Following a further abortive offensive against the German Gotenkopfstellung on the Taman Peninsula that month the division was moved into reserve and then sent northwest to join the 44th Army in Southern Front.

Under this command the 109th Guards fought along the southern flank of the German bridgehead over the Dniepr River based at Nikopol until it was finally evacuated in early February 1944.

In mid-March 1945 the division began advancing through northern Hungary and into Czechoslovakia as part of the 18th Guards Rifle Corps in 53rd Army, ending the war against Germany near Brno.

It then moved under these commands to the far east and took part in the offensive into Manchuria, winning a second battle honor in the process although it saw little actual fighting.

This officer would remain in this position for the duration of the war, becoming a Hero of the Soviet Union on September 8, 1945 and being promoted to the rank of major general on the same date.

[5] In the late May fighting near Moldavanskoye both Brigades had been in 10th Guards Corps of 56th Army and made only minor gains before the offensive bogged down.

[7] A new offensive began on July 16 after a massive artillery preparation at 0400 hours and initially involved only the 10th and 11th Guards Corps on a 7km-wide sector on the boundary between the 97th Jäger and 98th Infantry Divisions but this was almost immediately halted with heavy losses.

[15] Until the end of February 1944 the 28th Army was involved in the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog offensive, facing the southern flank of the German-held Nikopol bridgehead over the Dniepr near Bolshaya Lepatikha until early that month when this was finally evacuated.

Due in part to an unusually mild winter the pace of operations on both sides remained slow through the rest of the month.

Malinovskii, began a new offensive on March 4 with the objectives of crossing the Bug and Dniestr rivers prior to forcing the border into Romania.

The troops who participated in the liberation of Kherson and Beryslav, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 13 March 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

[19]On March 28 the division took part in the battle for Nikolaev with the rest of its Corps and on April 1 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for this victory.

[20] Immediately following the victory at Nikolaev the left (south) wing of 3rd Ukrainian Front continued its advance on the city of Odessa, which was expected to be taken at the earliest around April 5.

This was led by Pliyev's Cavalry-Mechanized Group, followed by the 8th Guards and 6th Armies to envelop the city from the northwest and west while the 5th Shock was to advance on its defenses directly from the east.

Once this was accomplished Malinovskii ordered Pliyev to race south as fast as possible to cut the withdrawal routes of the German forces from the Odessa region.

With the trap closing shut the remainder of the defending LXXII Army Corps began breaking out to the west, allowing the Soviet forces to occupy the city's center at 1000 hours on April 10 after only minor fighting.

[23] Following the battle for Odessa, the STAVKA ordered Malinovskii's Front to mount a concerted effort to force the Dniestr, capture Chișinău, and eventually occupy all of eastern Bessarabia.

The two Corps began their assault at dawn on April 20 after a short artillery raid but made no progress at all against stiff resistance.

By the end of the next day the Corps was to arrive in the Comrat area; by this time the Axis Kishinev grouping had been encircled following the linkup of 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts.

During the next days the 10th Guards Corps exploited to cross the Prut River while the remaining German forces were destroyed east of it.

[31] In the fighting on the approaches to Belgrade Sr. Lt. Aram Avvakumovich Safarov, a company commander of the 309th Guards Rifle Regiment, was one of the first men of the division to cross the Danube in the area of Ritopek on October 7.

It became clear that further efforts to take Budapest from the south would be unsuccessful and so the STAVKA began planning a renewed offensive on a broad front to outflank and encircle the city and 46th Army was ordered to temporarily go over to the defense on November 8.

46th Army was assigned a sector from northwest of Baracska to Kápolnásnyék with two rifle corps and was backed by 2nd Guards Mechanized; from here it was to advance to the area of Etyek–Zsámbék–Bicske and be prepared to take the western part of the city.

As the success of the rifle divisions attacking along Lake Velence became clear the 2nd Guards Mechanized was committed into the gap at 1000 hours.

The next day the offensive accelerated as the mobile corps in particular cut several routes west out of the city and the Army's main forces advanced on Bicske.

[40] The battle for the city continued from January 1 - February 13, 1945 and the 109th Guards was heavily involved in the fighting for Buda while the main forces of 46th Army and, indeed, much of the rest of 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts fought off several German relief attempts.

Small groups managed to filter through the positions of the besiegers and began to spread to the northwest into the rear of 3rd Ukrainian Front's right-flank units.

[45] Following the German "Spring Awakening" offensive in March, during which the division was assigned to the 18th Guards Rifle Corps in 46th Army,[46] the Soviet forces in Hungary went over to the counteroffensive on the 16th.

The advance was unhindered and on September 1 the 53rd Army occupied Kailu, Chaoyang, Fuxin and Gushanbeitseifu while forward detachments reached the Chinchou area on the Gulf of Liaotung.

53rd Army was disbanded in October and in 1946 the 18th Guards Corps was transferred to the West Siberian Military District and stationed at Omsk.