During its hour of crisis, the massive German invasion in the summer of 1941, the Soviet Union looked to its two pasts -- its Bolshevik tradition and the imperialist legacy of the Russian empire -- and resurrected the Guards. From Bolshevism, the Red Guards were politically motivated and reliable troops of the proletariat, such as the Leningrad Red Guards of the Russian Civil War. From Russian imperialism, the Guards represented proven, veteran troops capable of performing the most difficult military missions.

The very first Guards of the Red Army, however, reflected the existing traditions of Stalinism as much as any historical legacy -- secrecy. Soviet rocket artillery had been in development in strictest secrecy for years and by 22 June 1941, eight prototype BM-13s existed. The BM-13 was a combat vehicle able to launch sixteen 132 mm M-13 rockets in a salvo, for great (if somewhat inaccurate) firepower and tremendous shock effect.

On 28 June the Soviets assembled seven of the prototype BM-13s under the command of Captain I.A. Flerov, gave the crews four days of crash training, and sent them to the front. The "Flerov battery" (effectively a battalion and shown as such in Scorched Earth) first went into action on 7 July to good effect, and on 14 July made its famous attack at Orsha. Together with the T-34 tank and the IL-2 shturmovik, the Katyusha rocket artillery became one of the most important Soviet weapons. To maintain secrecy, all Soviet rocket artillery was officially called "Guards mortars." The "Guards" emphasized their importance (and in 1941 at least one Soviet general was warned of dire personal consequences should he lose any).

The "mortars" probably was partially intended to confuse enemy intelligence, by hiding the rocket launchers in with the numerous real mortars. Possibly "mortars" was chosen due to similarities between real mortars and rocket launchers - both were low accuracy, area fire weapons. (Interestingly, the German Nebelwerfers underwent a similar sequence. German Nebelwerfer "fog-thrower") combat units, equipped with smoke-round firing mortars, existed from the start of the war. When the German rocket artillery came on line, they went to the Nebelwerfer units, which exchanged their mortars for the new wonder weapon.)

The Soviets trace the origins of the Guards in the Red Army back to the Flerov battery. Some of the first "Guards" formed outside the Red Army. In July 1941, the Soviets organized volunteers into militia divisions separate from the Red Army, as the army had all it could handle activating its existing reservists. In Leningrad, three militia divisions were designated Guards, recalling the city's historic Red Guards. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Guards Militia Divisions quickly went to the front, where they fought bravely, but not particularly skillfully, against the Germans. In late September, the 2nd Guards Militia was disbanded due to losses, while the 1 st and 3rd Guards Militia were absorbed into the Red Army as the 80th and 44th Rifle Divisions.

September 1941

The Red Army's Guards began in earnest in September 1941. In that month the Soviets began awarding Guards status to units that had demonstrated high combat skill or heroism. Typically, a unit would become Guards after distinguishing itself in offensive combat against the Axis invaders. When it became Guards, it would drop its old, regular army designation and assume a Guards number. For example, the 100th Rifle Division became the 1st Guards Rifle Division on 18 September 1941. (A new regular unit could then be raised with the old regular number, and indeed a new 100th Rifle Division was raised and sent to the front in 1942. Whether or not the Soviets reraised the regular unit depended upon the needs of the army and the resources of the rear area. Rifle divisions were always needed and thus often reraised, while cavalry forces were sufficient.

Tank corps, mechanized corps, and artillery divisions required such extensive equipment or highly trained personnel that they were rarely, if ever, reraised after becoming Guards.) The Guards mortars were an exception to this scheme, since they were Guards from inception. Other exceptions will be noted during the course of this article.

In practice, the Guards from the start conformed to the imperialist tradition of elite military forces rather than the Bolshevik ideal of political troops.

The NKVD and other internal security organizations were already in place to ensure motivation and reliability (political or otherwise), and the Guards had a more pressing mission: the military defeat and destruction of the Wehrmacht At first, the Guards designation was little more than a morale-boosting battlefield honor. In fact, it's arguable that many units were better before they became Guards than after -- the battles in which they won their Guards designation often left them burnt-out shells of their former selves!

As the war progressed and better resources became available, however, Guards units received bigger and better shares of weapons and manpower than the regulars.

Aside from the Guards mortars, a few combat formations were designated Guards even before their baptism of fire. These units became Guards either because their component units already were Guards or because they were elite formations, such as mid-war airborne forces, by their very nature.

In 1943, I believe that the concept behind awarding Guards status changed. The Red Army had won glory in the Stalingrad battles of November 1942 through January 1943, and the wave of new Guards units reflected this. However, the German counteroffensive in February and March of 1943 appears finally to have convinced the Soviets that they still had a long war ahead of them.

With nearly one hundred Guards divisions already in existence, the entire army would likely be Guards before the end of the war - rendering useless the concept of Guards as elite forces. From this time on, the Soviets rarely awarded Guards status to units, even though most of the Soviet victories were yet to be won.

Instead, Guards status effectively stopped being a battlefield award and was reserved to mean elite troops. (in its place, the Soviets emphasized other awards. Honorifics, based on offensive success or special status, were given out to regular and Guards units, as were the various awards such as the Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, and so on. For example, the 17th Tank Corps, formed in 1942, became the 4th Guards Tank Corps following its successes in the Stalingrad offensive. It received the honorific "Kantemirovka" for liberating that city and later the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner, completing the war as the 4th "Kantemirovka" Order of Lenin Order of the Red Banner Guards Tank Corps.)

In 1943-45, the Guards were always in the forefront of crucial operations, from the tank battles of Kursk to the streets of Berlin. By the time of Germany's defeat, the Guards numbered eleven combined arms armies, six tank armies, one cavalry-mechanized group, forty rifle corps, twelve tanks corps, nine mechanized corps, at least one hundred and seventeen rifle, ten airborne, three motorized rifle, seventeen cavalry, six artillery, six antiaircraft, and seven rocket launcher divisions, and numerous smaller units.

Guards Listings

The following charts and tables cover the command and combat units of the Soviet Guards forces in World War II, with notes on their depiction in Scorched Earth (hereafter SE). As is true with all Soviet order of battle items, the history of all the Guards units is not complete. While the Soviets have published many accurate books on WWII, they have not published extensive, overall order of battle works, and no one else is in a position to do so. (The best non-Soviet sources on the Soviet army are the wartime German intelligence reports, which although often good are by no means completely accurate.) The Soviets have published numerous order of battle items about individual units throughout their WWII literature, which many researchers - Charles Sharp and Karl Gaarsoe in particular for SE - have laboriously compiled over the years. Items in this article marked with "T' have not been directly confirmed from Soviet sources. Instead, they represent inferences from Soviet sources, German wartime intelligence, or, in a very few cases, outright guesses.

The Soviets, in general, numbered the units of a Guards arm in order from the number 1, usually chronologically. From mid-war, however, they occasionally left gaps in the numbering, probably for deception purposes. For example, by mid-1943, the Soviet has ten combined arms Guards armies, numbered 1-8, 10, and 11. This had the potential of deceiving the Germans into thinking that there were eleven armies, while in fact the 9th didn't exist until 1945.

The listings cover imporiant combat units from corps to brigades and command (headquarters) units from armies to corps, with notes on other Guards ground forces. The following abbreviations and guides are used:

Abn Airborne
Art Artillery
Cav Cavalry
Gds Guards
Mech Mechanized
Mot Motorized
XXXX Army Corps
XX Division
X Brigade
III Regiment
II Battalion

Date: Date the Guards unit formed or other significant date, in form Day.Month.Year.

Notes: Notes on the Guards unit. "Ex" identifies the regular army unit that became the Guards unit.

Cmdr: For Guards armies, their commanders.

Units: For combat corps, their main subunits.

#: Refers to the notes at the end of each chart.

More WWII Soviet Guard Units: Part I

Introduction and History
Guards Armies and Groups
Guards Corps

More Soviet Guards: Part II

Introduction and Errata
Guards Divisions
Guards Brigades
Other Guards