In 1942 it served in the late winter and early spring fighting near Kharkov, taking a beating both then and during the opening stages of the German summer offensive.

Withdrawn into the reserves, the division was rebuilt in time to take part in the Soviet counteroffensive at Stalingrad in November, and played an important role in driving the German forces out of the Caucasus region during the winter.

[1][2] Its full order of battle was as follows: Ten percent of its personnel were older veterans while half were young recruits, and many were of non-Russian nationalities.

9th Army, and Southern Front in general, had no direct role in the Soviet offensive to liberate Kharkov in May, but still suffered significant casualties in the German counteroffensive against the salient based at Izium and Barvenkovo.

From May 7–15, Southern Front made an unsuccessful attempt to take Maiaki using most of the 333rd plus much of the remaining 9th Army reserves, including 5th Cavalry Corps.

I. K. Bagramyan, chief of staff of Southwestern Front, would later blame this action for the ensuing failure and disaster of the Kharkov offensive because it put those reserves in a position where they were unable to immediately react to the German counteroffensive which struck 9th Army on May 17.

[5] This attack pierced the lines well west of Maiaki, and by the end of the day had captured most of Barvenkovo from the 1118th Regiment and units of the 34th Cavalry Division.

When the fighting reached the town, Sergeant Sukhonos' gun team destroyed four tanks by direct fire and forced the rest to retreat.

Under cover of this antitank action by field artillery, the remnants of the 1118th Regiment withdrew to the northwest part of the town, which was shielded by the Sukhoi Torets River, and were supported by units of the 341st Rifle Division.

On the following day the 1118th Regiment, now backed by elements of 23rd Tank Corps, continued to resist at the junction of 9th and 57th Armies northwest of Barvenkovo, while main forces concentrated just west of Izium.

The 333rd was near the right flank of its army, due west of Izium, and within days was partly encircled but managed to extricate most of its forces.

21st Army was assigned to build the inner ring of encirclement of the German forces at Stalingrad from the north, attacking from the bridgehead over the Don at Kletskaya.

During the following days the division was retained to help liquidate Group Lascar, while other infantry elements of 21st Army continued to exploit the breakthrough.

[11] With this duty done, the rifle divisions in the rear of 21st Army began closing up to the area of Kalach from the west to assist the struggling mobile corps in forming the inner ring of encirclement; by nightfall on the 24th the 333rd reached Malogolubaia, 24 km north of that town.

However, 5th Tank Army was having difficulty establishing itself at, and crossing, the Chir River in the face of continuing resistance from XXXXVIII Panzer Corps and various scratch German/Romanian forces.

On November 29, Col. Matveev concentrated all three of his rifle regiments east of Surovikino and then moved them 8 km southwest along the bank of the Chir overnight.

The next day, attacking at dawn, the division liberated Dmitrievka Station, 10 km southeast of Surovikino, and forced their way across the Chir to capture the villages of Golovkii and Ostrovskii, south of the river, from German Group Kortner.

1st Tank Corps rushed into the penetration, crushing Battlegroup von Buddenbroch, and advancing 6 to 7 km to occupy State Farm (Sovkhoz) No.

On the morning of December 8, these battalions were surprised by the 15th Panzer Regiment, and lost most of their trucks and equipment and many of their men in a two-hour fight; what was left was scattered to the winds.

Later that day the rest of the Soviet tank corps was defeated at the state farm by 11th Panzer and forced to retreat back to the Ostrovskii bridgehead, where it joined with the 333rd in the face of German counterattacks on the 9th and 10th.

Over the following days, the 47th Guards continued to reinforce the bridgehead while it was being contained by the 336th Infantry and elements of 11th Panzer while the rest of that division wore itself down to-ing and fro-ing across the steppes, trying to beat back other Soviet crossings of the Chir.

A counterattack on the 14th relieved the encircled battalion, but this re-concentration of 11th Panzer allowed 5th Shock Army, to the east, to seize Rychkovskii and Verkhne-Chirskii, with relative ease.

[21] The division received its second unit decoration, the Order of Suvorov, on February 13, 1944, in recognition of its service in the Dniepr battles and the liberation of Nikopol and Apostolove.

After the liberation of Odessa, 6th Army was ordered to spend about a week resting and refitting before moving west to the Dniestr River to reinforce the Front's advance on Kishinev.

"To expand the bridgehead, Lieutenant General Shlemin, the commander of the 6th Army, assigned the following missions: the 203rd and 333rd Rifle Divisions will penetrate the enemy's defenses along a front of three kilometres on the night of 24–25 April, capture the northern part of the village of Kyrpatseny, and subsequently reach the dominating [terrain] on Hill 141.1 [three km beyond]."

on April 25, following a short artillery raid of just 15 minutes due to lack of ammunition at the end of a long and waterlogged supply line.

German reserves launched counterattacks the next day which retook Plop-Shtube and generally brought the advance to a complete halt by April 29.

At 2300 the 244th was committed from second echelon to attack alongside the 333rd against enemy positions on Kaushany Hill, but this was unsuccessful, bringing 66th Corps to a halt for that day.

The 333rd faced two enemy infantry regiments, backed by 20 - 25 tanks and assault guns, attacking from the Yermokliya area from 0700 to 1200 hrs.

This advance was met with heavy small arms and artillery fire from the eastern outskirts of the village, which brought it to a halt.