[5] At the beginning of September, as the German operation started that would eventually encircle most of Southwestern Front, the 227th was still on the Dniepr, sparring with its artillery against elements of 17th Army on the west bank.

During these battles one battalion of the 777th Rifle Regiment, under command of Sr. Lt. Khachatur Beglyarovich Melikyan, staged a daring 40km raid behind German lines beginning on January 5, 1942.

While in the former Army it had been involved in an operation in the Staryi Saltiv area which had created a bridgehead on the west bank of the Donets River but had suffered losses and required rest and replenishment before the new offensive could begin.

All three divisions of the 21st Army's shock group forced crossings of the Donets; the 227th and 293rd penetrated the defensive belt and by the end of the day had captured Ohirtseve, Bugrovatka and Starytsya, having advanced 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to the north and 6-8km to the northwest.

The 227th, on the other hand, bypassed the German positions at Murom from the south, advanced as much as 12km with support of 10th Tank Brigade and captured a line from Hill 217 to Vysokii.

The remainder of the division continued pushing westward, routing German units and advancing another 6km and capturing the villages of Vergelevka and Pylnaya, aided by the 28th Army's forces finally gaining traction.

As a result of the operations of his division's forward detachments Colonel Zaitsev realized that the German forces on his front had fallen back to the line of the Kharkiv River.

Taking advantage of this withdrawal the 227th, along with the neighboring 175th Rifle Division of 28th Army, advanced to the west bank of the Lipets River and the villages of Ustinka, Morokhovets and Bednyi.

[15] These gains proved to be short-lived as on May 17 Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, commander of Southwestern Direction, decided to halt further offensive activity by 21st Army in favor of redeploying the shock group to new positions running from Krasnaya Alekseeva to Pylnaya; this was largely due to ongoing pressure from the 168th Infantry.

Also, by this time the 1st Panzer Army's attack against Southern Front's positions in the Izium–Barvinkove salient were well underway and Timoshenko's entire offensive was facing disaster.

[17] While individual soldiers and small groups were able to escape, by July 11 the German spearheads were over 150km east of the original Soviet lines and the division had ceased to exist.

In February 1942 the brigade was transferred to 16th Army which had been moved to the Sukhinichi area in an effort to overcome a German position there that was blocking the Soviet advance toward Spas-Demensk and Roslavl.

Its order of battle, based on the shtat of December 10, 1942, was similar to that of the 1st formation: From April 1 to July 5 the 9th Army's efforts were focused on the liberation of the port of Temryuk, but although some ground was taken the defenders, primarily of the 50th Infantry Division, held on.

On the night of September 25/26 the Army mounted a major attack near the village of Kurchanskaya from the east in conjunction with a landing near Temryuk by a battalion of the 389th Rifle Division, but both were repulsed.

[26] On September 27 Colonel Terekhin was replaced in command and his successor's name appears in the following battle honor citation:TEMRYUK... 227th Rifle Division (Col. Preobrazhenskii, Georgii Nikolaevich)...

The troops participating in the battles for the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, during which they captured Temryuk and other settlements, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 9 October 1943, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

The 2nd and 55th Guards Rifle Divisions landed 4,000 men on the first day and significant reinforcements followed until the Army launched a major breakout effort on November 5-6, but this was contained.

Days later the 56th was redesignated as Separate Coastal Army and on November 10 it attacked the German line again, driving it back up to 3km, and even with very limited tank support by the 12th it was on the outskirts of Kerch.

The main attack began on April 8 and by the 10th the defending German and Romanian forces were falling back from the Perekop Isthmus and the Soviet bridgehead across the Syvash toward Sevastopol.

Overnight the V Corps began its withdrawal from Kerch; it would have to cover 160km mostly along a single road to reach the same objective with the 10 rifle divisions and 204 tanks of Coastal Army on its heels.

[33] The mobile group caught up with the tail end of Allmendinger's Corps near Staryi Krym and threatened to overwhelm the rearguard; Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment Krim was ordered to take a stand in hilly terrain and sacrificed itself in temporarily halting the pursuit.

Early on April 15 Yeryomenko's vanguard encircled and destroyed a Romanian rearguard of two battalions while the main body of V Corps reached Yalta.

It arrived at the eastern outskirts of Sevastopol the following day, but the pursuit had cost it thousands of its troops, over 70 percent of its heavy weapons and the Corps was no longer combat-effective.

The troops participating in the battles for the liberation of Sevastopol, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 10 May 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns.

[40] In recognition of his leadership of the division Colonel Preobrazhenskii was made a Hero of the Soviet Union on May 16 and promoted to the rank of major general on June 3.

Strategically the Army was to launch a supporting attack but with important objectives: in cooperation with Gorshkov's Cavalry-Mechanized Group it was to capture the town of Roman on the third day and Bacău on the fifth to unhinge Axis defenses along the Siret River.

The following day most of the 24th Guards Rifle Corps joined the offensive as the shock group continued in the direction of Roman, advancing through the night against Romanian forces retreating hastily to avoid encirclement.

[47] The German-Hungarian command was increasingly concerned that Budapest could be seized off the march and began transferring units of III Panzer Corps to this axis until it had concentrated a powerful grouping of about 200 tanks.

Led by units of 6th Guards Tanks the Army continued at an average rate of about 16km per day until reaching the Danube between December 8-9 in the Vác area.

[53] On April 24 General Preobrazhenskii was directed to attend the K. Е. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy and he was replaced the next day by Col. Stepan Zotovich Petrov.