During June and July the remnants of the division fought along the Don River against the German summer offensive until it was pulled back into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding.

The 293rd Rifle Division, with an authorized strength of 10,911 men, began forming on July 18, 1941 at Sumy,[1] composed of conscripts between ages 18 and 50 arriving from Kiev Oblast.

On 25 August, the 293rd took positions on the line of Shostka, Pirogovka, Timonovka, and Raygorodok, a frontage of 60 kilometers, and its additional mission of covering the Korop axis extended the front by another ten.

That evening German infantry and tanks with artillery support crossed in force, opposed by the 1034th Rifle Regiment, which lost roughly 50 killed and 100 wounded.

At 2200 hours on August 30, Southwestern Front reported that the division had repelled a counterattack against its right wing and held its previous positions south and southeast of Korop.

In his memoir Panzer Leader, H. Guderian noted:The 10th (Motorized) Infantry Division succeeded in crossing the Desna, to the north of Korop, but was thrown back again to the west bank by heavy Russian counterattacks, besides being attacked on its right flank by strong enemy forces.

By sending the very last men in the division, in this case the Field Bakery Company, a catastrophe to the right flank was just avoided.Guderian turned to Army Group Center with an urgent request for reserves to restore the situation.

With the situation rapidly worsening, Lagutin ordered a retreat to the line of Klishki and Chepleyevka, but the advancing Germans captured these settlements before the 1034th and 1036th Regiments could reach them.

The 293rd would serve as part of Gordov's shock group, along with the 76th and 227th Rifle Divisions, supported by the 10th Tank Brigade plus the 338th Light, 538th Heavy, and 135th and 156th Artillery Regiments.

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

However, 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.

As a preliminary to the main German summer offensive Gen. F. Paulus, commander of 6th Army, intended to eliminate the bridgehead in a pincer attack in order to gain crossing points over the Donets.

The assault by XXXX Panzer Corps tore a yawning gap 20km deep between 21st and 28th Armies, encircling two rifle divisions and a tank brigade on the former's left wing.

The next day The German forces continued their headlong advance, straining to complete the further encirclement of the divisions of 21st and 40th Armies west of the Oskil River.

Late in the day the STAVKA ordered the 21st, 28th and 40th Armies and their supporting tank corps to a new defense line along the Olym and Oskil Rivers; however, the withdrawal was chaotic at best.

Unable to even slow 6th Army's advance, Danilov organized his remaining forces in small groups and ordered them to break out toward the Don and Tikhaya Sosna Rivers.

On the 14th, the 1034th Rifle Regiment staged a reconnaissance-in-force against the German and Romanian lines; at a cost of 106 dead and 277 wounded or shell-shocked, this attack uncovered the entire Axis fire plan in preparation for the main offensive which began on November 19.

[29] Between 0848 and 0850 hours Moscow time on November 19, riflemen and sappers from the first echelon rifle divisions of 5th Tank, 21st, and Don Front's 65th Army commenced virtually simultaneous assaults against Romanian and German defenses from their bridgeheads.

Exploiting the success of the neighboring 76th Division, which had shattered the entire right wing of 13th Infantry, Lagutin's riflemen surged forward up to 4km, penetrating the second Romanian position by noon.

However, they missed the chance to encircle 15th Infantry's forces due to the failure of 27th Guards Rifle Division, on the left flank of 65th Army, to overcome the defenses of Romanian 1st Cavalry.

Trailing behind, the 3rd Guards Cavalry reached Verkhne-Buzinovka where it got into a prolonged and inconclusive fight with 14th Panzer Division before deciding to leave a screening force behind to await the arrival of the 76th and 293rd in the region.

[35] By November 26, Vatutin was in the awkward position of trying to simultaneously direct the operations of 21st Army around the pocket as well as the remaining forces of the Front, which were continuing to exploit to the southwest.

The next day, on orders from Rokossovskii, the Front generally curtailed its operations for rest and replenishment but 21st Army conducted limited assaults at and north of Marinovka which were halted by counterattacks.

[38] Shortly after dawn on December 8 the Don and Stalingrad Front's armies around the pocket resumed offensive operations of some sort, but most of the attacks faltered almost immediately.

This meant the two divisions with their supporting tanks controlled the entire Dubinina Balka, together with a rectangular swath of territory 2km wide stretching southeastward from 376th Infantry's old front lines east of Hill 135.1.

The 293rd, which had seized Dmitrievka and Otorvanovka the day before, drove southward up to 4km and then swung southwestward to establish blocking positions facing west along the northern two-thirds of the Dmitrievka–Karpovka road.

When this was complete the 21st would have eight rifle divisions, including the 293rd, deployed in a single echelon, backed by significant tank and artillery assets transferred from 65th and 24th Armies.

With planning completed, the Front rested, replenished, and refitted its forces from January 18-21, while continuing local operations to improve attack positions.

[52] In preparation for the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the 293rd left its base at Chita on the night of July 8/9 and marched to its concentration area near Railroad Siding No.