4th Guards Army (Soviet Union)
Encyclopedia
Russian Guards
Guards or Guards units were and are elite military units in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to the retinue of a knyaz of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streltsy, the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550...
Army was an elite army
Army (Soviet Army)
An army, besides the generalized meanings of ‘a country's armed forces’ or its ‘land forces’, is a type of formation in militaries of various countries, including the Soviet Union. This article serves a central point of reference for Soviet armies without individual articles, and explains some of...
headquarters of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the postwar era.
Formed on the basis of the 24th Army on April 16, 1943, the Fourth Guards Army fought in decisive actions such as the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
, the Iassy-Kishinev Offensive, the struggle for central Hungary
Operation Frühlingserwachen
Operation Frühlingserwachen was the last major German offensive launched during World War II. The offensive was launched in Hungary on the Eastern Front...
, and the Vienna Offensive
Vienna Offensive
The Vienna Offensive was launched by the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front in order to capture Vienna, Austria. The offensive lasted from 2–13 April 1945...
. At the end of the war, the Fourth Guards Army was part of the 3rd Ukrainian Front
3rd Ukrainian Front
3rd Ukrainian Front 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 Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Guards Army, 6th, 12th, and 46th Armies and 17th Air Army...
.
Disbanded in March 1947
Part of fronts:
- Steppe FrontSteppe FrontThe Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
- Voronezh FrontVoronezh FrontThe Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
- 2nd Ukrainian Front
- 3rd Ukrainian Front3rd Ukrainian Front3rd Ukrainian Front 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 Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Guards Army, 6th, 12th, and 46th Armies and 17th Air Army...
Commanders
- General-Leutnant Kozlov D.T (ru: генерал-майор Козлов Д. Т.) (30 August — 1 October 1942 г.)
- General-Leutnant Galanin I.V. (ru: генерал-лейтенант Галанин И. В.) (1 October 1942г -)
- General-Leutnant Kulik G.I. (ru: генерал-лейтенант Кулик Г. И.) (7 April — 22 September 1943 г.)
- General-Leutnant Zygin A.I. (ru: генерал-лейтенант Зыгин А. И.) (22-27 September 1943 г.)
- General-Leutnant Galanin I.V. (ru: генерал-лейтенант Галанин И. В.) (September 1943 г. — January 1944 г., February — November 1944 г.)
- General-major Ryzhov A.I. (ru: генерал-майор Рыжов А. И.) (January — February 1944 г.)
- General-Leutnant Smirnov I.K. (ru: генерал-лейтенант Смирнов И. К.) (3-22 February 1944 г.)
- Army GeneralArmy GeneralFor the army rank of General, as opposed to the specific rank of Army General, see General officer.Army General is a title used in many countries to denote the rank of General nominally commanding an army in the field...
Zaharov G.F. (ru: генерал армии Захаров Г. Ф.) (November 1944 г. — March 1945 г.) - General-Leutnant Zahvataev N.D. (ru: генерал-лейтенант Захватаев Н. Д.) (1 March 1945 г. — till end of the War).
Military Soviet members
- colonelColonelColonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, General-major Gavrilov I.A. (ru: полковник, генерал-майор Гаврилов И. А.) - colonelColonelColonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Shepilov D.T.Dmitri ShepilovDmitri Trofimovich Shepilov was a Soviet politician and Minister of Foreign Affairs who joined the abortive plot to oust Nikita Khrushchev from power in 1957.-Childhood:Dmitri Shepilov was born to a worker's family in Askhabad...
(ru: полковник Шепилов Д.Т) - colonel comissar Stahursky M.M. (ru: полковой комиссар Стахурский М. М.)
- General-major Semenov V.N. (ru: генерал-майор Семенов В. Н.)
Order of battle
The order of battleOrder of battle
In modern use, the order of battle is the identification, command structure, strength, and disposition of personnel, equipment, and units of an armed force participating in field operations. Various abbreviations are in use, including OOB, O/B, or OB, while ORBAT remains the most common in the...
for the Fourth Guards Army on May 1, 1945 was:
Fourth Guards Army
- 20th Guards Rifle Corps
- 5th Guards Airborne Division
- 7th Guards Airborne Division
- 80th Guards Rifle Division
- 21st Guards Rifle Corps
- 41st Guards Rifle Division
- 62nd Guards Rifle Division
- 66th Guards Rifle Division
- 69th Guards Rifle Division
- 31st Guards Rifle Corps
- 4th Guards Rifle Division
- 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
Central Group of Forces
The Central Group of Forces was a Soviet military formation used to control Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945-55 and troops stationed in Czechoslovakia after the Prague Spring of 1968....
in Austria until its withdrawal.
Article Sources
- The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner, Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. ISBN 0-89141-237-9.
- Order of Battle of the Soviet Army 1941 - 1945 (official Soviet order of battle from General Staff archives), Moscow: Ministry of Defense, 1990.
- 4th Guard Army on official site of Russia Ministry of Defense. (in Russian)