The 153rd Rifle Division was a Soviet infantry division of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was formed in the

Ural Military District The Red Banner Ural Military DistrictHistory of the Ural Military District / Edited by Alexander Egorovsky, Ivan Tutarinov – 1 – Moscow: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union, 1970 – 352 Pages – 11,500 ...

. On 22 June 1941 when the German

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

began, it was serving under command of Nikolai Gagen with the 51st Rifle Corps of the 22nd Army. By 29 June 1941, after the effective destruction of the

37th Rifle Division The 37th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. It served in the North Caucasus Military District; established at Novocherkassk in 1919. In June–July 1939 it was at Omsk preparing for action ...

, a composite regiment (20th Rifle Regiment) formed mostly from 37th Rifle Division rear units (''Tyl'') was attached to the division.37-я Краснознаменная стрелковая дивизия
(in Russian) The 153rd Rifle Division was one of the first divisions to be designated a Guards formation, becoming

3rd Guards Rifle Division Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

on 18 September 1941, due to 'its combat record in Belarus and

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

'. It was reformed for the second time in February 1942, and later became the 57th Guards Rifle Division in December 1942, after fighting with the 63rd Army. Reformed for the third time, during the East Prussian Offensive, on 6 April 1945 the Division, which was with the 69th Rifle Corps, 50th Army, was one of the divisions in the encirclement around

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

, located at the northwest sector. The division to the right was the

216th Rifle Division The 216th Rifle Division was a division of the Red Army and Soviet Ground Forces. It was the successor to a motorized division of that same number that was destroyed during the Battle of Uman in August 1941. It fought at Kharkov and in Karelia, C ...

, and to the left was the

110th Rifle Division The 110th Rifle Division was a formation of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the course of World War II, which was formed, dissolved, and re-formed three times throughout the war. History First formation The division was first formed 20 Septe ...

. They attacked

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

positions and broke through the second defense line.

References

External links

153-я стрелковая дивизия
(Russian)

153 Year 153 ( CLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 906 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 153 for this y ...

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