205th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 205th Rifle Division was twice formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was destroyed in the first days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The first formation was based on the shtat of July 29, 1941 and it then remained for nine months in the far east of Siberia training and organizing before it was finally sent by rail to the Stalingrad region in July 1942. It was assigned to the 4th Tank Army which was attempting to hold a bridgehead west of the Don River based on Kremenskaya and Sirotinskaya. This soon came under attack by elements of German 6th Army as a preliminary to its advance on Stalingrad itself and during August the division was encircled and destroyed.
In June 1943 the 1941 formation of the 186th Rifle Division was redesignated as the 205th in large part to eliminate confusion with the 1939 formation of the 186th which was concurrently in service. The new 205th remained in 26th Army of Karelian Front until late 1944 when the Continuation War with Finland was over, after which it was moved to the south and eventually assigned to the 19th Army of 2nd Belorussian Front which fought through East Pomerania in February and March 1945, winning a battle honor and a decoration in the process. While it saw little action in the Berlin campaign it was soon involved in the landings on the German-occupied Danish island of Bornholm under command of 43rd Army. The 205th remained there until it was returned to the mainland in May 1946 and was soon after disbanded.
205th Motorized Division
The division began forming in February 1941 as part of the prewar buildup of Soviet mechanized forces, based on a tank brigade at Byaroza in the Western Special Military District as part of the 14th Mechanized Corps. Once formed its order of battle was as follows:- 226th Motorized Rifle Regiment
- 721st Motorized Rifle Regiment
- 127th Tank Regiment
- 672nd Artillery Regiment
- 30th Antitank Battalion
- 164th Antiaircraft Battalion
- 293rd Reconnaissance Battalion
- 394th Light Engineering Battalion
- 598th Signal Battalion
- 203rd Artillery Park Battalion
- 369th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
- 688th Motor Transport Battalion
- 112th Repair and Restoration Battalion
- 46th Regulatory Company
- 482nd Chemical Defense Company
- 498th Field Postal Station
- 921st Field Office of the State Bank
On June 22 the 14th Mechanized Corps was under command of 4th Army in the renamed Western Front. The 205th was still located near Byaroza and began moving southwest during the day toward Zaprudy and Kobryn, parallel with the 30th Tanks to its north. According to the operational plan the 14th Mechanized was to link up with 28th Rifle Corps to counterattack the German forces that had encircled and were pushing past Brest. During this move the division came under heavy air attacks and lost most of the vehicles it had. During the following days it became trapped in the Białystok pocket and was effectively destroyed, being stricken from the Red Army's order of battle on June 30. Colonel Kudyurov managed to escape and went on to command the 40th Cavalry Division; he was killed in action in the Crimea in December.
1st Formation
A new division began forming as a regular rifle division on October 1, 1941 at Khabarovsk in the Far Eastern Front on the basis of the Krasnaya Rechka Separate Rifle Regiment with a similar order of battle:- 577th Rifle Regiment
- 721st Rifle Regiment
- 731st Rifle Regiment
- 672nd Artillery Regiment
- 30th Antitank Battalion
- 167th Antiaircraft Battery
- 792nd Mortar Battalion
- 293rd Reconnaissance Company
- 394th Sapper Battalion
- 598th Signal Battalion
- 369th Medical/Sanitation Battalion
- 195th Chemical Defense Company
- 515th Motor Transport Company
- 357th Field Bakery
- 834th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
- 1488th Field Postal Station
- 922nd Field Office of the State Bank
Battle of Stalingrad
By August 1 the 205th had joined the 4th, which was already so depleted in armor in its 22nd Tank Corps that it was derisively being referred to as the "4 Tank Army"; it also contained the 18th Rifle Division and the 5th Destroyer Antitank Brigade. Elements of German 6th Army reached Kalach-na-Donu on August 7 and inflicted a serious defeat on the Soviet 62nd Army over the following days, clearing the west bank of the Don River on this sector. Its obvious next target was the 50 km-wide bridgehead being held by 4th Tank Army south of Kremenskaya and Sirotinskaya. By this time the Army had been reinforced with the 184th, 192nd and 321st Rifle Divisions and the 54th Fortified Region. On August 14 the 205th was reported as having 8,374 personnel on strength.The expected attack had begun the previous day. 6th Army concentrated 11 divisions, including one panzer and two motorized, on the 55 km front. The 205th was deployed on 4th Tank Army's right flank and was supported by the 321st and the recently arrived 343rd Rifle Division; these were faced by the XI Army Corps in what was intended as a diversionary attack. The STAVKA intended to back 4th Tank Army with the 1st Guards Army, but this was still en route. The main attack began at 0630 hours on August 15 following a two-hour artillery preparation. With air support the XIV Panzer Corps and VIII Army Corps demolished the defenses of the 192nd, 184th and 205th Divisions and pushed rapidly eastward. By day's end the 205th and 192nd were reported as having been enveloped from the flanks and fighting in encirclement in the Oskinskii region. The attack effectively split 4th Tank Army into two halves, forcing the 205th to withdraw toward Kremenskaya along with the 321st and 343rd.
As the situation deteriorated the leading elements of 1st Guards Army began to arrive in the area and the three divisions, along with the 40th Guards Rifle Division, were ordered to counterattack at dawn on August 17. This effort faltered from the start as 6th Army pressed its advantage. The 376th Infantry Division captured Kremenskaya and the 40th Guards was forced to fight defensively to prevent the bridgehead from being liquidated entirely. By the end of the day 4th Tank Army was "no longer combat capable"; the 205th, among other divisions, was decimated and had run out of ammunition. In desperation it was transferred to control of 1st Guards but its bypassed remnants were already being mopped up. Despite 6th Army's claim of a complete success the Red Army managed to hold a portion of the bridgehead, which would provide a springboard for the counteroffensive in November. Later in August the 205th was officially disbanded. General Makarenko took over command of the 321st on August 24 and would be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general shortly before his retirement in 1958.
2nd Formation
The next formation of the 205th was actually a redesignation of the 1941 formation of the 186th Rifle Division in the 26th Army of Karelian Front. This had been formed as a militia division in September 1941 in the Murmansk region and was designated as 1st Polar for about a month. It was then put on the footing of a regular division and inexplicably given the same number as the existing 186th, which had been formed in 1939. When the redesignation was complete on June 26, 1943, the 205th had the same order of battle as the 1st formation with a few exceptions:- it contained no antiaircraft battery or mortar battalion
- the field bakery was designated as the 306th
- the field postal station was the 01453rd and the office of the state bank was the 915th
- 1st and 2nd Battalions, each with two batteries of four M1909 mountain guns and one battery of four 122mm howitzers;
- 3rd Battalion with three batteries of four 122mm howitzers each.
The division was located at Kestenga at the time of its redesignation and was serving in the 31st Rifle Corps which also contained the 45th and 61st Rifle Divisions and the 85th Naval Rifle Brigade. It remained under the command of Col. Fyodor Ivanovich Litvinov who had led the 186th since June 2, 1942, but he would be replaced on July 7 by Col. Mikhail Alekseevich Beloskurskii. Litvinov was sent to study at the Voroshilov Academy before returning to the front to command the 25th Rifle Division; Beloskurskii had previously led the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade and would be promoted to the rank of major general on November 2, 1944.
Continuation War
Through the rest of 1943 the situation along Karelian Front remained effectively static, but the situation began to change when the German/Finnish siege of Leningrad was finally broken in January 1944. From this point Finland came under increasing pressure to leave the war. On June 10 the Leningrad and Karelian Fronts went over to the offensive against both the Finnish Army and the remaining German forces in the country. At this time the 205th was still in 26th Army in 31st Corps with the 45th and 83rd Rifle Divisions; the Army also contained the 54th and 367th Rifle Divisions. In its positions it faced elements of the German XVIII Mountain Corps over the next several months, while to the south Finland was being driven out of the war in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. During September the 205th was serving as a separate division within 26th Army. On September 4/5 a Soviet-Finnish cease-fire went into effect, and on the 6th the German forces in Finland began Operation Birke, with the goal of a withdrawal into Norway, although the Germans were secretly determined to hold the Pechenga District for the sake of the nickel mines there. XVIII Mountain Corps withdrew by stages, and 26th Army followed up as far as the 1940 Soviet-Finnish border.On September 15 fighting between the Finnish and German Armies, the Lapland War, began. By the end of the month the German OKW had decided that holding Pechenga was no longer necessary or desirable; meanwhile the STAVKA was expanding its 14th Army for the Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive and its 26th and 19th Armies in Karelia were not necessary for this offensive. As of November 1 the 205th was under command of the 132nd Rifle Corps but within weeks the remainder of 26th Army had been moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for redeployment.