51st Guards Rifle Division
military unit
The 51st K. E. Voroshilov Guards Vitebsk Order of Lenin Red Banner Rifle Division (Russian: 51-я гвардейская стрелковая Витебская ордена Ленина Краснознамённая дивизия имени К. Е. Ворошилова) was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II that continued serving in the Soviet Army in the early years of the Cold War.
The division was formed in November 1942 from the 76th K. E. Voroshilov Red Banner Rifle Division, converted into an elite Guards unit designated the 51st Guards Rifle Division for its actions in Operation Uranus during the Battle of Stalingrad. The 51st Guards fought in Operation Koltso at the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, receiving the Order of Lenin for its actions. The division went on to fight in the Battle of Kursk in 1943 and Operation Bagration in 1944, receiving the Vitebsk honorific for its performance in the Vitebsk–Orsha offensive during the latter. The division advanced into Latvia in the Šiauliai offensive, ending the war blockading the Courland Pocket. Stationed in Latvia postwar, the division was converted into the 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1957 and was disbanded in 1960 during reductions of Soviet conventional forces. Its personnel were retrained and formed the core of the new 29th Guards Rocket Division, which inherited the honors of the 51st Guards.
Origins and Battle of Stalingrad
The 76th K. E. Voroshilov Red Banner Rifle Division received Guards status and became the 51st Guards Rifle Division on 23 November 1942, as a reward for its performance during Operation Uranus in the Battle of Stalingrad, in which the division attacked out of the Kletskaya bridgehead with the 21st Army, defeating the opposing Romanian troops. The 76th was one of the prewar divisions of the Red Army and had originally been formed in 1920 as an Armenian unit. The division, commanded by Major General Nikolay Tavartkiladze, received its Guards battle flag on 5 January 1943.
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