The 12th Guards Uman Orders of Lenin Red Banner and Suvorov Tank Division was a tank division of the

Soviet Ground Forces uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

. It drew its history from the World War II 16th Tank Corps. It was redesignated successively as 12th Guards Tank Corps (1943) and 12th Guards Tank Division (1946).

History

The division was initially formed as 16th Tank Corps in the

Kiev Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev ( Kyiv) for most of its ...

. It became part of the

2nd Tank Army The 2nd Guards Tank Army () was a large military formation of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army, now part of the Russian Ground Forces of the Russian Federation. The army was originally formed in early 1943 as the 2nd Tank Army. It was the ...

upon the army's formation. During the war, it participated in fighting at Kharkov, Stalingrad, Kursk, Grel, Uman-Botoshany Offensive, Targul-Frumos, Lublin-Brest Offensive, Vistula-Oder and other operations and actions. From December 1943 to August 1944 it was commanded by Major General

Ivan Vasilievich Dubovoy Ivan Vasilievich Dubovoy (; – 17 April 1981) was a Soviet Army major general of tank forces and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Dubovoy served in the Russian Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War with an artillery unit. He became a junior officer ...

. It took part in the counter-attacks against the Germans advancing on Stalingrad in the later summer of 1942, the winter counter-offensives of 1942/43, 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 (as part of the Central Front), then across Ukraine with the Central, Belorussian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. In the summer of 1944, it was with the

, and took part in the offensives, reaching the outskirts of Warsaw. On 20 November 1944, it was awarded ‘Guards’ status and re-designated the 12th Guards Tank Corps. The Corps took part in the Vistula-Oder and Berlin Operations, ending the war in the Berlin area.

Cold War

As part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 2nd Guards Tank Army. On 6 July 1945, it was reorganized into the 12th Guards Tank Division at

Neuruppin Neuruppin (; North Brandenburgisch: ''Reppin'') is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Ostprignitz-Ruppin district. It is the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) and therefore also referred to as ''Font ...

. In June 1946 the 2nd Guards Tank Army became the 2nd Guards Mechanized Army. On 6 May 1954, the division was reorganized. The 34th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment became the 145th Guards Mechanized Regiment. The 226th Guards Mortar Regiment and separate howitzer artillery battalion were combined into the 843rd Guards Artillery Regiment. The 18th Separate Guards Motorcycle Battalion became a reconnaissance battalion. Also, the Chemical Defence Company was formed. In 1957, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Army became a tank army again. On 25 June 1957, the 49th Guards Tank Regiment transferred to the 26th Guards Tank Division. The 66th Guards Tank Regiment was renamed the 353rd Guards Tank Regiment. The 71st Guards Heavy Tank Self-Propelled Regiment became the 332nd Guards Heavy Tank Regiment. The 145th Guards Mechanized Regiment became the 803rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment. The 186th Separate Guards Communications Battalion was renumbered as the 490th. The 75th Guards Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment moved to the

207th Motor Rifle Division The 207th Rifle Division began its combat path under unusual circumstances. It was partly formed for the first time as a standard Red Army rifle division in the spring of 1941, before the German invasion, but was never completed. A second formation ...

in 1958. It was replaced by the 933rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment. In 1960, the 59th Separate Tank Training Battalion was disbanded. The 639th Separate Missile Battalion was formed in 1961. On 19 February 1962, the 64th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion was created. The 136th Separate Guards Sapper Battalion became an engineer-sapper unit in 1968. In November of that year, the 803rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and 843rd Guards Artillery Regiment moved from the

25th Tank Division Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash that ...

. That division's 400th Motor Rifle Regiment and 117th Artillery Regiment were transferred to the 12th Guards Division. The chemical defence company became the 129th Separate Chemical Defence Battalion in 1972. The motor transport battalion became the 1074th Separate Material Supply Battalion in 1980. The 400th Motor Rifle Regiment was replaced by the 200th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment in January 1983. The division became part of the 3rd Red Banner Army in May 1983.Michael Holm
3 Red Banner Combined Arms Army
February 2015. The army headquarters was located in the city of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

. Other divisions of the army were the

10th Guards Uralsko-Lvovskaya Tank Division The 10th Guards ''Uralsko-Lvovskaya'' Volunteer Tank Division, also known as the Ural-Lvov Tank Division, is a tank division of the Russian Ground Forces and part of the Moscow Military District's 20th Guards Army. The division traces its herit ...

, the

47th Guards Tank Division The 47th Guards Tank Division () is a tank division of the Russian Ground Forces. It was formed in October 1942, during World War II from the first formation of the 154th Rifle Division as the 47th Guards Rifle Division. It served with the 8 ...

, and the

. In September 1987 the 639th Separate Missile Battalion was transferred to the

442nd Missile Brigade The 442nd Rocket Brigade was a Tactical ballistic missile brigade of the Soviet Army from 1987 to 1991. It was originally formed and based in Czechoslovakia with the Central Group of Forces but moved to Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast in 1990. The brigade wa ...

. Division headquarters was located in the town of Neuruppin. On the outskirts of town, closer to Altruppin was the location of the three regiments: 48th Guards Tank Regiment, the 353rd Guards Tank Regiment and 332nd Guards Tank Regiment. After the withdrawal from Germany, the 12th Guards Tank Division was disbanded. The commander of the 48th Guards Tank Regiment in 1989 was Colonel Kuhnovets. It was to be deactivated in the Moscow Military District, and the division actually disbanded around 1991. In December 1990, the division moved to

Vladikavkaz Vladikavkaz (russian: Владикавка́з, , os, Дзæуджыхъæу, translit=Dzæwdžyqæw, ;), formerly known as Ordzhonikidze () and Dzaudzhikau (), is the capital city of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia. It is located i ...

and became part of 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 was disbanded in February 1991. The 200th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and 18th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion were transferred to the

19th Motor Rifle Division The 19th Voronezh-Shumlinskaya Red Banner Order of Suvorov and Red Banner of Labor Motor Rifle Division (), is a division of the Russian Ground Forces. It appears to have been formed originally in July 1922 at Tambov in the Moscow Military Dis ...

. The 933rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment was directly subordinated to the 42nd Army Corps.

Unit list

In 1988, the division comprised the following major units: *12th Guards Tank Uman Division (Neuruppin) (disbanded 1991) **48th Guards Tank Vapnyarsko-Varshavsky Regiment (Neuruppin) **332nd Guards Tank Warsaw Red Banner Order of Alexander Nevsky Regiment (Neuruppin) **353rd Guards Rank Vapnyarsko-Berlin Regiment (Neuruppin) **200th Guards Motor-Rifle Fastov Regiment (Burg) **117th Artillery Regiment (Mahlwinkel) **933rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Upper Dnieper Regiment (Burg) **18th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Demblin Battalion (Mahlwinkel) **490th Separate Guards Communications Battalion (Neuruppin) **136th Separate Guards Demblin Engineer Battalion (Neuruppin) **129th Separate Chemical Defence Battalion (Neuruppin) **1074th Separate Material Supply Battalion (Wulkow) **64th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion (Neuruppin) **208th Separate Medical Battalion (Neuruppin)

Notes

References

*Craig Crofoot, Group of Soviet Forces Germany, V3.0.0, 2007, manuscript available via www.microarmormayhem.com * *Graham H. Turbiville, 'Restructuring the Soviet Ground Forces: Reduction, Mobilization, Force Generation,'

Military Review The U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (USACAC) is located at Fort Leavenworth and provides leadership and supervision for leader development and professional military and civilian education; institutional and collective training; functional training; ...

, December 1989 {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017

012 012 may refer to: * Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car * The dialing code for Pretoria, South Africa See also * 12 (disambiguation) Twelve or 12 may refer to: * 12 (number) * December, the twelfth and final month of the year Years * 12 BC ...

Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1991 1946 establishments in the Soviet Union Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner 1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union