Active 1940-1948, 1953-1955 Allegiance Red Army Size Division | Country Soviet Union Branch Infantry | |
Engagements World War II
Operation Barbarossa
Battles of Rzhev
Battle of Smolensk (1943)
Operation Bagration
Riga Offensive (1944)
Battle of Memel
Courland Pocket | ||
The 179th Vitebsk Red Banner Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.
Established at Vilnius on 17 August 1940 as part of the 29th Lithuanian Territorial Rifle Corps on the basis of the 1st Infantry Division of the Lithuanian Army. The headquarters was formed from the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division and Staff of the Lithuanian Army, 215th Rifle Regiment of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Cavalry batteries, headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division and the headquarters of the Lithuanian Army, 234th Rifle Regiment from the 1st and 8th Infantry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Battery, and the 259th Rifle Regiment from the 2nd and 3rd infantry regiments and the 3rd Cavalry battery.
With 29th Rifle Corps of 11th Army on June 22, 1941. Fought at Kalinin, Gomel, and Vitebsk; with 4th Shock Army of the Kurland Group (Leningrad Front) May 1945.
It was reduced to the 27th Rifle Brigade in 1948 at Uralsk. It became a division again in October 1953.
In 1955, the division became the 4th Rifle Division at Buzuluk in the South Ural Military District.