309th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

The 309th Rifle Division was formed for the first time as a standard
309th Rifle Division
Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion. It fought
its first battles at the Yelnya Salient, participating in that early Soviet Active 1941–1945
success before being swept up in Operation Typhoon, encircled and Country Soviet Union
destroyed. At the very end of 1941 the division was reformed. It
served on mostly inactive sectors during 1942, but in 1943 it played Branch Red Army
an important role in containing the offensive of 4th Panzer Army at Type Division
Kursk. It followed this in September with one of the first successful Role Infantry
assault crossings of the Dniepr River, for which many men of the
309th were named as Heroes of the Soviet Union. The division Engagements Operation
continued in combat through Ukraine, Poland and Silesia before Barbarossa
ending the war near Breslau. Yelnya Offensive
Operation
Typhoon

Contents Operation Blue

Battle of Kursk
1st Formation Battle of the
2nd Formation Dniepr
Battle of Kiev
Battle of Kursk
(1943)
Battle of the Dniepr
Lvov–
Advance Sandomierz
Postwar Offensive
References Vistula–Oder
Citations Offensive
Bibliography Siege of Breslau
Decorations Order of the
External links
Red Banner
Order of
1st Formation Kutuzov 2nd
class
The division began forming on July 10, 1941 at Kursk in the Oryol Battle honours Piryatin
Military District.[1] Col. Nikifor Alekseevich Ilyantzev was assigned
Commanders
to command on that date, and he would be the only commanding
officer of the 1st Formation. The division's basic order of battle was Notable Col. Nikifor
as follows: commanders Alekseevich
Ilyantzev
955th Rifle Regiment Maj. Gen.
957th Rifle Regiment Aleksandr
959th Rifle Regiment Nikolaievich
842nd Artillery Regiment[2] Afanasev
Maj. Gen. Mikhail
Ivanovich
Menshikov
Less than a month after forming, the 309th was assigned to Reserve Maj. Gen. Dmitry
Front, moving to 24th Army of that Front on August 5, just as that Feoktisovich
Army was itself forming up. Its first divisional headquarters was Dryomin
established at Gordunovka. By the end of August the fresh division Col. Mikhail
had arrived at the front and took part in the third counteroffensive
Vasilevich
against the Yelnya Salient, beginning on August 30.
Yevstigneev
The division was assigned to the central shock group, intended to Col. Boris
hold the German forces in the salient while it was pinched off by the Davidovich Lev
northern and southern groups. Attacking alongside the 19th Rifle
Division, the 309th made almost no headway on the first three days. At the end of September 1 it was
shifted, as previously planned, to reinforce the 107th Motorized Division of the northern group. It was still
regrouping in its new positions on September 3 when Army Group Center ordered a withdrawal of its forces
from the salient, which was carried out over the next four days. General G.K. Zhukov gave the 309th little
credit for this success, stating that "The... 309th... operated poorly and without initiative". It was not chosen
to become one of the first four Guards rifle divisions. As of September 12 the rifle regiments of the division
averaged only 657 men each, indicating excessive casualties.[3]

At the beginning of Operation Typhoon the 309th was still holding positions on the right flank of 24th
Army, and by October 7 was deeply encircled north of Spas-Demensk.[4] The divisional headquarters had
disintegrated by that date and was disbanded, although it appears some elements fought on separately for
another week or so.[5]

2nd Formation
A new rifle division, initially numbered the 449th,[6] began forming south of Krasnoyarsk on December 30,
1941,[7] under the command of Col. Aleksandr Nikolaievich Afanasev. It was re-designated as the second
309th Rifle Division in January, 1942. Its order of battle remained as previous, with the addition of the
343rd Antitank Battalion. The division spent about three months forming up in the Siberian Military District
before moving west in April. In June it was assigned to the 6th Reserve Army, which became the 6th
(active) Army on July 10, and joined Voronezh Front by the end of the month. The 309th remained in
Voronezh Front, and its successor 1st Ukrainian Front, for the duration of the war. On November 10,
Colonel Afanasev was promoted to Major General, but a week later was reassigned and replaced by Col.
Pyotr Grigorevich Moskovsky.

The 309th remained in 6th Army until the end of 1942, when it was reassigned to the 40th Army. On
January 7, 1943, Maj. Gen. Mikhail Ivanovich Menshikov took command of the division. During the Soviet
winter offensive of 1942 - 43 the 309th took part in the liberation of Belgorod on February 9, and the town
of Bogodukhov on the 17th, but these gains were later lost during the Third Battle of Kharkov.[8] During
this counteroffensive 40th Army was forced back into what became the Kursk Salient, and in March General
Menshikov was listed as missing in action.[9] He was replaced by Col. Dmitrii Feoktisovich Dryomin. The
division spent the next months preparing for what the summer might bring.

Battle of Kursk
In the lead-up to this battle, the 309th briefly became part of the 52nd Rifle Corps, still in 40th Army. That
Army was in the front lines, somewhat to the west of the sectors where 4th Panzer Army would make its
main attacks. By July 7, the third day of battle, the division was moved east to reinforce the 1st Guards Tank
Army. Late on the fifth day it formed a line south of Novoselovka and halted, with the assistance of
numerous supporting antitank and artillery units, an advance of the 11th Panzer Division.[10] In the
following days the 309th was subordinated to the 23rd Guards Rifle Corps of 6th Guards Army, where it
remained until August.[11][12] As the battle reached its height on July 12, the division, along with 204th
Rifle Division and 3rd Tank Corps, was ordered to make a counterattack against the 11th Panzer and
Großdeutschland divisions beginning at 0830 hours. This was a spoiling attack intending to disrupt these
divisions as they regrouped for their own attack towards the Psel. The attack made little headway, and the
tanks of 11th Panzer soon threw the 309th back to its start line, but the overall objective of holding the
Germans in place was achieved.[13] That evening the German offensive was officially discontinued.

Battle of the Dniepr

In August the division was back in Gen. K.S. Moskalenko's 40th Army. During the next weeks the defeated
German forces fell back through Ukraine as a race developed to reach the crossing points along the Dniepr
River. Along this path, Colonel Dryomin was promoted to Major General on September 15, and three days
later the 309th was credited with the liberation of the city of Piryatin, and was later given its name as an
honorific:

"PIRYATIN" - The 52nd Rifle Corps... with its components, 309th Rifle Division (Maj. Gen.
Dmitrii Feoktisovich Dryomin)...By order of the Supreme High Command is given this
name.[14]

Two days following, the forward detachment of the division, backed by elements of 10th Tank Corps,
reached the river near the town of Rzhyshchev. The main crossing operation began on September 23.[15]
40th Army, in conjunction with 3rd Guards Tank Army, seized four bridgeheads on the western bank,
eventually forming what became known as the Bukrin Bridgehead.[16] STAVKA had offered great rewards
for the men who made this crossing and followed through: 136 officers and men of 40th Army, including no
fewer than 47 of the 309th Rifle Division, were named as Heroes of the Soviet Union.[17] One of those was
General Dryomin:

"On October 23, 1943, for bravery, personal courage, and skillful command of the division,
shown in fighting in the crossing of the Dniepr River, capturing and holding a bridgehead on
the west bank of the river, Maj. Gen. Dryomin, Dmitrii Feoktisovich, is awarded the Order of
Lenin, and the Gold Star Hero of the Soviet Union (no. 2156)[18]

Over the following month, however, the Bukrin Bridgehead proved a dead end, due to difficult terrain, a
strong German reaction, and the failure of a major Soviet airborne operation on the night of September 24 -
25. On October 23 Stalin informed Gen. N.F. Vatutin of 1st Ukrainian Front that it was "impossible to take
Kiev from the south. Now take a look at the Lyutizh bridgehead which is north of Kiev and held by 38th
Army." According to the new plan, 3rd Guards Tank Army and a rifle corps of 40th Army were secretly
evacuated from Bukrin and moved to Lyutizh, as Moskalenko took command of 38th Army. On the morning
of November 3, Soviet forces at Bukrin, which included the 309th, now in 27th Army, staged a diversionary
attack while the forces at Lyutizh broke out of their bridgehead, and a day later Kiev was liberated.[19]

Advance
In late January, 1944, the divisional returns of the 309th showed the following strengths:

955th Rifle Regiment: 1187 officers and men with 518 rifles; 274 SMGs; 47 LMGs; 14 HMGs; 3
120mm, 13 82mm and 2 50mm mortars; 4 76mm howitzers; 5 45mm guns; 21 AT rifles
 957th Rifle Regiment: 1177 officers and men with 512 rifles; 149 SMGs; 22 LMGs; 8 HMGs; 5
120mm, 8 82mm and 1 50mm mortars; 2 76mm howitzers; 4 45mm guns; 12 AT rifles
959th Rifle Regiment: 1253 officers and men with 537 rifles; 115 SMGs; 64 LMGs; 9 HMGs; 5
120mm, 16 82mm and 4 50mm mortars; 3 76mm howitzers; 6 45mm guns; 14 AT rifles
842nd Artillery Regiment: 8 122mm and 3 (captured German) 105mm howitzers; 19 76mm
cannon; 7 AT rifles[20]

The division briefly moved from 27th to 38th Army, then served from February until July 26 in 1st Guards
Army. General Dryomin was reassigned to the 316th Rifle Division on April 7, and was eventually
succeeded by Col. Mikhail Vasilevich Evstigneev. In July the 309th was reassigned to the 47th Rifle Corps
in 13th Army, remaining there until December 20, and on September 9 its final commanding officer, Col.
Boris Davidovich Lev, was assigned. Its final Army reassignment was a return to 6th Army, first in 74th
Rifle Corps, then in 22nd Rifle Corps, and finally back in the 74th. The men and women of the division
ended the war besieging Breslau, and on 4 June the division received its final award of the war, the Order of
Kutuzov, 2nd class, for its role in the siege.[21] Its final official title was the 309th Rifle, Piryatin, Order of
the Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov Division.[22] (Russian: 309-я стрелковая Пирятинская
Краснознамённая ордена Кутузова дивизия.)

Postwar
The division was disbanded in summer 1945 with the Central Group of Forces.[23]

References

Citations
1. Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys to Victory, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2006, p. 76
2. Charles C. Sharp, "Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December, 1941,
Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX, 1996, p. 70
3. David M. Glantz, Barbarossa Derailed, Vol. 2, Helion and Co., Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2012, pp.
322-57
4. David Stahel, Operation Typhoon, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2013, map on
p. 79
5. Sharp, "Red Tide", p. 71
6. Dunn, Jr., Stalin's Keys, p. 100
7. Sharp, "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945, Soviet Order of Battle
World War II, Vol. X, 1996, p. 116
8. Sharp, "Red Swarm", pp. 116-17
9. http://www.generals.dk/general/Menshikov/Mikhail_Ivanovich/Soviet_Union.html. Retrieved
December 22, 2017.
10. Valeriy Zamulin, Demolishing the Myth, trans. and ed. by Stuart Britton, Helion & Co., Ltd.,
Solihull, UK, 2011, pp. 136, 157
11. Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 117
12. Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, 1943 (http://www.soldat.ru/files/f/boevojsostavsa194
3.pdf), p. 193
13. Zamulin, pp. 427, 429, 434
14. http://www.soldat.ru/spravka/freedom/1-ssr-5.html. Retrieved December 22, 2017
15. John Prados and Jack Radey, Kanev - Parachutes Across the Dnepr, September 1943,
People's War Games, Oakland, CA, 1981, p. 6
16. Robert A. Forczyk, Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945, Pen & Sword Books, Ltd.,
Barnsley, UK, 2016, p. 178
17. John Erickson, "Kiril Semenovich Moskalenko", in Stalin's Generals, ed. by Harold Shukman,
Orion Books, Ltd., London, 1993, p. 144
18. http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=8304
19. Erickson, in Stalin's Generals, pp. 144-45
20. Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 117
21. Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union 1967, p. 360.
22. Sharp, "Red Swarm", p. 117
23. Feskov et al 2013, p. 413.

Bibliography
Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union (1967). Сборник приказов
РВСР, РВС СССР, НКО и Указов Президиума Верховного Совета СССР о награждении
орденами СССР частей, соединениий и учреждений ВС СССР. Часть II. 1945 - 1966 гг
(https://cloud.mail.ru/public/941dbb9fa2e7/%D0%A7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C%2
02%20(1945-1966).pdf) [Collection of orders of the RVSR, RVS USSR and NKO on awarding
orders to units, formations and establishments of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Part II.
1945–1966] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow.
Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР
после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the
USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian).
Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.
Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union (1964).
Командование корпусного и дивизионного звена советских вооруженных сил периода
Великой Отечественной войны 1941 – 1945 гг [Commanders of Corps and Divisions in the
Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Frunze Military Academy. p. 256

External links
Aleksandr Nikolaevich Afanasev (http://www.generals.dk/general/Afanasev/Aleksandr_Nikolae
vich/Soviet_Union/1.html)
Mikhail Ivanovich Menshikov (http://www.generals.dk/general/Menshikov/Mikhail_Ivanovich/So
viet_Union.html)
Dmitrii Feoktisovich Dryomin (http://www.generals.dk/general/Dremin/Dmitrii_Feoktisovich/Sovi
et_Union.html)

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