The 9th Guards Dniester-Rymnik Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Motor Rifle Division was a Soviet Army unit initially formed as a tank corps in April 1942. In the same year, it was then formed as a

mechanized corps Mechanized infantry are infantry units equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also armoured corps). As defined by the United States Army, mechanized infantry is disting ...

in November 1942. This unit then became a Guards mechanized corps in September 1944. Following

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 ...

, the corps were reorganized as a mechanized division in 1945 and then a motor rifle division in 1957 before being disbanded in 1958.

History

World War II

The unit formed as the 22nd Tank Corps on 3 April 1942 and was subordinated to the 38th and 4th Tank Armies of the

Southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

and Stalingrad Fronts. In September 1942, following heavy losses around Kalach, the corps moved into the

Reserve of the Supreme High Command The Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Russian: Резерв Верховного Главнокомандования; also known as the '' Stavka'' Reserve or RVGK () or RGK ( comprises reserve military formations and units; the ''Stavka'' ...

(''

Stavka The ''Stavka'' ( Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка, ) is a name of the high command of the armed forces used formerly in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrat ...

'' reserve) and was reorganized as the second instance (formation) of the 5th Mechanized Corps. During 1943, the 5th Mechanized Corps was mainly assigned as a Stavka reserve asset or as a reserve of the Western Front. The corps was assigned to the 6th Tank Army in February 1944 and achieved Guards status on 12 September 1944, being retitled as the 9th Guards Mechanized Corps. As such, the corps remained with the 6th Guards Tank Army for the remainder of the war in Europe, and was then transferred with its parent army to the far east, seeing action against Japanese forces under the direction of the

Transbaikal Front The Transbaikal Front () was a front formed on September 15, 1941, on the basis of the Transbaikal Military District. Initially, it included the 17th and 36th armies, but in August 1942 the 12th Air Army was added to the front, and, finally, in ...

. The corps was in combat near Kalach in 1942,

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and Lenino in 1943, Korsun and Iasi-Kishinev in 1944, and at

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and

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in 1945, as well as fighting in the Manchurian Operation in September 1945. The 9th Guards Mechanized Corps was notable for its use of U.S. Lend-Lease M4A2-76 diesel-engined Sherman tanks during 1944-45.

Postwar

In October 1945, the corps, like all Soviet mechanized corps, was reorganized into a division, the 9th Guards Mechanized Division. It was stationed at Yasnaya, part of 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 ...

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 ...

. The division included the 18th, 30th, and 31st Guards Mechanized Regiments, and the 46th and 111th Guards Tank Regiments. On 4 June 1957, the division became the 9th Guards Motor Rifle Division at

Sainshand Sainshand (; ) is the capital of Dornogovi Province in Mongolia. It is located in the eastern Gobi Desert steppe, on the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Administration The territory of Sainshand sum consists of 5 ''bags'' (communes). The first three ...

, Mongolia. The division was disbanded on 1 November 1958.

Commanders

* ''General-mayor'' Mikhail Vasilyevich Volkov (2 November 1942–9 January 1948, promoted ''general-leytenant'' 5 November 1943) * General-mayor Nikolay Vasilyevich Petrushin (14 March 1948–12 April 1952) * Colonel Vasily Ivanovich Zaytsev (12 April 1952–30 September 1956, promoted general-mayor 31 May 1954) * Colonel Yevgeny Denisovich Gaydayenko (14 November 1956–1 November 1958)

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Erickson, John. ''The Road to Stalingrad'', Yale University Press, 1995 * *Glantz, David, ''Companion to Colossus Reborn'', University Press of Kansas, 2005. * *Poirier, Robert G., and Conner, Albert Z., ''The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War'', Presidio Press, 1985. {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 G009 Military units and formations established in 1942 Military units and formations disestablished in 1958