350th Rifle Division

rdf:langString 350th Rifle Division

rdf:langString 350th Rifle Division (August, 1941 – May, 1946)

rdf:langString Sandomierz

rdf:langString Zhitomir

rdf:langString Postwar photo of Maj. Gen. G. I. Vekhin, Hero of the Soviet Union

rdf:langString Col. Pyotr Petrovich Avdeenko

rdf:langString Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Pavlovich Gritzenko

rdf:langString Maj. Gen. Grigorii Ivanovich Vekhin

rdf:langString Infantry

rdf:langString Division

rdf:langString The 350th Rifle Division formed in late August, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, at Atkarsk. It went to the front in November, and served south of Moscow throughout the winter and as late as August, 1942, after which it made a bewildering number of reassignments over the next six months. Badly battered by the German "backhand blow" near Kharkov in February, 1943, the division was pulled back into reserve for rebuilding for several months, then fought the summer campaign under command of 12th Army. In November the 350th was honored for its role in the liberation of Zhitomir and received that city's name as an honorific. At this time it was in 1st Guards Army of 1st Ukrainian Front, and it would remain in that Front for the duration of the war. On August 18, 1944, the division received an unusual second honorific for helping to liberate the Polish city of Sandomierz. It ended the war in western Berlin with a distinguished record of service, but was disbanded in May, 1946.