80th Rifle Division

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=80th Rifle Division


caption=Order of Kutuzov, Second Class
dates=1923 - September 1945
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branch=Rifle forces
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size=Division
command_structure= 6th Army (1941)
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battles=Operation Barbarossa, Siege of Leningrad
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identification_symbol_label=Order of Kutuzov ribbon
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The 80th Lubanskaya Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class Rifle Division ( _ru. 80-я Любанская Ордена Кутузова 2-й степени стрелковая дивизия) was a rifle division of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and the Second World War, known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union.

1st formation

The division was established in 1923 in the Ukrainian Military District initially as a territorial rifle division.

The division's initial composition was [p.293, The Red Army Order of Battle] :
*410th Rifle Regiment
*467th Rifle Regiment
*519th Rifle Regiment
*346th Artillery Regiment It remained a part of the Ukrainian Military District until 1935 when the eastern half of the Ukraine was used to create the Kharkov Military District and the division was assigned to it.

In the summer of 1939, its subunits were used to form the 141st and 192nd Rifle Divisions. [Craig Crofoot, Armies of the Bear] The headquarters of the division was used to reform the division to full strength at Mariupol during February 1939.

Combat history

On 22 June 1941 the division was part of the 37th Rifle Corps, 6th Army. [Orbat.com/Leo Niehorster, [http://orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/012_ussr/41_oob/kiev/army_06.html, 6th Army Order of Battle, 22 June 1941] , accessed March 2008] The division fought in Don Basin and near Kattowits during the Ukrainian Border Defensive Battles (22 June 1941 - 27 June 1941), but was destroyed in withdrawal during the Battle of Uman in September 1941.

2nd formation

Almost immediately the division was reformed in Leningrad from volunteers by redesignating the "First Guards Division of People's Militia" (Первая гвардейская дивизия народного ополчения) from 23 September 1941 as 80th Rifle Division (2nd formation). Its 1st and 2nd rifle regiments came from the workers of the Leningrad's Neva rayon, and its 3rd rifle and artillery regiments and other sub-units were formed from workers of the Kuybishev rayon.

The division was first committed to combat on the 11th of August west of Volosovo (35 km from Krasnogvardeysk), where it successfully defended its sector for several days until the Army withdrew.From the end of August the division was a part of the Koporsk operational group, and later the 8th Army during the battles for the coastal positions around Leningrad, holding positions around Ropsha and south of Oranienbaum.

As part of the 54th Army of the Volkhov Front the division participated in the Tikhvin Strategic Offensive Operation (10 November 1941 - 30 December 1941), and the Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive Operation (14 January 1944 - 1 March 1944) for which it was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 2nd Class.

The division distinguished itself during liberation of Lubań in Poland.

The division ended its combat service during the Great Patriotic War in Czechoslovakia with the 59th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. It was disbanded in September 1945. [Feskov et al, The Soviet Army in the Cold War, Tomsk, 2004, p.77]

References

ources

*Shuvalov, N.K., "We became soldiers", Leningrad, 1973 (Шувалов Н. К., "Мы становимся солдатами", Ленинград, 1973)
*Poirier, Robert G. and Conner, Albert Z., The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War: including data from 1919 to postwar years, Presidio Press, Novato, 1985