32nd Guards Motor Rifle Division
The 32nd Guards Motor Rifle Division was an mechanised infantry division of the Soviet Ground Forces.
32nd Guards Rifle Division (1942 – c. 1946) 66th Guards Mechanized Division (c. 1946 – 1957) 114th Guards Motor Rifle Division (1957–1965) 32nd Guards Motor Rifle Division (1965–1989) | |
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Active | 1942–1989 |
Country | Soviet Union |
Allegiance | Red Army |
Branch | Infantry |
Size | Division |
Garrison/HQ | Kalinin (Tver), Kalinin Oblast |
Engagements | World War II |
Decorations | |
Battle honours | Taman |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Mikhail Tikhonov |
It was descended from Red Army World War II formations. It traces its history to the establishment of the 2nd Airborne Corps in May 1942. Mikhail Tikhonov commanded both the 2nd Airborne Corps and the later 32nd Guards Rifle Division. The division fought at Krasnodar, on the Kuban, and in Crimea prior to fighting in Kurland.[1] On 1 June 1942 it was part of 47th Army, North Caucasus Front.[2] The division was with the 2nd Guards Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front in May 1945.
After the war it was reduced for a time to the 5th Independent Guards Rifle Brigade. It then became the 66th Guards Mechanised Division and then the 114th Guards Motor Rifle Division in June 1957. The 114th Guards MRD became the 32nd Guards Motor Rifle Division on 17 November 1964 at Kalinin.[3] The division included the 416th, 418th, and 420th Guards MRRs and 378th Tank Regiment. It was based in the Moscow Military District from 1957 to 1993.[3]
In October 1989 the division was renamed the 5210th Guards Weapons and Equipment Storage Base. The storage base was itself disbanded in 1993.[3]
References
- Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner, The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. ISBN 0-89141-237-9.
- Combat composition of the Soviet Army (BSSA), 1 June 1942 Archived 8 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- Michael Holm, 32nd Guards Motorised Rifle Division, and V.I. Feskov, Golikov V.I., K.A. Kalashnikov, and S.A. Slugin, The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II, from the Red Army to the Soviet (Part 1: Land Forces). (В.И. Слугин С.А. Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской (часть 1: Сухопутные войска)) Томск, 2013. Improved version of 2004 work with many inaccuracies corrected.
- Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA., 2005. ISBN 0-9717650-9-X