The German forces facing them, including the re-created 6th Army, occupied defensive positions they had originally built a year earlier.

The first major effort to break this line began on 17 July; the 13th Guards Rifle Corps, in second echelon, crossed into a constricted bridgehead on the 21st, trying to stage a breakthrough in the area of the village of Dmitrievka.

The troops that participated in the liberation of the Donbas, during which they captured Stalino and other cities, by order of the Supreme High Command on 8 September 1943, are given congratulations, and in Moscow a salute was given with 20 artillery salvos of 224 guns.

The division's task was to break through German positions across the low and narrow Isthmus of Perekop, beginning on 6 April 1944.

During the night the 261st Guards Rifle Regiment was withdrawn from the line and began a long flanking march to the shore of Karkinit Bay, which was just knee-deep at this point.

After wading for 20 minutes the regiment reached the opposite shore, outflanking the Germans and forcing them to fall back several kilometres.

The troops that participated in the liberation of Sevastopol, by order of the Supreme High Command on 10 May 1944, are given congratulations, and in Moscow a salute was given with 24 artillery salvos of 324 guns.

"[6][7]Following the victory in the Crimea, 2nd Guards Army was railed all the way north to 1st Baltic Front, where it arrived shortly after the start of Operation Bagration.

Advancing into the "Baltic Gap" in Lithuania between German Army Groups North and Center, the 87th Guards encountered limited resistance until it reached well dug-in positions along the Dubysa River in mid-August; this led to a halt for several weeks, followed by three unsuccessful attempts to break this line in September.

Orders to assault the city by storm were countermanded on 30 October, and instead the division was re-deployed 200km northeast into Latvia to help contain the German forces trapped in the Courland Pocket.