177th Rifle Division


The 177th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army south of Leningrad in March 1941, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. As Army Group North advanced on Leningrad the division, still incomplete, was rushed south to the Luga area. In mid-July it helped provide the initial resistance to the LVI Motorized Corps which set up the counterstroke at Soltsy, the first significant check of the German drive on Leningrad. In August the German offensive was intensified and the defenders of Luga were encircled and forced to escape northward, losing heavily in the process. A remnant of the 177th reached Leningrad, where it received enough replacements to again be marginally combat-effective. In October to was moved to the Neva River line as part of the Eastern Sector Operational Group. After briefly coming under command of 55th Army it was moved across Lake Ladoga to join 54th Army. It remained in this Army, as part of Volkhov Front, almost continuously until early 1944, serving west of the Volkhov River. It took part in the winter offensive that finally drove Army Group North away from Leningrad and earned a battle honor for the liberation of Lyuban, where part of it had been raised in 1941. Following this victory it was reassigned to 2nd Shock Army in Leningrad Front, and took part in the unsuccessful efforts to retake the city of Narva, before being removed to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command in April for further rebuilding and replenishment. It returned to the fighting front at the beginning of May in 21st Army facing Finland. At the outset of the final offensive against Finland it was in 23rd Army in the Karelian Isthmus. During this operation it advanced through the central part of the isthmus against determined Finnish resistance. The division remained facing Finland until early 1945, when it was moved to Latvia and spent the remainder of the war containing the German forces trapped in Courland, eventually assisting in clearing the region after the German surrender in May. It was moved to the Gorkii Military District in August, and was disbanded there in April 1946.

Formation

The division was formed in March 1941 south of Leningrad. At the start of the German invasion it was still trying to complete its formation under direct command of Leningrad Military District. Its order of battle on June 22, 1941, was as follows:
  • 483rd Rifle Regiment
  • 486th Rifle Regiment
  • 502nd Rifle Regiment
  • 706th Artillery Regiment
  • 6th Antitank Battalion
  • 7th Antitank Battalion
  • 254th Reconnaissance Company
  • 333rd Sapper Battalion
  • 555th Signal Battalion
  • 20th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
  • 175th Chemical Defense Platoon
  • 243rd Motor Transport Company
  • 265th Field Bakery
  • 150th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
  • 29018th Field Postal Station
  • 520th Field Office of the State Bank
Col. Ivan Stepanovich Ugryumov was assigned to command on March 24, but he was superseded on May 5 by Col. Andrei Fyodorovich Mashoshin. On May 25 the commander of Leningrad District, Lt. Gen. M. M. Popov, and his staff, had drafted a defense plan under which the 177th, along with the 191st and 70th Rifle Divisions, plus the 3rd Tank and 163rd Motorized Divisions of 1st Mechanized Corps, would remain under his direct command as a strategic reserve. Popov's plan was flawed by the assumption that the main threat to the city would come from Finland, and little was done to prepare for a German drive from the south. It was not until June 23 that Popov dispatched a deputy, Lt. Gen. K. P. Piadyshev, in that direction. This officer soon recommended that a line be established from Kingisepp to Luga to Lake Ilmen. However, severe shortages of materiel and manpower prevented any immediate action.

Defense of Leningrad

After its breakneck advance through the Baltic states, Army Group North began moving again early on July 9 from the Pskov and Ostrov regions. It was now 250km from Leningrad. In anticipation, on July 4 Army Gen. G. K. Zhukov ordered Popov to "immediately occupy a defense line along the NarvaLugaStaraya RussaBorovichi front." Popov officially formed the Luga Operational Group on July 6, and as of July 10 it consisted of the 191st and 177th Divisions as well as the 1st Narodnoe Opolcheniye Division and four machine gun-artillery battalions.
By July 14 the Group had been considerably reinforced with the 41st Rifle Corps, 1st Mountain Rifle Brigade, two more Opolcheniye divisions, and other forces. Popov also placed the two tank divisions of 10th Mechanized Corps in Front reserve to provide armor support. The construction of the actual defense line had begun on June 29, using construction workers and civilians from Leningrad, although when the 177th arrived south of Luga itself on July 4 it was so incomplete that an additional 25,000 labourers had to mobilized. The 191st Division occupied the Kingisepp sector of the line. Meanwhile, the German advance from Pskov, while slower than through the Baltics due to rugged terrain and summer heat, was still gaining some 25km per day. The 111th Rifle Division, which had already taken heavy losses in fighting east of Pskov, fell back to support the 177th south of Luga. As the LVI Motorized Corps, under command of Gen. E. von Manstein, and backed by infantry of I Army Corps, advanced on the Novgorod axis it encountered unexpectedly stiff resistance.

Counterstroke at Soltsy

The 8th Panzer Division, in the vanguard, penetrated 30-40km along the Shimsk road and reached the town of Soltsy late on July 13. Here it was halted by spirited opposition from the 177th and the 10th Mechanized, skilfully exploiting the difficult terrain. By nightfall the panzers found themselves isolated from the 3rd Motorized Division to its left and the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division lagging in the rear.
Alert for opportunities to strike back, the STAVKA ordered a counterstroke against the overexposed German force. This was communicated to Marshal K. Ye. Voroshilov, who in turn directed 11th Army to attack along the Soltsy-Dno axis with two shock groups. The northern group consisted of the 10th Mechanized's 21st Tank Division and the two divisions of 16th Rifle Corps, with reinforcements. The southern group consisted of the three divisions of the 22nd Rifle Corps, and was to attack 8th Panzer from the east, with one division moving against the panzers' communication lines to the southwest. The assault, launched in oppressive 32 degree C summer heat and massive clouds of dust, caught 8th Panzer and 3rd Motorized totally by surprise. The two divisions were soon isolated from one another and 8th Panzer was forced to fight a costly battle in encirclement for four days. It also disrupted the German offensive plans by forcing 4th Panzer Group to divert 3rd SS from the Kingisepp and Luga axes to rescue the beleaguered panzer division. In his memoirs von Manstein wrote:The Soltsy counterstroke cost 8th Panzer 70 of its 150 tanks destroyed or damaged and represented the first, albeit temporary, success achieved by Soviet forces on the path to Leningrad. It also cost the German command a precious week to regroup and resume the advance. However, the cost to the Soviet forces was high.
In response to a letter from the STAVKA dated July 15, Popov split the Luga Group into three separate and semi-independent sector commands on July 23, in addition to relieving and arresting Piadyshev for "dereliction of duty". The Luga Sector, under command of Maj. Gen. A. N. Astinin, was tasked with holding the Luga highway axis south of Leningrad. He was assigned the 177th, 111th, and 235th Rifle Divisions, 2nd Tank Division, the 1st Regiment of 3rd Narodnoe Opolcheniye Division, two machine gun - artillery battalions, and a battalion from the Leningrad Artillery School. At the same time Voroshilov's headquarters inspected the Luga Defense Line and determined it was utterly inadequate. It was recommended that further defenses be constructed closer to Leningrad, despite Voroshilov's objections, which were overruled by Stalin. By the beginning of August the 177th, 111th and 235th had come under command of 41st Rifle Corps, still in the Luga Group.

Retreat to Leningrad

On August 8 Hitler ordered that Army Group North be reinforced with large armored forces and air support in preparation for a final drive on the city. Two days later elements of LVI Motorized, supported by I and XXVIII Army Corps, advanced along the Luga and Novgorod axes toward the southern and southwestern approaches to Leningrad. The three Corps tore into and through the partially prepared defenses of the Luga Group and advanced on Krasnogvardeysk, while the 48th Army was forced out of Chudova and Tosno. These advances cut the line of communications to the Luga Group, which had to give up the town August 20. Fighting in encirclement, the nine Soviet divisions, including the 177th, had to cut their way out to the north and east in small parties, harried continually by the 8th Panzer, 4th SS, 269th and 96th Infantry Divisions conducting ongoing converging attacks on the Group from all sides. The German command estimated Red Army losses at 30,000 men, 120 tanks and 400 guns among the encircled forces.
As of September 1 the 235th was still in 41st Corps which was assigned to the Southern Operational Group of Leningrad Front, which had been formed on August 27 from part of Northern Front. Remnants of the division took up positions near Pushkin, but by now the combined strength of the 235th, 177th Rifle and 24th Tank Divisions was no more than 2,000 men. On September 8 elements of Army Group North captured Shlisselburg, completing the land blockade of Leningrad. Under the circumstances the 235th would be disbanded as part of an effort to rebuild the 177th over the next four weeks. On October 10, Colonel Mashoshin left the division to take command of the 115th Rifle Division; he would lead three other divisions during the war and gained the rank of major general on September 25, 1943. He was replaced by Col. Grigorii Ivanovich Vekhin, who had been serving as acting commander of 70th Rifle Division.