Due to a chronic lack of vehicles, and especially tanks, the division had been effectively serving as a motorized rifle brigade since June 22, so the redesignation was a formality and it was soon destroyed in the encirclement battle east of Kiev.

It spent several months forming in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command before it was sent to the active front as part of 6th Army near Voronezh.

[2] On June 22 the 25th Corps (50th and 55th Tank Divisions, 219th Motorized, 12th Motorcycle Regiment) was assigned to 21st Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.

At 0241 hours on July 13 the Army commander, Col. Gen. F. I. Kuznetsov, ordered his forces to expand the offensive against the right flank of 2nd Panzer Group in the Bykhaw area while recapturing Babruysk and Parichi.

The 219th was to concentrate in the Rudnia, Borkhov and Pribor region, 15-25km west of Gomel, while 50th Tanks prepared to attack on the Bykhaw and Babruysk axis.

[6] In Western Front's operational summary of 2000 hours on July 18 the 21st Army was reported as attacking toward Babruysk against four German divisions while the 219th was concentrating in the Chachersk and Voronovka region 60km east-southeast of Rahachow.

On July 22 Kuznetsov issued further orders to 25th Mechanized Corps to retake Propoisk and cut the German supply route between that place and Krychaw.

[12] The situation facing the Army was rapidly deteriorating as the XXIV Motorized Corps had inserted itself in the gap between it and the Front's main forces along the Desna.

28th Corps continued defending along the Snov River on August 30 and appears to have eliminated a German force that had infiltrated its positions on September 1 but this was of little relevance to the overall situation.

In addition the height's slopes were ice-covered and many of the fortifications, including barbed wire and firing points, had escaped the artillery preparation.

[31] Zykov ordered the Corps to continue fighting through the night and also moved up his reserve 161st Division and 192nd Tank Brigade for commitment in the morning on the boundary between the 309th and 219th.

Overnight, while the temperature dropped to -25 degrees C with strong winds, the 219th reached a line between the two collective farms, for an overall advance during the first 24 hours of up to 12km.

During the same period the 40th and 3rd Tank Armies had penetrated the Axis front to the north and south, beginning the encirclement of the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh group of forces.

During January 15 the 219th pivoted its attack to the south, toward Marki and Saguny, rolling up the defenses of the 19th and 23rd Infantry Divisions along the right bank of the Don.

By 1500 hours it had liberated Yekaterinovka and by the end of the day had reached a line from height 198 to Svoboda against stiff resistance recording an advance 6km.

It was also to leave behind one reinforced rifle company in each of Saguny station, Goncharovka and Podgornoye to cut the Axis lines of retreat.

[34] General Golikov issued orders on January 21 to regroup his forces for the upcoming Voronezh–Kastornoye offensive, which included the movement of 18th Corps to the Oskol River.

On January 23 the leading regiment of the 219th and elements of the 37th Rifle Brigade reinforced the 15th Tank Corps and occupied Ilyinka, blocking the last escape route of the German 26th and 168th Infantry and Hungarian 1st Armored Field Division.

They faced fierce resistance from the 3rd SS Panzer and 332nd Infantry Divisions and by the end of the day reached a line from Rakovo to the Kubasovskii gully.

The 219th found it necessary to pull back its right flank to the western slopes of height 240.2 and the Kubasovskii gully, which was also threatened by an infantry regiment and 20 additional tanks.

[45] On September 19 Col. Vasilii Grigorevich Kovalenko replaced Colonel Pypyrev; this officer would continue to lead the division, apart from two short breaks, for the duration of the war.

In heavy fighting through the 7th and 8th the 84th Corps cleared the town with help from the mobile group and the remaining defenders fell back to a new line 10km to the west late on October 9, which was reached by the pursuit on the 12th.

The situation so concerned the German command that six infantry battalions were brought in from 18th Army to reinforce the approaches to Pustoshka, which effectively halted the push toward that city as torrential rains began on November 15.

On December 9 the STAVKA ordered the Front to pierce their defenses at Pustoshka, capture the town of Idritsa, and destroy the German forces in the salient between Nevel and Novosokolniki.

2nd Baltic began the Rezhitsa–Dvinsk Offensive on July 10; the 219th was deployed northwest of Pustoshka facing the defenses of the Panther Line along the Alolya River.

The troops who participated in the breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses northwest and west of Novosokolniki, and the liberation of Idritsa, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 12 July 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

On March 24, 1945, 11 men were made Heroes of the Soviet Union: An investigation later revealed that Karabaev had actually surrendered during the battle and had survived.

[56] The city of Rēzekne was cleared of German forces on July 27 and the 219th was recognized for its role when it received the Order of the Red Banner on August 9.

[57] Later that month the division and its 93rd Corps were moved to 42nd Army, still in 2nd Baltic Front,[58] and as the advance continued into Latvia by mid-September it had reached an area northeast of Krustpils; a few weeks later it was located southeast of Baldone.

[61] Riga was liberated on October 13; on November 15 Colonel Kovalenko handed his command to his deputy, Col. Stepan Ivanovich Stepanov but returned exactly a month later.