2nd Formation (4th Tank Army)
On 15 July 1943, after an abortive attempt to form the Army for a second time had been called off in February, it was reformed as 4th Guards Tank Army drawing on the headquarters of the previous 19th Cavalry Corps. Initially the new army consisted of 11th and 30th Ural Volunteer Tank Corps and 6th Guards Mechanised Corps.
Its first operation as 4th Tank Army, under General Vasily Badanov, was at Orel, the counterattack (Operation Kutuzov) on the northern side of the Kursk bulge after the German defeat at the Battle of Kursk proper. John Erickson writes that '..at 1100 on 26 July, two of Badanov's corps (11th Tank and 6th Guards Mechanised) put in a ragged attack towards Bolkhov. For the next few hours, under the very gaze of Bagramyan and Badanov, both corps were heavily battered by the concealed German tanks and assault guns.' It took part in the winter battles in the Ukraine in 1944 (Proskurov-Chernovits), then the L’vov-Sanodmierz Operation in the summer. It then participated in the Lower Silesia, Upper Silesia, Berlin, and Prague operations. In the last days of the war, it achieved Guards status by an order of the NKO dated March, 17th, 1945 (Krasnaya Zvezda).
Read more about this topic: 20th Guards Army
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