220th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

The division was first organized as the 220th Motorized Rifle Division beginning in April, 1941 in the area of Smolensk. It was commanded by Maj. Gen. Nikifor Gordeevich Khoruzhenko and consisted of:

• 653rd Motorized Rifle Regiment
• 673rd Motorized Rifle Regiment
• 137th Tank Regiment[1]
• 660th Artillery Regiment
• 46th Antitank Battalion
• 235th Antiaircraft Battalion
• 295th Reconnaissance Battalion
• 381st Sapper Battalion
• 584th Signal Battalion
• 360th Medical/Sanitation Battalion

When Operation Barbarossa began the 220th was in the very early stages of forming up and was very poorly equipped. Trucks and other motor vehicles were in short supply, and the tank regiment likely had no tanks at all. For practical purposes the division was motorized in name only, and within a month the decision was made to reform the 220th as a standard rifle division.

The division operated as part of the 23rd Mechanized Corps, itself part of 19th Army in June and July, but by August 1 was shifted into 32nd Army, part of the Reserve Front.[2]

The division was in 32nd Army of Reserve Front, east of Smolensk, on July 21 when the reformation officially began. Its order of battle became:

• 376th Rifle Regiment
• 653rd Rifle Regiment
• 673rd Rifle Regiment
• 660th Artillery Regiment
• 381st Sapper Battalion[3]

In August the 220th was moved to 49th Army, also in Reserve Front. In early October the division, now in 31st Army, was surrounded north of Vyasma by German forces in Operation Typhoon. Remnants of the division were able to escape from encirclement to join 29th Army in Kalinin Front by Oct. 10.[4] The 653rd Rifle Reg't. was least affected by these events, and fought detached from the rest of the division in 22nd Army for most of the winter; the remainder were kept in reserve in 29th and 30th Armies. In May, 1942, the 220th went into Kalinin Front reserves to be rebuilt.[5]

The division, now back in 31st Army, took part in the First Rzhev–Sychyovka Offensive Operation, fighting in the northeast outskirts of Rzhev itself in the late summer and autumn of 1942.[6] The 220th would remain in this Army for the duration,[7] although it was briefly attached to 68th Army in September, 1943.[8] In a once-more weakened state the division held its positions on the left bank of the Volga through the winter. On Mar. 2 - 3, 1943 it joined in the liberation of Rzhev as the German Ninth Army withdrew from the salient (Operation Büffel). 31st Army pursued the German forces as best it could through the devastated territory and the spring rasputitsa, coming to a halt against a new German fortified line at the base of the former salient on Mar. 31. The new commander of the 220th, Col. V.A. Polevik, summarized the March battles: "The division coped with its assigned task. But the losses were significant."[9]

From April to early August the 220th rested, replenished and fortified its positions in anticipation of a German summer offensive.[10] Following the German defeat at Kursk, Kalinin and Western Fronts prepared their own offensive through the Smolensk land bridge to liberate that city; the offensive began on Aug. 7. The operation was a long, grinding affair against thick German defenses, and the division contributed by helping to retake the towns of Spas-Demensk, Dukhovshchina, Iartsevo and Dorogobuzh; during this time the 220th was pulled back into second echelon for replenishment no less than four times. Finally, on Sept. 25, Smolensk was liberated.[11]

The slow advance continued by fits and starts through the autumn and winter along the Dnepr River. At this time the division was part of 45th Rifle Corps. By March, 1944, the division was so worn down that each rifle regiment had only two rifle battalions, and each battalion had only two rifle companies and a sub-machinegun platoon. This was just 40% of approved strength in infantry, but the 660th Artillery Reg't. was at full strength and was fully motorized with a mix of Lend-Lease and Soviet vehicles. During the final years of the war, the Red Army increasingly substituted firepower for manpower, and many rifle divisions fought effectively with these strengths.[12] Nevertheless, the 220th had its infantry component strengthened before the summer offensive.

At the outset of this operation on June 22, 1944, the division was in 36th Rifle Corps of 31st Army in Gen. I.D. Chernyakovsky's 3rd Belorussian Front. (As of June 1, 1944, it had been the sole division in the corps.) The 220th soon distinguished itself by taking a leading role in the liberation of Orsha; it later also assisted in the liberation of the Belorussian capital, Minsk, and received the names of both these cities as honorifics:

"ORSHA - ...220th Rifle Division (Col. Polevik, Vasilii Alekseevich)... By order of the Supreme High Command of 27 June 1944 and a commendation in Moscow, the troops who participated in the battles for the liberation of Orsha are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns."[13]

"MINSK - ...220th Rifle Division (Col. Polevik, Vasilii Alekseevich)... By order of the Supreme High Command of 3 July 1944 and a commendation in Moscow, the troops who participated in the battles for the liberation of Minsk are given a salute of 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns."[14]

At the end of July the division participated in the liberation of Grodno, near the border with Poland, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.[15] For his leadership during the fighting near Grodno, political officer Captain Kirill Koshman of the 376th Rifle Regiment was named a Hero of the Soviet Union.[16]

The 220th continued advancing into northern Poland, East Prussia and Pomerania with its Front during late 1944 and early 1945, but in April was shifted with 31st Army south to 1st Ukrainian Front, and then took part in the last Soviet offensive of the war, towards Prague from May 6–11. The division ended the war in the 44th Rifle Corps, rounding up fugitives of the defeated German Army Group Center east of Prague. The division honorifics were – Russian: Оршанская Минская Краснознамённая ордена Суворова дивизия. (English: Orsha, Minsk, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov).[17] The division was disbanded "in place" along with the corps with the Central Group of Forces in the summer of 1945.[18]

In his memoirs, Marshal I.S. Konev praised the performance of the 220th Rifle Division during the Battles for Rzhev, where the division served as part of his Kalinin Front in 1942.[19]

• Nikifor Gordeevich Khoruzhenko
• Stanislav Giliarovich Poplavskii
• Vasilii Alekseevich Polevik