The 270th Rifle Division () was a Red Army infantry division formed twice during World War II, in 1941 and 1942. The division was first formed in July 1941 and was destroyed in the Second Battle of Kharkov. Reformed in the summer of 1942, the division fought on the Eastern Front for the rest of the war. Postwar, it was relocated to the south Urals and downsized into a brigade. The brigade was briefly expanded back to a division in 1953, but was renumbered in 1955. History First Formation The 270th began forming on 10 July 1941 at Melitopol, part of the Odessa Military District, under the command of Colonel Zaki Kutlin. Its key fighting units included the 973rd, 975th, and the 977th Rifle Regiments, as well as the 810th Artillery Regiment. Formed from militia and reservists east of the Dnieper bend in about a month, the division was assigned to the Southern Front's 12th Army by late August. In September, it was transferred to the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. In January 1942, the 270th participated in the Barvenkovo–Lozovaya Offensive, during which Soviet advances resulted in the formation of a large bulge at Izyum in Soviet lines to the south of Kharkov. At the end of the month, the division helped capture the critical rail junction at Lozovaya. During the initial attack in the Second Battle of Kharkov, the 270th was assigned to Army Group Bobkin. The group was to break through the German line in the sector of Koshparovka and Kiptivka, capture a line from Dmitrovka to Seredovka, and allow the 6th Cavalry Corps to advance through the gap. The group was to advance to the west and southwest, capturing the line of Sofievka, Tarasovka, and Andreyevka by the end of the fourth day of the offensive, and reach the line of Kegichevka, Dar Nadezhdy, Sakhnovshchina, and Lukashevka by the end of the seventh day. On 11 May, the day before the beginning of the offensive, a regiment of the division was concentrated in the first echelon in the Koshparovka and Kiptivka sector alongside the 393rd Rifle Division. The two remaining regiments of the division defended a line from Nizhnaya Plesovaya to Petrovka. The German attack in the Second Battle of Kharkov trapped Soviet forces in this bulge, which became known as the Izyum pocket. The 270th was among the divisions wiped out, and was officially disbanded