During the winter and spring of 1943/44 the 206th took part in the fighting along the Dniepr and into western Ukraine and, remarkably, was awarded a battle honor and three decorations during just over two months; it also lost two commanders killed or died of wounds between the end of December and the beginning of May.

Its order of battle was similar to that of the 1st formation: Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Nikiforovich Chernikov was assigned to command of the division on the day it began forming, but in mid-April he handed it over to Col. Fyodor Mikhailovich Kishkin-Ivanenko.

[8] In July the division was assigned to the 40th Army in Voronezh Front; at this time the 737th Rifle Regiment was under the command of Maj. Spiridon Mikhailovich Egorov, who had been made a Hero of the Soviet Union following the Winter War against Finland in 1940.

By the time it arrived, the main fighting had mostly moved farther east and the 206th remained on the defensive along the upper Don River and the city of Voronezh through the rest of the year.

By January 19 the Axis Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh group of forces had been encircled and the Army was defending along a 60 km line from Olkhovatka to Voronezh to Kremenchug, facing the German 88th, 323rd (minus one regiment) and 75th Infantry Divisions.

By now there was a developing threat that significant Axis forces could escape from the encirclement because the 25th Guards Rifle Division of 40th Army was unable to hold a 30 km-wide front.

[18] On February 1 the Army's commander, Maj. Gen. N. E. Chibisov, was ordered to occupy the town of Tim with the 240th and 167th Divisions and to pull the 206th out of the fighting in the Bykovo area and move it up to a line from Yastrebovka to Teplyi Kolodez by the end of the day.

Fearing they might be encircled themselves the divisional commanders ordered their men to the north and southwest respectively, giving the Axis group a clear path to reach Manturovo and then Solntsevo.

General Chibisov now ordered his forces to encircle and destroy the Axis garrison of that town in preparation for a renewed offensive on Sumy, 100 km to the southwest.

This group deployed along an 8 km front between Vysokii and Kresanov to break through the German defense on the sector from Terebreno to Lipovye Balki and attack along the Vorsklitsa River to secure the flank of the 27th Army.

The 40th's shock group attacked at 0715 hours, following a two-hour artillery preparation against the positions of the German 57th Infantry Division, which had been severely damaged in the Kastornoye pocket months before.

Its left flank units were engaged in stubborn fighting in Trostyanets, beating back counterattacks by Großdeutschland well into the next day,[31] when Maj. Gen. Serafim Petrovich Merkulov took over command of the 206th from Colonel Rutko.

[32] Following a 50-minute artillery and air bombardment the combined forces of the three Armies broke through the German defense and advanced 10–12 km, reaching a line from Bezdrik to Velikii Istorop.

The next day 47th Army advanced another 20 km, after which it was ordered to cut the road from Lebedyn to Akhtyrka to help isolate the group of German forces massed around the latter place.

By the end of September 22 the 47th Army reached a line from Chepilki to Ashanovka with the 206th as one of the divisions in the lead, but had lost contact with the German forces covering their crossing of the Dniepr in the Kanev area.

[38] In the event neither this attack nor a further effort on October 21 had any success largely due to a lack of bridging material to allow heavy artillery to cross to the bridgehead.

[41] During the fighting for the Bukrin bridgehead Sen. Lt. Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kotov, the commander of a battery of 76 mm guns of the 661st Artillery Regiment, repeatedly distinguished himself in action.

During the first half of February two German panzer corps made desperate efforts to break through to the pocket while the encircling forces, including 27th Army, did their best to reduce it.

[50] As the offensive continued towards Botoșani the 206th staged an assault crossing of the Dniestr River and took part in the capture of the city of Beltsy, for which it was decorated on April 8 with the Order of Suvorov, 2nd Degree.

Forward detachments of the 2nd Tank Army tried to reinforce the Corps but were unable to break contact with a battlegroup of the 24th Panzer Division north of Podu Iloaiei.

During the afternoon this division's 52nd Assault Engineer Battalion launched a counterattack which managed to seize and hold a small foothold in the southern part of Târgu Frumos, but the 3rd Guards Airborne soon came up to reinforce the 206th.

By nightfall the three Soviet divisions had carved a menacing salient 5–10 km deep into the Romanian defense south and southeast of the town and were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the main body on 2nd Tank Army which was struggling through virtually roadless and muddy terrain.

The three divisions had no choice but to fight their way out of the developing trap; their only saving grace was that most of the motorized infantry of Großdeutschland had fallen behind leaving gaps between the tank groups that the riflemen could escape through overnight.

During the day on April 12 German infantry and assault guns cleared isolated parties from the 206th and 3rd Guards Airborne from a small pocket west of the town before further digging in.

Großdeutschland continued to man defenses on a wide arc from northwest to northeast of the town, supported by 1st Guards Armored on its left and a regiment of the German 46th Infantry Division on its right.

After failing to halt the German attack the 206th began to withdraw toward Hill 192, which was lost to units of the 24th Panzer and 46th Infantry Divisions before an intervention by 16th Tank Corps stabilized the Soviet line.

In the morning the Grenadier Regiment of Großdeutschland renewed the assault on Epureni and by evening had advanced to within 2 km of that village in the face of counterattacks by up to 20 tanks, including several IS-2s.

The first echelon rifle divisions had successfully carried out their combat tasks for the day; among these was opening a breach to allow the 6th Tank Army to be committed and begin its exploitation role.

The troops who participated in the capture of Focsani and Râmnicu Sărat, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 27 August 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

[78] On January 23 it assisted units of the 4th Romanian Army (now fighting on the Allied side) in the liberation of the Slovakian town of Rožňava; for its role in this on February 19 the 737th Regiment would be awarded the Order of Suvorov, 3rd Degree.