British-built Valentine tanks, 5 TC was badly handled in the early stages of the 1943 Smolensk operation, being mauled both from the air and from the ground. However the deflection of German units necessitated by the sacrifice of 5 TC meant that Spas Demensk fell on 13 August 1943. 6th Tank Corps – see 11th Guards Tank Corps 7th Tank Corps - by a Prikaz of the NKO USSR No. 413 of 29 December 1942 the 7th Tank Corps became the 3rd Guards Tank Corps. 8th Tank Corps – Formed May 1942 in the Moscow Military District. Assigned to Western Front for virtually its entire career. After being nearly destroyed the brigades were reassigned and the Corps HQs used to form 3rd Mechanized Corps in September 1943. 9th Tank Corps – the 9th Tank Division can trace its history back to 12 May 1942 when the 9th Tank Corps (:ru:9-й танковый корпус (СССР)) was formed in the Moscow Military District. It took part in the Battle of Kursk, then across Ukraine with the Central, Belorussian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. It ended the war in Berlin. As part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 1st Guards Tank Army (also 1st Guards Mechanised Army). In 1957, it was reorganized into a Heavy Tank Division and re-designated the 13th Heavy Tank Division. This lasted until 1965, when it was returned to its original 9th Tank Division designation. This it retained until its withdrawal from the GDR in 1991 when it was disbanded. Its divisional headquarters was at Riesa. 10th Tank Corps (Soviet Union) 11th Tank Corps 12th Tank Corps 13th Tank Corps – began in April 1942 with 65th, 85th, and 88th Tank Brigades and 20th Motor Rifle(?) Brigade. In July 1942 brigades assigned were the 85th, 158th, and 167th Tank and 20th Motor Rifle(?) Brigade. It was "an oddball in the Soviet Army. 13th Tank Corps had been so shot up that most of its tank brigades were removed in September–October 1942, and when Mechanised Brigades were substituted at the beginning of November, it should have been redesignated as a Mechanised Corps with a new number, as had happened to other tank corps in similar situations. Instead, the corps retained the number '13' and even the Soviet sources get confused on what to call it: a tank corps or a mechanised corps. It had the subordinate units of a