After being formed in the far east of the USSR just months before the German invasion but was very soon moved to the Kiev Special Military District, where it was soon assigned to the 49th Rifle Corps in the reserves of Southwestern Front.

[2] At the time the entire Corps was practising road marches in the area of Pohrebyshche in western Ukraine, but advance detachments of the division were near the border, working with cadets of the Vysokoye NCO Training School.

As the river line was penetrated the XIV Motorized Corps forced the division eastward, and so it escaped the fate of the 26th and the rest of the armies that would soon be encircled east of Kyiv.

Over the next two days there was significant fighting for the town of Kupiansk, while the remnants of the 162nd, 199th, 278th and 304th Rifle Divisions made their way eastward out of encirclement and over the Oskil River to a new defensive line.

On July 6, the XXXX Panzer Corps of 6th Army launched an advance to the south which quickly covered 25km, almost halfway to Rossosh, but soon ran short of fuel.

[19] In order to escape the Army's forces would have to cross a broad corridor carved out by XXXX Panzer Corps, which would prove impossible for most formed units, although many small groups and individuals had greater luck.

German intelligence identified the division as part of the "bag",[20] and by the end of July it disappeared from the Soviet order of battle, being officially disbanded on August 15.

In the new plan the 10th Guards, 21st, 33rd and 68th Armies would make the main effort, attacking XII Corps all along its front until it shattered, then push mobile groups through the gaps to seize Yelnya.

68th Army continued probing attacks against 35th and 252nd Infantry Divisions, and although the IX Corps was not broken after two days, it was ordered to withdraw to the next line of defense overnight on September 16/17.

The troops who participated in the battles of Smolensk and Roslavl, by the order of the Supreme High Command of September 25, 1943, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

The attack began with an artillery preparation which the German forces were expecting; falling back to the second line of trenches they escaped any significant casualties and the offensive faltered almost immediately.

The assault was renewed the next day but Bobrovna and the heights west of the Rossasenka continued to hold out, largely because of determined counterattacks in battalion strength.

Following these successive failures Sokolovskii soon ordered his forces to regroup to the north to join 1st Baltic Front in a fresh effort to take Vitebsk.

A battlegroup of Panzer-Grenadier-Division Feldherrnhalle intervened but despite this on December 25 the entire 33rd Army burst forward from 2-7km, disrupted the German counterattack, and reached and severed the Smolensk–Vitebsk railroad line, 20km southeast of Vitebsk's central square.

The advance continued on December 26 when elements of 199th and 215th Divisions fought for the village of Zakhodniki, situated west of the rail line, only 2km east of the Vitebsk–Orsha and 15km south of the city.

After this, intense fighting raged for two days in the Maklaki region as the Feldherrnhalle group struggled to prevent the Soviet force from cutting its critical supply artery.

After an artillery raid the regiment, with several T-34 tanks, and this time it succeeded in taking the village of Shvedy, driving the defenders back to the Sukhodrovka.

33rd Army would form the most important shock group, with a single echelon of all four rifle corps deployed on a 16km front from Ugliane southward to Shelai.

[47] Gordov ordered his corps commanders on February 4 to begin committing their second echelon divisions to expand the penetration and, in particular, to seize crossings over the Luchesa.

The 199th and 144th Divisions captured the German bridgehead at Bukshtyny and then, on March 1, jointly forced their way across the Luchesa, seizing a small lodgment on the west bank on the approaches to Shuki.

Sokolovskii returned to his strategy of mid-January, planning to expand the salient southeast of Vitebsk farther to the south, this time employing three rifle corps on a 12km-wide front, supported by two tank brigades.

On March 23, the 199th was committed and helped the rest of the Corps to penetrated the defenses of 14th Infantry Division, capturing Sharki, Kuzmentsy, and Efremenki, and advancing up to another 1,000m toward Buraki.

[53] The Front was under command of Col. Gen. G. F. Zakharov, and its primary task in the summer offensive would be the liberation of Mogilev, while also pinning the good-quality divisions of XXXIX Panzer Corps to prevent them reinforcing other sectors.

[57] On 25 June, the 617th engaged in intense fighting on the west bank of the Basya river on the northern outskirts of Slasteny and the hill east of Kirkory from 0600.

[56] By that evening the 49th was across the Dniepr in force, and the commander of German 4th Army was finally given the order to evacuate the east bank of the river, but by this time the five divisions there had been chewed up and could no longer escape.

On July 1 the 49th's forward detachments encountered stubborn resistance in the Pahost area and were forced to wage heavy fighting to capture the crossings over the Berezina near Berezino.

The 199th was not part of the special force assigned to combing the forests and swamps for fugitives,[62] but, nevertheless, on September 1 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its successes in the operation.

Combat continued through the night and on the next day the 121st Corps, supported by artillery and aviation, advanced another 4-5km and reached a line from 12km north of Różan to 14km northwest of the same point.

[66] By February 10, 121st and 70th Corps relieved the forces of 70th Army on the left bank of the Vistula River along the line Kulm - Grodek - Sierosław - Lniano in preparation for the offensive into eastern Pomerania.

During April 18/19 the Front launched intensive reconnaissance efforts in preparation for the crossings, including the elimination of German advance parties in the lowlands between the East and West Oder.