226th Rifle Division

The 226th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed as one of the first reserve rifle divisions following the German invasion of the USSR. After being hastily organized it arrived at the front along the lower Dniepr River as part of 6th Army and in the wake of the German victory in the Kiev encirclement it fell back toward, and then past, Kharkiv and spent the winter fighting in this area. During the Second Battle of Kharkov in May 1942 it scored early successes but was soon forced back by counterattacking panzers and barely escaped destruction in the first phases of the German summer offensive. After rebuilding in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command the division returned to the front north of Stalingrad where it joined the 66th Army. It took heavy losses in one of the last efforts to break through to the city before Operation Uranus cut off the German 6th Army, but it still played an important role in the reduction of the pocket during Operation Ring and as a result was redesignated as the 95th Guards Rifle Division in May 1943.

A new 226th was formed on July 22 in the 60th Army of Central Front based on two rifle brigades, one of which had fought at Stalingrad. By this time the Battle of Kursk had ended in a Soviet victory and Central Front was already involved in battles to reduce the salient held by German 9th Army around Oryol before breaking out into northeastern Ukraine. The division rapidly won distinctions, including two battle honours and two decorations, by the following February. It forced a crossing of the Dniepr River north of Kyiv in late September, and 23 of its men were made Heroes of the Soviet Union, several posthumously. During the German counterattacks west of Kyiv in late November, it was encircled at Korosten and forced to break out with considerable losses. In May 1944 it was assigned to the 11th Rifle Corps of 18th Army and served in this Corps almost continuously for the duration. The 226th broke into the Carpathian Mountains in the late stages of the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive and thereafter took part in the battles for Czechoslovakia as part of 1st Guards Army and, in the last weeks, 38th Army. Its subunits gained additional honors during this fighting before the division was disbanded in the summer of 1945.