In January, 1945 the division fought into East Prussia and assisted in the battles southwest of the city/fortress of Königsberg, winning two further decorations including a rare second Order of the Red Banner, before 28th Army was redeployed westward to take part in the Berlin operation.

Belov's division gained its Guards status in large part due to its offensive successes in the fighting for the Serafimovich bridgehead south of the Don River against the 3rd Romanian Army.

[3] During earlier fighting in the bridgehead on October 3 Sen. Lt. Mikhail Arsentyevich Kuznetsov of the 622nd Rifle Regiment had led a group of his submachine-gunners in a successful battle in the area of Senyutkino Farm against two enemy-held bunkers.

On the second day of Operation Uranus he further distinguished himself by leading his men into the rear of a retreating Romanian artillery battalion, which was soon mostly destroyed or captured, including 16 serviceable guns.

Despite contrary orders from the German high command, Lascăr and his subordinates created a plan to escape from the pocket, but this was disrupted by the two Soviet divisions as they continued to advance against sporadic opposition and Golovsky fell to the 50th Guards at 2100 hours.

The 22nd Panzer and 1st Romanian Armored had set up a bridgehead in the Bolshaya Donshchinka and Kurtlak River regions and General Romanenko was intent on eliminating these positions.

The other two rifle divisions joined the fray after 22nd Panzer had withdrawn its antitank guns from Bolshaya Donshchinka leaving the Romanian Group Sion to fend for itself.

Deploying for action it engaged the Romanian 14th Infantry north of Chistyakovskaya and 22nd Panzer at Chernyshevskaya, recapturing it after forcing a crossing, and also seizing several nearby villages.

Hollidt, committed all his available forces to contain the Soviet bridgeheads at and north of Chernyshevskaya, including the 610th Security Regiment, various alarm battalions and the Romanian 7th Cavalry Division.

The troops who participated in the liberation of the Donbas region, and the city of Stalino, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 8 September 1943, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

[21]During the rest of September Southern Front, with 5th Shock on its right (north) flank, forced the German 6th Army back through the Donbas towards the southernmost part of the Panther–Wotan line from Zaporozhe to Melitopol.

The larger part of its forces fell back to form a bridgehead east of the Dniepr south of Nikopol with the 5th Shock and 2nd Guards Armies in pursuit.

During November substantial German reserves were moved into the bridgehead in anticipation of an offensive to restore communications with Crimea, which had been cut off by the remainder of 4th Ukrainian Front.

[22] A cold wave in the first week of January, 1944 firmed up the ground enough for the 4th and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts to begin moving against the remaining German positions in the Dniepr bend.

From June 22 to July 3 the 28th Army and the Pliev Group had forced a German retreat of 250 km (160 mi) to the vicinity of Stolbtsy, but the advance now paused to bring up supplies to overcome the increasing resistance.

By the end of the second day the town was partially encircled but the Soviet advance was slowed by German reinforcements and continuing difficulties in bringing the Front's forces up to the attack sectors.

Overnight the 65th Army, assisted by the 28th, stormed Baranovichi in an unexpected night attack which cleared it by 0400 hours on July 8 as the German forces withdrew to the west.

The commitment of 20th Rifle Corps from second echelon in the direction of the railroad to Brest along the army's left flank during the second half of July 20 allowed the offensive to gain momentum and the German forces began to withdraw towards the city.

During July 25-26 the army forced the Lesnaya north of Czernawczyci and General Rokossovskii handed over his reserve 46th Rifle Corps to help complete the encirclement.

In September the 28th Army returned to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rest and rebuilding and in October was reassigned to the 3rd Belorussian Front on the East Prussian border.

The 28th Army had its main forces on its right flank and was to launch a vigorous attack north of the Stallupönen - Gumbinnen paved highway in the general direction of Insterburg.

Its breakthrough frontage was 7 km (4.3 mi) wide and its immediate objective was to destroy the Gumbinnen group of German forces in conjunction with 5th Army before assisting 11th Guards in its deployment along the Inster River.

The army, mainly facing the 549th Volksgrenadier Division, broke through the defense along the Kischen - Grunhaus sector and penetrated as much as 7 km (4.3 mi) by the day's end while fighting off 14 counterattacks by infantry and tanks.

On the next day 3rd Guards Corps advanced only 1–1.5 km (0.62–0.93 mi) during a day-long fight for the strongpoint of Kattenau; a number of positions changed hands several times.

General Luchinsky concentrated the maximum amount of artillery fire in support of the 3rd Guards and 128th Rifle Corps allowing a breakthrough on a narrow sector towards the northeastern outskirts of Gumbinnen.

During a two-day battle on January 20-21 the 20th and 128th Corps finally captured Gumbinnen, but a large remnant of the German forces managed to retreat to the Angerapp River, which the 28th Army reached by the end of the second day.

Immediately after the operation ended on March 29 the 28th was reassigned to the Reserve of the Supreme High command and began moving across eastern Germany towards the Oder River.

A combined force of 45,000 men punched a hole 2 km (1.2 mi) wide between the 50th and 54th Guards in the Munchendorf area and began moving through in spite of powerful artillery and mortar fire.

[46] During April 29 the 50th and 96th Guards Divisions repulsed several heavy German attacks and by the end of the day were continuing to fight along a line from Dornswalde to Radeland to Munchendorf with their fronts facing north.

The 50th Guards, on a line from outside Radeland to an unnamed height 3 km (1.9 mi) northeast of Munchendorf was forced to pull back its left flank towards the latter village under pressure but managed to consolidate its position there alongside the 395th Division.