It then spent the autumn and winter in the costly and difficult struggles on the approaches to the upper Dniepr River and in eastern Belarus, during which it won a battle honor.

Following this it helped to eliminate the German forces trapped east of Minsk, for which it received a second unit decoration, before joining the advance into Poland.

During the Vistula-Oder Offensive the 385th was part of 2nd Belorussian Front's 49th Army, and ended the war advancing north of Berlin towards the Baltic coast.

[6] On 11 March Col. Gavriil Markelovich Nemudrov took command of the division but ten days later he was replaced by Col. Aleksandr Fedorovich Naumov.

The 385th took part in Operation Suvorov, the grinding offensive westward towards Smolensk, which began on 7 August, but did not involve 10th Army until three days later.

On 10 August the commander of Western Front, Col. Gen. V. D. Sokolovsky, ordered the Army to attack north-west out of its salient around Kirov against the LVI Panzer Corps.

[14] As the summer offensive rolled into the autumn, on 29 September the division forced a crossing of the Sozh River with the 212th Rifle Division and liberated the town of Krichev, for which it was awarded a battle honor:"By the order of the Supreme High Command, the name of Krichev is awarded to... 385th Rifle Division (Colonel Suprunov, Mitrofan Fedorovich)..."[15]In early October, as Western Front made its first attempt to liberate Orsha, 10th Army was on the Front's left flank, and 38th Corps deployed into positions in the bend of the Pronya River southeast of Chausy.

In support of this, 10th Army was ordered to attack German defenses north and south of Chausy at the junction of the Sozh and Pronya.

Rokossovsky was determined to eliminate the German 9th Army's bridgehead on the east bank of the Dniepr between Bykhov and Chausy.

Following this, 38th Corps would exploit to the northwest and reach the southeast outskirts of Mogilev by the end of 1 April, a total advance of 30 km.

In an after action report it was noted that on 29 March the division was ordered to exploit gains made by the 290th, but while the distance to be covered was no more than 1.5 km, it wasted more than four hours which allowed the German force to reorganize its defense.

[21] The Front's objective in the first phase was to break through the defenses of 4th Army along the Pronya, force the Dniepr and liberate Mogilev, much the same as in March.

At 0600 hours on 25 June the Front's three attacking armies struck the remnants of the 337th, 12th Infantry and Feldherrenhalle Divisions and drove them back over the Basya River.

Chausy was finally taken by elements of 50th Army and by evening a column of 90 Soviet tanks and infantry in trucks was on the road to Mogilev.

On 1 July on the Chervyen - Berezino road the composite Battle Group König (one regiment of the 31st Division and other remnants) was fighting the 38th and 19th Corps, which had crossed the Berezina River north of Brodets.

On 9 July, 49th Army was tasked with the elimination of the German remnants in the pocket east of Minsk, in what was called the Osovets Offensive.

The 385th, along with four other separate divisions, the 38th Corps, and NKVD rear security troops were to methodically comb through the forested areas east of the city with light air support.

During those months the division received replacement riflemen from the 205th Reserve Rifle Regiment, but only a few hundred given the dearth of front line infantry at that stage of the war.

[29] As the offensive pressed on into Poland, on 13 September the division played a leading role in the liberation of the city of Lomzha, and the 1268th and 1270th Rifle Regiments were both awarded that name as a battle honor.

On 16 January the 49th continued attacking along its left flank but ran into stubborn enemy resistance and gained only 2 – 3 km during the day.

[34] By 10 February, 70th and 121st Corps relieved the forces of 70th Army on the left bank of the Vistula River along the line Kulm - Grodek - Sierosław - Lniano in preparation for the offensive into eastern Pomerania.

During 18–19 April the Front launched intensive reconnaissance efforts in preparation for the crossings, including the elimination of German advance parties in the lowlands between the East and West Oder.

Attacking to the southwest and having beaten off five German counterattacks the Army advanced 5–6 km in the day's fighting, and by the evening part of the 70th Corps had reached a line between Gatow and Hohenfelde.