Does anyone have a record as to where the 13th Guards were attached and where they fought after Stalingrad. I find it ironic and sad that they weren't part of the 8th Guards Army (formerly 62nd Army) as the 8th entered Berlin.... I just think they saved Stalingrad in those early months of the attack of the 6th Army.
The 13th Guards "Poltavaskaya" Rifle Division? The 13th Red Banner "Poltavaskaya" Guards Rifle Division, bearing the Order of Lenin, twice the Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov and Order of Kutuzov.The 13th Guards was a Red Army Rifle unit which had a distinguished combat record during The Great Patriotic War 1941-45. It also saw service during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the "Winter War" 1939-40 with Finland. From the first hours of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 the Division took part in operations from the border battles of the Ukraine, Battles for Kiev, southern flanks of the Moscow operations, Kharkov, Stalingrad, Kursk, Dnepr operations,the liberation of the Ukraine and Poland, the Berlin operations and finally the liberation of Prague in the very last hours of the war in May 1945. After the war the unit was reorganised as the 13th Guards Mechanised Division, part of the Soviet Southern Group of Forces, before being disbanded in the 1950's. The units lineage was carried on as the 13th Guards Tank Division before it was finally disbanded in the late 1980's. The above orders would have each adorned their respective coloured tassled streamers and were borne on the Divisional Guards Red Banner on formal parades ie, as seen in some of the images of the Victory Parade on Red Square in our Gallery pages. History - 13th Guards Poltavaskaya