13th Guards Rifle Division

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The 13th Guards Rifle Division was a Soviet infantry division. It was part of the 62nd Army during the Battle of Stalingrad in January 1943. Commanders included Alexander Rodimtsev. The Division was formed on 19 January 1942 when the 87th Rifle Division was officially awarded Guards status and re-designated the 13th Guards. On 14 September 1942 the Division moved across the Volga river to the western side into the city of Stalingrad to reinforce the units there. First regiment was the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, followed by the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment. In September 1943 it was given the honorific 'Poltava'.

As part of Voronezh Front's 5th Guards Army, the Division took part in Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev in 1943 as part of 32nd Guards Rifle Corps. The Division remained part of 5th Guards Army, which had become part of 1st Ukrainian Front during the final drive into Germany.

After the end of the war it appears to have become part of the Southern Group of Forces, being reorganised as 13th Guards Mechanised Division, before being disbanded in the 1950s. Its lineage was carried on by 13th Guards Tank Division, which formed part of the SGF for many years before finally being withdrawn and disbanded at the end of the 1980s.

[edit] Subordinate Units

• 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment
• 39th Guards Rifle Regiment
• 34th Guards Rifle Regiment
• 32nd Guards Artillery Regiment
• 4th Guards Anti-Tank Battalion
• 8th Guards Sapper *Battalion
• 14th Reconnaissance Company
• 139th Signal; Battalion
• 12th Chemical Warfare Company
• 11th Transportation Company
• 17th Field Bakery
• 15th Medical Battalion
• 2nd Veterinary Hospital

[edit] Sources

• Feskov et al, The Soviet Army in the Period of Cold War, Tomsk University Press, 2004
• http://hometown.aol.com/daveww2/History13thSiberians.html
• http://www.aberjonapress.com/catalog/slh/units.html