk tsunami.

August 1945 Order of Battle

In August 1945 the composition of the 101st rifle division was:

Headquarters and Staff
  • KAD (Commander of artillery division) command platoon
  • SMERSH detachment
  • Infantry training battalion
  • 169th Anti-Tank Battalion
  • 119th Sapper Battalion
  • 103rd Signals Battalion
  • 131st Medical Battalion
  • 38th Chemical Defence Company
  • 70th Field post office
  • Divisional sewing repair shop
  • Anti-aircraft machine gun company
  • 13th Mobile field hospital
  • 178th Divisional veterinary infirmary
  • 9th Field Bakery
  • Armored train, 19th cavalry squadron
  • 138th Rifle Regiment
  • 302nd Rifle Regiment
  • 373rd Rifle Regiment
  • 279th Artillery Regiment(Light)

    • Commanders

    The following officers commanded the division.

  • Major (from 21 September 1940 brigade commander) Aksenty Gorodnyansky (August 1938 – 25 October 1940)
  • Colonel (from 2 January 1942 Major General) Ivan Pichugin (25 October 1940 – 27 June 1942)
  • Major General Semyon Mozhaev (27 June 1942-22 September 1943)
  • Major General Porfiry Dyakov (22 September 1943 – 4 November 1945).

    • Awards

    Order of Lenin – Awarded on 14 September 1945.

    References

    101st Rifle Division (Soviet Union) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA