3rd Guards Tank Army ( Soviet Union ) The 3rd Guards Tank Army ( ) was a tank army established by the Soviet Union ' s Red Army during World War II . The 3rd Tank Army was created in 1942 and fought in the southern areas of the Soviet Union , Poland , Germany , and Czechoslovakia until the defeat of Germany in 1945 . Postwar , the army served as occupation troops in East Germany , went through several name changes , and was finally inactivated in 1979 . History . Great Patriotic War . First Formation . The 3rd Tank Army was formed as part of the RVGK ( Stavka reserve ) on the basis of the 55th Army in the Moscow Military District in May 1942 . It was placed under the command of General Lieutenant P . L . Romanenko . Its initial composition was 12th and 15th Tank Corps ( later to become 6th and 7th Guards Tank Corps ) , one motor rifle division , and two rifle divisions . As part of the Soviet Western Front , the 3rd Tank Army successfully counter - attacked the German Second Panzer Army in August 1942 . Soon afterwards , in September 1942 , Romanenko handed over to General Colonel P . S . Rybalko , who held command of the Army for the remainder of the war . Committed to the fighting for Kharkov in March 1943 as part of the Voronezh Front , the 3rd Tank Army was subsequently pocketed and virtually destroyed by German forces . The Army ' s remnants were reorganised as the 57th Army . Second Formation . The army was reformed as the 3rd Guards Tank Army in May 1943 , including the 9th Mechanised Corps & 12th & 15th Tank Corps . In 1943 , the army took part in the Orel offensive and , assigned to the Voronezh and First Ukrainian Front s , played a leading role in the liberation of Left Bank Ukraine . The army was among the first Soviet troops to reach the Dnieper River in October 1943 . In 1944 , the 3rd Guards Tank Army fought in the Proskurov - Chernovits and Lvov - Sandomir offensive operations . The army subsequently fought in southern Poland , Silesia , and the Berlin Operation , overrunning the OKH command post at Zossen ( headquarters for German Eastern Front operations ) on April 21 , 1945 . Finally , the army drove on Prague , entering that city on May 9 . Cold War . By 1946 , the army had been re - designated as the 3rd Guards Mechanized Army and was headquartered in Luckenwalde , Germany , as part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany . The 3rd Guards Mechanized Army was one of several Soviet armies used in the suppression of the 1953 uprising in East Germany , moving the 6th Guards Tank Division into Dessau and Wittenberg as well as the 9th Mechanized Division into Lubben , Cottbus , and Spremberg . In 1957 , the army was renamed the 3rd Guards Red Banner Tank Army and then again renamed as the 18th Guards Red Banner Army in 1967 . Up to 1967 it had preserved two formations which had served with it during World War II : the 6th and 7th Guards Tank Divisions ( former similarly numbered Tank Corps ) . Its third formation - 82nd Motor Rifle Division ( the former 9th MD , former 9th MK ) was in 1958 withdrawn to the USSR and disbanded , and instead the 14th Guard MD was included ( former 9th Guards , named for a short period the 116th Rifle Division ) . Withdrawn to the Belarussian Military District in 1979 , the army was inactivated the same year . After that point only 6th Guards Tank Division remained of its previous formations .