204th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

rdf:langString 204th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

rdf:langString 204th Rifle Division (October 1, 1941 - March 1, 1943)

rdf:langString 204th Rifle Division (May 1943 - February 1946)

rdf:langString 204th Motorized Division (March 1941 - September 19, 1941)

rdf:langString Vitebsk

rdf:langString Col. Aleksei Mikhailovich Pirov

rdf:langString Col. Andrei Pavlovich Karnov

rdf:langString Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Vasilevich Skvortsov

rdf:langString Maj. Gen. Ksaverii Mikhailovich Baydak

rdf:langString Motorized Infantry, Infantry

rdf:langString Division

rdf:langString The 204th Rifle Division was twice formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was destroyed in the first weeks of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The first formation was based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of July 29, 1941 and it then remained for nine months in the far east of Siberia training and organizing before it was finally sent by rail to the Stalingrad region in July 1942 where it joined the 64th Army southwest of the city. During the following months it took part in the defensive battles and later the offensive that cut off the German 6th Army in November. In the last days of the battle for the city it took the surrender of the remnants of a Romanian infantry division. Following the Axis defeat the division was recognized for its role when it was redesignated as the 78th Guards Rifle Division on March 1, 1943. A new 204th was raised in May 1943 in Voronezh Front under the "shtat" of December 10, 1942, based on a former "student" rifle brigade. After seeing brief service in 38th Army during the Battle of Kursk the division was moved northward, becoming part of the 1st Rifle Corps of 43rd Army in Kalinin Front (soon 1st Baltic Front) and saw combat in the slow and bloody battles east and north of Vitebsk through the winter. Early during the summer offensive against Army Group Center the 204th distinguished itself in the capture of that city and received its name as an honorific. It then took part in the campaigns through the Baltic states, moving to the 51st Army in August where it remained for the duration of the war, mostly in the 1st Guards Rifle Corps. Like many other rifle divisions on this secondary front by January 1945 it was well under strength but continued to serve, eventually as part of the force blockading the German units remaining in the Kurland peninsula as part of 2nd Baltic Front and then Leningrad Front. The division was disbanded in February 1946.