8th Guards Army (Soviet Union)

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The Soviet 8th Guards Army was an army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, disbanded finally in the early 1990s.

Activated in October 1941 as the 7th Reserve Army, the Army was redesignated the 62nd Army at Stalingrad in July 1942. It was among the victors of Stalingrad and thus redesignated the 8th Guards Army.

In 1945 the Soviet 8th Guards Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov. It was part of Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. One of the cities which the Army took in its westward drive was Poznan, which the Army seized in January-February 1945. Afterwards, the 8th Guards Army spearheaded the Red Army drive to Berlin in the spring of 1945, where on 2 May 1945, Chuikov took the surrender of the German General Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defensive Area, and the rest of the Berlin garrison. Later the Eighth Guards Army became part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. On the creation of the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany in 1945, the Army consisted of:

• Headquarters at Weimar
• 4th Guards Rifle Corps (35th, 47th, and 57th Guards Rifle Divisions)
• 28th Guards Rifle Corps (39th, 79th, 88th. Guards Rifle Divisions)
• 29th Guards Rifle Corps (27th, 74th, 82nd Guards Rifle Divisions)
• 11th Tank Corps

During the Cold War, 8th Guards Army stood opposed to NATO forces (specifically the US V Corps) along the strategically vital Fulda Gap in West Germany.

In the last years of its existence, in the late 1980s, 8th Guards Army consisted of:^[1]

• Headquarters at Weimar-Nohra
• 79th Guards Tank Division - Jena, GDR: - disbanded, 1992
• 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division - Halle, GDR: - to Totskoye, Volga Military District
• 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division - Ohrdruf, GDR: - disbanded, 1992
• 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division - Naumburg, GDR – disbanded, 1992
• 47th Tank Brigade - Plauen, GDR: 156 T-80, 18 2S1, 4 2S6, 4 SA-13

[edit] References

1. ^ Andy Johnson, Warsaw Pact Order of Battle June 1989, last updated 27 May 2000. More recent Russian sites give different Army-level units - see http://www.genstab.ru/gsvg_8.htm

• Beevor, Antony; Cooper, Artemis (2002). The Fall of Berlin 1945 (1st ed.). New York: Viking.
• Powell, Colin L.; Persico, Joseph (1996). My American Journey (1st ed.). New York: Ballantine Books.

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