The corps was formed during April and May 1942 in the
Stalingrad Military District as the 13th Tank Corps, under the command of Major General
Pyotr Shurov. It included the 65th, 85th, and 88th Tank Brigades as well as the 20th Motor Rifle Brigade and support units. The corps saw its first combat on 10 June in the area of Prikolotnoye southwest of
Kupiansk as part of the
Southwestern Front. During June and July the corps was part of the
28th Army, then transferred to the
21st Army to participate in the
Battle of Voronezh (the Voronezh–
Voroshilovgrad Operation). Shruov was mortally wounded in July and replaced by Colonel
Trofim Tanaschishin, who would be promoted to major general on 7 December 1942 and to lieutenant general on 30 August 1943. On 23 July 1942 it was transferred to the
Stalingrad Front, with which it fought in the
Battle of Stalingrad. Due to heavy losses of tanks, in November the corps was reorganized as a mechanized corps with the 1st, 17th, and 62nd Mechanized Brigades, though it retained the 13th Tank Corps designation. The corps fought in
Operation Uranus, helping to encircle the Axis southern flank, in the repulse of the German counterattack
Operation Winter Storm, and in the counteroffensive of
Operation Little Saturn. For "showing perseverance, courage, discipline, and organization" in these actions, in addition to the "heroism displayed by its personnel," the corps was made an elite
Guards unit, the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, on 9 January 1943, and received the Stalingrad honorific on 27 January. Its subordinate brigades accordingly became the 13th, 14th, and 15th Guards Mechanized Brigades. Between January 1943 and mid-January 1944 the corps fought as part of the
Southern Front, which became the
4th Ukrainian Front on 20 October 1943. It participated in the
Rostov Offensive, the
Donbass Strategic Offensive, and the
Melitopol Offensive during this period. Transferred to the
3rd Ukrainian Front in mid-January 1944, the corps was attached to the
8th Guards Army for the
Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive. Between 16 and 18 January it was relocated to support a breakthrough of the flanks on the 46th and 8th Guards Armies, with the objective of capturing the critical rail junction of Apostolovo to link up with forces of the
4th Ukrainian Front and cut off German troops in the Nikopol bridgehead. The corps numbered 7,304 men on 31 January of which 3,394 were considered "bayonets" (combat troops), and fielded 123 tanks and self-propelled guns. Of these, 92 were T-34 medium tanks, sixteen T-70 light tanks, one
Mk III Valentine tank, eight
SU-85 self-propelled guns, and six
SU-152 heavy self-propelled guns. Artillery support was provided by eight 20 mm guns, four 37 mm guns, 23 45 mm anti-tank guns, 29 76 mm guns, 34 82 mm mortars, and fourteen 120 mm mortars. During the offensive, it helped to capture
Nikopol and
Apostolovo, earning it the
Order of the Red Banner for its "exemplary completion of combat missions" and "valor and courage" on 13 February 1944. The corps lost 502 killed, 1,254 wounded, and 61 missing during the offensive for a total of 1,817 casualties and 31 tanks and self-propelled guns. The 4th Guards Mechanized was attached to the
Cavalry Mechanized Group commanded by Lieutenant General
Issa Pliyev for the subsequent
Bereznegovatoye–Snigeryovka and
Odessa Offensives. For helping to capture
Odessa among other objectives during the latter, the corps was awarded the
Order of Suvorov, 2nd class, on 20 April. Among the corps personnel posthumously awarded the
Hero of the Soviet Union title for their actions in these operations were tank commanders and Junior Lieutenants
Boris Grebennikov and
Vadim Sivkov, and gunner and radio operator
Ryadovoy Pyotr Krestyaninov. Tanaschishin was also killed in action during the Odessa Offensive at the end of March and replaced by Major General
Vladimir Zhdanov, who commanded it for the rest of the war and was promoted to lieutenant general on 13 September. Attacking in conjunction with the
7th Mechanized and
18th Tank Corps during the August
Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, the corps reached the area of
Huși and
Leova to encircle and destroy a large Axis group of eighteen divisions. For this action it received the
Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class, on 7 September. In early September the corps swept southward into Bulgaria, then west during the
Belgrade Offensive to capture the
Yugoslav capital of
Belgrade on 20 October. For their actions in the latter 214 corps personnel received Yugoslav decorations, and Zhdanov was made a
Hero of Yugoslavia. The corps was transferred to the
2nd Ukrainian Front in late October, and served with it until February 1945. The corps was successively attached to the
46th Army from 1 November, Cavalry-Mechanized Group Pliev from 28 November, the
6th Guards Tank Army from 23 December, and the
7th Guards Army from 26 January 1945 during the
Budapest Offensive. It saw its last combat action during the advance into southern
Czechoslovakia on the
Hron north of
Esztergom, and in late February was withdrawn into the front reserve. The corps then transferred to the
Reserve of the Supreme High Command on 15 April, in which it ended the war. For their actions during the war, 16,500 personnel of the corps were decorated, while nineteen others were made Heroes of the Soviet Union. == Postwar ==