In July 1942 it was moved to the area west of Stalingrad and fought in the battle for that city until the beginning of February 1943, eventually assisting in mopping up the factory district.

In the final offensive into Germany it saw heavy fighting in Saxony during one of the last desperate German counteroffensives in late April 1945, then advanced with its Front toward Prague.

The commander of Western Front, Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, issued orders late on July 12 for Ershakov to carry out a counterattack the following morning with the 214th and 186th Rifle Divisions and supporting artillery from the Haradok area south toward Vitebsk.

As the German commanders debated the size of the encircled forces and exactly how best to deal with them while also carrying out their other objectives, the four divisions did their best to escape in the general direction of Velikiye Luki, aided by the difficult terrain in the region.

The escaping force numbered from 15-20,000 men while another 25,000 of 22nd Army remained behind in small pockets south of Velikiye Luki and either fought to the death or surrendered over the following days.

Once formed its order of battle was very similar to that of the 1st formation, although it was based on the shtat of July 29, 1941: Maj. Gen. Nikolai Ivanovich Biryukov was appointed as commander on the same day the division was redesignated.

By the time the fighting ended the two German divisions had suffered more than 300 dead, only to see the Army commander, Gen. F. Paulus, abandon part of the bridgehead and conduct his main attack on Stalingrad farther south.

That day the floodgates opened and while the combat-effective elements of 4th Tank Army continued attacking at Akatov the main forces of XIV Panzer Corps rolled east and reached the Volga before nightfall.

[21] Army Gen. G. K. Zhukov was made deputy commander-in-chief of the Soviet Armed Forces on August 26 and he soon arrived in the Stalingrad area to take overall charge of the defense.

In the event this proved ineffective as the tanks ran into both Soviet and German minefields that had not been cleared as well as antitank fire; during the day it had 55 vehicles knocked out or destroyed.

On November 25 the STAVKA registered its disapproval, stating, "The infantry... did not attack and remained lying down in front of the barbed wire," leaving the tanks "sitting ducks" for the German gunners.

The former renewed his attack on November 25 with the same shock group, now backed by the 233rd Rifle Division, and the depleted 16th Tanks still in the direct support role in the Panshino area, but again made minimal progress.

On December 19, as the advancing LVII Panzer Corps reached the Myshkova River south of the pocket, the 27th Guards and the 214th, supported by tanks, went over to the attack against the right wing of 44th Infantry Division west of State Farm (Sovkhoz) No.

The attackers, including two other divisions of 24th Army, gained between 500m and 2km while finally clearing the Sovkhoz on January 12, after which the 84th and 214th pursued 1-2km eastward to Zapadnovka and Vlasovka in the Rossoshka valley.

By the 28th the division was facing the 76th Infantry in the village and over the next two days cleared its northwestern sector after difficult fighting with a German group encircled in the Vishnevaia Balka, taking many prisoners and forcing the 76th northeastward across Skulpturinyi Street.

Biryukov went on to command the 20th Guards Rifle Corps, gaining the rank of lieutenant general in April 1945, the same month he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Ten days later, with gaps in its front lines around the Cherkasy bridgehead and north of Kryvyi Rih, the chief of staff of that Army pleaded for permission to stage a general withdrawal but this was denied.

During November and the first three weeks of December Konev was content to fight a battle of attrition with the 1st Panzer and 8th Armies which he could better afford, gradually clearing the right bank of the Dniepr north to Cherkasy.

When one tank attempted to crush him and his comrades in their trench he was successful in knocking it out with an antitank grenade; he then disabled two more armored vehicles and killed or wounded a number of German soldiers with machine gun fire.

Rapidly moving northward the shock group penetrated nearly to the city in a matter of hours and the next day the XXXXVII Panzer Corps was encircled; it was forced to break out to the west on January 8.

The bridgehead was now about 12km wide and 8km deep and engineering efforts across the river had allowed Zhadov to move tanks and other heavy weapons into it so offensive operations could be resumed in the direction of Chișinău.

On February 9, 78th Corps advanced behind the tanks and overcame weak but unremitting resistance from the 19th Panzer and 408th Infantry Divisions, finally reaching the northern outskirts of Liegnitz.

As the advance continued the next day the Corps was forced to deploy its divisions facing southwest to cover its Army's left flank along a sector of 40km from Liegnitz to Rosenthal.

[67] 78th Corps resumed the offensive within 48 hours, but overnight on February 17/18 the 8th Panzer Division was transferred to the Lauban–Lewenberg front in an attempt to halt the advance of the 3rd Guards Tank Army.

The 214th was moved up to reinforce that Army's left flank along the Siegersdorf–Naumburg–Lewenberg line, freeing up the 9th Mechanized Corps to help deal with a German breakthrough east of Lauban.

By this time the German forces had been driven west across the Neisse River and the entire 52nd Army consolidated along its east bank, where it would remain until the Berlin operation.

73rd Rifle Corps, which formed the Army's share of the shock group, quickly forced a crossing of the river despite repeated counterattacks by the Brandenburg Panzergrenadier Division.

[69] On April 20 the 20th Panzer and 72nd Infantry Divisions counterattacked from south of Diehsa and managed to cut the road from Niesky to Bautzen, threatening the communications of 2nd Polish Army.

Two infantry divisions reinforced with over 100 tanks and assault guns struck the right flank of 48th Corps on the Ugist axis, with a secondary force moving on Bautzen from the southeast.

Under the weight of the attack the Corps was thrown back from its positions and, having been broken up into separate groups, was involved in heavy fighting throughout the day while partially encircled in the area Weisenberg–Ober Prauske–Gross Radisch.