159th Rifle Division (1942-1943)
military unit
The second 159th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in January 1942 in the Ural Military District as a redesignation of a 400-series division. It continued slowly forming into spring, when it became part of 60th Army in Voronezh Front. Through July into September it took part in persistent fighting around the city of Voronezh, latterly as part of 40th Army in the same Front. It was then transferred to Southwestern Front, where it came under command of 5th Tank Army in preparation for the winter counteroffensive. Through most of Operation Uranus the 159th acted as its Army's right flank anchor, engaging in local battles along the upper Chir River against German and Romanian forces. Prior to the start of Operation Little Saturn in December it was transferred first to 1st Guards Army and then to 3rd Guards Army, still in the same Front. It took part in the penetration of the German/Romanian front after the offensive was finally launched on December 16, and during the exploitation phase was partially responsible for the encirclement and destruction of large parts of the Italian 8th Army. On January 15, 1943, in recognition of its accomplishments in the Soviet counteroffensive it would become the 61st Guards Rifle Division.
Formation
The 432nd Rifle Division began forming in December 1941 in the South Ural Military District. In January 1942 it was redesignated as the new 159th Rifle Division.
“159th Rifle Division (1942-1943)” enters the record as military unit. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what 159th, Rifle and Division can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q132572863. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1943 and 1941.
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This entry incorporates text from “159th Rifle Division (1942-1943)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.