The 49th Guards Rifle Division was formed in the Western Front reserves near Moscow on 13 October 1942 from the remains of the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division. The unit was immediately assigned to the newly formed 13th Guards Rifle Corps in the 2nd Guards Army. They were sent south to the Stalingrad area in December 1942 and went into action south of Stalingrad.
When formed, its order of battle was as follows:
144th Guards Rifle Regiment
147th Guards Rifle Regiment
149th Guards Rifle Regiment
100th Guards Artillery Regiment
56th Guards Separate Anti-tank Battalion
64th Guards Anti-Aircraft Battery (up to 25 April 1943)
1st Guards Machine Gun Battalion (up to 1 June 1943)
51st Guards Reconnaissance Company
57th Guards Separate Sapper Battalion
77th Guards Separate Signals Battalion
561st (53rd) Medical and Sanitation Battalion
52nd Guards Separate Chemical Defense Company
609th (53rd) Auto-Transport Company
638th (48th) Field Bakery
641st (50th) Divisional Veterinary Hospital
572nd Field Postal Station
44th Field Office of State BankTroops of the division on the march during the Second Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, late August 1944
Later the division helped liberate Kherson (the name "Khersonskaya" was conferred on the division). It took part in the liberation of Romania and Hungary.
After the end of the war the division became a part of the Southern Group of Forces, being reorganised as the 33rd Guards Mechanised Division.[1] In September 1949 the 33rd Guards Mechanized Division[2] arrived in Timișoara from the Odessa Military District, becoming part of the Special Mechanized Army. The 33rd Guards Mechanized Division was detached to the Special Corps and fought in Operation Whirlwind, the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[3] After the end of the operation, the division became part of the newly reformed Southern Group of Forces. On 4 June 1957, the division became the 33rd Guards Motor Rifle Division.[4] The division was based at Győr with the 38th Army. In 1958 it moved to Kishinev and became part of the 14th Army. The division was disbanded there on 8 October 1960.[5]
Drogovoz, Igor (2003). Танковый меч страны Советов [Tank Sword of the Soviet country] (in Russian). Moscow: AST. ISBN9851311332.
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.
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Red Army
Divisions of the Soviet Union 1945–1957