The 101st Rifle Division was a unit of the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

initially formed as a mountain rifle division on 28 August 1938 within the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army in

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ( rus, Петропавловск-Камчатский, a=Петропавловск-Камчатский.ogg, p=pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj) is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultur ...

city.

History

Initially the division included the 138th Rifle Regiment formed in 1938 from the 292nd Rifle Regiment of the Pacific Ocean Fleet, which had been created in 1937 from the 10th Separate Territorial Rifle Battalion of the 4th Bashkir Regiment. In 1940, the division was removed from the roll of first line formations. According to the Soviet General Staff order of battle study it was converted to a regular rifle division in December 1941 but the Personnel Department's list of commanders shows it as a rifle division from October 1940 to the end of the war. It remained on Sakhalin Island for the duration of the war, apart from the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...

. In 1943 the HQ of the 101st division included: the 128th Mixed

Aviation Division An Aviation Division (russian: авиационная дивизия) was a type of formation of the Military Air Forces of the Red Army during the Second World War, the Soviet Air Forces, Soviet Air Defence Forces (PVO) and Aviation of th ...

, Petropavlovsk Military Naval Base, border security detachment, the 428th

howitzer artillery regiment A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

, the 302nd Separate Rifle Regiment, three separate artillery divisions (battalions), the 5th Separate Rifle Battalion, and a number of storage facilities. From 15 January 1945 the division was included in the composition of the

Northern Group of Forces of the Far Eastern Front Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

and subordinated to the Kamchatka Defense Area of the Front (russian: link=no, Камчатский Оборонительный район (КОР) ДВФ). It was still in this formation as of 3 September. For exemplary fulfillment of assignments and displaying combat mastery during the taking of the islands

Shumshu russian: Шумшу ja, 占守島 , image_name = Shumshu.jpg , image_caption = A Landsat 7 image of Shumshu Island. The northern tip of Paramushir Island is at left. The First Kuril Strait lies across the upper portion of the image. , image_size ...

and

Paramushir russian: Парамушир ja, 幌筵島 , native_name_link = , nickname = , location = Pacific Ocean , coordinates = , archipelago = Kuril Island , total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 2053 , length_km = 100 , width_km = 20 ...

in the course of the Kuril Landing operation, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, declared by order of NKO No. 0164, the division was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

on 14 September 1945. The division became part of the 137th Rifle Corps postwar at

. In 1948 it was converted into the 6th Machine Gun Artillery Division. The division was disbanded in 1953, following the

1952 Severo-Kurilsk tsunami The 1952 Severo-Kurilsk earthquake struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The 9.0 Mw earthquake triggered a major tsunami that hit Severo-Kurilsk, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR, on 4 November 1952 at 16:58 ( UTC). ...

August 1945 Order of Battle

In August 1945 the composition of the 101st rifle division was: ;Headquarters and Staff ;* KAD (Commander of artillery division) command platoon ;* SMERSH detachment ;* Infantry training battalion ;* 169th Anti-Tank Battalion ;* 119th Sapper Battalion ;* 103rd Signals Battalion ;* 131st Medical Battalion ;* 38th Chemical Defence Company ;* 70th Field post office ;* Divisional sewing repair shop ;* Anti-aircraft machine gun company ;* 13th Mobile field hospital ;* 178th Divisional veterinary infirmary ;* 9th Field Bakery ;* Armored train, 19th cavalry squadron ;* 138th Rifle Regiment ;* 302nd Rifle Regiment ;* 373rd Rifle Regiment ;* 279th Artillery Regiment(Light)

Commanders

The following officers commanded the division. * Major (from 21 September 1940 brigade commander)

Aksenty Gorodnyansky Avksenty (russian: Авксе́нтий) is a Russian Christian male first name.Superanskaya p. 23 The name is derived from the Greek name Auxentios, which in turn derives from the word ''auxanō'', meaning ''to increase'', ''to grow''.Petr ...

(August 1938 – 25 October 1940) * Colonel (from 2 January 1942 Major General)

Ivan Pichugin Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...

(25 October 1940 – 27 June 1942) * Major General

Semyon Mozhaev Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew ( Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, son ...

(27 June 1942 – 22 September 1943) * Major General

Porfiry Dyakov Porfiry (russian: Порфирий; bg, Порфирий) is a given name in Russian and other Slavic languages, derived from the Greek Porphyry (''porphyrios'' "purple-clad"). It can refer to: ;People * Porfiry Ivanov (1898–1983), Russian myst ...

(22 September 1943 – 4 November 1945).

Awards

– Awarded on 14 September 1945.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Division history
(Russian)

{{Soviet Union divisions 1945-1957 Infantry divisions of the Soviet Union in World War II Military units and formations established in 1938 Military units and formations disestablished in 1948