page_title: 48th Guards Rifle Division
section_title: Operation Bagration
hierarchical_section_title: 48th Guards Rifle Division / Operation Bagration
caption_attribution_description: English: Development of the bobruisk operation during soviet offensive operation bagration from june 24, 1944, 0400 AM to june 27, 1944, 0900 PM Deutsch: Skizze der Kesselschlacht von Bobruisk im Zeitraum vom 24. Juni 1944, 04:00 bis zum 27. Juni 1944, 21:00
context_page_description: The 48th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in October, 1942, based on the 2nd formation of the 264th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was in the 3rd Tank Army when it formed but this force was badly damaged in Army Group South's counteroffensive south of Kharkov in March, 1943 and the division had to be withdrawn for a substantial rebuilding in 57th Army of Southwestern Front during the spring. It remained in the south of Ukraine into early 1944, mostly in either that or the 37th Army, and won a battle honor in the process. It was then removed to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for another rebuilding before returning to the front in May, 1944 and joining the 28th Army, where it remained for the duration of the war. Taking part in the summer offensive in Belarus the 48th Guards was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and several of its subunits also received decorations or distinctions.
context_section_description: In April the division was assigned to the 20th Rifle Corps, with the 55th Guards and 20th Rifle Divisions. It would remain in this Corps, with these divisions, for the duration. When the Army returned to the front it joined the center of 1st Belorussian Front, at the corner northwest of Mozyr, linking with the left-flank armies which stretched along the southern margins of the Pripyat Marshes. While those armies would mostly remain inactive in the first weeks the Front commander, Army Gen. K. K. Rokossovskii, assigned the 28th an active role in the initial phase of the summer offensive in support of 65th Army's drive on Bobryusk. The Army deployed all three of its corps in the first echelon with 20th Corps on a 5 km-wide sector in the center. During the first two days of the battle the Army pressured the flanks of the German 35th and 129th Infantry Divisions, forcing them back towards the railroad south of Bobruysk.
  On June 25 the 28th Army broke into the lines of the two German divisions in five places. The 129th Infantry, by now reduced to the size of a regiment, was forced to rotate to the west, leaving a gap on its corps' north flank. Meanwhile the 18th Rifle Corps of 65th Army was scattering the remnants of 35th Infantry and widening the gap, which was entered by Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliev. By the evening of June 28 Pliev's 30th Cavalry Division reached the outskirts of Slutsk, as the rifle divisions of 28th Army were making their best speed to keep up with the advance of the mobile group. By June 30 German reinforcements were arriving, including elements of the 4th Panzer Division at Baranovichi which were sent to block the road to Slutsk. From June 22 to July 3 the 28th Army and Group Pliev had forced a German retreat of 250 km to the vicinity of Stolbtsy, but the advance now paused to bring up supplies to overcome the increasing resistance.
caption: Bobryusk Offensive. Note initial position of 28th Army north of Mozyr.
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