and snow and exposing their forces to mortar and sniper fire, while 3rd Shock launched repeated unsuccessful attacks between April 2 and 18. In the end German assault guns broke the siege on May 5. Prior to this, in late April the 391st was transferred to the nearby 1st Shock Army of Northwestern Front. This Army faced the south side of the newly-formed "Ramushevo corridor" that had restored tenuous land communications with the previously encircled German II Army Corps at Demyansk. Demyansk Pocket On May 3 the Front made its first attempt to cut the 4km-wide corridor; 1st Shock attacked from the south while 11th Army struck from the north. The attempt was a failure although artillery fire prevented the German supply columns from using the road most of the time. On May 16, Col. Aleksei Stepanovich Frolov replaced Colonel Kudryashov in command; he was in turn replaced by Col. Pyotr Mitrofanovich Paramonov on July 2. The second attempt to sever the corridor began at 1400 hours on July 17. The 391st, now in the 1st Guards Rifle Corps, formed one of the assault groups of 1st Shock Army, along with the 14th and 37th Rifle Brigades. Following a 90-minute artillery bombardment which barely scratched the German positions the attack went in and walked straight into carefully prepared engagement areas which quickly tore the shock groups to shreds. The Soviet artillery had insufficient stocks of shells and the attack degenerated into a battle of attrition and collapsed a week later having gained about a thousand metres of ground. A new offensive began on August 10 with the 391st again forming an assault group for 1st Shock, along with the 130th and 364th Rifle Divisions and the 37th Brigade, backed by 30 tanks. There was only enough artillery ammunition for a 10-minute bombardment which failed to dent the German defenses. Again these groups were badly shot up. On the next day Colonel Paramonov left his command of the division, being replaced on the 14th by Lt. Col. Vasilii Fedorovich Marchuk. In the course of the fighting the commander of 1st Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. N. D. Zakhvataev, was wounded. By August 21 the offensive had to be halted due to heavy casualties and insufficient supply of shells. While the corridor was again disrupted by Soviet artillery, no more than a few hundred metres of ground had been gained. The 391st was