went as planned. In mid-month intense cold was replaced by continuous rain with reinforcements and supplies becoming bogged down. Ziethen began on February 17 and immediately began freeing up German troops to form reserves. 1st Shock's attack had to be postponed until February 26 by which time it was facing three German divisions instead of one. The assault troops managed to gain from 1 - 3km with great difficulty, and a further effort the next day was stopped in its tracks. In the midst of the carnage medical sledge-dog teams were used to evacuate wounded from the battlefield. The division's Medical Assistant Tartkov moved 98 men to aid posts, for which he was awarded the Order of Lenin. General Kozyr was moved to command of the 7th Guards on March 11, being replaced by Maj. Gen. Nikolai Pavlovich Anisimov. Kozyr would go on to become a Hero of the Soviet Union as commander of the 232nd Rifle Division before being killed in action while serving as deputy commander of 50th Rifle Corps in April 1945. The 391st and the 3rd Guards Airborne Divisions were by now so decimated in the fighting that they were replaced in the front line by the 6th and 9th Guards Airborne Divisions. The division remained for most of the year in 1st Shock Army, by October under the 90th Rifle Corps. On October 16 General Anisimov was reassigned to the training establishment, being replaced by Col. Anton Demyanovich Timoshenko, who would remain in command for the duration. In November, when Northwestern Front was disbanded, the division was briefly moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command before being assigned to 2nd Baltic Front. Into the Baltic States As of December 1 the 391st was in the Front reserves, but by the start of 1944 it had been assigned to the 97th Rifle Corps of 6th Guards Army. Later in January it had been reassigned yet again, now serving as a separate division in 22nd Army of the same Front. The Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive began on January 14 but in its early stages primarily involved the attacks by Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts against the German 18th Army. By mid-February the 16th Army found itself in a deep salient leaving it vulnerable to a joint offensive by 2nd Baltic and Leningrad Fronts. Planning for the Staraya Russa-Novorzhev Offensive began on February 17; however, Army Group North was