On June 22, 1941, the order of battle of the 169th was as follows: As the German offensive began the division was headquartered northwest of Zhmerynka ,[5] but its subunits were spread over 65km in peacetime garrisons around Lipkany, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, and Grushka along the Dniestr River.

Allowing a column of Romanian tanks to come as close as 150m before opening fire, in an hour of fighting he destroyed four of them, including two when he had only one other member of his crew remaining.

After the latter arranged for renewed artillery and air strikes on the high point he led a combined infantry and tank attack which returned the regiment to the objective, whereupon it resumed its advance.

In the event, 28th Army had gained only 2–4km in heavy fighting through the day and German forces continued to hold Varvarovka and Ternovaya, hindering the development of the offensive, even though the former had been encircled.

When combat resumed on the morning of May 13 Ryabyshev decided to develop the offensive on his left flank, taking advantage of the gains made by 38th Army the day before.

By the middle of the day disconcerting intelligence reports were reaching Ryabyshev about large concentrations of German armor and infantry massing east of the city.

In the subsequent fighting the senior lieutenant, his chief of staff, and dozens of soldiers fell killed or wounded, but the attack was halted, with an estimated 30 vehicles knocked out.

The 169th was also forced to pull back 5-8km northward, finally taking up positions with second echelon units of 5th Guards Cavalry Division and occupied defenses in the height 207–Kozlov–Bezbozhnye sector.

By this time the southern shock group, and indeed all the Soviet forces in the Izium salient, were in danger of encirclement and destruction due to the counteroffensive launched the same day by 1st Panzer Army in the area of Barvinkove.

[26] Having attained this success, 6th Army did not press the offensive on this sector, but instead began to withdraw the two panzer divisions back to Lyptsi as a preliminary to redeployment toward the Barvinkove salient, where the Soviet situation was going from bad to worse.

As a preliminary to the main German summer offensive Gen. F. Paulus, commander of 6th Army, intended to eliminate the bridgehead in a pincer attack in order to gain crossing points over the Donets.

[32] On October 17 the commander of Stalingrad Front, Col. Gen. A. I. Yeryomenko, submitted a plan to the STAVKA for a further effort to break through to the encircled 62nd Army in the city, or at least to divert German forces from the battle there.

In the event, due to difficulties in organization it did not kick off until 0900 hours on October 25; the 371st lost several hundred metres of ground in Kuporosnoe to the 422nd, plus as much as 2km west of the town, but soon stabilized the situation, although fighting continued until November 1.

The battle seesawed through the night and next day, until the German division was ordered northward towards Stalingrad, after which the 169th and its supporting tanks continued to exploit their penetration westwards.

At this time most of the Front's rifle divisions had 4,500 to 5,500 personnel each but the German force was severely weakened by previous fighting and lack of supplies to the failed airlift.

[42] By the end of the first day the defenses of German IV Army Corps had been pierced on a broad sector west and east of the Chervlenaya and the strongpoint at Tsybenko was in the process of being encircled.

On January 11, 64th Army was to continue its advance both to gain territory and prevent German forces from shifting to the west side of the pocket, which was beginning to collapse; in fact, IV Corps had no reserves to spare.

The advance resumed the next day; 36th Guards and 29th Divisions captured Peschanka from the 297th Infantry and then pushed eastward toward Verkhnaya Elshanka, which provided the 169th and 157th a gap to exploit toward the northeast.

On January 27 the STAVKA issued orders for the 169th and 157th, plus two rifle brigades, to be withdrawn from the Army into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command,[45] although in the case of the 169th this was not completed until February 5.

After penetrating the defense the attackers were to advance in the direction of Belyi Verkh, Ulyanovo and Krapvina, and by the end of the second day the line of the Resseta River was to be reached.

The two German divisions, supported by reserves from LIII Army Corps, began to recover and attempt to consolidate on a line from Zhelyabova to Rechitsa while also launching counterattacks, which were driven off with heavy casualties.

Bagramyan's Army had now penetrated to a depth of 12-25km on a 23km-wide front, had routed the two German infantry divisions and elements of 5th Panzer, and favorable conditions had been created for a further attack toward Bolkhov or to cut the Oryol–Bryansk railroad and paved road.

It was now fighting along the Resseta River with its right flank units, attempting to take crossings and bridgeheads on the left bank against the influx of German reserves, including 5th Panzer and 183rd Infantry Divisions.

Bagramyan was directed to attack with his left wing southward in order to cut the Oryol–Byransk roads, while part of its forces would also help 61st Army to encircle and destroy the German Bolkhov grouping.

The 8th and 36th Guards Corps with heavy tank support went over to the attack at 1300 and quickly broke through the forward edge of the German defense, which was soon falling back to its intermediate line.

The town was now outflanked from three sides and on the morning of August 10 was completely cleared of German forces as remnants fell back to the west; the battle had cost them 7,500 officers and men, 70 armored vehicles and 176 guns and mortars.

This made moderate progress on this first day and was renewed on June 24 at 0400 following another heavy bombardment lasting two hours, and the first line of trenches fell by 0800, but then stalled until the weather cleared and airstrikes could begin.

Given the position at day's end, Rokossovskii tasked 48th Army with eliminating the pocket southeast of Babruysk while 3rd and 65th, assisted by the Dniepr River Flotilla, captured the city itself.

[70] Between June 30-July 6 the 9th Tank Corps made a 200km deep "raid" into the Minsk area, and the 169th organized a forward detachment in support, composed of the 434th Rifle Regiment loaded onto every truck available, plus the 160th Antitank Battalion, with extra troops from the "Burevestnik" Partisan Brigade picked up along the way.

As the size of the pocket contracted during the day it was clear that 9th Army was facing final defeat and a new attack began at 0100 hours on April 29 with up to 10,000 infantry and 35-40 tanks.