The division officially formed on September 16, 1941, at
Krasnodar in the North Caucasus Military District. Its order of battle was as follows: • 1175th Rifle Regiment • 1177th Rifle Regiment • 1179th Rifle Regiment • 907th Artillery Regiment Col. Nikolai Ivanovich Seliverstov was assigned to command of the division on the day it began forming, and he continued in command until mid-September 1942; he returned to command on September 28 with the rank of Major General, and remained in that post until May 8, 1943. About a month after forming, the division was assigned to
56th Army, which was also in the process of forming up near Krasnodar. In November it moved, with its Army, to join
Southern Front and take part in the offensive that liberated
Rostov-on-Don for the first time and drove
1st Panzer Army back to the
Mius River. The 347th remained in 56th Army until April 1942, when it was assigned to the Front reserves. In July it retreated into the Caucasus region and by August 1 it was assigned to
37th Army in the
North Caucasus Front.
Caucasus Campaign When 1st Panzer Army began its offensive towards the Soviet oil-producing center at
Mozdok on August 16, the division was in the reserves of
Gen. I. I. Maslennikov's Northern Group of Forces in North Caucasus Front. In common with the other reserves of the Group, the division was woefully understrength in manpower and heavy weapons. While the German armor pushed through and seized Mozdok on August 25, the Soviet defenses were reorganized, and within days the advance came to a standstill. The 347th, along with most of the rest of Maslennikov's reserves, was concentrated in the depths along the
Ordzhonikidze and
Grozny axes. In the first week of September the Panzer Army renewed its drive, but it proved a slow and grinding advance. which was finally halted on September 28. Maslennikov's forces were also badly depleted from heavy defensive fighting as well as numerous counterattacks. The following day, orders from the
STAVKA directed the following concentration: By late October the division had come under command of
9th Army, which was being readied for a spoiling attack to preempt a further German offensive, but the Germans struck first. In the event, although German armor reached the outskirts of Ordzhonikidze on November 3 and 4, they were soon forced to retreat.
Donbas and Crimean Offensives From December the division was part of
44th Army, which was transferred from North Caucasus Front to Southern Front in February 1943. On May 9, Col. Aleksandr Kharitonovich Ukhimchuk took command of the division from General Seliverstov, and he would hold that command to the end of the war, being promoted to Major General on September 15. Seliverstov was re-assigned to command of the
33rd Guards Rifle Division, and was mortally wounded by enemy shellfire in the fighting along the
Mius River in late July. Just before Southern Front began its offensive into the
Donbas in August the division was reassigned to the
28th Army in the same Front (renamed
4th Ukrainian Front on October 20), where it remained until November. During this operation towards the
Dniepr in the late summer, the 907th Artillery Regiment had a non-standard organization; each of the three battalions had three batteries, one of
122mm howitzers and two of
76mm cannon (12 pieces total). However, while the 1st Battalion had truck-drawn howitzers and horse-drawn cannons, the 2nd Battalion was entirely horse-drawn, freeing up enough trucks to make the 3rd Battalion completely motorized. This allowed that battalion to advance with and support whichever other motorized elements of the division were formed as the
forward detachment. On October 23, the division was recognized for its role in the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, and received its name as an honorific: As 28th Army approached the Crimea on October 30, the 347th was directed to attempt to pass through the
Arabat Spit, one of the three traditional entryways to the peninsula. The German defenses were sparse, with just a battlegroup of German Air Force Jäger Regiment 10 guarding the village of Genischek. At the last moment a battalion of the 686th Grenadier Regiment, plus some antitank guns, were ferried across from the
Chongar Peninsula to reinforce the Spit. In the late afternoon, elements of the division cleared Genischek, but were later halted by the German grenadiers. Given the narrow confines and nature of the terrain, the Arabat is only viable as an entryway if it is uncontested, and no further efforts were made on this route. In November the division was reassigned to
51st Army in the same Front, in the
55th Rifle Corps at the beginning of February. Later that month the entire Corps was transferred to the
2nd Guards Army and the 347th participated in the Crimea Operation from March to May in this Army. In recognition of its role in the success of the
Perekop and
Sivash operations the 347th was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner on April 24. Exactly one month later the division was further awarded the
Order of Suvorov, 2nd Class, for its role in the liberation of
Sevastopol. ==Baltic Offensives==