In November 1941,
3rd Airborne Corps was converted into the
87th Rifle Division with Colonel
Aleksandr Rodimtsev commanding; Rodimtsev had previously commanded the corps 5th Airborne Brigade. The division fought as part of the
40th Army during the winter of 1941-1942, and was re-designated as the 13th Guards Rifle Division in January 1942; Rodimtsev was promoted to major general four months later. In July, the division was mostly destroyed in the
Donbas while fighting as part of
Southwestern Front's
28th Army. The surviving command cadre was evacuated east of the
Don in July and the unit was reformed in August. At the end of August, the division was subordinated to
10th Army in the
Stavka reserve.
Battle of Stalingrad Initial deployment (right) meets with General
Vasily Chuikov (second from left), commander of
62nd Army, in Stalingrad in December 1942. The division was still reforming when it deployed to the Stalingrad region in late-September. By the time it entered combat after marching for two weeks, it included the 34th, 39th, and 42nd Guards Rifle Regiments, and a strength of 10,000 men. 1,000 men did not have rifles. By 14 September, the German
71st Infantry Division was advancing into the city against the
62nd Army, threatening the central landing stage and, in places, reaching the
Volga. The Southwestern Front began reinforcing the 62nd Army in the evening starting with the 13th Guards Division. Rodimtsev crossed during the day before his division to meet with General
Vasily Chuikov, commander of 62nd Army. The 6,000 men of the 39th and 42nd Guards Rifle Regiments were tasked with attacking into the city center and retaking the House of Specialists and
Railroad Station No. 1. The 34th Guards Rifle Regiment was to reinforce
Mamayev Kurgan. The division's training battalion and administrative company remained in reserve. The division crossed the river during the night, supported by its artillery firing from the east bank. At the same time, the unit sought sufficient rifles and ammunition. The 42nd Guards did not finish crossing until the 15th. The division's arrival stabilized the 62nd Army's situation. The division command post was set up in the NKVD building on the river bank. According to a NKVD report from 16 September, the division suffered 400 casualties on 15 September and lacked ammunition, artillery support, and means to transport wounded by the end of the 16th. At the end of September, the division strength was reported as 5,866 or 6,075 men.
The Railroad Station The following morning one of Rodimtsev's junior officers,
Lieutenant Anton Kuzmich Dragan was personally ordered by Chuikov to hold a key railroad station in downtown Stalingrad against an impending German assault. Dragan proceeded to gather a
platoon of less than fifty men and moved them over to the railroad station. Here, the small but determined force prepared itself for the German attack. Soon after digging in, a substantial force of German infantrymen arrived to seize control of the station. The Russians proceeded to repeatedly frustrate the Germans in an epic room-by-room struggle for control of the depot for nearly three weeks. Breaking through walls, crawling over rafters, and burrowing under the floorboards, the Russians would yield but a portion of the structure to the Germans, only to emerge elsewhere and start the struggle all over again. Exchanging gunfire down hallways, hurling grenades back and forth between rooms, Dragan's men inflicted significant casualties on the Germans. In spite of this heroic resistance, Dragan's platoon was eventually reduced to a handful of men. After running out of ammunition, and with their rations gone, one of the Soviet Guardsmen took out his bayonet and carved on a wall, :''Rodimtsev's Guardsmen fought and died for their country here.'' Under cover of darkness, Dragan and the five remaining soldiers under his command eventually slipped out of the building, made their way through the German lines, and were reunited with the remainder of the division.
Mamayev Kurgan From 16 September, a prolonged "
see-saw struggle" started for Mamaev Kurgan, a large hill with a commanding position over the city. 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment, and two battalions of the 416th Regiment, engaged the German 295th Infantry Division's 518th Regiment. Neither side could gain complete control over the hill; the summit changed hands multiple times. Meanwhile, other divisional units fought in different sectors of Stalingrad. The division was in the midst of the combat throughout the city in the remains of the bombed-out buildings and factories, on the slopes of the Mamaev Kurgan hills, in the
Red October Tractor Plant and in the key strategic building known as "
Pavlov's House" (
Yakov Pavlov was the commanding NCO of the platoon which defended the building). Most accounts state that of the 10,000 men of the division that crossed the Volga into the Battle of Stalingrad, only between 280 and 320 of them survived the struggle.
Battle of Kursk Following the Soviet victory at Stalingrad and the destruction of the
German 6th Army, the 13th Guards were again pulled from the lines for re-fit and re-supply. Alongside the
5th Guards Army (
Voronezh Front), the division was held in reserve south of
Kursk, in order to counter the forthcoming German offensive there –
Operation Citadel. The original intention was for these two formations to
counter-attack the Germans after the German assault had been ground down by the front line Soviet units, but both formations were committed to prevent a possible breakthrough. After several days of continuous fierce fighting (including the tank
battle at Prokhorovka, in which the division's small number of armored units participated in), they successfully ground the elite
Waffen-SS formations to a standstill. Meanwhile, the rifle battalions of the 13th held the line around Oboyan, repelling attacks from their trenches. Relatively few casualties were sustained because the Germans were focusing their attention on Prokhorovka by the time they had moved up from the reserve area in the rear.
Liberation of Ukraine Shortly thereafter, the 13th Guards Rifle Division advanced south-westwards, where they participated in the Red Army's assault to liberate
Ukraine from German control. The division took part in the in which they gained control of the town of
Poltava after extremely fierce fighting, it was liberated on 23 September 1943. This is indicated by the designation of
13th Guards Rifle Division, Poltava (given in September 1943), which shows that the division was cited for their actions in seizing Poltava. After Poltava the division took part in the
battle of the Dnieper. It was assigned to accomplish a false crossing of the Dnieper River to confuse the Germans and allow for crossings further north and south. Elements of the division crossed the river on floats and rafts to reach the island of Peschanny to the north-west of
Kremenchuk where German infantry had occupied the west side of the island and had to be dislodged in hand-to-hand combat. The division forces sustained heavy losses in this operation when they were pinned down by enemy fire (even the deputy commander of the division
Pavel Gayev was killed in action on the battlefield when commanding the operation). After the
Kremenchuk the division fought in the
Kirovograd offensive, the
Uman–Botoșani offensive, and the
Lvov–Sandomierz offensive. For its capture of
Novoukrainka and the key rail junction of
Pomoshnaya during the Uman–Botoșani Offensive, the division was awarded the
Order of Suvorov 2nd class on 29 March. It received a second Order of the Red Banner on 1 April 1944 for the capture of
Pervomaysk. In July the division and the army fought in the
Lvov–Sandomierz offensive as part of the
1st Ukrainian Front.
Advance into Germany During the Red Army's final drive into Germany, the division was a part of the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps or was under direct command of the
5th Guards Army (
2nd Ukrainian Front). This force drove the Germans back through northern Ukraine and central Poland in to the northern regions of Germany itself. The division fought in the
Vistula–Oder offensive, capturing
Busko-Zdrój and
Częstochowa, and crossing the German border on 19 January 1945. In February and early March 1945 the 13th Guards fought in the
Upper Silesian offensive and the
Lower Silesian offensive. During the
Berlin Offensive, from 16 to 21 April, the division, as part of the army shock group, forced the
Neisse and the
Spree, advancing 60 km to cut the
Dresden–
Lübben autobahn northwest of
Senftenberg. The 13th Guards reached
Torgau on the
Elbe on 23 April, its troops met with American units. For its "courage and valor" in the breakthrough of German defenses on the Neisse, the division was awarded the
Order of Kutuzov 2nd class on 28 May. The division then turned southwards with the 5th Guards Army in the
Prague offensive, in which it captured the strategic rail junction of
Dresden on 8 May. During the war, over 20,000 soldiers of the division were decorated, and nineteen received the highest Soviet award,
Hero of the Soviet Union. ==Later service==