The 242nd Rifle Division was the lowest-numbered infantry division of the Red Army to be formed from scratch following the German invasion of the USSR. It was largely based on what would become the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of July 29, 1941 and was very quickly assigned to the new 30th Army of Western Front. Despite many shortages of equipment and specialist personnel, and a near-complete absence of formation training, the division joined the active army on July 15, thrown into the fighting near Smolensk. In late August and early September it took part on the Front's offensives toward Dukhovshchina, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to encircle and destroy a large part of the German 9th Army. At the start of Operation Typhoon on October 2 it was defending part of the sector attacked by 9th Army and 3rd Panzer Group south of Bely and was quickly overwhelmed. After fighting in encirclement for most of the rest of the month its remaining men were able to break out and reach Soviet-held territory, but the losses were to too great to justify rebuilding and the division was disbanded.
A new 242nd was formed in the first days of 1942 in the North Caucasus Military District by redesignating a 400-series division. It moved to the front in late April and soon took part in 38th Army's mostly unsuccessful efforts to rescue the Red Army forces trapped in the Izium salient. It then faced two preliminary operations of Army Group South before being encircled in the first weeks of Case Blue. Sufficient of its forces escaped that it was not disbanded, but instead were reorganized as the 242nd Mountain Rifle Division, again in the North Caucasus Military District. It was soon assigned to block the German forces on the Mount Elbrus axis, and from January to October, 1943 took part in the long, attritional struggle for the Taman Peninsula, where it won a battle honor. As part of the Separate Coastal Army it crossed into the Crimea and was decorated for its role in the liberation of Kerch in April 1944, and several of its subunits were also distinguished in the battles for Sevastopol. After being transferred to 4th Ukrainian Front it fought through the Carpathian Mountains and into Czechoslovakia during the winter and spring of 1945, gaining further honors along its combat path. The 242nd Mountain Rifle Division was moved to the Carpathian Ukraine soon after the end of the war, where it was disbanded in 1946.
1st Formation
The division started forming on June 27, 1941, just five days after the start of the German offensive, at Kalinin in the Moscow Military District. Maj. Gen. Kirill Alekseevich Kovalenko was appointed to command the same day; he had been serving as the Red Army's Deputy Inspector of Infantry for most of the previous year, and he would remain in command for the duration of the first formation. Once formed the division had the following order of battle: 897th Rifle Regiment 900th Rifle Regiment 903rd Rifle Regiment 769th Artillery Regiment 772nd Howitzer Artillery Regiment 300th Antitank Battalion 519th Antiaircraft Battalion 321st Reconnaissance Battalion 410th Sapper Battalion 662nd Signal Battalion 240th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 500th Auto Transport Battalion 673rd Field Postal Station 316th Field Office of the State Bank It is noteworthy that no medical/sanitation battalion, field bakery, or veterinary hospital is listed. On July 21 the commander of 30th Army, Maj. Gen. V. A. Khomenko, ordered each of his reserve rifle divisions (242nd, 250th and 251st) to receive a tank battalion from the 110th Tank Division. These battalions were supposed to consist of two companies, one of 10 T-34s and one of 10 BT or T-26 light tanks, plus a BT or T-26 as a headquarters tank.