The 392nd Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served during the Great Patriotic War in that role. It was formed in August in the Transcaucasus Military District as a Georgian National division. It saw its first action in August, 1942, in the 37th Army and in the course of the final push by the 1st Panzer Army in October it was overrun and nearly destroyed, although it was never actually disbanded. In December what remained was moved to the 45th Army on the border with Turkey where it stayed for the duration of the war. Formation The 392nd began forming on August 19, 1941 at Gori in the Transcaucasus Military District, Its order of battle, based on the first wartime shtat (table of organization and equipment) for rifle divisions, was as follows: 790th Rifle Regiment 802nd Rifle Regiment 805th Rifle Regiment 955th Artillery Regiment 162nd Antitank Battalion 183rd Antiaircraft Battery (later 679th Antiaircraft Battalion) 677th Mortar Battalion 454th Reconnaissance Company 673rd Sapper Battalion 843rd Signal Battalion (later 344th Signal Company) 477th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 470th Chemical Protection (Anti-gas) Company 507th Motor Transport Company 242nd Field Bakery 817th Divisional Veterinary Hospital 1450th Field Postal Station 722nd Field Office of the State Bank Lt. Col. Mikhail Vasilevich Evstigneev was assigned to command of the division on the day it formed, and he would remain in command until March 3, 1942. Shortly after it began forming its personnel were noted as being mostly Georgian. (In January, 1944 it would be recorded as being 90 percent Georgian.) It spent almost a year in the rear before seeing combat. For most of 1941 it was under command of the 47th Army near the southern borders of the USSR, and for the first half of 1942 it was part of the 46th Army. On March 4 Col. Isidor Andreevich Silagadze took over the division's command. Battle of the Caucasus As of July 7, when German Army Group A began its part of Operation Blue, the division was in 46th Army in Transcaucasus Front, where it remained as late as August 1. Over the next two weeks, as the German advance continued into the Caucasus region the division was transferred to the 37th Army and the Front organized a viable defense as reported on August 13:The Army had pulled back to the Baksan River before the German XXXX Panzer