16th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

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16th 'Lithuanian' Rifle Division
Soldiers of the 16th Rifle Division enter the Lithuanian SSR, prior to its invasion in 1944.
Active	December 18, 1941 – May 1945
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Soviet Army
Type	Infantry
Size	10,250
Nickname	'Lithuanian'
Engagements	World war II Battle of Kursk Operation Bagration Baltic Offensive
Battle honours	Order of the Red Banner
Commanders
Notable commanders	Major General Feliksas Žemaitis (1943) Major General V. Karvelis (1944–1945) Major General A. Urbšas (1945–)

The 16th Rifle Division (Russian: 16-я 'Литовская' стрелковая дивизия, Lithuanian: 16-oji 'Lietuviškoji' divizija), was a formation in the Red Army created during the Second World War. The division was formed twice, and was given the title 'Lithuanian' during its second formation. It was originally established at Novgorod in October 1939. It was wiped out at Mga in 1941. Reformed and given the title 'Lithuanian', the division participated in several battles against Nazi Germany, including Kursk, Belarus, and the Baltic.

1 History
- 1.1 Creation
- 1.2 Battle
2 Structure (World War II)
3 Ethnic composition
4 See also
5 References

[edit] History

At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa the 16th Rifle Division (I Formation) was part of North-Western Front's 27th Army, reporting directly to Army headquarters along with the 67th Rifle Division and 3rd Rifle Brigade.^[1] As noted above, it was destroyed at Mga amid the first German drive on Leningrad.

[edit] Creation

When the 16th Division was reformed after its destruction, it was given the name 'Lithuanian' largely for political purposes. Lithuania, along with Estonia and Latvia, was only occupied by the USSR in 1940 and then again in 1944, thus the possibility of Lithuanian-German collaboration was very possible. Since the division was officially labeled "Lithuanian", there was hope that it would recruit citizens of the newly formed Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. The decision on formation of the division was made by the State Defense Committee, on December 18, 1941. It was to be formed in the Moscow Military District, in the city of Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.^[2] Personnel was assembled from staff and remnants of the 184th Rifle Division (29th Rifle Corps) and any Lithuanian speaking refugees that were fleeing Lithuania after the German invasion. The officers of the division were by in large graduates from the Vilnius infantry academy, who were evacuated after the invasion to Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Oblast.

[edit] Battle

Main article: Eastern Front (World War II)

Formation and training of the division came to an end by February 1943. The division entered the war on February 21, 1943 at Alekseyevka, 50km southeast of Oryol. This brought the division into the path of the Wehrmacht's "Operation Citadel", where it served with the 42nd Rifle Corps of the 48th Army, Soviet Central Front. In the first days of the battle, the 16th Rifle Division withstood the attack of the German 383rd Infantry and 18th Panzer Divisions, that were accompanied by 120 planes.^[3] After suffering serious losses, the Soviet armies eventually emerged victorious. During this battle a private named Viktoras Jacenevičius, was wounded, taken prisoner and then tortured to death by the Germans. He was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Following the victory at Kursk, the division was assigned to the 1st Baltic Front. On 1 June 1944, the division was directly subordinate to the Front, along with 47th Rifle Division.^[4] Along with the three Belarussian Fronts, they invaded Belarus and much of Lithuania. On August 2, 1944, division had arrived at the suburbs of Šiauliai, which was home to their commander, Vladas Karvelis. The division was stationed there for one month, to receive reinforcements from Lithuanian forced-volunteers. In mid-August the city of Šiauliai was hit by a German counter-attack. The Nazi divisions were armed with 900 units of tanks and artillery. For three days the division persistently defended, and in the end the 16th Division emerged victorious. On October 31, 1944 the division was awarded an award of the Red Banner for successful operations on clearing Samogitia. On January 31, 1945, the Lithuanian division received orders to join the fight against the Germans in the Courland Pocket. The German resistance was incredibly strong and elements of Army Group Courland would not surrender to the Soviets until May 8 and 9 at the end of World War II in Europe.

The 16th Rifle Division was disbanded after the end of the war, but briefly reactivated in 1955 in the Volga-Urals Military District before being finally disbanded.^[5]

[edit] Structure (World War II)

156th Rifle Regiment (commander — Colonel, V. Luinia)
167th Rifle Regiment (commander — Colonel, Vladas Motieka)
249th Rifle Regiment (commander — Lieutenant Colonel F.Lysenko)
224th Artillery Regiment (commander — Major, Povilas Simonaitis)
Signal Battalion
Field Engineer Battalion (commander - Major, Petras Ciunis)
Anti-tank Battalion
Mortar Battalion

[edit] Ethnic composition

As of January 1, 1943, of the 10,250 soldiers and officers of the division, 7,000 of them were ethnic Lithuanians and/or inhabitants of the Lithuanian SSR. The total ethnic make-up of the division was: 3720 Lithuanians (36.3%), 3064 Russians (29%), 2973 Jews (29%), and 492 of other nationalities (4.8%). Although other sources cite figures of 2378 Jews (23.2%) in the division, it is still the highest number of ethnic Jews amongst all divisions of the Red Army. ^[6] Jews made 13% (136 persons) of all officers in the division and 34.2% of all soldiers in the infantry regiments. 12 soldiers of a division have been awarded the title, Hero of Soviet Union, of them, four were Jews: major Volf Vilensky, sergeant Kalman Shur, corporal Grigorijus Ušpolis and private Borisas Cindelis (posthumously).

Originally, commands and orders were given in the Lithuanian language. However over third of all soldiers in the division did not speak Lithuanian. More problems arose when officers from other divisions were sent to train and transfer their fighting experience to the soldiers of the 16th. Most of them had never heard a word of Lithuanian in their lives, and were mainly Russophone. For these reasons, the language of commands, orders and even conversation, became Russian.