The 160th had distinguished itself in Operation Little Saturn and the subsequent Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive and despite being partly destroyed during the German counteroffensive that retook Kharkov in March 1943 it was deemed worthy of Guards status.

When the Red Army went over to the offensive in early August the division was awarded one of the first honorifics for its part in the liberation of Belgorod and within weeks a further battle honor for helping to retake Kharkov.

It then joined the summer offensive through eastern Ukraine to the Dniepr River where more than two dozen of its personnel became Heroes of the Soviet Union as a result of crossing operations near Kremenchug.

In early February the division helped to expand a bridgehead over the Oder River near Küstrin and remained in that position until the final offensive on Berlin began in mid-April.

During the evening a dispatch from 48th Rifle Corps to the headquarters of Voronezh Front noted that the German forces in the Luchki and Nechaevka areas were digging in and placing barbed-wire obstacles.

The 81st Guards was also falling back from its positions at Staryi Gorod toward a defensive line held by the division along the southern fringe of a wooded area northwest of Khokhlovo.

[13] Kryuchenkin decided on the night of July 10/11 to further regroup his forces and withdraw part of them from the dangerous sack that had formed as the result of the previous days' fighting in the area north of Belgorod.

The sector from Visloe to Ternovka to Belomestnaya to Petropavlovka to Khokhlovo was turned over to the division and by morning it had occupied defensive positions between the Lipovyi and Severskii Donets along the front Kalinin–northern outskirts of Belomestnaya–Kiselevo.

2nd Guards Tanks had been partly restored to a total of 80 operational vehicles but both Soviet units, along with the right flank of the 375th Division, were forced to fall back under the combined pressure beginning around 1640 hours; the 375th was successful in halting the drive along most of its sector but eventually found itself attacked from three sides.

Kryuchenkin sent a special command group to Plota at 2000 hours with orders to, among other measures, "deploy no less than two artillery battalions of the 89th Guards Rifle Division in Kleimenovo."

As the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts prepared to go over to the counteroffensive the retention of the salient was highly desirable as a springboard, but the 69th and 5th Guards Tank Armies no longer had the strength to do so.

48th Corps, which had the 183rd Rifle Division added to its forces just before the attack, was to break through the German defense and, developing the offensive in the general direction of Belgorod, was to reach a line from Zagotskot to Belomestnaya on the first day.

[26] The offensive proceeded largely according to plan, and on August 4 the STAVKA tasked Steppe Front with the liberation of Belgorod, which Konev assigned to 69th and 7th Guards Armies.

The German forces had transformed the city into a powerful center of resistance with a ring-shaped defense line built during the winter of 1941-42 and a large number of other engineering works including extensive minefields.

On August 13 forces of Steppe Front broke through the external defensive line that the German command had prepared around the city and by the 17th fighting had begun in its northern outskirts.

The Army was poorly supplied with crossing equipment and would rely on reinforcements of two mechanized pontoon bridge battalions, an engineer-sapper brigade and 48 wooden boats, but these were lagging behind the advance due to fuel shortages.

89th Guards was to pursue the retreating German forces in the general direction of Aleksandrova and Pavlovka, reach the Dniepr by the end of September 26 and establish a bridgehead northeast of Uspenskoye the following morning.

The 89th Guards was still closing to the river against rearguards of the 39th and 106th Infantry while elements of the 23rd Panzer Division began arriving in the Myshuryn Rih area on the west bank.

Nevertheless the forcing operation began at 2000 hours as one battalion of the 267th Guards Regiment secretly reached the right bank and established a foothold in the area of Lake Chervyakovo-Rechitse.

During October 4 the Soviet buildup on the west bank continued with the 188th Rifle Division and the 1st Mechanized Corps' main forces getting across as the Front's support elements and supply echelons closed on the river.

Their bridgeheads were still shallow and their initial tasks of tying down the 39th, 106th, and Totenkopf divisions had been fulfilled; in addition, the German strongpoints at Uspenskoye and Deriivka would not be taken by frontal attacks without unacceptable losses.

Over the next few days this advance tore open the left flank of the 1st Panzer Army and liberated Piatykhatky on the 18th, cutting the main railroads to Dnepropetrovsk and Kryvyi Rih.

[50] Meanwhile the 89th and 94th Guards, along with the three rifle divisions of 48th Corps, maintained constant pressure against the German forces defending the bridgehead on the Dniestr's east bank northeast of Dubăsari.

By 0400 hours the city had been cleared of Axis forces and the 26th Guards Corps continued its pursuit and reached the Botna River from Ulmu to Ruseștii Noi by the end of the day.

On January 28 the 2nd Guards Tank and 5th Shock Armies broke through the Pomeranian Wall from the march and by the end of the month reached the Oder south of Küstrin and seized a bridgehead 12km in width and up to 3km deep.

The Army deployed within the Küstrin bridgehead along a 9km-wide front between Letschin and Golzow and was to launch its main attack on its left wing on a 7km sector closer to the latter place.

The Army then occupied jumping-off positions for a reconnaissance-in-force by battalions of five of its divisions while the remainder carried out more regular reconnaissance activities beginning early on the morning of April 14.

In the course of two days of limited fighting the Front's troops advanced as much as 5km, ascertained and partly disrupted the German defensive system, and had overcome the thickest zone of minefields.

26th Guards Corps advanced nearly 6km and during the night reached the east bank of the Alte Oder, which it forced at 1000 hours on April 17 following a powerful artillery barrage.

Bypassing Strausberg from the north it advanced 11km to the west with 12th Guards Tanks and penetrated Berlin's outer defensive line in the Wesendahl area by the day's end.