It was still in this configuration when the German invasion began on June 22, 1941, and it was soon moved into 49th Army of Reserve Front west of Moscow where it was again reorganized as a regular rifle division, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939, before seeing any combat.

The division would be transferred in early February, along with its Army and Corps, to 3rd Belorussian Front, and all three of its rifle regiments would be decorated for their parts in the fighting in East Prussia.

After serving briefly against Finland during December 1939 - March 1940, it was moved to the Central Asian Military District and began reorganizing as a mountain rifle division at Tashkent on May 15.

Owing to the advance of 2nd Panzer Group to the south, which began on September 30, the Army received orders the next day to entrain for redeployment to this sector; the 194th was to begin loading at Semlyovo [ru] at 1800 hours on October 2.

The STAVKA indicated that:...the general aim of the Front's operations is, first of all, to cut off the enemy that had broken through toward Oryol from their supply sources, and secondly, firmly to keep Bryansk and Karachev in our hands.

Reyter reported on October 5 at 1525 hours that fighting was going on south of Karachev with German tanks and motorized infantry, consisting of up to 40 armored vehicles and two regiments with motorcyclists.

During the evening, German troops captured the eastern portion of the city; the 194th now took up a defense on the west bank of the Snezhet River, with its front facing east.

Both of these groupings will be struck with aviation on the morning of 11 October.The 31st Cavalry Division, reinforced with an infantry detachment, will attack toward Kozelsk.There was not enough strength to create a defense on the Oka River.

The Army's right flank and center faced the German 17th, 137th, 260th, and 52nd Infantry Divisions, but these were not particularly active during October 22-23, with small groups, supported by intensive artillery and mortar fire, attempting to cross the Oka in the Aleksin area.

[24] On the same day these orders were issued, large German forces, supported by air strikes, resumed the offensive along the 238th Rifle Division's sector.

In the course of the first two weeks Zakharkin's troops advanced only slightly from their initial positions from the eastern bank of the Protva River and then along the Oka as far as Sotino, then through Nikulino to the boundary with 50th Army.

018/op, which stated in part:... the 49th Army, while tying down the enemy along the Burinovo-Maleeva (2km east of Vorontsovka) sector with part of its forces (415th and 5th Guards rifle divisions), is to continue the offensive with the remainder of its formations with the objective of eliminating the enemy's Vysokinichi and Aleksin groups...The 194th was to operate in the direction of Gosteshevo and Novaya Slobodka, bypassing Vysokinichi from the south and by the end of the day was to take Nikonovo and Karpovo with its main body; meanwhile its forward detachment was to take Novaya Slobodka.

However, the German XX Army Corps, with remnants of 29th Motorized and 10th Panzer Divisions, were demoralized to a significant degree, striving to simply win time to evacuate their rear echelons before continuing to retreat under cover of rearguards.

The town was encircled on January 13 and overnight the garrison withdrew in small groups; some of these ran into the forward detachment of 5th Airborne Corps and were killed or captured, while others managed to escape toward Myatlevo.

He had served in the Winter War, and had led the remnants of his 64th Rifle Division from near the frontier back to Soviet lines near Bely during Operation Barbarossa.

These units immediately pursued along the Warsaw highway, but ran into strong resistance in the Voronki area, which effectively brought the Medyn-Myatlevo operation to a halt.

[41] At about the time Operation Mars was grinding to a halt the division was moved to the Front's 31st Army,[42] which had suffered heavily in the offensive, but it arrived too late to take part in the fighting, which ended on December 18.

This Army, to which the 194th was soon assigned, was to launch an offensive in the general direction of Sevsk and Unecha Station beginning on the morning of February 15, with the immediate objective of cutting the Bryansk–Gomel railway.

[45] Despite strenuous efforts to ensure timely regrouping and concentration of Central Front's forces into their assembly areas and jumping-off positions for the offensive, persistent poor weather and deteriorating road conditions caused delay to February 25.

This led to a heavy and complex five-day struggle for the German defense line covering that town, which also involved the 60th Rifle Division and the 16th Tank Corps.

The forces of the 65th and 2nd Tank Armies will continue the offensive swiftly, with the intermediate missions - to destroy the enemy in the Dmitrovsk-Orlovskii, Lokot, Igritskoe, Ugreevichi, and Kuznetsovka region, and subsequently attack toward the northeast and north.Upon arrival along the Gremuchee, Nikolaevskoe and Brasovo line the 194th was to be withdrawn into the Front reserve.

[52] Central Front liberated Nizhyn on the Oster River on September 15, which finally triggered the OKH to order a full withdrawal to the Dniepr.

Over the next five days the Front staged a two-pronged thrust northward on either side of Chernihiv which collapsed the flank of 2nd Army, allowing it to advance north toward Gomel.

In three days of fighting, beginning on November 10, the forces of 48th and 65th Armies managed to tear a gap 15km wide and from 8–12km deep in the German defenses, and were halfway to Rechytsa.

[57] With the fall of Gomel, Rokossovskii saw the next objectives of his center armies as Parichi and Babruysk to the northwest; the terrain along this route was excessively swampy but seen as easier to traverse in mid-winter.

Finally, the division smashed the enemy along that line and, continuing the offensive, cut the Iazvin-Sosnovka road and captured the village of Iazvin [15 kilometres northwest of Pechishche] by day's end on 26 January.

[69] Early on the morning of June 28, the 29th Corps was continuing to mop up German remnants in the forests between Zhlobin and the Berezina but in the afternoon began a crossing in the Polovets area to relieve elements of 65th Army south of Babruysk.

A veteran of the Russian Civil War, and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1931, he had been drafted into the Red Army at Kuibyshev in February 1943.

On the 17th the 5th Guards Tank Army deployed southwest of Maków and before long passed through the combat formations of 53rd Corps and attacked the 7th and 299th Infantry Divisions from the march.

The German garrison, consisting of remnants of the 7th and 299th Divisions and the 30th Panzergrenadier Regiment, contested the major brick structures and a series of concrete pillboxes, but despite this units of 42nd Corps soon broke into the town.