the next two days, 31st Army's attack stalled at considerable cost and with no appreciable gains. Over the next ten days Western Front carried out a major regrouping which, among other things, moved part of the Army south of the highway. The 65th Guards Rifle Division was transferred from 10th Guards Army and relieved units of the 359th during the night of 23 October in the Sharino region. When the offensive was renewed that day, the division was in the second echelon. The frontal assault smashed the defenses of the 197th Infantry, again at huge cost in casualties, and penetrated as much as 4 km deep, but the commitment of armor from 2nd Guards Tank Corps the following day produced gains of less than a kilometre. The 359th was brought up with other units from the second echelon on the 24th, but ran into heavy German artillery fire, to which they had no effective reply due to low ammunition stocks. A halt was ordered late on 26 October, and the Soviet forces dug in. By the time the fourth Orsha offensive began on 14 November, the rifle divisions of Western Front were down to an average strength of 4,500 men. On the first day the 338th Rifle Division advanced about 1.5 km, but the remaining divisions of 31st Army bogged down in the German security zone under withering machine-gun fire. On the next day the Army made no further progress at all, and General Gluzdovskii ordered the second echelon divisions of 36 Corps into combat. In five days of intense fighting an advance of no more than 4 km was accomplished; Western Front's total casualties amounted to 38,756. Yet another attack began on 30 November, with no progress being made at all on 31st Army's front and another heavy toll in casualties. In December the 359th was removed to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding. In January 1944, it was reassigned to the 1st Ukrainian Front, where it would remain for the duration. To begin with it was assigned to the 47th Rifle Corps in 27th Army, then to 102nd Rifle Corps in the Front reserves, and by 1 April to 23rd Rifle Corps in 60th Army. The division remained in this Army until September, when it was transferred to the 38th Army. At this time, the 221st Antitank Battalion had been reequipped with ZIS-3 76mm guns,