3rd Guards Army (Soviet Union)

3rd Guards Army (Soviet Union)

The 3rd Guards Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II, notably in 1945.

It was created in December 1942, as part of the Southwestern Front (as a result of renaming 1st Guards Army of 2nd formation), according to the order of the Supreme High Command on formation of the 3rd Guards Army (5.12.1942). General Lieutenant Dmitri Lelyushenko was appointed to command the formation, and held the reins until March 1943 (and subsequently from August 1943 to February 1944). General Major I.Khetagurov held command from March to August 1943. Up to the middle of December the army comprised the 14th Rifle Corps, 50th Guards, 197th, 203rd and 278th Rifle Divisions, 90th and 94th Separate Rifle Brigades, the Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, the 22nd Motor-Rifle Brigade and other units.

3rd Guards Army was assigned in succession to the Soviet Southwestern Front, 3rd, 4th and since March 1944 the First Ukrainian Front led by Marshal Ivan Koniev. After a brief stint under the command of General-Lieutenant D.I. Ryabyshev in February and March 1944, from April 1944 to the end of the war in Europe General Colonel N. Gordov was in command. The Army participated in the Middle Don and Voroshilovgrad offensive operations, the defensive battles on the northern Donets River, in the Donbass and Zaporozhye offensive operations, in the liquidation of the Germans' Nikopol bridgehead, in the Nikopol - Krivoi Rog and Proskurov - Chernovits operations, the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, Sandomir-Silesia, and then took part in the attack on Berlin.