Ravine. After a short artillery preparation, the attack stepped off at 0500 hrs., supported by the last three tanks of the 125th Tank Battalion, towards Mekenzievy Station, but German reserves drove them back to their original positions. Following additional German gains over the next three days, General Petrov ordered all remaining Soviet forces to evacuate the north side of Severnaya Bay as the enemy reached the shoreline on June 22. Defense sector IV had fallen and all that remained of sector III were the remnants of the division and the 138th Brigade holding on to the Serpentine tunnel and Martynovsky Ravine at the bay's northeast corner. Two platoon leaders of the 138th deserted to the Germans and gave information on the strength and dispositions of the remaining Soviet troops. A carefully planned attack on June 22 by 50th Infantry Division overran the Serpentine and reached the railway tunnel, which was cleared with flamethrowers. Heavy fighting continued around the ravine on the 23rd, but the disorganized Soviet units were defeated piecemeal, with at least 725 men captured. Perhaps as many as 4,000 men escaped southward to Inkerman, but nearly all the remaining men and women of the 345th were trapped north of the bay and overrun. On July 4 the battle for Sevastopol ended, and the 345th Rifle Division was officially disbanded on July 17. 2nd Formation Very late in the war, on March 13, 1945, the 345th was formed again, this time in the 2nd Red Banner Army of the Far Eastern Front, near Khabarovsk. It and the 2nd formation of the 396th Rifle Division were the last two regular rifle divisions formed during the war. Its order of battle remained the same as the first formation. Lt. Col. Vasilii Vasilievich Pyankov was assigned to command the division on the day it was formed; a week later he was promoted to Colonel. After just a few months the division was assigned to the 87th Rifle Corps in the 1st Far Eastern Front reserves, and served under those commands during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August. During the initial stages of the offensive the 345th, with its Corps, advanced deep into enemy-held territory, although the division saw little, if any actual combat. The division was slated to participate in the proposed Soviet invasion of Hokkaido before it was cancelled. The 345th was disbanded in September by the order establishing the