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The 300th Rifle Division began service as a standard Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion, and fought in the southwestern part of the Soviet-German front for nearly two years following. The division did not distinguish itself until Operation Uranus in late 1942, when it helped defeat the German attempt to relieve Sixth Army and later in the pursuit of the defeated Axis forces and the recapture of Rostov-na-Donu. In recognition of these successes it was raised to Guards status as the 87th Guards Rifle Division. A second 300th was raised a few months later and fought briefly but very successfully against the Japanese in Manchuria in August 1945. == 1st Formation == The division began forming on July 10, 1941 at Krasnograd in the Kharkov Military District. Its order of battle was as follows: * 1049th Rifle Regiment * 1051st Rifle Regiment * 1053rd Rifle Regiment * 822nd Artillery Regiment * 591st Sapper Battalion * 756th Signal Battalion * 336th Antitank Battalion (from Dec. 1941)〔Charles C. Sharp, ''"Red Tide", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From June to December, 1941, Soviet Order of Battle World War II, Vol. IX'', 1996, p 68〕 Just a month after forming, the 300th was assigned to 38th Army of Southwestern Front, just as that Army was itself forming up. It first began to reach the front on Aug. 12 and remained in that Army and that Front until May, 1942, avoiding the several disasters that befell other Soviet formations on that part of the front. When Operation Blue began, the 300th was moved first to the 28th Army, then later to the 21st Army of Stalingrad Front. In the process of fighting in these unequal circumstances the division took heavy losses, and was withdrawn into ''STAVKA'' reserves at Tuymazy〔Isaak Kobylyanskiy, ''From Stalingrad to Pillau'', trans. S. Britton, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2008, pp 60-61〕 in August for rebuilding.〔Sharp, ''"Red Tide"'', p 68〕 The rebuilt 300th, back in Stalingrad Front, on the left bank of the Volga, next saw action in late October, when two rifle battalions of the 1049th Regiment attempted an assault amphibious landing across the river aimed at the village of Latashanka, in an attempt to relieve German pressure on the defenders of Rynok and the northern factory districts of the besieged city. The effort failed, at a cost of at least 900 men killed, wounded or captured.〔Kobylyanskiy, pp 69-70〕〔This operation is detailed in Jochen Hellbeck, ''Stalingrad - The City that Defeated the Third Reich'', trans. C. Tauchen and D. Bonfiglio, Perseus Books Group, New York, 2015, pp 203-22. Kobylyanskiy is quoted on p 207. In this account the name of the village is transliterated as "Latoshinka".〕 The division next saw action with the beginning of the operation to encircle the German/Romanian forces at Stalingrad. The 300th, now in 51st Army〔Sharp, ''"Red Tide"'', p 68〕 crossed to the right bank of the Volga by a pontoon bridge downstream from the city, and formed part of the second echelon of the southern pincer. On Dec. 21 elements of the division helped stop one of the last attempts of Army Group Don to break the encirclement.〔Kobylyanskiy, p 73〕 A few days later the 300th was transferred to 2nd Guards Army of South Front and spent the next two months exploiting the Soviet victory along the Don River towards Rostov-na-Donu, finally coming to a halt along the Mius River. On Feb. 21, South Front reported to ''STAVKA'' that: The 300th Rifle Division is fighting on the southeastern outskirts of Novaia Nadezhda, Alekseevka, and Aleksandrovka (I repeat, on the southeast outskirts of these points)...〔David M. Glantz, ''After Stalingrad'', Helion & Company, Ltd., Solihull, UK, 2011, p 214〕All of these points were on the left bank of the Mius, as the overstretched Soviet forces were unable to penetrate the German defenses on the right bank, based on fortifications they had built a year earlier. On Apr. 16, 1943, in recognition of the division's prowess both on the defense and during the offensive that crushed the trapped German Sixth Army and threw their forces out of the Caucasus, it became the 87th Guards Rifle Division.〔Sharp, ''"Red Tide"'', p 68〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「300th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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