The 340th Rifle Division began forming in August 1941, as a standard

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, afte ...

rifle division, at Balashov in the

Saratov Oblast Saratov Oblast (russian: Сара́товская о́бласть, ''Saratovskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Saratov. As of the 2010 Cen ...

. The division went into the lines defending Moscow in November, then into the winter counteroffensive in December. After rebuilding, the division was assigned as the only rifle division in the new

5th Tank Army 5th Tank Army is the name of several Soviet units during World War II (not to be confused with the 5th Guards Tank Army). Its first formation occurred on 5 June, 1942, commanded by Major-General Alexander Lizyukov, serving under the Bryansk Front ...

, but avoided the fate of most of the tank units of that formation when it attacked in July 1942. Following another aborted offensive in July, the 340th settled into mostly defensive assignments until after the Soviet victory at Kursk, when it joined in the general offensive through eastern Ukraine to the Dniepr River, winning honors for its role in the liberation of

Sumy Sumy ( uk, Суми ) is a city of regional significance in Ukraine, and the capital of Sumy Oblast. The city is situated on the banks of the Psel River in northeastern Ukraine with a population of according to the 2021 census, making it the 23 ...

, and later Kiev. During 1944 the division continued the westward march through northern Ukraine and on into Poland in the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive before being reassigned to 4th Ukrainian Front advancing into the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia. The 340th ended its distinguished record of service in 1st Guards Army in Czechoslovakia.

Formation

The division started forming up in August 1941 in the

Volga Military District The Volga Military District (PriVO) was a military district of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation that existed from 1918 to 1989 and 1992 to 2001. The district headquarters was located at Kazan, Saratov and Kuibyshev (Samara) at different ...

, at Balashov. Its order of battle was as follows: * 1140th Rifle Regiment * 1142nd Rifle Regiment * 1144th Rifle Regiment * 911th Artillery Regiment On September 21, Col. Sarkis Sogomonovich Martirosian took command of the division, a post he would hold until July 1, 1943; on December 20, 1942, he was promoted to the rank of Major General. In October, the division moved to 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 D ...

and was assigned to the 26th (Reserve) Army forming there. In late November it was released from 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 Stav ...

and assigned to the

49th Army "Thank God for Mississippi" is an adage used in the United States, particularly in the South, that is generally used when discussing rankings of U.S. states. Since the U.S. state of Mississippi commonly ranks at or near the bottom of such rankings ...

in Western Front; on the morning of November 30 the trains carrying the division began offloading at Pakhimovo station.

Battle of Moscow

On December 2, the 340th was transferred to General Ivan Boldin's 50th Army in and around Tula by command of Western Front. The division was reinforced with two mortar battalions and was ordered to attack the enemy in the direction of Rudnevo. By December 7 it had taken this objective, as well as Nefedovo, Revyakino station, Fedyashevo and Sukhotino, while also linking up with the 740th Rifle Regiment of the

217th Rifle Division The 217th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the ''shtat'' (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939. It was formed at Vo ...

in the Sine-Tulitsa area. The

112th Tank Division Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''E ...

was shipped from

Far Eastern Front The Far Eastern Front ( Russian: Дальневосточный фронт) was a front — a level of military formation that is equivalent to army group — of the Red Army during the Second World War. Early war service Тhe Far Eastern Front ...

to Western Front in November, and by this time was in the Tula area. In further preparation for the general counteroffensive, on December 7 this division was unified with the 340th under a single command and directed to attack in the direction of Revyakino and Kostrovo. This arrangement only lasted until December 10, when the 340th was transferred back to 49th Army. On the same date, Western Front ordered an attack to begin on December 13 to encircle and destroy the German forces operating between the

Oka Oka or OKA may refer to: Cars * Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ * OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA Military * 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mor ...

and

Upa River The Upa (, ) is a river in Tula Oblast, Russia, and one of the main tributaries of the Oka. The river is long, and has a drainage basin of .173rd and 238th Rifle Divisions. The main attack was to be made by the 340th and 173rd towards Pleshivka and Shchukino; the division had the 36th Guards Mortar Battalion and an independent tank battalion attached for the operation. The assault began at 0700 hours on December 14, and by midday the division was fighting for Glebovo and Skorovarovo in the face of stubborn resistance. Over the next day it developed successfully, and by day's end the 340th captured Popovka and was attacking towards Zakharovka. The 340th remained in 50th Army through most of the winter counteroffensive, before being pulled back to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command in May 1942, to recover from the losses it sustained in five months of offensive combat.

Case Blue

In June, the 340th was in reserve in the Moscow Military District where it was assigned to the newly formed 5th Tank Army. The first Soviet tank armies were experimental and had one or more rifle divisions under command. By this time the division had been rebuilt to nearly full strength, with each rifle company averaging 120 – 140 men with 12

light machine guns A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the sam ...

each. The 911th Artillery Regiment was actually over-strength in 122mm howitzers, with 18 pieces instead of the authorized 12, but had only 12 76mm cannon against the authorized 20. The division went back into battle in

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 f ...

in July. On June 28, the northern part of the German summer offensive began, and was soon rolling towards

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...

. General Martirosian took command of the

50th Rifle Corps The 50th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 23rd Army on 22 June 1941. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. Organization On 22 June 1941, the corps included the following units: * 43rd Rifle Division * 70 ...

on July 1, and he was replaced in command of the division by Col. Mitrofan Ivanovich Shadrin. On July 2 the Front commander, Lt. Gen. F.I. Golikov, transferred the 340th, as well as the

1st Guards Rifle Division First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, the 8th Cavalry Corps, and two tank brigades to back up 13th Army's defenses east of the city, although the division officially remained in 5th Tank Army. On July 6,

24th Panzer Division The 24th Panzer Division was formed in late 1941 from the 1st Cavalry Division based at Königsberg. The division fought on the Eastern Front from June 1942 to January 1943, when it was destroyed in the battle of Stalingrad. Reformed, it once ...

entered Voronezh almost unopposed, but by now the German VII Army Corps and

XXXXVIII Panzer Corps XXXXVIII Panzer Corps (also: XXXXVIII Army Corp or XXXXVIII. Armeekorps), was a corps-level formation of the German Army which saw extensive action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II. History The corps was originally f ...

had put themselves in a position where they were, in theory, vulnerable to encirclement. On Stalin's orders of the same date, 5th Tank Army began a counterstroke to accomplish just that. The 340th played a limited role in this attack, providing support on the right flank up to the Sukhaia Vereika River, then falling back relatively intact when the operation was shut down on July 14.

Hill 213.8

A further effort was ordered to begin on July 18, but in the event could not begin until the 21st. 5th Tank Army had been dissolved, but its component mobile units were partly brought back up to strength for the new attack. The new commander of Bryansk Front, Lt. Gen. K.K. Rokossovsky, delegated his deputy commander, Maj. Gen. N. E. Chibisov, to take personal control of 38th Army's shock group for the offensive, which included the 340th and four other rifle divisions, as Operational Group Chibisov. The 340th and 284th Rifle Divisions were specifically assigned to cooperate with

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

and

11th Tank Corps 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested i ...

. (By coincidence, at the start of the attack the 340th was facing elements of the German 340th Infantry Division.) The offensive kicked off at 0430 hrs. following a 30-minute artillery preparation. The 1144th Rifle Regiment, in its division's first echelon, was directly supported by the 203rd Tank Battalion (8 KV tanks and 3

T-60 tank The T-60 scout tank was a light tank produced by the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1942. During this period, 6,292 units were built. The tank was designed to replace the obsolete T-38 amphibious scout tank and saw action during World War II. The K ...

s) of the 89th Tank Brigade, as well as a mobile artillery group from the 4th Destroyer Brigade (76mm guns). On its attack sector the German forward positions ran along the slopes of Hill 213.8 and an elongated patch of woods east of it, referred to by the Germans as "Crocodile Woods". Fire from these positions separated the infantry from the tanks, and only after a bombardment of more than 100 rockets from the 66th Guards Mortar Regiment were the attackers able to break into the German trenches at the crest of the hill. However, at this point the advance stalled without breaching the German line. The divisional command put this failure down to the inability of the 284th to advance on its flank. In this fighting the 1144th Regiment took 29 prisoners while losing 228 men (419 by another source) wounded and an undetermined number of dead and missing. The remainder of Group Chibisov fared better, driving deep into the defenses of the 387th Infantry Division. By the end of July 22 a gap 20 km wide and 10 km deep had been torn in the German line, and their 542nd Regiment was encircled. German 2nd Army reacted quickly, moving up two regiments of 168th Infantry Division, plus 9th Panzer and 385th Infantry Divisions against the west flank of Chibisov's penetration. By the end of the next day the offensive had been halted,

2nd Tank Corps The 2nd Tank Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. The unit had approximately the same size and combat power as a Wehrmacht Panzer Division, and less than a British Armoured Division ...

was partially encircled by 168th Infantry, and at dawn of the 24th the 9th Panzer launched a counterattack which split 7th and 11th Tank Corps and carved a 10 km-deep corridor by nightfall. The 340th was fortunate to escape the following encirclement, but that was in part due to its own lack of progress. The collapse of Chibisov's offensive was in part responsible for Stalin's issuing, on July 28, People's Commissariat of Defense

Order No. 227 Order No. 227 () was an order issued on 28 July 1942 by Joseph Stalin, who was acting as the People's Commissar of Defence. It is known for its line "Not a step back!" (, ''Ni shagu nazad!''), which became the primary slogan of the Soviet press i ...

, better known as "Ни шагу назад!" or "Not a Step Back!"

Into Ukraine

Colonel Shadrin's command of the division had not been successful, and on August 12 he was replaced by Col. Iosef Egorovich Zubarev, who would remain in command until January 10, 1944. In September the 340th was transferred to

Voronezh 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 ...

; it would remain in this Front (and its successor

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 ...

) until November 1944. At first it was in 38th Army, but in January 1943, it was in 40th Army and took part in the first liberation of

Belgorod Belgorod ( rus, Белгород, p=ˈbʲeɫɡərət) is a city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River north of the border with Ukraine. Population: Demographics The population of B ...

on February 9 during the winter counteroffensive following the victory at Stalingrad. In April, after this offensive ended, it was back in 38th Army, where it remained until nearly the end of the year. Following the victory at Kursk in July, 38th Army began its advance towards the Dniepr River in August, and in the same month the 340th was assigned to the

; it would bounce back and forth from the 50th to the 51st Rifle Corps until February 1944. Colonel I.E. Zubarev took command of the division on August 21, a post he would hold until he was killed in action on January 10, 1944. On September 2 the division shared credit for the liberation of Sumy, and won its name as an honorific: The division earned another honorific for its role in the liberation of the city of Kiev: From November 1943 - February 1944, the division was back in 40th Army, and took part in the liberation of

Belaya Tserkov Bila Tserkva ( uk, Бі́ла Це́рква ; ) is a city in the center of Ukraine, the largest city in Kyiv Oblast (after Kyiv, which is the administrative center, but not part of the oblast), and part of the Right Bank. It serves as the admi ...

on January 4, 1944. On the same day the division was further recognized for its services with the award of 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 t ...

. On January 27 the 340th came under the command of Col. Ivan Dmitrievich Dryakhlov, but he was replaced at the end of April by Maj. Gen. Viktor Lvovich Makhlinovsky. From March until July the division was in the 106th Rifle Corps of

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 ...

, then returned to 38th Army, where it served in both 52nd and

67th Rifle Corps The 67th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice. First formation The corps was formed in March 1940 in the Kharkov Military District with the 102nd Rifle Division, 132nd, and 151st Rifle Divisions, 194th Sep ...

; it moved between these two Corps for the duration. On September 5, Maj. Gen. Fyodor Nazarovich Parkhomenko took command of the division, a post he would hold for the duration of the war. In November, 38th Army was assigned to

4th Ukrainian Front The 4th Ukrainian Front (Russian: Четвёртый Украинский фронт) was the name of two distinct Red Army strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The front was first formed on 20 October 1943, ...

, and the 340th remained in this Front for the duration, moving to 1st Guards Army in March 1945, when 67th Rifle Corps was transferred.Sharp, ''"Red Tide"'', p. 83 On April 5 the division was awarded the

Order of Kutuzov The Order of Kutuzov (russian: орден Кутузова ''orden Kutuzova'') is a military decoration of the Russian Federation named after famous Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov (1745–1813). The Order was established ...

, 2nd Class, in recognition of its role in the liberation of the village of Belsko.

Postwar

The men and women of the division ended the war with the full title of ''340th Rifle, Sumy-Kiev, Order of the Red Banner,

Order of Suvorov The Order of Suvorov () is a military decoration of the Russian Federation named in honor of Russian Generalissimo Prince Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800). History The Order of Suvorov was originally a Soviet award established on July 29, 19 ...

, Order of Kutuzov Division'' (Russian: 340-я стрелковая Сумско-Киевская Краснознамённая орденов Суворова и Кутузова дивизия). The division was disbanded "in place" during the summer of 1945 with the

Northern Group of Forces The Northern Group of Forces (; ) was the military formation of the Soviet Army stationed in People's Republic of Poland, Poland from the end of World War II, Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fal ...

Notes

References

* * pp. 269–70 * *

External links

Sarkis Sogomonovich Martirosian
{{Soviet Union divisions before 1945

340 Year 340 (Roman numerals, CCCXL) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Acindynus and Valerius (or, less frequently, year 1093 ...

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