It was assigned to the 4th Tank Army which was attempting to hold a bridgehead west of the Don River based on Kremenskaya and Sirotinskaya.

[2] On June 22 the 14th Mechanized Corps (22nd and 30th Tank Divisions, 205th Motorized, 20th Motorcycle Regiment) was under command of 4th Army in the renamed Western Front.

According to the operational plan the 14th Mechanized was to link up with 28th Rifle Corps to counterattack the German forces that had encircled and were pushing past Brest.

During the following days it became trapped in the Białystok pocket and was effectively destroyed, being stricken from the Red Army's order of battle on June 30.

[5] Colonel Kudyurov managed to escape and went on to command the 40th Cavalry Division; he was killed in action in the Crimea in December.

The 376th Infantry Division captured Kremenskaya and the 40th Guards was forced to fight defensively to prevent the bridgehead from being liquidated entirely.

By the end of the day 4th Tank Army was "no longer combat capable"; the 205th, among other divisions, was decimated and had run out of ammunition.

Given the challenges of the harsh and almost roadless terrain of the far north the 672nd Artillery Regiment was recorded in September 1944 as having the following equipment: The mountain guns were horse drawn (or animal-packed) while the howitzers were towed by tractors.

[16] It remained under the command of Col. Fyodor Ivanovich Litvinov who had led the 186th since June 2, 1942, but he would be replaced on July 7 by Col. Mikhail Alekseevich Beloskurskii.

Litvinov was sent to study at the Voroshilov Academy before returning to the front to command the 25th Rifle Division; Beloskurskii had previously led the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade and would be promoted to the rank of major general on November 2, 1944.

[18] In its positions it faced elements of the German XVIII Mountain Corps over the next several months,[19] while to the south Finland was being driven out of the war in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.

Meanwhile, the Front commander, Marshal K. K. Rokossovskii, ordered the 19th Army and 3rd Guards Tank Corps, which constituted his reserve, to begin moving to the left of his attacking forces, with the 19th concentrating in the Chojnice–Lubiewo–Tuchel area by February 21.

[27] New instructions from the STAVKA on February 17 called for 2nd Army to be cut off from the main German forces prior to its final destruction.

The width of the breakthrough sector was 10 km and the average artillery density (76mm calibre or larger) reached 152 guns and mortars per kilometre.

[28] Following a 40-minute artillery preparation 19th Army launched its assault in the direction of Köslin and broke through the defense along the entire sector, overcoming stubborn resistance and counterattacks by German armor.

At this point the 19th Army's commander, Lt. Gen. G. K. Kozlov, began to lose control of his battle as communications became disrupted, marching units fell behind and the artillery lagged due to poor road conditions.

Kozlov spent February 27 largely in putting his forces in order while attacking toward Prechlau in conjunction with 70th Army while also beating off up to 24 counterattacks from German tanks and infantry.

He specifically directed as follows:... b) the 134th Rifle Corps' main forces were to reach the line Gross Karzenburg – excluding the Wirchowsee; one rifle division was to be moved to the Worchow area...The German forces, which included the XXXXVI Panzer Corps, were putting up their fiercest resistance in the Rummelsburg area, mounting numerous counterattacks.

The fighting for the town continued until March 3 when it finally fell and 19th Army advanced an additional 20 km during the day, reaching the area north of Pollnow.

Rokossovskii's plan to seize the fortified area was to first attack in the direction of Zoppot to reach the shore and split the defenses of the two cities.

The troops who participated in the liberation of Gdynia, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 28 March 1945, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

He would lead the 372nd Rifle Division in the last weeks of the war and serve as a military adviser to both the Romanian and Hungarian Armies in the mid-1950s before his retirement in February 1957.

After the East Pomeranian operation concluded on March 31 the 2nd Belorussian Front was redeployed to the lower Oder River for the final offensive into central Germany.

[37] A few days later the Corps came under command of 43rd Army and the two divisions were designated to make landings to clear German forces from the Danish island of Bornholm.