ANZAC Wrote:Gentlemen another one for those who have the reference. I need the whereabouts of 99th Guards Rifle Regiment, 31st Guards Rifle Division,
11th Guards Army in August 1943.
Many thanks
Brendan
In July it fought on the north of Orel in this area. It's shown on this map from the RKKA in WWII site.
By the end of August it was between Orel and Bryansk, having fought a bit more south. It was part of the general counter offensive after repulsing the Germans at Kursk, but was not actually in the Kursk salient.
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
ANZAC Wrote:And here is another I need help with 110th Guards Brest Rifle Regiment, 38th Guards Lozovaya Red Banner Rifle Division, 70th Army, 2nd Belorussian Front for 16th January 1945.
Thanks in advance
Brendan
Rampaging through central Poland with dozens of other RKKA divisions. :) Hard to pin down who was where, but this map shows the axis of the 70th Army's attack. Though the start line date of 26-Jan is contradicted in other places, where the start date is given as 13-Jan. At any rate, it looks like during January the division moved from about 30 miles north of Warsaw to 40 miles south of Danzig, in about a straight line.
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
Two old two volume sets of the war are by Erickson (Road to Stalingrad, Road to Berlin) and Ziemke (Moscow to Stalingrad, Stalingrad to Berlin) are great to get a broad view of who was where. For the front and Army level Zimeke’s maps are great. For OB there are the old reliables: Poirier and Charles Sharp.
For more detail there is all of Glantz; his works are very specific, and include maps (often frustratingly small text!) and OBs. He’s also got a large series of monographs and translations of which I have a few (his Special Studies, Forgotten Battles, translations of Soviet General Staff Studies, and a bunch of Atlases).
And the RKKA in WWII site.
Multiple sources can be both good and bad. Lots of people just copy what someone else has done and, voila, we now have “proof” because “everyone says it!” :-) Glantz is the go-to guy as far as I’m concerned, because he does direct translations of old Soviet docs. His interpretations (ie his reading of what the history means and why things happened) piss some people off, but I’ve never heard anyone question his facts of translation. And for the who-was-where-when questions that’s what really matters.
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
I have an award card for a Red Star awarded to a junior officer in an "aerial balloon obstacle" (aerostatnoe zagrazhdenie) unit, awarded by the Pacific Fleet for the Japan operation. Since it is a "navy" award there is no citation.
I know balloons were used in WWII, like in London, to prevent aerial attacks - would this have been from ships or shore to preven kamikazee attacks? Any other ideas?
An answer to my own question from the GPW encyclopedia dated 1985:
"a type of anti-aircraft barrier. Widely used to defend cities, industrial regions, naval bases, and other military sites from aerial attack. These were designed to destroy or damage aircraft during their collision with the cables (especially at night or in fog)...Singly they could be employed up to 2500m and in pairs up to 4500m..."
They were apparently nicknamed "swans" and were intended to cause attacking aircraft to fly at higher altitudes, thus affecting their bombing accuracy and divebombing ability.
Observation balloons were also commonly used. Apparently, these were quite effective in spotting troop movements near the front line, and they were often defended by anti-aircraft batteries.
Doing some work on a senior telegraphist from this regiment. His ID seems to link this regiment to the 11th Guards cavalry Division.
The divisional title is heavily abbreviated and I would love to know what all the bits mean. Poirer and Connor give the division's honorifics as “Don Cossacks, Verchnedneprovsk” but I cannot see how these fit. Could anyone please help?
