5th Guards Tank Army ( Soviet Union ) The 5th Guards Tank Army ( Russian : 5 - я гварде́йская та́нковая а́рмия ) was a Soviet Guards armoured formation which fought in many notable actions during World War II . The 5th Guards Tank Army was formed on 10 February 1942 . Its organisation varied throughout its history , but in general included two or more Guards Tank Corps and one or more Guards Mechanized Corps . It was considered an elite formation . Under Red Army doctrine of deep operations , Tank Armies were primarily to be used for large - scale exploitation of major offensives . Once a breach in enemy lines had been made by other units ( typically Shock Armies or combined - arms armies ) , the tank army would be inserted into the gap to drive deep into enemy territory , attacking rear areas and seizing major communications centers to disrupt the enemy reactions . Tank armies were expected to penetrate up to several hundred kilometers into the enemy rear . In 1943 , it played a significant role in the Battle of Kursk , being one of the formations tasked with the counter - attack at Prokhorovka . Subordinated to the Steppe Front , at Kursk the Army controlled the 18th Tank Corps , 29th Tank Corps , 2nd Tank Corps , 5th Guards Mechanised Corps plus smaller units with a total of approximately 850 tanks . Early in 1944 , it took part in the reduction of the Korsun - Cherkassy Pocket . In June 1944 , the 5th Guards Tank Army was used as the main exploitation force during the Soviet summer offensive , Operation Bagration . The formation was committed to an attack along and parallel to the main Moscow – Minsk road , following initial breakthroughs by the rifle divisions of 11th Guards Army , and was instrumental in completing the encirclement and destruction of German forces at Minsk . It was then employed in the third phase of Operation Bagration . High casualties in this campaign , however , led to the unit ' s commander Lieutenant - General Pavel Rotmistrov being relieved of command and replaced with Vasily Volsky . Late in 1944 , the 5th Guards Tank Army was committed against Third Panzer Army as part of the Baltic Offensive , pushing the German forces into a pocket at Memel . It was then moved south and took part in the East Prussian Operation as part of Konstantin Rokossovsky ' s 2nd Belorussian Front ; driving to the coast at Elbing , it successfully cut off the " Wehrmacht " forces in East Prussia in what became known as the Heiligenbeil pocket . However , by March 1945 , the 5th Guards Tank Army was being drawn down , with the subordinate 10th Tank Corps moved first to direct subordination of the 3rd Belorussian Front and then the STAVKA Reserve by 1 April 1945 . This left the 5th Guards Tank Army with a single tank corps , the 29th , under its control . This reduction in strength coincided with the hospitalization of the 5th GTA ' s commanding general , Vasily Volsky , for tuberculosis . Volsky did not return to the army ( he died in FEbruary 1946 ) and генерал - майор т / в Maxim Sinenko [ Синенко Максим Денисович ] took command from 16 . 03 . 1945 to the end of the war . After the war , Rotmistrov wrote a memoir and history of the unit , " The Steel Guards " . From the war ' s end to the break - up of the Soviet Union , the 5th Guards Tank Army was stationed in the Belarussian Military District . Throughout the postwar period it had an almost constant composition of three tank divisions - the 8th Guards ( Osipovichi ) and 29th ( former tank corps ) ( Slutsk , and the 193rd Tank Division ( Bobruisk ) . The headquarters was located in Bobruisk . In 1990 the 8th и 29 - е танковые дивизии были расформированы . Вместо них армии придана 30th Guards Motor Rifle Division , Марьина Горка , выведенная из состава Central Group of Forces ( Чехословакия ) . Following the collapse , the army was converted into the 5th Guards Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Belarus , which was still active in September 2001 , when the Belarus Minister of Defence , General Lieutenant Leonid Maltsev , congratulated the remaining Belarus Guards units on 60 years of existence . However within a year the headquarters of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus was established on its basis . There is a memorial to the soldiers of the 5th Guards Tank Army at Znamianka , Kirovograd Oblast , in Ukraine .