The 4th Guards Army was an elite

Guards Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison gu ...

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, Air army, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the early postwar era.

History

On April 16, 1943, the Supreme Command ordered the army to be established. On May 5, 1943, the army was formed on the basis of the 24th Army in the

Steppe Military District The Steppe Military District () was a military district of the Soviet Union, formed twice. It was first formed in April 1943 during World War II near Voronezh as a strategic reserve, and after the beginning of the Battle of Kursk in July it became ...

. It included the

20th 20 (twenty; Roman numeral XX) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score. In mathematics *20 is a pronic number. *20 is a tetrahedral number as 1, 4, 10, 20. *20 is the ba ...

and 21st Guards Rifle and

3rd Guards Tank Corps Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

. On July 3 the Army was placed in Stavka reserve, on July 18 included in the

Steppe Front The Steppe Front (russian: Степной фронт) was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War which existed from July to October 1943. History On 9 July 1943, Stavka designated a new Reserve Front in the Voronezh region, that ha ...

, and on July 23 once again put in Stavka reserve. The Army fought in decisive actions such as the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history ...

, the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

, the struggle for central Hungary, and the

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street f ...

. At the end of the war, the Fourth Guards Army was part of the

3rd Ukrainian Front The 3rd Ukrainian Front (Russian: Третий Украинский фронт) was a Front of the Red Army during World War II. It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southweste ...

. It was disbanded in March 1947.

Part of fronts

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front ( Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front ( Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to ...

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front (2-й Украинский фронт), was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. History On October 20, 1943 the Steppe Front was renamed the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During the Second Jassy–Kishinev ...

Army commanders

Commanders

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

Grigory Kulik Grigory Ivanovich Kulik ( ua, Григорій Іванович Кулик; russian: Григо́рий Ива́нович Кули́к, Grigóriy Ivánovich Kulík; 9 November 1890 – 24 August 1950), a Soviet Union, Soviet military commande ...

(7 April – 22 September 1943) * Lieutenant General Aleksei Zygin (22–27 September 1943) * Lieutenant General Ivan Galanin (September 1943 – January 1944, February–November 1944) *

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Alexander Ryzhov (January–February 1944) * Lieutenant General Ilya Smirnov (3–22 February 1944) *

Army General Army general is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System.　 In countries that adopt the general officer four rank system, it is rank of general commanding an army in the field, but in coun ...

Georgiy Zakharov (November 1944 – March 1945) * Lieutenant General

Nikanor Zakhvatayev Nikanor Dmitrievich Zakhvatayev (russian: Никанор Дмитриевич Захватаев; 26 July 1898 – 15 February 1963) was a Soviet general and army commander. Biography Zakhvatayev was born in Gari in what is now Malmyzhsky Di ...

(1 March 1945 – July 1945) *

Colonel General Colonel general is a three- or four-star military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, and was a ra ...

Dmitry Gusev (July 1945 - March 1946) *

(May 1946- 1948)

Members of the Military Soviet (council)

This Political commissar position was intended to maintain control by the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

. *

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

General-major Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

I.A Gavrilov * Colonel

Dmitry Shepilov Dmitri Trofimovich Shepilov (russian: link=no, Дми́трий Трофи́мович Шепи́лов, ''Dmitrij Trofimovič Šepilov''; – 18 August 1995) was a Soviet economist, lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affai ...

* Colonel Commissar M.M. Stahursky *

V.N. Semenov *

Leonid Bocharov ( :fr:Léonid Botcharov)

Order of battle

The

order of battle In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the armed ...

for the Fourth Guards Army on May 1, 1945, was: Fourth Guards Army : 20th Guards Rifle Corps ::

5th Guards Airborne Division Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash that ...

7th Guards Airborne Division , image = Great emblem of the 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division.svg , image_size = 200 , caption = 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division great emblem , dates ...

:: 80th Guards Rifle Division : 21st Guards Rifle Corps ::

41st Guards Rifle Division The 41st Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in August 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 10th Airborne Corps, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It was the last ...

:: 62nd Guards Rifle Division :: 66th Guards Rifle Division :: 69th Guards Rifle Division :

31st Guards Rifle Corps 31 (thirty-one) is the natural number following 30 and preceding 32. It is a prime number. In mathematics 31 is the 11th prime number. It is a superprime and a self prime (after 3, 5, and 7), as no integer added up to its base 10 digits ...

4th Guards Rifle Division The 4th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division on September 18, 1941, from the 1st formation of the 161st Rifle Division as one of the original Guards formations of the Red Army, in recognition of that division's partici ...

:: 34th Guards Rifle Division :: 40th Guards Rifle Division :123rd Gun-Artillery Brigade :438th Antitank Regiment :466th Mortar Regiment :257th Anti-aircraft Regiment :56th Engineer-Sapper Brigade After the war for a period the 4th Guards Army joined the Central Group of Forces in Austria until its withdrawal.

References

Article Sources

* The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner, Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. . *

Combat composition of the Soviet Army ''Boevoi sostav Sovetskoi armii'' ("Combat composition of the Soviet army") is an official Second World War Soviet Army order of battle published in five parts from 1963 through 1990 by the Voroshilov Academy of the General Staff and Voenizdat. E ...

(official Soviet order of battle from General Staff archives), Moscow: Ministry of Defense, 1990. {{Armies of the Soviet Army G004 Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1947 Guards Armies