43rd Guards Rifle Division

The 43rd Guards received its Guards banner and title in a ceremony on October 19. At this time it was serving in the 11th Army of Northwestern Front, north of the "Ramushevo corridor" that connected German 16th Army with its II Army Corps within the Demyansk salient. After the subunits received their designations the division's order of battle was as follows:

• 121st Guards Rifle Regiment (from 92nd Rifle Regiment)
• 123rd Guards Rifle Regiment (from 122nd Rifle Regiment)
• 125th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 191st Rifle Regiment)
• 94th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 220th Light Artillery Regiment)
• 48th Guards Antitank Battalion
• 44th Guards Antiaircraft Battery (from 100th Antiaircraft Battery)
• 55th Guards Machine Gun Battalion (from 270th Machinegun Battalion) (until February 28, 1943)
• 45th Guards Reconnaissance Company (from 112th Reconnaissance Company)
• 47th Guards Sapper Battalion (from 53rd Sapper Battalion)
• 65th Guards Signal Battalion (later, 47th Guards Signal Company)
• 50th Guards Medical/Sanitation Battalion (from 49th Medical/Sanitation Battalion)[1]
• 46th Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company
• 49th Guards Motor Transport Company
• 51st Guards Field Bakery
• 41st Guards Divisional Veterinary Hospital
• 1476th Field Postal Station
• 911th Field Office of the State Bank

Maj. Gen. Yan Yanovich Veikin remained in command of the division after redesignation. As was the case with most newly-designated Guards divisions the 201st had been somewhat reduced in strength in the assaults that earned it its new status. It was noted as having 9,453 personnel, close to establishment for that period of the war, but had only 5,713 rifles and carbines, 65 heavy machine guns, 197 light machine guns, 1,202 sub-machineguns, 18 120mm and 85 82mm mortars, 212 antitank rifles, 8 122mm howitzers, 29 45mm antitank guns, 135 trucks, and, most unusually, no 76mm guns at all. The 44th Guards Antiaircraft Battery was also without weapons until March, 1943.[2]

Soviet positions at Demyansk, spring 1943. The 43rd Guards was near Penno in 27th Army, north of the entrance to the Ramushevo corridor.

In mid-October Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, the STAVKA coordinator for Northwestern Front's operations, began planning another offensive to cut the German corridor; in part this was intended as a diversion from the upcoming Operation Mars. The attack was to involve 11th Army from the north and 1st Shock Army from the south, to commence on October 22. However, as with Mars, this operation was postponed several time, mainly due to adverse weather. When it finally began on the night of November 23/24 the 11th Army consisted of ten rifle divisions, including the 43rd Guards, plus five rifle brigades, one tank brigade and three battalions, and 26 artillery regiments. It faced elements of the 8th Jäger, 290th and 81st Infantry Divisions, giving it an advantage of about 3:1 in infantry and 5:1 in armor, although the rough and roadless terrain and miserable weather hampered supplies and negated much of the numerical advantage.[3]

After probing attacks by the 202nd Rifle Division in the direction of Pustynia which gained little ground over several days, on November 27 Timoshenko ordered the two armies to commit their main forces in an attempt to break the stalemate. While the 202nd was finally able to gain its objective, overall the attackers seized only pitifully small footholds in the German defenses at the cost of heavy losses. While the STAVKA soon recognized the offensive had failed it insisted on December 8 that it continue and several equally fruitless efforts were made into mid-January, 1943.[4] Meanwhile, on December 30 General Veikin was effectively demoted to command of the 14th Guards Rifle Regiment of 7th Guards Rifle Division, and the next day he was succeeded in command of the division by Col. Detlav Karlovich Brantkaln, who would be promoted to the rank of major general on January 29. Early in February it was transferred to the 27th Army of the same Front,[5] which was located closer to the mouth of the Ramushevo corridor.

In the wake of Operation Iskra, which broke the German land blockade of Leningrad in January, Marshal Georgy Zhukov conceived a plan to encircle and destroy Army Group North: Operation Polar Star. The first phase of the overall operation would be yet another attempt to cut off and eliminate the Demyansk salient. Zhukov finalized his plan during the week preceding the planned attack date of February 15,[6] and the 11th and 27th Armies together had nine rifle divisions, including the 43rd Guards, plus 150 tanks, massed between Penno and Ramushevo against the 5th Jäger Division. However, in light of the encirclement and upcoming surrender of 6th Army at Stalingrad, on January 31 Hitler had authorized the evacuation of II Corps. Operation Ziethen began on February 17 before the delayed Soviet attack could get fully underway, and effectively short-circuited Zhukov's entire plan; 27th Army would still be redeploying as late as the 21st. Demyansk was abandoned that day and by February 26 most of the corridor was evacuated as well.[7]

On June 5 the division provided a cadre to form the headquarters of the 130th Rifle Corps,[14] including General Brantkaln who became its commander. He was replaced in divisional command by Col. Alfred Yurevich Kalnin; this officer would be promoted to the rank of major general on September 13 and remained in this post for the duration of the war. The Corps included the 43rd Guards and the 3rd formation of the 308th Rifle Division, which was also made up of Latvian nationals, plus the 2nd formation of the 208th Rifle Division, which was not.[15] On July 10 the 2nd Baltic Front launched the Rezhitsa–Dvinsk Offensive and over the next seven days it broke through three heavily fortified German defensive lines and advanced up to 110km westward. At 0430 hours on July 18 lead elements of the 43rd Guards crossed back into Latvia.[16] On August 3 Captain Orlov, who was now the acting commander of a reconnaissance company, led his troops to the vicinity of the Mezhare station on the Krustpils – Rēzekne II Railway, well into the German rear. This incursion provoked a series of counterattacks by infantry and at least one assault gun and the company became surrounded. Orlov received several wounds and many of his men were also killed or wounded while inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces. Eventually he led a breakout which recrossed the railway and the remainder of his company dug in and repelled additional attacks until relieved by their battalion. Captain Orlov soon succumbed to his injuries and on March 24, 1945 he was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union.[17]

By the second week in September the division had continued its advance as far as Viesīte, having crossed the Daugava River in the vicinity of Krustpils. In the first days of October its advance elements reached Baldone, moving towards Riga from the southeast.[18] It was one of many Red Army units granted the name of that city as an honorific:

"RIGA"... 43rd Guards Rifle Division (Major General Kalnin, Alfred Yurevich)... The troops who participated in the liberation of Riga, by the order of the Supreme High Command of October 13, 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns.[19]

Shortly after this the 130th Corps, now consisting of just the two Latvian national divisions, was transferred to the 67th Army in Leningrad Front but in November it returned to 22nd Army in 2nd Baltic Front.[20] The division remained under these commands into March, 1945, when the 2nd Baltic was disbanded and the Corps was reassigned to 42nd Army in Leningrad Front's Kurland Group of Forces, where it remained until the fighting stopped.[21] During the entire period following the battle for Riga the division took part in the containment and reduction of the German forces (former Army Group North) trapped in the Courland peninsula of Latvia.

In August, 1946 General Kalnin handed his command over to Maj. Gen. Voldemar Frantsevich Damberg, who had previously been the deputy commander of 130th Rifle Corps. In April, 1947 the division was converted to the 29th Separate Guards Rifle Brigade, with Damberg remaining in command.