After the fall of Vienna in April it did garrison duty in the city for a short time before being directed west into lower Austria where it linked up with U.S. forces in the last days of the war.

The STAVKA employed the Corps to conduct air assault operations west of Moscow during its winter counteroffensive and it suffered heavy losses in the process.

[2] After the subunits received their designations the division's order of battle was as follows:[citation needed] Col. Nikolai Petrovich Ivanov, who had led 10th Airborne since the previous year, remained in command of the unit when it was redesignated.

Due to Yeryomenko's underestimate of the strength of 6th Army (his order required the three divisions to attack a German force almost twice their combined size), the short time available to prepare, and the lack of artillery, armor and air support the counterattack had no chance to succeed, although some territory was gained.

When the second Kotluban offensive began on September 18 it formed a shock group with the 38th Guards and 116th Rifle Divisions on a roughly 8 km sector on the Army's right wing west of the Sukhaia Mechetka River and north of Hill 139.7.

The next day it further ordered the formation of a new 1st Guards Army, based on 4th Reserve, to form up 150–190 km north of Serafimovich and be combat ready by November 10 under the command of Maj. Gen.

By now the STAVKA was planning its follow-on offensive, tentatively named Operation Saturn, with the goal of liberating Rostov and trapping all the Axis forces in the Caucasus region.

During the first 24 hours the Italian divisions did a creditable job of confining the attackers to penetrations of little more than 3 km; fog hindered the observation of the supporting Soviet artillery.

The combined-arms approach quickly brought about a complete rout of the Axis forces throughout the main attack sectors and the 17th Tank Corps broke through at the boundary between Cosseria and Ravenna late in the afternoon.

During the night of 12-13.2.1943 units of the 41st Guards Rifle Division abandoned Bylbasovka and fell back to its northern outskirts under pressure from numerous enemy counterattacks.

[17] On February 20 Army Group South launched its counterattack against the overextended Soviet forces; the rifle divisions of the two Fronts were by now reduced to roughly 1,000 men with a handful of guns and perhaps 50 mortars each.

On February 25 a motley assortment of Soviet remnants tried to halt the XXXX Panzer Corps at Barvenkovo before it could reach the northern Donets River and managed to hold until the afternoon of the 28th.

[18] On the 25th General Ivanov went missing in action in the confused fighting around Barvenkovo; he was eventually presumed killed and replaced on April 10 by Col. Andronik Sarkisovich Sarkisyan.

[21] On June 23 Col. Konstantin Nikolaevich Tsvetkov took over command from Colonel Sarkisyan and would remain in this position in to the postwar period, being promoted to the rank of major general on October 25.

I. S. Konev, submitted his plan to strike from the large bridgehead his forces had created between Kremenchug and Zaporozhye towards Pyatikhatka and Krivoi Rog with five armies, including the 57th.

Guardsman Nikolai Yegorovich Sergienko took over command of his squad during combat in the village of Pochapintsy and organized a defense against the breakout which killed or wounded over 100 German officers and soldiers and took 43 more as prisoners.

He directed the fire of his guns against the escaping German forces and after their shells were exhausted organized his men as infantry for a successful circular defense of their position.

The troops who participated in the battles near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 18 February 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

The objectives of the left flank armies (including the 5th Guards and the 53rd) were to cross the river, capture the towns of Orgeev, Dubosarry, Grigoriopol and Tashlyk, and exploit to seize Kishinev in conjunction with 3rd Ukrainian Front.

The remainder lagged behind... No less difficult was the process of supplying ammunition... We used every conceivable means of transport, including carrying the shells forward by hand.In a regrouping just as the assault was beginning the 3rd Panzer Division was made responsible for the bridgehead north of Orgeev, anchoring its defense on the village strongpoint of Susleny, 13 km northeast of the town.

Attacking at dawn the two divisions stormed the positions of 13th Panzer and captured the town, while 5th Airborne managed to seize a small bridgehead into the swampy terrain across the Răut.

This shock group broke through the Axis defense along a 12 km front from Bogdanesti to Pyrlica, and at 1500 hours the town of Ungheni was taken; this was the first of several crossings of the Prut to be captured.

The next day the Axis forces in front of the Army were in full retreat, determined to pull out of the trap forming around Kishinev and escape west of the Prut.

The troops who participated in the liberation of Chisinau, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 24 August 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns.

The next day Konev ordered the Army to continue its advance west of the river towards Bârlad and to mop up Axis groups hiding in the woods along its route of march.

[54] During December the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts had been able to encircle and besiege Budapest but on January 2 German forces began a series of counterattacks from the area southeast of Komárom in an effort to relieve the pocket.

The Army was forced to regroup and the 41st was one of four rifle divisions, plus elements of 5th Guards Cavalry Corps, deployed to cover the breakthrough sector from the southeast and south.

Once the attack had been brought to a halt the Soviet counteroffensive began on the 16th, and on March 18, in cooperation with the 9th Guards Army, it broke through IV SS Panzer Corps between Mór and Lake Velence.

The division was given garrison duty there for the next few weeks, and on April 26 the 126th Guards Rifle Regiment was further decorated with the Order of Suvorov, 3rd Degree, for its part in the taking of the towns of Chorno and Sárvár in Hungary.

[citation needed] After the end of the fighting the 122nd Guards Rifle Regiment was decorated on May 17 with the Order of Kutuzov, 3rd Degree, for its part in the capture of Vienna.