The 103rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the
Red Army, formed three times. It was first formed in 1939. It was converted into a motorized division and fought in the
Yelnya Offensive. After being converted back to a rifle division it was destroyed in the
Battle of Vyazma. The division reformed in early 1942 but was destroyed during the
Second Battle of Kharkov. It was reformed a third time in the Far East in summer 1942 and participated in the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
History
First Formation
The division was formed at
Voroshilovsk in August and September 1939[1][2] from the 35th Rifle Regiment of the
74th Rifle Division.[3] The division was converted to a motorized division in March 1941, part of the
26th Mechanized Corps.[4] On 8 July the division became the 103rd Tank Division as a result of the reorganization of Red Army mechanized forces.[3] During July and August, it fought in the
Yelnya Offensive as part of the corps, now subordinated to the
24th Army. On 28 August, it became a rifle division again.[5] In October 1941, it was surrounded and destroyed in the
Spas-Demensky District, trapped in the
Vyazma Pocket.[6] However, the division was only disbanded on 27 December,[7] despite coming out of the encirclement with only thirty men.[8]
Second Formation
The division was reformed on 9 January 1942 from the 463rd Rifle Division (originally formed 22 December 1941) at
Samarkand. The 103rd was composed of the 393rd, 583rd and 688th Rifle Regiments. In early March, the division was relocated to
Starobilsk with the
28th Army and fought in the
Second Battle of Kharkov during May 1942. Due to supply shortages the division was not provided with food from 28 April to 2 May.[9] On 19 May, it became part of 6th Army[10] but was surrounded and destroyed at Izyum between 25 and 27 May. The division was officially disbanded on 30 June 1942.[11][12]
^"Denis Osadchy". Герои страны ("Heroes of the Country") (in Russian).
^
abDrig, Yevgeny (12 April 2007).
"26 механизированный корпус" [26th Mechanized Corps]. mechcorps.rkka.ru (in Russian). Archived from
the original on 2009-02-04. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
^Semidetko, Vladimir (January 2008).
"ХАРЬКОВСКАЯ КАТАСТРОФА МАЯ 1942 ГОДА" [The Kharkov Disaster May 1942]. historia.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 29 May 2016.
^"103-я (ф. 1941) стрелковая дивизия -" [103rd (1941) Rifle Division – Home of the Club "Memory" Voronezh State University]. samsv.narod.ru (in Russian). Archived from
the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
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.
ISBN9785895035306.