27th Guards Motor Rifle Division


The 27th Guards Omsk-Novobug Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitskiy Motor Rifle Division is a Guards mechanised infantry division of the Russian Ground Forces. It was a Red Army rifle division in World War II which later became a Soviet Ground Forces motor rifle division. In 2009, it was reformed into the 21st Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. In the spring of 2024, the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division was revived.

History

The division draws its history from the 75th Naval Rifle Brigade formed in the end of 1941. As part of the 3rd Shock Army, Kalinin Front in 1942 the brigade participated in the Demiansk operations – the Moscow counteroffensive. For its fighting performance it became the 3rd Guards Rifle Brigade in March 1942, having spent all its time in reserve, became the 27th Guards Rifle Division in April–May 1942. With a view to the preservation of fighting and revolutionary traditions of earlier formations, the name "Omsk" which 27th Rifle Division had during the Russian Civil War had earlier was given to the new division. It included the, the predecessor to today's 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade.
In the late summer of 1942, it was rushed south to help stop the German offensive into the northern Caucasus and Stalingrad. It took part in the destruction of the German 6th Army during the winter of 1942/43. During World War II the division was part of the 4th Tank Army, 1st Guards Army, the 24th Army, the 66th Army, the 65th Army and since February 1943 the 62nd Army. In April 1942 the 62nd Army became the Eighth Guards Army. In July 1942 the division was part of Kalinin Front's 58th Army, alongside 16th Guards Rifle Division and two other rifle divisions. The division was back with the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front in May 1945.
The division participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, Izyum-Barvenkovo, Donbass, Zaporozhye, Nikopol-Krivoi Rog, Bereznegova-Snigirovka, Odessa, Lublin – Brest, Poznań, Küstrin, Warsaw-Poznan and the Berlin offensive operation. For services in battle the division was awarded the honorific "Novobug" in March 1944, then awarded the Order of the Red Banner and Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd degrees. Over 10 thousand of its soldiers were awarded awards and medals, and 7 were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. Its commanders included Colonel Konstantin Vindushev, and Viktor Glebov, Glebov was originally a colonel but was made a general-major in November 1942.
Since 1945 the division remained as part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, where it became 21st Guards Mechanised Division, then 21st Guards Motor Rifle Division on 17 May 1957. On 17 November 1964 it was renamed 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division. It remained in Germany until May 1991, when it was withdrawn to Totskoye in the Volga-Ural Military District. It has contributed many personnel for peacekeeping operations. The division was renamed the 21st Guards Motor Rifle Brigade on 1 June 2009, after the beginning of the 2008 Russian military reform.

Russian invasion of Ukraine (2024–present)

In 2024, the division was formed once again from the 21st Guards Motor Rifle Brigade having 3 regiments: the 433rd Regiment, the 506th Regiment and the 589th Regiment. In April–May 2024, the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division fought on the Ocheretyne ledge in the area of the villages Berdychi, Semenivka, Orlivka and northwest of Avdiivka as part of the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army. Since 18 July 2024, the division as part of Russian forces began an offensive with the goal of capturing the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

Composition

Composition in Germany, c. 1988

Source: Craig Crofoot, GSFG manuscript available at www.microarmormayhem.com, and Holm 2015.
  • Division Headquarters – Halle, East Germany 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 68th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment – Halle 51° 26′ 30″ north, 11° 56′ 50″ east
  • 243rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment – Halle 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 244th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment – Schlotheim 51° 15′ 50″ north, 10° 38′ 30″ east
  • 28th Tank Regiment – Halle 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 54th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment – Halle 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 286th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment – Halle 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 488th Independent Anti-Tank Battalion – Halle 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 5th Independent Reconnaissance & Radio EW Battalion – Mühlhausen 51° 12′ 20″ north, 10° 27′ 00″ east
  • 35th Independent Guards Signals Battalion – Halle 51° 29′ 40″ north, 11° 55′ 40″ east
  • 29th Independent Guards Engineer-Sapper Battalion – Halle 51° 26′ 40″ north, 11° 57′ 10″ east
  • 44th Repair-Reconstruction Battalion
  • 367th Independent Chemical Defence Battalion
  • 21st Independent Medical-Sanitation Battalion
  • 1126th Independent Material Support Battalion
  • 327th independent Helicopter Squadron – Schlotheim

    Composition c. 2001

Source: warfare.ru
  • HQ 27th Motor Rifle Division
  • *81st Motor Rifle Regiment, Samara .
  • *152nd Tank Regiment.
  • *433rd Motor Rifle Regiment .

    Composition in 2024

  • HQ;
  • 433rd Don Cossacks Red Banner Motor Rifle Regiment;
  • 506th Guards Poznan Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Motor Rifle Regiment;
  • 589th Guards Berlin Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov Motor Rifle Regiment;
  • 268th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Poznan Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov Regiment;
  • 1107th Separate Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment;
  • 838th Separate Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment;
  • 907th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion;
  • 1614th Separate Engineer-Sapper Battalion;
  • 834th Separate Communications Battalion;
  • 140th Separate Logistics Battalion;
  • 341st Separate Medical Battalion;
  • Separate Electronic Warfare Battalion;
  • Separate UAV company.

    Commanders

  • Colonel Konstantin Vindushev
  • Colonel Viktor Glebov
  • Major General Dmitry Bakanov
  • Major General Boris Anisimov
  • Major General Ivan Burmakov
  • Colonel Aleksandr Klopov
  • Colonel Mikhail Frolenkov
  • Colonel Georgy Ivanishchev
  • Colonel Ivan Katyshkin
  • Colonel Aleksandr Mironov
  • Colonel Nikolay Storch
  • Colonel Boris Borodin
  • Colonel Zhansen Kereyev
  • Colonel Boris Krylov
  • Colonel Mikhail Moiseyev
  • Colonel Anatoly Ushakov
  • Colonel Valery Nikitin
  • Colonel Aleksandr Zhurov
  • Colonel Valery Gubarenko
  • Colonel Aleksandr Kosyakov
  • Major General Anatoly Sidyakin
  • Major General Averyanov
  • Major General Aleksandr Protchenko
  • Major General Vladimir Zarudnitsky
  • Colonel Aleksey Salmin
  • Major General Dmitry Kovalenko