Soviet Guards: Stalin's Chosen?

What is it with Soviet Guards Armies, Corps, Divisions and other units in World War 2? Were the elite units? Was the title earned or just given? What about Guards Air units? Or the Katyusha units. Well, time to find out.
First, although by the end of 1941 only 10 rifle divisions had earned the title , by the end of the war there were more than 100 Guards Rifle Divisions alone. But the Guards title was not limited to the infantry, there were also Guards Tank Divisions.

Cover: RIA Novosti archive, image #93172 / Vsevolod Tarasevich / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Defenders of Leningrad : Great Patriotic War soldiers in attack.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Co...

Cover colorization and adaption by vonKickass.

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» SOURCES «

Hill, Alexander: The Red Army and the Second World War. Armies of the Second World War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2017.

BArch: RH 27-1/29: Kriegstagebuch Nr. 6 (Russland) 1. Panzer-Division.

Rottman, Gordon L.: Soviet Rifleman 1941-45. Osprey Publishing: Oxford, UK, 2011 (2007).

Glantz, David M.: Colossus Reborn. The Red Army at War, 1941-1943. University Kansas Press: Kansas, US, 2005.

Armstrong, Richard N.: Red Army Legacies. Essays on Forces, Capabilities, & Personalities. Schiffer Military History: Atglen, PA, USA, 1995.

Nebolsin, Igor: Tank Battles in East Prussia and Poland 1944-1945.Helion & Company: Warwick, UK, 2019.

Prenatt, Jamie: Katyusha. Russian Multiple Rocket Launchers 1941-Present. Osprey Publishing Ltd.: Oxford, UK, 2016.

Sharp, Charles C.: The Soviet Order of Battle. World War II. An Organizational History of the Major Combat Units of the Soviet Army. Volume III: “Red Storm”. The Mechanized Corps and Guards Armored Units 1942 to 1945. George F. Nafziger: no location, 1995.

Sharp, Charles C.: The Soviet Order of Battle. World War II. An Organizational History of the Major Combat Units of the Soviet Army. Volume IV: “Red Guards”. The Guards Rifle and Airborne Units 1941 to 1945. George F. Nafziger: no location, 1995.

Zaloga, Steven J.; Ness, Leland S.: Companion to the Red Army 1939-1945. The History Press: Gloucesterhire, UK, 1998 (2009).

Zamulin, Valeriy: The Battle of Kursk. Controversial and neglected Aspects. Helion & Company: England, 2017.

Dick, C. J.: From Defeat to Victory. The Eastern Front, Summer 1944. University of Kansas Press: Kansas, US, 2016.

Wikipedia Articles for Mass and cross-referencing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67th_Gu...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22nd_Gu...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Gua...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_(...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Gu...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Gua...



#RedGuards,#SovietGuards,#RedArmy