During the summer and into October it was steadily weakened in attritional fighting along the Don River until it was removed to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding.

Once this Army had been effectively destroyed the 195th took part in Operation Gallop, driving into the Donbas region before being halted and temporarily encircled in Field Marshal E. von Manstein's "backhand blow" in February/March 1943.

Serving in the 6th Guards Rifle Corps of this Army the 195th advanced to the Dniestr River in early April, where it helped to establish a substantial bridgehead in the Tiraspol area, but this was contained by German reinforcements and 3rd Ukrainian Front went over to the defensive for several months.

The commander of Southwestern Front, Marshal S. M. Budyonny, signalled the STAVKA that this Army's divisions were withdrawing to a line some 20km north of the Repki region, where elements of 31st Corps were organizing defenses.

Although they were able to retain a small wedge in German defenses east of the Don at Semiluki, heavy air strikes and counterattacks repulsed or halted any subsequent attacks.

Due to the poor visibility a portion of the Italian-German positions had escaped the artillery and these opened a powerful fire on the attackers, while also staging counterattacks with tanks.

Its right-flank formations, including the 195th, with air and tank support, took Dantsevka, Krasnodar, and Raskovka, and reached the southern bank of the Bogucharka River by noon.

During the night of 12-13.2.1943 units of the 41st Guards Rifle Division abandoned Bylbasovka and fell back to its northern outskirts under pressure from numerous enemy counterattacks.

Finally understanding the deadly threat facing his Front, at 0410 on February 24 Vatutin ordered Popov's mobile group to be disbanded, with its remnants used to reinforce 1st Guards Army.

6th Guards Corps was in Parkhomenko, Nizhnii Ukrainskii, Dobropole, Sofievka, Blagodat, and Razdole, while repelling attacks by up to 2-3 regiments of infantry, supported by 60-70 tanks.

He dutifully reported to the STAVKA at 0200 hours on February 28, among other items, that the 195th continued to fight encircled in the Marinopole, Valerianovka, Novo-Morokino, and Chervonogo Shpil regions at 1600 the previous day.

However, on the morning of September 6 a slashing attack by 1st Guards Mechanized Corps and nine rifle divisions utterly compromised the boundary between 6th and 1st Panzer Armies and the commander of the latter stated that there was no other recourse but to retreat to the Dnieper.

The Front's first effort to renew the drive began on January 10, 1944, led mainly by 46th Army, but made only modest gains at considerable cost and was halted on the 16th.

The offensive was renewed on January 30 after a powerful artillery preparation against the positions of the German XXX Army Corps on the same sector of the line, but this was met with a counter-barrage that disrupted the attack.

The bridgehead area was low-lying, dotted with small lakes and swamps, traversed by many smaller rivers, and was dominated by high ground farther to the west.

On April 10 the 195th and 20th Guards captured the eastern approaches to Slobozia, and the commander of the latter was ordered to complete seizing the town and prepare to make a crossing with two rifle regiments the following night.

[55] During the fighting on April 12, Sen. Lt. Nikolai Grigorievich Sharikov, a battalion commander of the 573rd Rifle Regiment, distinguished himself sufficiently to become a Hero of the Soviet Union.

On the eve of the offensive the division's newspaper, "For the Motherland", printed a series of advisory articles with the titles: "The Power of the Antitank Rifle"; "The Grenade is Small, but Mighty"; "How to Determine the Distance to the Target"; and "Fight Like the Oath Commands You".

The previous afternoon, 6th Army had committed its only operational reserve, 13th Panzer Division, to deploy its main forces to that place, manning a line from height 196.7 to Căușeni to Yermokliya.

As a result of the massive artillery strike, the skilful maneuver of units and the timely commitment of the 195th from second echelon, by 1100 Yermokliya was captured with its garrison encircled and destroyed.

Kotov brought up the 10th Guards Airborne after dusk to outflank Saitsi from the south, and the entire Corps went into an attack which cleared the village by 0100 hours on August 22.

00442, assigning a mission of "beating off the enemy rearguards, throwing them back to the north and, by the close of 22 August... [to] capture the Sălcuța–Taraclia–Kenbaran–Saka River area with the rifle formations."

In this situation General Sharokin was assigned the mission of concentrating two rifle corps along his left flank, along with his main reinforcements, and continue an energetic pursuit to the northwest and west, aiming to reach the line Satu Nou–Gradishtya–the Yaplug River–Comrat by the day's end.

Sharokin therefore directed 6th Guards Corps to reach a line from Zhavgur to Comrat with its main forces by the end of the day, while its forward detachment was to seize Leova.

6th Guards Corps easily broke through the Cogâlnic line in the morning, severely defeating the 163rd Ersatz Division, the 911th Assault Gun Brigade, and other specialized units.

General Sharokhin therefore gave the appropriate orders to 6th Guards Corps, which was to reach the Prut with its main forces by the end of the day, along a sector west of Tomai, Leova and Ginchesht.

Throughout the day the main body of the German grouping (XXXXIV, LII and XXX Army Corps), which had reached the Kotovskoe area, attempted to break through to the southwest and west to the crossings over the Prut.

In the process, and in cooperation with the 13th Guards Mechanized Brigade, the division rounded up a German group of roughly the size of a regiment that had broken through to the Tomai area.

In the morning, a group of roughly divisional strength, with tanks, carried out a number of counterattacks from the Orak and Ceadîr areas in the direction of Minjir.

The escape attempts became ever more frantic, and by the end of the day General Kotov's headquarters tallied up to 3,000 bodies of German officers and men on its front, while there was an additional 3,000 prisoners.