the 120th since October 27, 1942 remained in command; he would be promoted to the rank of major general on March 1 and would lead the division for the duration of the war. The division had been in the 57th Army on February 1 but was then transferred to 21st Army and shortly after to the Stalingrad Group of Forces where it remained until March 1. Into Ukraine After leaving the Stalingrad Group the 69th Guards was reassigned to the 24th Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. In April it was subordinated to the new 21st Guards Rifle Corps along with the 68th Guards and 84th Rifle Divisions as the 24th became the 4th Guards Army within the Steppe Military District. The division remained under these commands and in roughly the same area east of the Kursk salient until early August. 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 July 23. By August 17 the Army had been assigned to Army Gen. N. F. Vatutin's Voronezh Front and was now concentrated in the area from Yamnoye to Novaya Ryabina to Yablochnoye. As the Front pressed on towards Kharkov panzer forces of Army Group South counterattacked in the area of Akhtyrka and Vatutin received orders to eliminate this grouping to ward off the possible isolation of 27th Army. These orders were passed to the 27th, the 4th and 6th Guards and 1st Tank Armies. 4th Guards initially committed two divisions of its 20th Guards Rifle Corps to this effort and by August 20 the German riposte was brought to a halt. The Army was tasked with attacking toward Kotelva the following day; by August 27 it had reached the Vorskla River and captured Kotelva. By September 9 the 69th Guards was advancing towards the Dniepr southwest of Zenkov in the Poltava region. 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. Armed with a sniper rifle, Bagirov was credited with killing or wounding 28 German soldiers, after which he destroyed a German artillery piece and its crew with an antitank grenade. Despite being surrounded, and in spite of his own wound,