At this time it was in the 52nd Army of Volkhov Front, taking part in the Lyuban Offensive Operation, which was planned to encircle and defeat the enemy forces laying siege to Leningrad.

However, just at that time the German 18th Army was in the process of cutting off the Soviet Lyuban grouping in a pocket, and over the following months the division was nearly destroyed.

Enough survivors emerged from the swamps in June and July to rebuild the unit, and it fought in the Second Sinyavino Offensive before it was shifted south into Kalinin Front to take part in the battle and siege of Velikiye Luki in December.

In the summer the division was moved by rail with its 39th Army to the Far East and saw action in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August, winning its second battle honor, "Khingan", for its services.

Its basic order of battle would eventually be: Col. Semyon Ivanovich Bulanov remained in command of the division, which was part of 52nd Army in Volkhov Front.

During June and July, individual soldiers and small parties of men of the 19th Guards found their way out of the pocket through the thinly-held German lines.

This attack would break the siege by penetrating the land corridor east of the city between the Neva and Naziia rivers, south of the village of Sinyavino.

8th Army began its attack at 0210 hrs on August 27, striking the junction of the German 227th and 223rd Infantry Divisions on a 15 km front with about a four-to-one advantage in manpower.

Early the next day the 19th Guards exploited the breakthrough, advancing 5 to 6 km and reaching the southeastern approaches to Sinyavino by nightfall.

On the 29th the Tiger tank made its inauspicious combat debut when four were committed south of Sinyavino Heights; two of them broke down almost immediately and a third had its engine overheat.

[14] During these months the Corps gradually advanced westward in the direction of Novosokolniki, which involved a seesaw battle over several weeks for a German stronghold on the Ptahinski Hill, which finally ended on July 6.

[15] On July 8 General Repin handed command to Col. Konstantin Mikhailovich Vyazemskii, but he was in turn replaced less than a week later by Maj. Gen. Boris Semyonovich Maslov.

This began with an assault on the German positions at Rudnya, led by the 1st Penal Battalion and a mobile group from 43rd Army and followed by three divisions of 5th Guards Corps.

Although the divisions of the two Soviet armies were worn down to about half strength from earlier fighting, they still held a five-fold advantage in infantry, as well as superiority in armor and artillery.

The attack made very limited gains, and 5th Guards Corps was withdrawn and sent south of the Smolensk - Vyasma road on December 21, with the entire offensive shut down two days later.

By December 26, 5th Guards Corps had advanced a mere 2–3 km, leading to a caustic telegram from the STAVKA to the 1st Baltic Front, demanding greater progress.

5th Guards Corps formed 39th Army's shock group on a 6 km-wide between the Smolensk - Vitebsk road and the village of Vaskova, facing the 206th Infantry Division.

A new offensive began on February 29, but just prior to its start the German command withdrew several units east of Vitebsk, including the 206th Infantry, back to shorter and more defensible lines.

19th Guards was committed on March 5, but by then it was clear that the operation was a failure, after gaining just several hundred metres (apart from the voluntary withdrawals) at heavy cost.

with another hour of artillery preparation against the 197th Infantry, which allowed 5th Guards Corps to crash through its positions and begin advancing quickly to the west and southwest.

A counterattack by a regiment of 95th Infantry Division, supported by tanks, failed to slow the Soviet advance, and the remainder of the 197th was driven back to join LIII Corps within the salient.

This turned out to be very short indeed, as Vitebsk was cleared during June 26 and 27, while 19th Guards helped mop up the pocket at Ostrovno before marching westwards again.

Two weeks later, as the rate of advance slowed due to logistics and increasing resistance, 19th Guards was in the vicinity of Jonava, and 39th Army was returned to 3rd Belorussian Front.

The 124th Rifle Division, committed from second echelon, broke into Pilkallen and seized the railroad station, the only significant advance of the day.

[34] The right-flank forces of 39th Army continued their pursuit on January 27, reaching the near approaches to the Königsberg fortress and became involved in stubborn fighting.

5th Guards Rifle Corps advanced behind the 206th Tank Brigade south of the Halung-Arshaan and Wuchakou Fortified Regions, defended by two regiments of the Japanese 107th Infantry Division.

By this time 39th Army was advancing through the rugged Greater Khingan to cut the rail line at Solun and isolate the fortified regions.

It was not until August 12 that 5th Guards Corps met any notable opposition when it ran into elements of the 107th Infantry attempting to withdraw by rail.

On August 14 the 19th Guards advanced along the railroad west of Solun against Japanese units retreating from Wuchakou which were also being pressured by 124th Rifle Division moving eastwards.

Members of the division committed the notorious Gegenmiao massacre during the Manchuria Operation, torturing and killing thousands of Japanese civilians in August 1945.