It was then assigned to the Volkhov Front, and participated in the many battles to clear the German forces blockading Leningrad, culminating in Operation Iskra in January 1943, for which it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Shortly before the German surrender it returned to 22nd Army, which was being moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, and it travelled south to the Odesa Military District.

Over the following days the remnants of the 16th and 20th Armies managed to withdraw eastwards from the Smolensk pocket, and at 2000 on August 7 Western Front issued another summary, in which it stated that the division was attacking toward Volok.

The STAVKA issued orders on August 9 and 10 to the Northwestern Front to orchestrate a counterstroke aimed at destroying German forces in the Soltsy, Staraya Russa, and Dno regions with the help of recently-arrived reinforcements.

Timoshenko was so concerned about this potential threat he had his chief of staff, Lt. Gen. V. D. Sokolovskii, prepare a report which was sent to the STAVKA in the afternoon of September 10 which stated, in part:There are four main groupings of enemy opposing the front.

[13] In an effort to cobble together a force that could keep the Germans out of Moscow, at 0200 hours on October 10 the STAVKA ordered seven rifle divisions pulled out of Western Front's right wing, including the 256th.

The 934th Regiment was deployed on the north bank of the Volga, west of the city, where it forced a German group out of Cherkasovo, while the 937th took up positions in Kalinin itself as a reserve for 30th Army.

The initial assault, attacking from west to northeast, ran into trouble at the railroad underpass in northwestern Kalinin, where Red Army troops knocked out three tanks.

The commander of Eckinger's 3rd Company, thinking he had a clear run to the 250m-long bridge, ran into very heavy fire and was forced to deploy a smokescreen to reach the stadium.

These units had been engaging elements of the 900th Lehr Brigade, which were now fighting to control the junction of the rail line and the Torzhok road just north of Doroshika Station.

At 1030 hours, XXXXI Corps issued an order to its divisions to dismount the majority of their forces and fight on foot due to heavy losses in vehicles and the fuel situation.

The halftracks were from 36th Motorized Division, whose motorcycle battalion had earlier attempted to cross the Tvertsa on rafts, only to be driven off by direct artillery fire from 937th Regiment.

Despite this the 1st Panzer and 900th Lehr made steady progress along the Torzhok road during the morning and secured the bridge over the narrow Logovezh River at Marino by evening, 42 km from Kalinin.

Even though the 937th repelled German attempts to probe northward up the road to Bezhetsk, 134 km distant, the regiment had been badly damaged and its morale was sinking.

That evening, Konev took advantage of the relative lull in operations to reorganize his forces, moving the 256th to 30th Army, joining the 5th and 185th Rifle Divisions and 21st Tank Brigade, with orders to clear the northeastern and southern sectors of the city by the end of October 23.

[33] Beginning on January 8, 1942, Kalinin Front took part in the Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive Operation, which was planned "to encircle, and then capture or destroy the enemy's entire Mozhaisk - Gzhatsk - Vyasma grouping",[34] that is, what later became known as the Rzhev salient.

Maslennikov, wounded in the leg, was flown out of the pocket on the night of July 18, and in the course of the day all the scattered and disorganized units of the Army were combined into a single regiment, which became part of the 256th.

Most of 2nd Shock had been brought to a halt in the neck of land south and east of Sinyavino in late August, and on the day the 256th arrived the commander of 11th Army, Field Marshal E. von Manstein, began a carefully planned counterstroke to cut off the penetration at its base.

The timing of the offensive would depend on a hard freeze of the Neva River, as the forces of Army Gen. L. A. Govorov's Leningrad Front lacked river-crossing equipment, especially for artillery and heavy tanks.

However, the forested swampy terrain spring conditions, the absence of roads, inadequate intelligence data about the enemy, especially concerning his system of fires in the depths of the first defensive belt, created definite difficulties in planning the employment of artillery, tanks and aviation.

Despite heavy rain which prevented any air support, the group reached the rail line east of Turyshkino Station before being halted by hastily assembled German reinforcements.

Despite the initial failure, Marshal Zhukov insisted the attacks continue through the rest of March, including the commitment of the second echelon formations, but further gains were marginal.

By this time one soldier of the 132nd Infantry wrote that his division was "reduced by casualties and exhausted to the point of incoherence", but losses on the Soviet side were also heavy.

On January 14, after pulverizing the German defenses by firing 133,000 artillery shells during its preparation, the Army's leading corps deployed assault detachments at 1050 hours.

Supported by the 7th Guards Tank Brigade, which had just been committed from Front reserve, the 256th conducted a rapid dash through the swamps and reached the outskirts of Peredolskaya Station late on January 27.

The fighting for Peredolskaya Station was extended as it changed hands three time with fresh German reserves being fed into the battle, including the 285th Security and part of 12th Panzer Division.

Although 7th Corps managed to advance several more kilometres westward by January 30 and cut the Leningrad–Dno line, Luga remained firmly in German hands.

[57] This plan called for the 99th Rifle Corps to be moved up from 8th Army's second echelon and attack westward toward Utorgosh and Strugi Krasnye on the Luga–Pskov railroad to cut German withdrawal routes from Luga.

In a directive issued on February 22 the STAVKA approved Govorov's plan to employ his 2nd Shock, 59th, and, once it arrived in the region, 8th Army to finally smash the German defenses at Narva.

The troops who participated in the liberation of Narva, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 26 July 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.