The 16th Tank Division was a

tank division A division is a large military unit or Formation (military), formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically mak ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 ...

and later the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

, formed twice. The division was first formed during the summer of 1940 at Kotovsk, Ukraine with the 2nd Mechanized Corps. After the

German invasion of the Soviet Union 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 a ...

began in June 1941, the division was sent into the fighting along with its corps. The division was destroyed along with its corps during the

Battle of Uman The Battle of Uman (15 July – 8 August 1941) was the World War II German offensive in Uman, Uman, Ukraine against the 6th Army (Soviet Union), 6th and 12th Army (Soviet Union), 12th Soviet Armies. In a three-week period, the Wehrmacht encircle ...

. The division was reformed in 1955 from the 111th Tank Division in the

Soviet Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Eastern Fe ...

, and was disbanded two years later.

First Formation

The 16th Tank Division (

Military Unit Number A Military Unit Number (Russian: войсковая часть, в/ ч; Ukrainian: військова частина, в/ ч) is a numeric alternate designation for military units in the armed forces and internal troops of post-Soviet ...

4488) was first formed in July 1940 from elements of the

173rd Rifle Division 173rd or 173d may refer to: *173d Air Refueling Squadron, unit of the Nebraska Air National Guard 155th Air Refueling Wing * 173D Special Troops Battalion, combat engineer battalion of the United States Army headquartered in Italy * 173rd (3/1st Lo ...

at summer camps in Kotovsk, part of the 2nd Mechanized Corps. It was commanded by Colonel Mikhail Myndro, and its chief of staff was Colonel Andrei Kravchenko.

Second Formation

The 16th Tank Division was reformed on 4 March 1955 from the 111th Tank Division at

Nalaikh Nalaikh ( ) is one of nine districts of Ulaanbaatar. It has an area of 68,700 hectares and a population of 39,579 in 2022 (26,529 in 2005). A former coal-mining town, it is subdivided into 8 subdistricts, incorporating Shokhoi, Arjanchivlan, the ...

, Mongolia with the

6th Guards Tank Army The 6th Guards Order of Red Banner Tank Army was a tank army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first formed in January 1944 as the 6th Tank Army,Glantz (Companion), p. 66. and disbanded in Ukraine in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet U ...

in the

Transbaikal Military District The Transbaikal Military District () was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on 17 May 1935 and included the Buryat Republic, Chita Oblast, and Yakutia. Chita was ...

. It included the 133rd Mechanized Regiment, the 165th, 222nd, and 223rd Tank Regiments, and the 73rd Heavy Tank Regiment. In May 1957, the division was reorganized. The 133rd Mechanized Regiment became the 378th Motor Rifle Regiment and the 205th Tank Regiment replaced the 223rd, which transferred to the 22nd Guards Tank Division. The division was disbanded in July 1957.

Notes

References

* {{Soviet Union divisions 1945–57 Tank divisions of the Soviet Union