74th Guards Rifle Division

74th Guards Rifle Division
Active	1 Mar 1943 – 1946
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Ground Forces
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Engagements	Donbass Strategic Offensive; Izyum-Barvenkovo Offensive; Barvenkov-Pavlograd Offensive; Lublin-Brest Offensive; Krivoi Rog Offensive; Nikopol Offensive; Bereznegovatoye-Snigirevka Offensive; Odessa Offensive; Vistula–Oder Offensive; Battle of the Seelow Heights; Berlin Strategic Offensive
Decorations	Order of Lenin; Order of the Red Banner; Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky II Class
Battle honours	Nizhnedneprovskiy

The 74th Guards Rifle Division was a Guards infantry division of the Red Army during the Second World War. Its full formal name was the 74th Guards Nizhnedneprovskiy Order of Lenin twice Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Rifle Division. It was formed from the 45th Rifle Division on 1 March 1943. The division's entire World War II service was with the 62nd Army, later the 8th Guards Army.

World War II Service

1943

In July 1943, the Division participated in the battles on the outskirts of Izium, Izyum-Barvenkovo Offensive, in August 1943 in the Barvenkov-Pavlograd Offensive, as part of the Donbass Strategic Offensive Operation . In the Lower Dnieper Offensive Operation crossed the Dnieper south of Dnipropetrovsk. During Nizhnedneprovskiy offensive forced the Dnieper to the south of Dnipropetrovsk. Then took part in the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive.

1944

During the Winter Spring campaign of 1944 the division participated in the Bereznegovatoye-Snigirevka Offensive and the follow on Odessa Offensive.

In July 1944 the division participated in the Lublin-Brest Offensive as part of the Operation Bagration and the beginning of the liberation of Poland.

1945

In January 1945 the division was part of the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the liberation of Poland.

In April 1945 it broke through enemy defenses at the Battle of the Seelow Heights, taking part in the Berlin Strategic Offensive.

During the war the division participated in the liberation of the cities of Izium, Nikopol, Krivoy Rog, Odessa, Poznan, Lodz, and taking Kustrin.

Postwar

The division became part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany along with its corps and army, and was disbanded in the summer of 1946.[1]

Subordination

South-Western Front, 62nd Army - 1 April 1943.
South-Western Front, 8th Guards Army, 29th Guards Rifle Corps - from 5 May 1943.
3rd Ukrainian Front, 8th Guards Army, 29th Guards Rifle Corps - about 20 October 1943.
1st Belorussian Front, 8th Guards Army, 29th Guards Rifle Corps — about 15 June 1944.
With 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front May 1945.

Composition

226th Guards Rifle "Lodz" Regiment
236th Guards Rifle Regiment
240th Guards Rifle Regiment
157th Guards Artillery Regiment
82nd Guards separate antitank battalion
399th Guards antiaircraft battery (up to 13 April 1943)
76th Guards intelligence company
85th Guards sapper battalion
103rd Guards separate battalion
584th (77th) Medical battalion
73rd Guards separate company chemical protection
725th (78th) trucking company
659th (79th) field bakery
676th (75th) Divisional veterinary hospital
781st Field Postal Station
538th field ticket office of the State Bank

Commanders

Colonel Vasily Pavlovich Sokolov (1 March 1942 - 1 September 1943), 1943 promoted to major general
Colonel Mikhail Ivanovich Yugatov (2 September 1943 - 29 November 1943)
Colonel Adrian T. Kuzin (30 November 1943 - 31 January 1944)
Colonel Dmitry Yevstigneyevich Bakanov (1 February 1944 - 1 May 1944)
Colonel Karl Karlovich Mazheika (11 May 1944 - 3 June 1944)
Major General Dmitry Yevstigneyevich Bakanov (4 June 1944 - 5 August 1945)

Awards

Awarded the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2 degrees Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky II degree
13 Feb 1944 — given the name "Nizhnedneprovskiy"

References

Citations

Feskov et al 2013, p. 401.

Bibliography

Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.