13th Guards Rifle Division The 13th Guards Rifle Division ( Russian : 13 - я Полтавская дважды Краснознаменная гвардейская стрелковая дивизия ) was a Soviet Union Red Army infantry division that served with distinction during the Second World War . 87th Rifle Division . The 87th Rifle Division was formed in 1929 . The 13th Guards Rifle Division itself was formed on 19 January 1942 , when the 87th Rifle Division was awarded Guards status and re - designated as the 13th Guards Rifle Division . The 87th Rifle Division had seen action fighting against the Poles in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 . Later that year , the division was sent northwards to Finland to serve as reinforcements in the Winter War . As the division was transferred to the Finnish Front , it escaped the fate of many Red Army units during the conflict with Finland . After the war , the unit was transferred to Ukraine in early 1940 . World War II . Operation Barbarossa . On 22 June 1941 , the German Wehrmacht unleashed Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union . During the opening hours of the German offensive , the 87th Rifle Division , then a part of the 5th Army , engaged in heavy combat with the Germans . At least a portion of the division was encircled during the opening day of the war . Their involvement in heavy fighting seems to have continued as their recently appointed commander , Major General Filipp Alyabushev , was killed in action only three days after the start of the war . Three months later , in the fighting that ended with the encirclement of Kiev ( now known as the Battle of Kiev ) , the 87th Rifle Division was still a component of the 5th Army . Although the entire formation was encircled , along with hundreds of thousands of other Red Army soldiers , much of the 5th Army was able to fight its way out of the encirclement after a counter - attack by Belov ' s 20th Cavalry Corps broke through the German ring around Kiev . Incidentally , the Belov that commanded the Corps that bought hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers their lives is unknown , but the possibilities are as follows : Alexander Belov , Alexei Belov , Grigori Belov , Ivan Belov , Nikolai Belov , Pavel Belov , Vladimir Belov , and Yetvtikhihy Belov , as all of these men were Red Army officers who participated in the Battle of Kiev . Amongst the survivors of the encirclement of Kiev was Colonel Alexander Rodimtsev , the commander of the 5th Army Brigade and the 3rd Airborne Corps . On 6 November , the 87th Rifle Division was re - formed around the survivors of the 3rd Airborne corps and placed under the command of Col . Rodimtsev . On 19 January 1942 , the 87th Rifle was officially awarded Guards status and was re - designated as the 13th Guards . Battle of Kharkov . In May 1942 , the 13th Division was involved in the Soviet counter - offensive at Kharkov , where they fought on its northern axis , thus escaping the encirclement and destruction of a substantial portion of the Soviet forces engaged , followed by the Russian defeat . During this offensive , the division suffered more than fifty - percent casualties , most of which were sustained in the repelling of fierce German counter - attacks . It was during one of these attacks that an Artillery Captain of the 13th earned the first Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st Class to be awarded . Following his unit ' s success during this offensive , Colonel Rodimtsev was subsequently promoted to Major General . After the Kharkov operation , the 13th Guards were pulled from the line to be refitted , resupplied , and reinforced . The Battle of Stalingrad . First blows . On 13 September of that year , German infantry divisions made their first advance into Stalingrad , marking the opening salvos of the Battle of Stalingrad , one of the most costly and largest struggles of the war . By the end of the day the German 71st Infantry Division had reached the city center , north of the Tsaritsa Gorge . A Stavka ( Soviet Supreme General Staff ) directive ordered the 13th Guards Division ( in the midst of its refit , resupply , and reinforcement ) to the Volga River and Stalingrad as reinforcements for the men fighting the Germans on the other bank of the river . After receiving approximately 10 , 000 men as reinforcements the 13th Guards were rushed to the front and arrived piecemeal , its men exhausted from a grueling forced march across large tracts of territory . Due to being in the midst of re - fit and resupply , one thousand of the division ' s men were unarmed , and nearly all of the rest were short of ammunition . After being briefed by Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov , the commander of the 62nd Army ( which consisted of all of the troops fighting within and around Stalingrad ) , on his assignment , Rodimtsev famously and determinedly declared , Immediately , Chuikov decided to send this poorly - armed yet determined unit straight into the midst of the battle . Because of the recent influx of new recruits , the division was now largely inexperienced and untrained , and lacked both maps and knowledge of Stalingrad ' s rubble - strewn streets , which would prove enormously difficult to overcome in the struggle ahead . However , Major General Rodimtsev thanks to his experience fighting in the Spanish Civil War was well versed in urban warfare . At 17 . 00 , 14 September , the forward elements of the 13th Guards swiftly crossed the river to reinforce a line that was being held by a mere 15 tanks and few hastily assembled combat groups . It is estimated that more than half of the first wave perished during the river crossing , more than 3 , 000 being killed in just the first 24 hours of brutal hand - to - hand combat . Ultimately , after extremely heavy losses on both sides , the German advance was repelled . Rodimtsev ' s soldiers recaptured the Mill and secured the central river crossing for other regiments of the 13th Guards . 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 , 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 . Battle at the Mamaev Kurgan Park . The Battle at the Mamaev Kurgan Park began approximately three weeks after the brutal fighting between the German and Russian infantrymen had begun in the outskirts of Stalingrad , on 15 September . During this portion of the battle , the division fought several Wehrmacht divisions for control of the park ' s central hilltop summit , which 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 . This profligacy with life seems incredible to Western eyes , but was unremarkable during the conflict on the Eastern front . Battle of Kursk . Following the Soviet victory at Stalingrad and the destruction of the German 6th Army , the 13th Guards are again pulled from the lines for re - fit and re - supply . Alongside the 5th Guards Tank Army as a portion of the Voronezh Front , the 13th Rifles were 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 13th Rifles ' small number of armored units participated in ) , they successfully ground the elite Waffen - SS formations to a standstill . Meanwhile , the rifle battalions on the 13th held the line around Oboyan , repelling attacks from trenches . Relatively few casualties were sustained because the Germans were focussing 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 Rifles advanced south - westwards , where they participated in the Red Army ' s assault to liberate Ukraine from German control . The division took part in the Kirovograd Operation 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 Polatava . After Poltava the 13th Rifles took part in 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 . They sustained heavy loses in this operation when they were pinned down by enemy fire on the island , which is located in the middle of the river . German infantry had occupied the west side of the island and had to be dislodged in hand - to - hand combat . Additionally the division fought in Kremenchug , Krivoi Rog , Kiev , Uman - Botowni , and Lvov - Sandomir . Advance into Germany . During the Red Army ' s final drive into Germany , starting with Operation Bagration beginning on 22 June 1944 , the 13th Guards Rifles Division was a portion of the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps , which was a portion of the 5th Guards Tank Army , which itself was a portion of the 1st Ukrainian Front . This force drove the Germans back through northern Ukraine and central Poland in to the northern regions of Germany itself . By the end of January 1945 , the 1st Ukrainian Front , including the 13th Rifles , had reached the southern outskirts . Here , they participated in the Battle of Berlin and the Battle of the Elbe , where they distinguished themselves yet again while combating the Germans for both of their objectives : Berlin itself and the Teltov Canal . The capture of the latter objective gave the Red Army a river crossing of the Elbe River , allowing the Russians to assault the heart of the Third Reich . Later service . After the end of the war the division became a part of the Southern Group of Forces , being reorganised as 13th Guards Mechanised Division . It was withdrawn from Vienna , Austria , in 1955 and subsequently restructured as a tank division . Thus 13th Guards Tank Division formed part of the Southern Group of Forces for many years before finally being withdrawn and disbanded at the end of the 1980s . American military sources reported its final deactivation site in 1989 as the Odessa Military District . The division ' s final honorifics in 1988 included ' Poltava ' , Transylvama Order of Lenin , Twice Red Banner , Suvorov and Kutuzov .