108th Guards Rifle Division

The 108th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in July 1943, based on the 4th Guards Rifle Brigade and the 10th Guards Rifle Brigade and was the first of a small series of Guards divisions formed on a similar basis. It was considered a "sister" to the 109th Guards Rifle Division and they fought along much the same combat paths until the spring of 1945.

Following a further abortive offensive against the German ''Gotenkopfstellung'' on the Taman Peninsula that month the division was moved into reserve and then sent northwest to join the 44th Army in Southern Front. During the advance to the Dniepr River in early November that Army was disbanded and the division, along with its 10th Guards Rifle Corps, was briefly reassigned to 28th Army. During the winter the division took part in the battles along the Dniepr bend until the front broke open in March 1944 and the 108th Guards advanced to the Southern Bug River, winning an honorific in the process. After taking part in the takeover of Odessa the division fought along the Dniester as part of 5th Shock Army but was brought to a halt in heavy fighting west of the river. A new offensive began in August when the division was part of 46th Army and each of its rifle regiments won battle honors during the advance through eastern Romania and into Hungary. By November it was at the outer defenses of Budapest but remained engaged in fighting for that city until it finally fell on February 13, 1945. During the last months of the war the 108th Guards played a minor part in beating back the German Army's final offensive in Hungary before advancing on Vienna as part of the 27th Army. The division compiled a fine record of service but was disbanded in 1947.

Formation

By mid-1943 most of the Red Army's remaining rifle brigades were being amalgamated into rifle divisions as experience had shown this was a more efficient use of manpower.

4th Guards Rifle Brigade

This brigade began service as the 1st formation of the 38th Rifle Brigade, formed as a "student" brigade in the Central Asia Military District in November 1941. In December it was shipped to the Moscow Defence Zone before joining the 2nd Guards Rifle Corps in the reserves of Kalinin Front in January 1942. It saw combat in the Toropets–Kholm offensive as part of 3rd Shock Army and inflicted heavy casualties on the German forces around Kholm in March; on March 17 it was redesignated as the 4th Guards.

After redesignation the Brigade returned to the Kalinin Front reserves where it added a fourth rifle battalion. In August it was moved south by rail to the North Caucasus where it joined the 10th Guards Rifle Corps and it remained under this command until it was reformed. For nearly a year it took part in battles against German Army Group A in the Caucasus region, eventually facing the defenses of 17th Army in the Kuban Bridgehead in the early summer of 1943.

10th Guards Rifle Brigade

The 10th Guards was formed from July 30 to August 10, 1942 from the 4th Reserve Airborne Regiment in the Transcaucasus Military District and was immediately assigned to the 11th Guards Rifle Corps. By early August it was fighting along the Terek River as the 1st Panzer Army advanced eastward, but as the momentum of this advance ebbed the Red Army began planning counterattacks. When it went on the attack on November 6 it was supported by elements of the 63rd Tank Brigade, the 98th Guards Corps Artillery Regiment, the 52nd Mortar Battalion, and the 68th Guards Heavy Artillery Regiment, far more support than most rifle divisions received at this stage of the war. The 10th Guards never formed a fourth rifle battalion but by mid-1943 it did have a submachine gun battalion, a heavy machine gun battalion and large reconnaissance and sapper companies. By July it was also facing the German defenses on the Taman Peninsula.

On July 5, 1943 the combined brigades officially became the 108th Guards at Krasnodar in the North Caucasus Military District; as they were already Guards formations there was no presentation of a Guards banner. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows:
* 305th Guards Rifle Regiment
* 308th Guards Rifle Regiment
* 311th Guards Rifle Regiment
* 245th Guards Artillery Regiment
* 110th Guards Antitank Battalion
* 104th Guards Reconnaissance Company
* 115th Guards Sapper Battalion
* 139th Guards Signal Company (later 167th Guards Signal Battalion)
* 112th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion
* 105th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company
* 109th Guards Motor Transport Company
* 103rd Guards Field Bakery
* 106th Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital
* 1595th Field Postal Station (later 09276th Field Postal Station)
* 1263rd Field Office of the State Bank
The division remained under the command of Col. Sergei Illarionovich Dunaev who had led the 4th Guards Brigade since March 20. Roughly 64 percent of the division's personnel came from the 4th Guards while 33 percent were from the 10th Guards. The 108th Guards inherited the Order of the Red Banner from both Brigades which they had received on December 13, 1942.

Kuban Bridgehead

In the late May fighting near Moldavanskoye both Brigades had been in 10th Guards Corps of 56th Army and made only minor gains before the offensive bogged down. By the beginning of July the 10th Brigade was still in this Corps but the 4th Brigade was a separate unit under direct Army Command. A new offensive began on July 16 after a massive artillery preparation at 0400 hours and initially involved only the 10th and 11th Guards Corps on a 7km-wide sector on the boundary between the 97th Jäger and 98th Infantry Divisions but this was almost immediately halted with heavy losses. On July 22 the effort expanded to include the rest of 56th Army but with no greater success. At the beginning of August the 108th Guards was serving as a separate division in the reserves of North Caucasus Front, and on August 22 the ''STAVKA'' decided to cut its losses and ordered the Front to transfer seven of its divisions, including the 108th Guards, to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for redeployment.

Into Ukraine

As of the start of September the 108th and 109th Guards constituted the 10th Guards Corps, still in North Caucasus Front, but it soon began moving north to reinforce the small 44th Army in Southern Front (as of October 20 4th Ukrainian Front) by the beginning of October adding the 49th Guards Rifle Division to its composition. By this time the German Army Group South had largely fallen back to the Dniepr River but south of the Dniepr bend at Zaporozhe the rebuilt German 6th Army was still tasked with holding along the Molochna River to the east. On September 26 Maj. Vasilii Yakovlevich Antropov was leading his battalion of the 311th Guards Rifle Regiment toward the village of Voroshilovka in the Tokmak Raion. Under cover of an artillery bombardment the battalion crept up to the village undetected, crossed an antitank ditch, broke through the defenses and seized the objective. Under Antropov's leadership over 200 German soldiers and officers were killed or wounded and two ammunition depots, a mortar battery and four guns were captured. In later fighting he suffered a head wound and despite being admitted to hospital on October 3 he died four days later. On November 1 he was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union.

On October 9 the Front resumed its offensive against 6th Army with a significant superiority of strength in all categories. The attack began on a 32km-wide front straddling Melitopol. By the 12th the 51st Army had pushed into the city from the south but the battle continued for another 12 days. Following this victory the Front began a general advance. 44th Army was making a dash to capture Nikopol on November 9 when its commander, Lt. Gen. V. A. Khomenko, and his chief of artillery, S. A. Bobkov, mistakenly took a road that led into German positions; Bobkov was killed and Khomenko mortally wounded. Based on German radio reports Stalin believed the two officers had deserted. In a rage he ordered the disbandment of 44th Army. 10th Guards Corps (now consisting of 108th Guards, 109th Guards and 77th Rifle Divisions) was reassigned to 28th Army, still in 4th Ukrainian Front.

Into Western Ukraine

The assignment to 28th Army was short-lived as on December 5 the division was moved back to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding. Along with three other rebuilding Guards divisions it joined the 31st Guards Rifle Corps in 69th Army. It left the Reserve on February 1, 1944 while still in 69th Army but soon came under command of the 3rd Guards Rifle Corps in 5th Shock Army in 3rd Ukrainian Front. During the Uman–Botoșani offensive on March 28 forces of this Front liberated the city of Nikolaev and the division was awarded an honorific:In a further change of assignment in the last days of March the division joined the 37th Rifle Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. S. F. Gorokhov, still in 5th Shock Army, and it would remain under this command for the duration of the war.

Odessa Offensive

Immediately following the victory at Nikolaev the left (south) wing of 3rd Ukrainian Front continued its advance on the city of Odessa, which was expected to be taken at the earliest around April 5. This was led by Pliyev's Cavalry-Mechanized Group, followed by the 8th Guards and 6th Armies to envelop the city from the northwest and west while the 5th Shock was to advance on its defenses directly from the east.

On April 4 Pliyev's Group and the lead elements of 37th Army signalled the beginning of the final phase of the Odessa offensive by capturing the town of Razdelnaia, 60km northwest of the city, thus once again splitting German 6th Army into two distinct parts. Once this was accomplished Malinovskii ordered Pliyev to race south as fast as possible to cut the withdrawal routes of the German forces from the Odessa region. At the same time the three combined-arms armies were to move in to take the city. After heavy fighting on its northern and eastern approaches the forward detachments of 5th Shock entered its northern suburbs on the evening of April 9. Overnight the remaining Soviet forces approached Odessa's inner defenses from the northwest and west. With the trap closing shut the remainder of the defending LXXII Army Corps began breaking out to the west, allowing the Soviet forces to occupy the city's center at 1000 hours on April 10 after only minor fighting. For its part in the takeover of Odessa, on April 20 the 108th Guards would be awarded the Order of Suvorov, 2nd Degree.

First Jassy–Kishinev Offensive

Following the battle for Odessa, the ''STAVKA'' ordered 3rd Ukrainian Front to mount a concerted effort to force the Dniester, capture Chișinău, and eventually occupy all of eastern Bessarabia. 5th Shock and 6th Armies were engaged in mopping up Odessa and were unable to join the pursuit for at least a week, when they were to reinforce the forward armies wherever required. The initial efforts to force the river were only partially successful, with a series of small and tenuous bridgeheads being seized. On the night of April 12/13 it was decided to reinforce 8th Guards Army with part of the 5th Shock's forces, but this would not take place until April 18-20 due to the state of the roads. The Army was expected to be required to overcome German strongpoints at Cioburciu and Talmaza before advancing westward.

By April 19 the 37th Corps had reached the Dniester northwest of Cioburciu but the Front commander, Army Gen. R. Ya. Malinovskii, delayed the 5th Shock and 6th Armies' main offensives until the 25th largely due to the failures of the 5th Guards and 57th Armies' crossings near Tașlîc and the difficulty of ammunition supply. When the preliminary assault finally began it was in cooperation with 46th Army in and around Cioburciu. 5th Shock's commander, Col. Gen. V. D. Tsvetaev, arrayed his two rifle corps in a single echelon; 37th Corps was to attack on the right wing while the 10th Guards Corps attacked on the left. The history of the 108th Guards describes the following events:The 97th Jäger was able to concentrate its forces with the arrival of reinforcements from the 306th Infantry Division around Talmaza. This strongpoint was to be enveloped from the north and northwest while the 10th Guards Corps did the same from the south. Additional reinforcements from the 9th Infantry Division also arrived south of the village. As a result, and as described above, Tsvetaev's offensive collapsed of exhaustion after three days of heavy fighting and five more days of local battles for position before 5th Shock went over to the defense on May 4.

Prior to a new effort to drive into Bessarabia General Malinovskii carried out an extensive regrouping of his Front. Among other measures the 37th Rifle Corps was transferred to 46th Army, where it would remain until the last months of the war. This Army was on the left flank of 5th Shock and while the 37th Corps remained in mostly the same positions other corps of both Armies redeployed to the north. The ''STAVKA'' specified that the renewed offensive was to begin no later than May 25, although difficulties with the regrouping and unexpected German actions would force a postponement to May 30.

One of these unexpected actions began on May 13. While in 5th Shock Army, the 320th Rifle Division had crossed the river at Cioburciu. Due to the Front regrouping that division was now in 37th Corps, holding a bridgehead between 1–2km deep and 3km wide in low-lying marshlands, with German forces in possession of the high ground. The 108th Guards was on the division's right flank and its left was on the river itself, with the remainder of 46th Army still on the east bank. Before dawn a powerful 50-minute artillery preparation struck the 320th's defenses, followed by an attack by elements of 6th Army's XXIX and XXX Army Corps. The division beat off the first reconnaissance-in-force, but after a further bombardment the full assault began at 0700 hours. The 478th and 481st Rifle Regiments, in the front line, began to give ground grudgingly. A battlegroup of the German 3rd Mountain Division split the bridgehead and drove a wedge between the two Soviet divisions, making it impossible for the Guardsmen to support their Corps-mates. By 0800 hours the men of the 320th found themselves literally with their backs to the river, with no room to maneuver and increasingly vulnerable to enemy fire. At 0930 hours their only river crossing was destroyed, and the defenders were effectively encircled. During the next four hours, while defending heroically, the rifle regiments were destroyed, with only a few stragglers managing to swim the river. This disaster finally forced Malinovskii to suspend offensive operations for the next three months.

Into the Balkans

At the start of the Second Jassy–Kishinev Operation 37th Corps had the 59th and 108th Guards plus the rebuilt 320th Division under command. 46th Army was on the Front's left (south) flank covering a frontage of 111km but its main attack would be along an 8km-wide sector between Talmaza and Cioburciu. The 37th and 31st Guards Corps, both deployed in two echelons, made up the main shock force attacking in the direction of Volintiri

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