In December the 334th was moved north by rail and assigned to the newly formed 4th Shock Army in
Northwestern Front. When 4th Shock attacked in January 1942, the division reported a strength of 12,000 officers and men armed with 167 mortars, 14
HMGs, 347
LMGs, and 80
antitank rifles. During training, each rifle regiment had organized "assault" submachine-gun companies from Communist Party members and
Komsomols younger men with high morale, if not more training and experience. The German forces in this sector were badly overextended and under-supplied, and the 334th helped 4th Shock, and its running mate,
3rd Shock Army, drive deep into the left flank of Army Group Center, liberating
Toropets and advancing almost to
Velikiye Luki before finally running out of steam. By February - March 1942, while fighting north of Velizh, the division had collected enough trophy
German 105mm light howitzers and ammunition to form a battery of these guns in the 908th Artillery Regiment. 4th Shock would remain in this general area, just north and west of Velizh, until November 1943, in
Kalinin Front. Had
Operation Mars in November 1942, fared better, the 334th would likely have taken part in an operation code-named either
Jupiter or
Neptune to destroy all of Army Group Center east of
Smolensk. During the
Dukhovshchina–Demidov Offensive from September 20 to October 2, 1943, Kalinin Front would finally liberate Smolensk, and 4th Shock took Velizh, advancing nearly to Surazh by the end of the offensive. At this time the 334th was a separate division in the Army, not part of any corps. Before this operation ended the Front commander,
Gen. Andrey Yeryomenko, began planning two additional thrusts, one by 3rd Shock Army and most of 4th Shock in the direction of
Nevel, and another by the rest of his forces towards Vitebsk, which was seen by both sides as the gateway to the Baltic states. The assault on Nevel, beginning on October 6, was a surprising success, while the attack towards Vitebsk, which began three days earlier, was the first of many frustrating failures along this axis over the next seven months. The 334th was deployed in a support role on the right flank of
92nd Rifle Corps, facing the German
87th Infantry Division. After heavy fighting over nine days, the German forces were pulled back to new lines in the Gorodok region, and after following up, the 4th Shock units had to pause for their own regrouping and replenishment. On October 16 an order from
STAVKA shut this offensive down. In late November, the division was transferred to the
43rd Army in the
1st Baltic Front (former Kalinin Front), and it remained under those commands until August 1944. A new offensive towards Vitebsk began on December 23. By this time the 334th was in 92nd Rifle Corps, alongside the 332nd. On the second day, the division, along with the
358th of the same Corps, succeeded in biting a chunk out of German
14th Infantry Division's defenses north of the Surazh - Vitebsk road. This pressure helped to compel the Germans to withdraw their
LIII Corps to new defenses even closer to the city. Despite these marginal successes, and others, the offensive was shut down on January 5, 1944, due to excessive losses. During that month the 334th was reassigned to
60th Rifle Corps, in the same Army, and it would remain in this Corps for the duration, while being reassigned to several other armies. In early March yet another attempt was made to advance against the German positions north and east of Vitebsk. The German
VI Army Corps withdrew once again to shorter lines, followed by the 334th and its Corps, which ran up against
4th German Air Force Field Division in the vicinity of Losvida and Savchenki, only to suffer a sharp rebuff. By March 5 the offensive was once again shut down. At the start of
Operation Bagration, on June 22, the 334th and its Corps were part of the assault forces of 43rd Army. Following a very heavy artillery barrage and air attacks, 60 Corps had passed through both the first and second German defense lines and reached the
Obol River. By the evening of June 23, 60th Corps was pressing remnants of German Corps Detachment D south towards the
Dvina River west of Vitebsk. On the following day several bridgeheads were taken, and crossing operations began on both sides of Beshenkovichi. Overnight on June 25/26 60th Corps met the
19th Guards Rifle Division of 39th Army at Gnezdilovichi, closing the ring, and through the day forces of both armies cleared Vitebsk. On the same date the division was recognized for its role in liberating the city, towards which the Red Army had struggled for so many months, and was given that name as an honorific:Following this victory the division joined in the pursuit of the broken remnants of Army Group Center, and by the second week in July had nearly reached the Lithuanian border just east of
Švenčionys. Over the following months the advance slowed, and by August 1 the division found itself in the vicinity of
Kupiškis, moving in the direction of
Riga. Two weeks later it had reached
Pasvalys, and shortly thereafter was transferred, along with the rest of 60 Corps, to
51st Army. By mid-September the 334th had crossed into Latvia at
Eleja, but made little further progress over the next six weeks. In the last months of the year the division was briefly reassigned back to 4th Shock Army, then to
61st Army. ==Operations in 1945==