53rd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
| 53rd Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active |
I Formation: 1931–46 |
| Country |
 Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Engagements | |
| Decorations |
 Order of Suvorov 2nd class (1st and 2nd formations) |
| Battle honours |
Novoukrainka (1st formation) |
The 53rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army, active during World War II.
The division was formed in 1931. It was stationed in the Volga Military District. On 8 July 1937 it received the honorific "named for Friedrich Engels". Before the war it became part of the 21st Army in the Gomel Region of the Western Special Military District.[1]
Poirer and Connor, in their 1985 Red Army Order of Battle, say that the division fought at Yelnya, on the Dnieper River, at Uman and Targul Frumos. The division was with 46th Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in May 1945.
The division was disbanded in late June 1946 in the Odessa Military District with the 34th Rifle Corps of the 40th Army.[2]
In 1955, the division was reformed from the 318th Rifle Division with the 3rd Rifle Corps at Uzhhorod, inheriting the honorifics "Novorossiysk Order of Suvorov". On 9 September 1955, it became the 39th Mechanized Division.[3] The division received personnel and equipment from the disbanded 13th Guards Mechanized Division in fall 1955 and on 4 December became the 39th Guards Mechanized Division.[4]
References
- ↑ "53-я Новоукраинская Краснознаменная стрелковая дивизия" [53rd Rifle Division]. rkka.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ↑ Feskov et al 2013, p. 489
- ↑ Feskov et al 2013, p. 151
- ↑ Feskov et al 2013, pp. 205–206
- Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.
- Poirer and Connor, Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, 1985