227th Rifle Division
The 227th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat of September 13, 1939. It arrived at the front in July and was assigned to 26th Army along the Dniepr, but was fortunate to escape that Army's encirclement in September. During the next several months, the division fought as part of 40th Army in the Kursk region, operating toward Prokhorovka and Oboyan during the winter counteroffensive. It made noteworthy gains during the May 1942 offensive north of Kharkiv but these went for naught when the southern wing of the offensive collapsed. When the main German summer offensive began in late June, the division's 21st Army was directly in the path of the German 6th Army and the depleted 227th was soon destroyed on the open steppes.
A new 227th was formed in August 1943 in North Caucasian Front on the basis of two rifle brigades in 9th Army. In early October, it earned a battle honor for its part in the liberation of Temryuk. It landed in the Crimea in November as part of 56th Army and after the main offensive began in April 1944 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and all three of its rifle regiments would win battle honors for the liberation of Sevastopol in May. In August, it rejoined the active front as part of 7th Guards Army in 2nd Ukrainian Front. After taking part in the campaign that drove Romania out of the Axis, it advanced into Hungary, eventually taking part in the operations that encircled and reduced Budapest. Following this the 227th advanced with 53rd Army into Czechoslovakia and after the German surrender it was moved with the rest of this Army to the far east where it was intended to take part in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, although in the event it saw little, if any, actual combat. It remained in the far east until July 1946 when it was disbanded.
1st Formation
The division began forming on March 1, 1941 at Slavyansk in the Kharkov Military District. When completed it had the following order of battle:- 777th Rifle Regiment
- 789th Rifle Regiment
- 794th Rifle Regiment
- 678th Light Artillery Regiment
- 711th Howitzer Artillery Regiment
- 72nd Antitank Battalion
- 410th Antiaircraft Battery
- 536th Mortar Battalion
- 305th Reconnaissance Battalion
- 395th Sapper Battalion
- 604th Signal Battalion
- 371st Medical/Sanitation Battalion
- 325th Chemical Defense Company
- 699th Motor Transport Company
- 356th Field Bakery
- 53rd Divisional Veterinary Hospital
- 656th Field Postal Station
- 581st Field Office of the State Bank
Battle of Kiev
At the beginning of September, as the German operation started that would eventually encircle most of Southwestern Front, the 227th was still on the Dniepr, sparring with its artillery against elements of 17th Army on the west bank. On the 5th it began moving east toward Romodan because it still had a prewar shtat and assets that had to be reorganized and redistributed. On October 4 the 76mm cannon and crews of the 678th Light Artillery were removed to form a separate antitank regiment while its command cadre went to the 711th which had its 152mm howitzers placed under higher command and was then converted to a standard divisional artillery regiment with a mix of 76mm cannon and 122mm howitzers. This move undoubtedly saved it from the fate of the rest of 26th Army which was largely surrounded and destroyed by mid-September. By the end of the month the division was under command of 40th Army to the west of Mykolaivka. On October 1 Colonel Makarchuk was succeeded in command by Col. Gevork Andreevich Ter-Gasparian. Makarchuk would go on to command the 91st and 302nd Rifle Divisions before he was killed in an air attack in January 1943. Ter-Gasparian had previously commanded the 55th Rifle Division and would remain in command for the duration of the 1st formation.Kursk-Oboyan Operation
By the start of November 40th Army had fallen back to the vicinity of Kursk and was attempting to hold an extensive line with just two rifle divisions, two rifle regiments and three airborne brigades. At the time the main battles were near Moscow and Rostov-na-Donu and the German 2nd Army also had limited forces along this front. During this period most of the division's rifle regiments' mortars were gathered together to form the 536th Mortar Battalion.The right wing forces of Southwestern Front began the Kursk-Oboyan operation on December 20 as part of the overall Soviet winter counteroffensive. By the end of the month the 227th had been transferred to the 21st Army. From the outset the division was tasked with taking Prokhorovka, and especially its railway station, but although the village was occupied the station held out. During these battles one battalion of the 777th Rifle Regiment, under command of Sr. Lt. Khachatur Beglyarovich Melikyan, staged a daring 40km raid behind German lines beginning on January 5, 1942. The battalion seized four German-held positions: the village of Orlovka; the farms of Zorinsky Dvory and Vesely in the Ivnyan district; and Peresyp in the Oboyan district. In the fighting near Oboyan alone the battalion accounted for 21 German vehicles with ammunition, two batteries of artillery, eight machine guns and 22 rifles. On January 8 Melikyan was killed in action at Oboyan. On November 5, 1942 he would be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In March the 227th was briefly moved to 38th Army but it soon returned to 21st Army for the next offensive.
Second Battle of Kharkov
Southwestern Front began regrouping its forces at the end of March. This was a complex process made more difficult by the arrival of the spring rasputitsa. The division had been in the Pyatnitskoye area while with 38th Army but it now shifted south to join the shock group being formed by 21st Army. While in the former Army it had been involved in an operation in the Staryi Saltiv area which had created a bridgehead on the west bank of the Donets River but had suffered losses and required rest and replenishment before the new offensive could begin. The shock group would also include the 293rd and 76th Rifle Divisions and was supported by the 10th Tank Brigade plus the 338th Light, 538th Heavy, and 135th and 156th Artillery Regiments. The remainder of 21st Army would not be actively involved in the offensive so the shock group formed the northern wing of Southwestern Front's attack, with the 227th adjacent to 28th Army to its south.The offensive began at 0630 hours on May 12 with a 60-minute artillery preparation, during the last 15-20 minutes of which Soviet air attacks struck German artillery positions and strongpoints in the main defensive belt. The infantry and direct support tanks kicked off at 0730. While the 28th Army was expected to make the greatest progress due to having the most armor support, in the event its attacks made minimal progress while 21st and 38th Armies made greater gains. All three divisions of the 21st Army's shock group forced crossings of the Donets; the 227th and 293rd penetrated the defensive belt and by the end of the day had captured Ohirtseve, Bugrovatka and Starytsya, having advanced to the north and 6-8km to the northwest. The 293rd was unable to link up with the 76th to form one general bridgehead. The defending 294th Infantry Division took significant losses during the day.
On May 13, while the 293rd and 76th achieved their link-up they made little additional progress. The 227th, on the other hand, bypassed the German positions at Murom from the south, advanced as much as 12km with support of 10th Tank Brigade and captured a line from Hill 217 to Vysokii. Due to the lagging attack of the northern forces of 28th Army the division was increasingly vulnerable to attack from three sides. The following day the division left one rifle battalion to hold Hill 217 as the 293rd attempted to surround and reduce Murom. The remainder of the division continued pushing westward, routing German units and advancing another 6km and capturing the villages of Vergelevka and Pylnaya, aided by the 28th Army's forces finally gaining traction. Meanwhile the right-flank forces of 38th Army were being counterattacked by the 3rd and 23rd Panzer Divisions out of Kharkiv. During the day Colonel Ter-Gasparian was wounded and evacuated, handing over his command to Col. G. M. Zaitsev.
As the German counteroffensive developed on May 15 the 21st Army's shock group and the north flank forces of 28th Army continued to press their attacks northeast of Kharkiv. Meeting increasing resistance, these were unsuccessful; in particular the newly-arriving 168th Infantry Division moved to stave off the loss of Murom. The next day the 21st Army commander, Lt. Gen. V. N. Gordov, was ordered to carry out his earlier assigned missions. As a result of the operations of his division's forward detachments Colonel Zaitsev realized that the German forces on his front had fallen back to the line of the Kharkiv River. Taking advantage of this withdrawal the 227th, along with the neighboring 175th Rifle Division of 28th Army, advanced to the west bank of the Lipets River and the villages of Ustinka, Morokhovets and Bednyi. Lead elements of the division pushed nearly as far as the town of Cheremoshnoe before running into the 168th. This would prove to be the deepest penetration made by the northern group of Soviet forces in this offensive.
These gains proved to be short-lived as on May 17 Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, commander of Southwestern Direction, decided to halt further offensive activity by 21st Army in favor of redeploying the shock group to new positions running from Krasnaya Alekseeva to Pylnaya; this was largely due to ongoing pressure from the 168th Infantry. Also, by this time the 1st Panzer Army's attack against Southern Front's positions in the IziumBarvinkove salient were well underway and Timoshenko's entire offensive was facing disaster. Three Soviet armies were encircled there by May 24 and soon destroyed. The 227th escaped this fate, but had been significantly depleted during the offensive.