198th Rifle Division


The 198th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was reorganized in the first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was based on the shtat of July 29, 1941, with several modifications. It entered combat as a rifle division during the Tikhvin Offensive in December 1941 as a reinforcement for 54th Army, helping to drive elements of Army Group North back to the Volkhov River from their earlier gains. It would remain near that river line into early 1944. During 1942 it took part in several abortive offensives in an effort to relieve the siege of Leningrad, suffering heavy losses in one of them. In 1943 it was mainly used for line-holding duties at a reduced establishment, in an area where German forces were strictly on the defensive. The 198th was brought back up to something approaching the current establishment by the start of 1944 and, during the offensive that finally drove Army Group North away from Leningrad, it helped to maintain the offensive's momentum following the initial breakthrough as part of 119th Rifle Corps. It was finally reassigned to 3rd Baltic Front's 67th Army in April after it was halted at the Panther Line near Pskov. In August it briefly returned to 54th Army during the advance through the Baltic States, and after the capture of Riga it remained in western Latvia for the duration of the war, serving under several commands, mostly the 42nd and 10th Guards Armies. It was one of the very few divisions that served throughout the war without receiving any battle honors or decorations. Despite this, the 198th continued its service, now in western Siberia, for another 10 years, before being redesignated as the 23rd Rifle Division.

198th Motorized Division

The division began forming on March 11, 1941, as part of the prewar buildup of Soviet mechanized forces, at Strelna in the Leningrad Military District as part of the 10th Mechanized Corps. It was based on the 7th Motorized Rifle Brigade. Its order of battle was as follows:
  • 450th Motorized Rifle Regiment
  • 452nd Motorized Rifle Regiment
  • 146th Tank Regiment
  • 704th Artillery Regiment
  • 159th Antitank Battalion
  • 126th Antiaircraft Battalion
  • 234th Reconnaissance Battalion
  • 349th Light Engineer Battalion
  • 380th Signal Battalion
  • 196th Artillery Park Battalion
  • 124th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
  • 293rd Motor Transport Battalion
  • 100th Repair and Restoration Battalion
  • 60th Regulatory Company
  • 131st Motorized Field Bakery
  • 217th Field Postal Station
  • 236th Field Office of the State Bank
Maj. Gen. Vladimir Viktorovich Kryukov took command the day the division began forming, and held this post for the duration of its existence as a motorized division. He had previously commanded the 8th Rifle Brigade at Hanko. On June 22 the 198th was at Strelna and Oranienbaum in the reserves of 23rd Army, which would join Northern Front when it was created from the Leningrad District two days later. As was the case with most of the motorized divisions it was still in the process of forming and was desperately short of equipment, especially tanks, trucks, and tractors. As the Corps' two tank divisions moved south to counter the German advance on Leningrad, the Finnish government declared war on the Soviet Union on June 25. The Front's 7th Army was defending the border north of Lake Ladoga, while 23rd Army's 19th and 50th Rifle Corps, plus the 198th, defended from the Gulf of Finland to the west shore of the lake.
It was moved to the Elisenvaara area on July 2, on the Army's right flank, and took the 41st Tank Regiment under command. It entered combat two days later, mounting a counterattack that drove Finnish forces back some 6–8km, but suffered heavy losses in the process and was forced over to the defense. As of July 10 it had officially left 10th Mechanized Corps. After this the division began to gradually be parted out for spares. The 146th and 41st Tank Regiments were formed into separate tank battalions to support the infantry of other divisions. In late July the 452nd Regiment became a separate regiment in an operational group of Northern Front, and in late August the 704th Artillery was detached to 42nd Army south of Leningrad. In September the remaining elements were combined with two reserve rifle regiments and redesignated as the 198th Rifle Division.

198th Rifle Division

The process of converting the division was mostly complete on September 17, although the 704th Artillery did not rejoin until December when the division moved south. General Kryukov remained in command. The two new rifle regiments were made up of reservists from the Leningrad Military District. Northern Front had been split and 23rd Army was now in Leningrad Front, still facing the Finnish Army. When eventually completed its order of battle would be as follows:
  • 506th Rifle Regiment
  • 1027th Rifle Regiment
  • 1029th Rifle Regiment
  • 704th Artillery Regiment
  • 159th Antitank Battalion
  • 355th Antiaircraft Battery
  • 234th Reconnaissance Company
  • 349th Sapper Battalion
  • 380th Signal Battalion
  • 125th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
  • 101st Chemical Defense Company
  • 91st Motor Transport Company
  • 336th Field Bakery
  • 77th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
  • 217th Field Postal Station
  • 236th Field Office of the State Bank

    Tikhvin Offensive

On November 26 the 54th Army attacked the German 21st Infantry Division of I Army Corps south of Volkhov, driving it back several kilometres by the 29th. On December 3, the attack on the German Corps was renewed, driving its left flank southwards and successively encircling and destroying several companies of the 254th Infantry Division. The 198th and 115th Rifle Divisions then arrived from Leningrad, joined the assault on December 15, and helped drive the Germans back to Olomny by the 17th, enveloping the I Corps' left flank on the west bank of the Volkhov River. During this retreat, the Army's 1st and 2nd Ski Battalions constantly harassed the Germans' flank and rear. In the final stages, elements of three rifle divisions cut the MgaKirishi rail line, but the Army was unable to capture the latter stronghold, which would remain in German hands until the autumn of 1943. General Kryukov left his command on December 25; he was soon made commander of the 10th Cavalry Corps, and then led the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps into the postwar, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in October 1943 and becoming a Hero of the Soviet Union on April 6, 1945. He was replaced by Col. Nikolai Moisevich Martynchuk, who had previously led the 294th Rifle Division. He would be promoted to the rank of major general on January 22, 1942.

Lyuban Offensive Operation

Having liberated the territory occupied by the Germans in their Tikhvin offensive and caused them significant casualties, Stalin expected his armies to be able to break the siege of Leningrad, as part of a series of offensives across the front. Army Gen. K. A. Meretskov of Volkhov Front wrote: The new offensive was launched by 54th Army on January 4, when it once again attacked I Corps, to the west of Kirishi. Forty-eight hours of heavy fighting produced an advance of only 4–5km, after which a counterattack by 12th Panzer Division drove the Army's troops back to their starting line. The attack was renewed on January 13 and the village of Pogoste was taken on the 17th, but that was the limit of success.
By mid-February 2nd Shock Army of Volkhov Front had driven across that river and was forcing its way through the swamps towards Lyuban, well in the German rear, but were unable to break out decisively toward Leningrad. On February 26, Leningrad Front received the following:On March 2, General Martynchuk left the 198th to take command of 3rd Guards Rifle Division. He was replaced four days later by Lt. Col. Miron Ivanovich Perevoznikov, who had been serving as deputy commander of 48th Rifle Division.
Reinforcement of 54th Army with the 4th Guards Rifle Corps made it possible to penetrate the German defenses near Pogoste on March 15, driving 22km southwards to within 10km of Lyuban, but German re-deployments brought the advance to a halt by March 31. The 198th was heavily damaged in this attack, and a report on May 2 indicated it was still "rehabilitating". The 54th Army, while liberating territory, was not successful in linking up with 2nd Shock Army, and the latter army was cut off and destroyed during the following months.

Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda

On June 21, Col. Vasilii Danilovich Danilyuk took command of the division. 54th Army was engaged in mostly local fighting through the balance of 1942. The 198th was kept at a fairly low strength level on this defensive front. One indication of this is that in January 1943 the 704th Artillery Regiment had only two battalions instead of three, with a total of only 12 76mm cannons and eight 122mm howitzers.
On January 12, Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts launched Operation Iskra, which by the end of the month had finally opened a land corridor to the besieged city, but this also did not directly involve the 54th. However, the success of Iskra, as well as the encirclement and destruction of German 6th Army at Stalingrad and the subsequent offensives in the south, led the STAVKA to plan a larger operation near Leningrad, to be called Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda, with the objective of the complete destruction of Army Group North.
The objective of 54th Army was to create a shallow encirclement, in conjunction with 55th Army from Leningrad, of the German forces still holding the Sinyavino – Mga area. The Army was to attack north of the village of Smerdynia in the direction of Tosno where it would meet the 55th; it would then attack towards Lyuban to divert the attention of German 18th Army from the deep encirclement being planned by Northwestern Front once its forces captured the Demyansk salient and its defenders.
The 54th was reinforced before the offensive, which it began on February 10. It attacked the German 96th Infantry Division, which was recovering from the earlier fighting at Sinyavino, with four rifle divisions, three rifle brigades, and the 124th Tank Brigade, and yet only managed to penetrate 3–4km on a 5km front in three days of heavy fighting. German reinforcements of small battlegroups from unengaged sectors brought the advance to a standstill; meanwhile, 55th Army was faring no better. On February 27, STAVKA ordered Pole Star halted, as almost no progress had been made on any sector. On February 22, Colonel Danilyuk left the division, being replaced by Maj. Gen. Ivan Kondratevich Kravtsov, who had been in command of the 281st Rifle Division. This turned out to be a temporary arrangement; on March 14, Danilyuk returned to the 198th and Kravtsov went back to the 281st.