[2] On June 22 the 11th Mechanized Corps (29th and 33rd Tank Divisions, 204th Motorized, 16th Motorcycle Regiment) was under command of 3rd Army in the renamed Western Front.

[3] The 204th was near the base of the Białystok salient and was split with its main forces north of Volkovysk beginning to move northward during the day and a forward detachment backing the two tank divisions south of Grodno.

Within days it had been overrun and destroyed in the Białystok pocket with most of the rest of 11th Corps,[5] although it was not officially stricken from the Red Army order of battle until September 19.

[8] The 204th got to spend over nine months in the far east training and completing its complement of men and equipment, far longer than was usual for a rifle division during the crisis of 1941–42.

On July 10, 1942, Colonel Karnov handed his command to Col. Aleksandr Vasilevich Skvortsov, just about the time that the division began moving west toward the fighting front.

The German commander, Gen. F. Paulus, began planning for a coup-de-main to take Stalingrad by forcing crossings north and south of Kalach-na-Donu; in response the 204th was transferred to 62nd Army and concentrated at Kalach with one regiment on the west bank of the Don by July 28.

At 1645 hours that day the STAVKA sent the following order to Stalingrad Front:... the Front's main mission over the next few days is, at all cost, to defeat the enemy who have reached the western bank of the Don River south of Nizhne-Chirskaia by no later than 30 July by means of active operations by the forces of 64th Army and the employment of 204th and 321st Rifle Divisions and 23rd Tank Corps, which have reached the Kalach region, and restore fully the defenses here along the Stalingrad line, while subsequently driving the enemy back across the Tsimla River.Anticipating this order the Front commander had already directed a counterattack by these forces and more, but it faltered with little to show for the effort.

This division was forced to withdraw its forward elements southward almost 10 km to new defenses north of Abganerovo Station by late on August 10.

As they fell back Shumilov reinforced them with the 29th Rifle Division and two brigades of 13th Tank Corps, allowing them to establish new defenses covering Yurkino Station.

By now 4th Panzer Army was again running out of steam but found a weak spot covered by the damaged 126th Rifle Division and advanced nearly 20 km on August 29.

These right flank divisions maintained their defense the following day although they were being worn down by the ongoing attacks; General Shumilov assembled a reserve in the Beketovka area which included the 10th Rifle Brigade.

During the day the remainder of 14th Panzer reinforced the assault of the 29th Motorized and while this was halted short of Kuporosnoe and the west bank of the Volga, the four rifle divisions were being rapidly eroded away.

[14][15] Overnight on September 9/10 a battalion of the 29th Motorized reached the Volga south of Kuporosnoe but was thrown back in part by the 131st Rifle Division after it had been relieved at Gornaia Poliana.

In the last days of September a task group of 57th Army carried out a successful counterstroke against the positions of 1st Romanian Infantry Division at Lake Tsatsa and the 14th Panzer had to be sent to stabilize the front.

The 204th, on the shock group's right wing, faced determined resistance at and north of Elkhi and made only a minimal advance despite launching multiple assaults into the early evening.

Shumilov organized his main attack on the sector from south of Hill 111.6 east to Elkhi with a shock group that consisted of the 204th, the 157th and the 36th Guards, plus the 143rd Rifle Brigade.

Attacking at 0900 hours the 204th and 36th Guards Divisions pushed north from the northern bank of the Balka toward the southeastern approaches to Hill 111.6, advancing up to 2 km on its right.

By day's end the 64th and 57th Armies' shock groups had carved a penetration up to 3 km deep through the defenses of the 297th Infantry and forced it to use all its reserves in futile attempts to close the breach.

The shock groups continued to gain ground the following day and on January 12 did further damage to the defenses of IV Army Corps, with the 204th and 157th Divisions and 143rd Rifle Brigade enveloping Hill 119.7 from three sides.

In the process they engaged and defeated a counterattack force based on the 171st Bicycle Battalion, but between this and the ongoing German resistance on Hill 119.7 and at Elkhi gained relatively little ground.

Gen. S. R. Dimitriu, commander of the 20th Romanian Division, which was by now reduced to the composite 82nd Regiment, situated in a grain elevator in the Flour Milling Factory No.

Through the rest of the winter it took part in the battles in the Rzhev - Toropets area, and in late April was reassigned to the 1st Shock Army in Northwestern Front where it became involved in the complex and bloody struggles around the Demyansk Pocket.

The Army commander, Lt. Gen. K. D. Golubev, had his 1st and 91st Rifle Corps deployed abreast with orders to attack through the town of Kolyshki, at the boundary of the German 14th and 206th Infantry Divisions.

On October 3 the 262nd Rifle Division and 105th Tank Regiment managed to penetrate the defenses north of Kolyshki, advanced to the town's northern outskirts the next day and soon liberated it.

On October 8 the 204th, supported by 46th Mechanized Brigade, tore a small hole through the 206th Infantry's defenses west of Kolyshki after an advance by the Corps of roughly 8 km but was only able to gain another 1000m.

The 43rd and 39th Armies were ordered to concentrate their forces north of the Smolensk - Vitebsk railroad and highway facing the 14th and 206th Divisions of VI Corps.

By November 17 the defenders had managed to restore a fairly continuous front west of Poddube, Karamidy and Argun and the Soviet assault expired in exhaustion.

Before the end of the month the 1st Corps was transferred back to 43rd Army where it went on the defensive facing the 3rd and 4th Luftwaffe Field Divisions and roughly half of the 14th Infantry.

Late that day Hitler authorized three of the four divisions of LIII Corps to hold open the road to the west but insisted that the 206th Infantry remain in Vitebsk.

Khasan Nazirovich Gaisin, the commander of a heavy machine gun crew of the 700th Rifle Regiment, distinguished himself and became a Hero of the Soviet Union.