The 280th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, formed twice. It was first formed in the summer of 1941 and destroyed in the Bryansk pocket in the fall of 1941. The division was reformed in late December, and served throughout the war before being disbanded in 1946.

History

First formation

The 280th began forming on 2 July 1941 near

Tula Tula may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Tula Mountains *Tula Point India *Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar Iran * Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province Italy * Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...

in the

Moscow Military District The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010 it was merged with the Leningrad Military Di ...

. Its basic order of battle included the 1031st, 1033rd, and 1035th Rifle Regiments, as well as the 840th Artillery Regiment and 583rd Sapper Battalion. After spending a month forming near Moscow, the division was assigned to the 24th Army of the

Reserve Front The Reserve Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War. First Formation The Reserve Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first version was created on July 30, 1941 in a reorganizati ...

on 5 August. Its headquarters was located at Slobodka, southeast of

Smolensk Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...

. The division was transferred to the newly formed 50th Army of the

Bryansk Front The Bryansk Front (russian: Брянский фронт) was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War. First Formation (August - November 1941) General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it first fo ...

on 15 August. At the end of September, the division was trapped in the Bryansk pocket at the beginning of

Operation Typhoon The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between September 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive e ...

, the German assault on Moscow. Its headquarters was overrun and its commander, Sergei Danilov, captured. On 13 October elements of the 280th, fighting alongside remnants of the 148th Rifle Division and the 282nd Rifle Division, opened a 500-meter gap in the German encirclement west of Navlya. A handful of men escaped, but the bulk of the division was destroyed in the pocket and it was officially disbanded on 18 October.

Second formation

The second formation of the 280th began on 25 December near

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

in the

North Caucasus Military District The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces, which became in 2010 the Southern Military District and lately also included the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla. It comprised the Republic of Adygeya, ...

. It used the same basic order of battle as the first formation, but added the 368th Anti-Tank Battalion. The division remained near Stalingrad until its March 1942 transfer to 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 ( ru , РВГК)) comprises reserve military formations and units; the Sta ...

. In April the incomplete 280th Rifle Division transferred to the

reserve and the next month was assigned to the 48th Army. During June and July, the division received reinforcements from the

's 14th Reserve Rifle Brigade. In January 1943, the 280th was moved to the 13th Army, which was transferred to the

Central Front The Central Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War formed on July 24, 1941. The Central Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first entity existed for just a month during th ...

in March. By 1 April it had become part of the 28th Rifle Corps, and later that month the division with its corps was moved to the

70th Army The 70th Army was a Soviet field army during World War II. It was the highest-numbered combined arms army to be formed by the ''Stavka'' during the war. It was active at the Battle of Kursk, the Lublin–Brest Offensive, and the Berlin Strategic ...

. The 280th fought in the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

in July to the north west of Kursk. It was transferred to the

60th Army The Red Army's 60th Army was a Soviet field army during the Second World War. It was first formed in reserve in the Moscow Military District in October 1941, but soon was disbanded. It was formed a second time in July 1942, and continued in servi ...

's 77th Rifle Corps during the battle. On 15 September 1943, it was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...

for its "exemplary fulfillment of command tasks...and valor and courage". In October, the army was transferred to the

1st Ukrainian Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front (Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a ...

, with which the 280th spent the rest of the war. As part of the

18th Guards Rifle Corps 18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19. In mathematics * Eighteen is a composite number, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. ...

, the division transferred to the 1st Guards Army in March 1944. On 27 July the division returned to the 13th Army, with which it remained for the rest of the war. Initially assigned to the army's

47th Rifle Corps The 47th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army of the Soviet Union. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. The corps headquarters was established in the summer of 1939. It took part in the Winter War. By June 1941, the corps was located in B ...

, the 280th transferred to the

24th Rifle Corps The 24th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army. It was part of the 27th Army and took part in the Great Patriotic War. It appears to have been initially formed in the Kalinin Military District, around what is today Tver, in 1939. In 1940 it wa ...

in September. By December it had become part of the

27th Rifle Corps 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

. During the last weeks of the war the division moved back to the 24th Rifle Corps. By the end of the war, the division's honorifics were "Konotop-Korosten, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov." The division was relocated to

Liuboml :''This page deals with a city in Ukraine. For the film named after this city, see Luboml (film).'' Liuboml ( uk, Любомль, Ljuboml’; russian: Любомль, Polish and german: Luboml, yi, ליבעוונע ''Libevne'') is a town located ...

in the

Carpathian Military District The Red Banner Carpathian Military District (, ) was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Cold War and subsequently of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the early Post-Soviet period. It was established on 3 May 1946 on the ...

with the 24th Rifle Corps, where it was disbanded in 1946.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Soviet Union divisions before 1945 Infantry divisions of the Soviet Union in World War II Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner