5th Guards Tank Army (Soviet Union)

The 5th Guards Tank Army was a Soviet Guards armoured formation which fought in many notable actions during World War II.

History

The 5th Guards Tank Army was formed on 10 February 1942. Its organisation varied throughout its history, but in general included two or more Guards Tank Corps and one or more Guards Mechanized Corps. It was considered an elite formation. Under Red Army doctrine, Tank Armies were primarily to be used for large-scale exploitation of major offensives. Once a breach in enemy lines had been made by other units (typically Shock Armies or combined-arms armies), the tank army would be inserted into the gap to drive deep into enemy territory, attacking rear areas and seizing major communications centers to disrupt the enemy reactions. Tank armies were expected to penetrate up to several hundred kilometers into the enemy rear.

In 1943, it played a significant role in the Battle of Kursk, being one of the formations tasked with the counter-attack at Prokhorovka. Subordinated to the Steppe Front, at Kursk the Army controlled the 18th Tank Corps, 29th Tank Corps, 2nd Tank Corps, 5th Guards Mechanized Corps plus smaller units with a total of approximately 850 tanks. Early in 1944, it took part in the reduction of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket.

In June 1944, the 5th Guards Tank Army was used as the main exploitation force during the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration. The formation was committed to an attack along and parallel to the main Moscow–Minsk road, following initial breakthroughs by the rifle divisions of 11th Guards Army, and was instrumental in completing the encirclement and liberation of Minsk. It was then employed in the follow up operation to liberate Vilnius. High casualties in this campaign, however, led to the unit's commander Lieutenant-General Pavel Rotmistrov being relieved of command and replaced with Vasily Vol'sky.

Late in 1944, the 5th Guards Tank Army was committed against Third Panzer Army as part of the Baltic Offensive, pushing the German forces into a pocket at Memel. It was then moved south and took part in the East Prussian Operation as part of Konstantin Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front; driving to the coast at Elbing, it successfully cut off the "Wehrmacht" forces in East Prussia in what became known as the Heiligenbeil pocket.

After the war, Rotmistrov wrote a memoir and history of the unit, "The Steel Guards".

From the war's end to the break-up of the Soviet Union, the 5th Guards Tank Army was stationed in the Belarussian Military District.

External links

* [http://www.samsv.narod.ru/Arm/atg05/arm.html army history]