The 101st Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in December 1944, based on the 1st formation of the 14th Rifle Division, and served briefly in that role during the final campaigns in northern Germany during the Great Patriotic War.
As combat operations ended in northern Finland and Norway the Karelian Front became redundant and its forces were free to be redeployed to active fronts. The 101st Guards was reassigned to 19th Army where it joined the 40th Guards Rifle Corps and began moving by rail to the south and west. When it arrived in 2nd Belorussian Front in late January the Soviet offensive into Poland and eastern Germany was already well underway and the rebuilt divisions of 19th Army were committed into the fighting for East Pomerania and West Prussia. In the battles up to the end of March the division and several of its subunits won a number of decorations and distinctions for its successes, particularly in the siege of Gdynia. 40th Guards Corps was redeployed to the Oder River as the final offensive on Germany was beginning in mid-April and was reassigned to the 2nd Shock Army, but was largely retained as a Front reserve and saw little combat in those last weeks of the war. Following the German surrender the 101st Guards, along with the rest of 2nd Shock, served briefly in the Soviet occupation zone but within months returned to northern Russia where it was disbanded in mid-1946.
Formation
Following the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive, which ended in late October 1944, the 14th was moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command along with the rest of the forces of the disbanded Karelian Front. As of the beginning of December it was part of the 99th Rifle Corps of 19th Army. On December 30 the division officially became the 101st Guards; it would receive its Guards banner in January 1945. Once the division completed its reorganization its order of battle was as follows: 321st Guards Rifle Regiment (from 95th Rifle Regiment) 326th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 155th Rifle Regiment) 329th Guards Rifle Regiment (from 325th Rifle Regiment) 417th Guards Artillery Regiment (from 143rd Artillery Regiment) 118th Guards Antitank Battalion (later 113th Guards Antitank Battalion) 111th Guards Reconnaissance Company 143rd Guards Sapper Battalion 196th Guards Signal Battalion 75th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 123rd Guards Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 139th Motor Transport Company 603rd Field Bakery 203rd Divisional Veterinary Hospital 669th Field Postal Station 185th Field Office of the State Bank The division remained under the command of Col. Fyodor Alekseevich Grebyonkin who had led the 14th since October 19. It retained the battle honor "Pechenga" (Petsamo) that it had won on October 15 for the liberation of that town. In addition, the 321st and 326th Guards Rifle Regiments also kept their honorifics for the capture of the Norwegian town of Kirkenes on October 25, while the 329th Guards Rifle Regiment had been awarded the Order of Aleksandr Nevsky on November 14 for its part in the same battle. In an unusual decision the division was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner on January 6 for its part in the battles for Pechenga.
Combat History
At the beginning of January the division was still in 19th Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command but had been assigned to the 40th Guards Rifle Corps, along with the 10th and the 102nd Guards Rifle Divisions. This Corps and its Army left the Reserve and joined the active army on January 29, coming under command of the 2nd Belorussian Front. The Vistula-Oder Offensive had begun on January 12 and was drawing to a close by this time after a massive Soviet advance. The commander of the Front, Marshal K. K. Rokossovskii, would launch the East Pomeranian Offensive on February 10 in response to STAVKA directives No. 11021 and No. 11022 of February 8 and 9. The offensive was required due to the gap of about 150km in width that had developed between his Front in East Prussia and the 1st Belorussian Front which had reached the Oder River days earlier. After concentrating, the armies of 2nd Belorussian would attack toward Köslin and reach the Baltic coast, then turn to the northeast and east and capture the cities of Danzig and Gdynia.