72nd Mountain Rifle Division
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 72nd Mountain Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1941 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch |  Red Army |
| Type | Division |
| Role | Mountain Infantry |
| Engagements | Operation Barbarossa Battle of Uman |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Maj. Gen. Pavel Ivanovich Abramidze |
The 72nd Mountain Rifle Division was formed as a specialized infantry division of the Red Army in the spring of 1941, based on the 72nd Rifle Division (1936 formation) which had previously been the 4th Turkestan Division. At the time of the German invasion on June 22 it was located on the San River west of Lviv as part of the 8th Rifle Corps of 26th Army in the Kiev Special Military District. After having about half of its complement removed to Army reserves or transferred to other divisions it was forced to fall back through western Ukraine under pressure from the German 17th Army until early August when it was encircled as part of 12th Army near Uman. After about five more days of fighting the 72nd Mountain had been effectively destroyed and it was officially disbanded a month later. It was never reformed.
The 4th Turkestan Division was redesignated as the 72nd Rifle Division in July 1936 in common with the other "national" divisions and similar formations in the Red Army. In 1939 it was in the 13th Rifle Corps of Ukrainian Front's 12th Army and took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland; following this it was moved north to participate in the Winter War. The division was officially converted on April 24, 1941 based on the prewar shtat (table of organization and equipment) for mountain rifle divisions, which among other things required the formation of a fourth rifle regiment:
- 14th Mountain Rifle Regiment
- 133rd Mountain Rifle Regiment
- 187th Mountain Rifle Regiment[1]
- 309th Mountain Rifle Regiment
- 9th Artillery Regiment
- 33rd Howitzer Artillery Regiment
- 119th Antitank Battalion
- 309th Antiaircraft Battalion
- 40th Reconnaissance Battalion
- 3rd Sapper Battalion
- 55th Signal Battalion
- 51st Medical/Sanitation Battalion
- 10th Chemical Protection (Anti-gas) Company
- 37th Artillery Park Battalion
- 73rd Motor Transport Battalion
- 71st Field Bakery (motorized)
- 214th (later 176th) Field Postal Station
- 396th Field Office of the State Bank
The division was commanded by Maj. Gen. Pavel Ivanovich Abramidze, who had been the 72nd Rifle's commander since August 8, 1940. It was one of six rifle divisions converted to mountain divisions in Ukraine in late 1940/early 1941; like the rest it received little or no specialized training or equipment before the invasion began and, in fact, never completed its conversion. As of June 22 it had on hand 9,904 officers and men with 7,462 bolt-action rifles and carbines, 2,579 semiautomatic rifles, 365 sub-machine guns, 351 light machine guns, 110 heavy machine guns, 54 45 mm antitank guns, 38 76 mm cannon and howitzers, 24 122 mm howitzers and 150 mortars. For transport it had 433 trucks and 44 tractors plus 2,112 horses. The number of antitank guns indicates it had a regular rifle division's full antitank battalion plus antitank sections in at least three of its rifle regiments, contrary to the mountain division shtat.[2]
