By September 1942 the division took up defensive positions on the high banks of the Don, protecting the long left flank of the 6th Army in Stalingrad. On 19 November the Soviet Army opened Operation Uranus against Romanian forces to the north. Manoilin, one of the supply bases for the division had already been attacked by Soviet armour units. An attack against this sector had not been totally unexpected by the German command, and the previous day the 6th Army authorised the 44 Infantry to release the 132 Infantry Regiment from its defensive positions along the bluffs overlooking the Don, for commitment elsewhere. The regiment was already short of men, so it dissolved one battalion (III/132) and distributed its men to the other two.