The 69th Guards then fought its way to the Dniester River where it took part in two offensives, the second of which in August finally took the city of Iași; this victory won the division the Order of the Red Banner.

[5] Following the defeat of the German Zitadelle offensive, the 4th Guards Army, under command of Lt. Gen. G. I. Kulik and still in reserve, was concentrating in the area of Chernyanka, Orlik and Loznoe on 23 July.

A squad of 11 men of the 206th Guards Rifle Regiment, led by Jr. Lt. Museib Bagir oglu Bagirov, captured a tactically important height before being subjected to counterattacks.

Despite being surrounded, and in spite of his own wound, Bagirov's men held the height for more than 24 hours, knocking out three armored vehicles and inflicting up to an additional 250 casualties.

Vasilii Alekseevich Zhukov, commander of a battalion of the 204th Guards Rifle Regiment, led his men in the assault on the unnamed island and cleared it before continuing to the west bank.

In the battles for the bridgehead that followed over the next days Zhukov led several counterattacks which resulted in the destruction of 10 German armored vehicles and up to one-and-a-half battalions of infantry.

Meanwhile, during mid-October the center armies of the Front had driven south from bridgeheads farther to the southeast, liberated Pyatikhatka, and continued as far as Krivoi Rog, although they were forced to fall back from the latter.

The advance to the northwest continued until 16 January by which time the German XI and XXXXII Army Corps, holding the last sector of the Dniepr line, were deeply enveloped.

The troops who participated in the liberation of Zvenigorodka and nearby towns, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 3 February 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

The history of 4th Guards Army described the difficulties during its advance:Overcoming the increasing enemy resistance became more difficult because our forces had inadequate artillery support and ammunition.

The remainder lagged behind... No less difficult was the process of supplying ammunition to the artillery... We used every conceivable means of transport, including carrying the shells forward by hand.Despite the many daunting problems caused by the spring rasputitsa, on 5 April the Army commander, Lt. Gen.

Marshal I. S. Konev, the Front commander, was determined to take Chișinău and on 8 April Galanin ordered his two Guards corps to assault and crush the positions of 3rd Panzer south of Susleni.

Over two days the German defenses were pounded by artillery and mortar fire and repeated ground assaults but XXXX Panzer Corps threw in reserves to stabilise the situation.

On 10 and 11 April, Galanin reinforced the see-saw battle for the Orhei bridgehead with the 69th and 80th Guards but his move was met by the 14th Panzer Division which joined the German counterattacks.

It then attacked along the southern bank of the Bahlui and by the end of the day reached a line from Mogoșești to Ciurea; at this time the 69th Guards was in the Corps' second echelon.

[22] Overnight the Axis forces in the Iași area attempted to withdraw to a new line along the left bank of the Deia River but were unsuccessful due to the pace of the 52nd Army's advance.

The following day the Army continued to develop the offensive and the Corps encountered only insignificant resistance, reaching a line from Vutcani to Hurdugi.

On 24 August, the 21st Guards Corps was directed to occupy a line from Berezeni to Stănilești by the morning of the next day which gave each first echelon division a 14 km-wide frontage to cover.

[24] In the process of the advance on 24 August the cities of Huși, Bacău, Bârlad and Roman were all occupied and on 15 September each of the regiments of the division would be decorated in consequence.

[25] The German XXXXIV, XXX and LII Army Corps planned to start their breakout at midnight on 24 and 25 August in the general direction of Huși.

Command and control had broken down in the encircled grouping and the escape efforts were widely scattered; heavy equipment was being abandoned or destroyed at the Prut.

During the afternoon of the 28th a significant group of German troops managed to push south on a road to Vutcani despite resistance from 21st Guards Corps and consequent heavy losses.

Remnants of five German divisions which had managed to break through to Vutcani began a withdrawal through the rear areas of 2nd Ukrainian Front on 29 August with 21st Guards Corps in pursuit as far as the Bârlad River.

[32] IV SS Panzer Corps planned to launch its assault along a 15km front held by the 252nd Division's 928th Rifle Regiment and the entire sector of 1st Guards Fortified Region with a total of 560 tanks.

The advance made little further progress that day and the battle for Székesfehérvár continued through January 20 as Soviet artillery was brought up to reinforce the antitank defenses.

The two SS divisions focused their efforts that day and the next on the reinforced 5th Guards Cavalry Corps between Lake Velence and the Danube but without notable success.

[33] The German plan for 22 January involved a short artillery preparation at 0530 hours after which the 5th SS and 1st Panzer Divisions attacked towards Székesfehérvár with the former advancing on the eastern suburbs while the latter headed for the western outskirts.

Under the circumstances of near-encirclement the impact of more than 150 tanks and assault guns managed to force the 21st Guards Corps back and to capture the town and its suburbs by 1800 hours.

Overnight on 25 and 26 January, the German forces launched a surprise night offensive which made some gains and put 4th Guards Army in a difficult situation.

Crossing the border into Austria on 1 April, the division captured the town of Eisenstadt and shortly after entered Vienna where it ended the war.