The 295th Rifle Division () was an infantry division 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 295th's first formation was formed in the summer of 1941 and destroyed within months during the Battle of Kiev. Reformed in October, the 295th fought in the North Caucasus, the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

, Poland, and Germany during the rest of the war. The 295th was downsized into a brigade after the end of the war and was relocated to the North Caucasus. It was reformed from the brigade in 1953 and renumbered in 1955.

History

First Formation

The 295th began forming on 10 July 1941 at

Chuguyev Chuhuiv () or Chuguev () is a city in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. The city is the Capital (political), administrative center of Chuhuiv Raion (district). It hosts the administration of Chuhuiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population ...

in the

Kharkov Military District The Kharkov Military District () was a military district of the Russian Empire, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and the Soviet Union. Throughout its history, the district headquarters was located in the city of Kharkov in northeast ...

, just east of

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. Its key units included the 1038th, 1040th, and the 1042nd Rifle Regiments, the 819th Artillery Regiment, the 563rd Sapper Battalion, and the 352nd Reconnaissance Company. In early August, the division was moved west to the Southwestern Front and assigned to the 37th Army. By 24 August it was defending the city of

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

itself. On 7 September the 295th was relocated north and became part of the 5th Army, which had retreated across the

Pripyat River The Pripyat or Prypiat is a river in Eastern Europe. The river, which is approximately long, flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and into Ukraine again, before draining into the Dnieper at Kyiv Reservoir. Name etymology Max Vasmer notes in h ...

and the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

to cover the northern flank of the Soviet troops at Kiev. The 1042nd Regiment was detached to the 40th Army and as a result was not trapped in the Kiev pocket with the rest of the division, and survived as a separate regiment. The main forces of the 295th were destroyed in the Kiev pocket in late September, and it was officially disbanded on 30 September.

Second Formation

The division began reforming on 1 October 1941 in the

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

area, part of the Southwestern Front, with the same basic order of battle as the first formation. It was immediately assigned to the 21st Army, but by mid-November was part of the Southern Front's newly reformed 37th Army. In June 1942, the division and its army retreated into the Caucasus in the face of the German offensive,

Case Blue Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the ''Wehrmacht'' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of Baku ( Azerb ...

, and became part of the

North Caucasian Front The North Caucasus Front, also translated as North Caucasian Front, was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War. The North Caucasus Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. First Creation The ...

. From August, the division and 37th Army defended positions along the

Terek River The Terek () is a major river in the Northern Caucasus. It originates in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region of Georgia and flows through North Caucasus region of Russia into the Caspian Sea. It rises near the juncture of the Greater Caucasus ...

and in the

Mozdok Mozdok (; , ''Mæzdæg'') is a town and the administrative center of Mozdoksky District in North Ossetia–Alania, Russia, located on the left shore of the Terek River, north of the republic's capital Vladikavkaz. As of the 2010 Census, its p ...

area as part of the North Group of the

Transcaucasian Front The Transcaucasus Front (), also translated as Transcaucasian Front, was a front of the Soviet Red Army—a military formation comparable to an army group, not a geographic military front—during the Second World War. The Transcaucasus Front ...

. After the beginning of the German retreat from the Caucasus in late 1942, the 37th Army pursued, and the 295th participated in the recapture of Armavir on 24 January 1943. Between June and August, the division was part of the

58th Army The 58th Guards Combined Arms Army () is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered at Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, within Russia's Southern Military District. It was formed in 1941 as part of the Soviet Union's Red Army and has be ...

of the North Caucasus Front. In September it was transferred to the Southern Front's

2nd Guards Army The 2nd Guards Army was a field army of the Soviet Union's Red Army that fought in World War II, most notably at Stalingrad. History The 2nd Guards Army was formed according to the order of the Staff of the Supreme High Command (Stavka) from O ...

. The Southern Front became

4th Ukrainian Front The 4th Ukrainian Front () was the name of two distinct Red Army strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The front was first formed on 20 October 1943, by renaming the Southern Front and was involved in the Lower ...

on 20 October. While serving with the 2nd Guards Army, the 295th was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

and the honorific "Kherson" for recapturing

Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...

. The division gained the placename-honorific "Kherson" by ''Prikaz'' of the VGK No. 67 of 23 March 1944. In March 1944, the 295th was transferred to the

3rd Ukrainian Front The 3rd Ukrainian Front () was a Front of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Gua ...

5th Shock Army The 5th Shock Army was a Red Army field army of World War II. The army was formed on 9 December 1942 by redesignating the 10th Reserve Army. The army was formed two times prior to this with neither formation lasting more than a month before bein ...

, with which it remained for the remainder of the war. The division fought in the

in the summer of 1944 and after its end in September the 5th Shock Army was relocated north to become part of the

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, bein ...

. From October to the end of the war the 295th was part of the

32nd Rifle Corps The 32nd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army, Red Army during World War II, formed twice. Each formation was a distinct unit, unrelated to the other. First formation The corps headquarters formed in the Transbaikal Military District ...

in the army. By February 1945, its anti-tank unit was the 65th SU Battalion, which had 12

SU-76 The SU-76 ('' Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76'') was a Soviet light self-propelled gun used during and after World War II. The SU-76 was based on a lengthened version of the T-70 light tank chassis and armed with the ZIS-3 mod. 1942 76-mm divisional ...

self-propelled guns. Postwar, the 295th was initially part of the

Group of Soviet Forces in Germany The Western Group of Forces (WGF), previously known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOFG) and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG), were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. The Group of Soviet Occupation ...

with the 32nd Rifle Corps in the summer of 1945. However, it was soon relocated to

Stavropol Stavropol (, ), known as Voroshilovsk from 1935 until 1943, is a city and the administrative centre of Stavropol Krai, in southern Russia. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 547,820, making it one of Russia's fastest growing cities. E ...

in the

North Caucasus Military District The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces from 1992-2010. Before 1992 it had been part of the Soviet Armed Forces since 1918. In 2010 it became the Southern Military District and lately also included t ...

with the

23rd Rifle Corps The 23rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 4th Army. It took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. History On 22 June 1941 it was part of the Transcaucasian Military District comprising the 136th and 13 ...

, where it became the 30th Separate Rifle Brigade in 1946. In October 1953, the brigade was upgraded into the 295th Rifle Division. In 1955 it was renumbered the

49th Rifle Division The 49th Rifle Division was a Soviet Army infantry division, formed three times. First formed as a territorial division in 1931, the 49th Rifle Division's first formation became a regular division by 1939 and fought in the Winter War. For its acti ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{Soviet Union divisions 1945{{endash57 Infantry divisions of the Soviet Union in World War II Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1955