62nd Army, Lt. Gen. V.I. Chuikov, to withdraw to new defensive positions in the wooded hills west of Krasnyi Oktiabr village as a scant reserve. By September 13 the remaining forces of the division were being referred to as a "composite regiment", and many accounts of the fighting in this period mention a "399th Rifle Regiment". On the following day, the German 71st Infantry Division began its assault into central Stalingrad, and the 399th was redeployed southwards, as one of Chuikov's few reserves. By the end of the next day, the division was reported as having just 36 men in the line. At this point, discipline collapsed. On September 16, the chief of Stalingrad Front's NKVD, N. N. Selivanovsky, sent a report to Moscow which included the following: Following this, the remnants of the division were relieved and ordered north to the 3rd Tank Army in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command south of Moscow. On October 2 Colonel Travnikov was replaced in command by Col. Andrei Ivanovich Surchenko. In December the 399th was assigned to Bryansk Front. In January, 1943 the division joined the 48th Army in that Front, and remained with that army for the duration of the war, with the exception of a few months in early 1944. Battles for Oryol and Kursk In heavy fighting during February 8 - 12 the 48th Army liberated the village of Droskovo. Following this it formed a powerful shock group consisting of the 6th Guards Rifle Division, 9th Ski Brigade, three tank regiments and later the 399th and committed it in the Pokrovskoye sector. Attacking the German defenses at the boundary between the 2nd Panzer Army's XXXV and LV Army Corps on February 14 the group advanced almost in four days of heavy fighting, reaching the Neruch River by the end of the 17th. The Army continued a steady advance against German defenses at the eastern tip of the Oryol salient, by February 22 reaching positions from east of Oryol to the northern outskirts of Maloarkhangelsk, southeast of the city. On the same day Colonel Surchenko handed his command to Col. Dmitry Mikhailovich Ponomarev. The commander of 2nd Panzer sent his 216th Infantry Division from Oryol to reinforce the sector and the advance was brought to a halt three days later. In early March Bryansk Front prepared for another attempt to force the Neruch and drive towards Oryol. 48th