The 52nd Cavalry Division was one of the first cavalry divisions formed after the start of the war. The unit was formed at Novocherkassk in the North Caucasus Military District likely from the reservists and cavalry depots in the district's cavalry training grounds.

Combat service

The division was rushed to the front less than two weeks after being formed. It arrived in the 21st Army by the middle of July and was assigned to the Kuliev Cavalry Group under the command of the

21st Mountain Cavalry 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 reco ...

's commander. By August the division was assigned 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 ...

13th Army Thirteenth Army or 13th Army may refer to: *Thirteenth Army (Japan) *Japanese Thirteenth Area Army *13th Army (Russian Empire), unit in World War I *13th Army (RSFSR), a unit in the Russian Civil War *13th Army (Soviet Union) *13th Air Army The 76 ...

. The division was brushed aside by the 2nd Panzer Corps as it turned south towards Kiev in September. When the German attack on Moscow began the division was in Bryansk Front reserves in Ermakov's Operations Group (a mixed unit of cavalry, tank brigade, motorized divisions). The group was quickly disbanded and the division was used as a mobile reserve in the

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...

or 3rd Armies on the southern flank of the German advance on

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 ...

. Assigned to the

8th Cavalry Corps The 7th Guards Cavalry Corps of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a cavalry corps active during the Second World War. It was formed from the 8th Cavalry Corps in February 1943. Second World War 8th Cavalry Corps The 8th Cavalry Corps was cr ...

on 15 January. The units assigned to the corps were so depleted upon their assignment the corps was not committed during the winter counter-offensive in 1942. On 13 March 1942 the division was officially disbanded to provide replacements and reinforcements for other units.

Subordinate units

*81st Cavalry Regiment *105th Cavalry Regiment *117th Cavalry Regiment

Combat service

Subordinate units

References

See also