The 4th Guards Army was an elite Guards

field army A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 districts of the Soviet Union, 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 ...

. It included the 20th and 21st Guards Rifle and 3rd Guards Tank Corps. On July 3 the Army was placed in Stavka reserve, on July 18 included in the

Steppe Front The Steppe Front () 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 had been effective since 30 April.G ...

, 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, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in ...

, the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

, 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 figh ...

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

3rd Ukrainian Front The 3rd Ukrainian Front () was a Front of the Soviet 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 Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Gua ...

. It was disbanded in March 1947.

Part of fronts

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime ...

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front () 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. In mid-May 1944 Malinovsky took over the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During t ...

Army commanders

Commanders

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank 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 the battlefield, who was norma ...

Grigory Kulik Grigory Ivanovich Kulik (; ; 9 November 1890 – 24 August 1950) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union who served as chief of the Red Army's Main Artillery Directorate from 1937 until June 1941. Born into a Ukrainian ...

(7 April – 22 September 1943) * Lieutenant General Aleksei Zygin (22–27 September 1943) * Lieutenant General

Ivan Galanin Ivan Vasilievich Galanin (; –12 November 1958) was a Red Army lieutenant general during World War II. Galanin was drafted into the Red Army in 1919 and fought as an ordinary soldier in the Russian Civil War. He became an officer during the inte ...

(September 1943 – January 1944, February–November 1944) * Major General Alexander Ryzhov (January–February 1944) * Lieutenant General Ilya Smirnov (3–22 February 1944) *

Army General Army general or General of the army is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System. Army general is normally the highest rank used in peacetime. In countries that adopt the general officer fou ...

Georgiy Zakharov Georgiy Fedorovich Zakharov (; 23 April 1897 – 26 January 1957) was a Soviet general who served in World War I, the Russian Civil War, and World War II. Early life Zakharov was born on April 23, 1897, in the village of Shilov, Russ ...

(November 1944 – March 1945) * Lieutenant General Nikanor Zakhvatayev (1 March 1945 – July 1945) *

Colonel General Colonel general is a military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically General officer#Old European system, general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, ...

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. *

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), 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 colon ...

, General-major I.A Gavrilov * Colonel Dmitry Shepilov * Colonel Commissar M.M. Stahursky * General-major V.N. Semenov * General-major Leonid Bocharov ( :fr:Léonid Botcharov)

Order of battle

The

order of battle 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 force. Various abbr ...

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 Avenue * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a cont ...

:: 7th Guards Airborne Division ::

80th Guards Rifle Division 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Etymology English ''eight'', from Old English '', æhta'', Proto-Germanic ''*ahto'' is a direct continuation of Proto-Indo-European '' *oḱtṓ(w)-'', and as such cognate wi ...

: 21st Guards Rifle Corps :: 41st Guards Rifle Division ::

62nd Guards Rifle Division The 62nd Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in January, 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 127th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The 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. 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 resu ...

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 The 34th Guards Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Red Army during World War II. History The 34th Guards Rifle Division was originally formed on 29 August 1942 from the 7th Airborne Corps in the Moscow Military District. It was assigned ...

40th Guards Rifle Division The 40th Guards Rifle Division was one of a series of ten Guards rifle divisions (32nd – 41st) of the Red Army formed from airborne troops in the spring and summer of 1942 in preparation for, or in response to, the German summer offensive. It fo ...

: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 The Central Group of Forces (Russian: Центральная группа войск) was a formation of the Soviet Armed Forces used to incorporate Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945 to 1955 and tr ...

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. ...

(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