The 3rd Guards Army () was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The army fought in the Battle of Berlin, during which it mopped up German resistance around Cottbus. 1942 to 1945 It was formed on December 5, 1942 by the redesignation of the 1st Guards Army (Second formation), in accordance with a Stavka order dated the same day, as part of the Southwestern Front. Lieutenant General Dmitry Lelyushenko was appointed to command the formation, and held the reins until March 1943 (and subsequently from August 1943 to February 1944). Up to the middle of December the army comprised the 14th Rifle Corps, 50th Guards, 197th, 203rd and 278th Rifle Divisions, 90th and 94th Separate Rifle Brigades, the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, the 22nd Motor Rifle Brigade and three separate tank regiments. It began combat operations during Operation Little Saturn in mid-December, defeating German troops on the Middle Don and frustrating Operation Winter Storm, a German attempt to relieve the 6th Army trapped in the Stalingrad Pocket created by the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Stalingrad, Operation Uranus. During January and February 1943, it fought in the Operation Gallop, then defended the line of the Donets. Major General Georgy Khetagurov held command from March to August. In the summer and fall, the 3rd Guards Army fought in the Donbass Strategic Offensive, then in the Zaporizhia Offensive in October. During the latter, the army broke through heavily fortified German defenses and captured Zaporizhia alongside the 8th Guards Army on October 14, eliminating a German bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper. Towards the end of the year, the army joined the 4th Ukrainian Front, participating in fierce fighting to eliminate the Nikopol bridgehead. During the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive in January and February 1944, the army crossed the Dnieper and captured Nikopol alongside the 3rd Ukrainian Front's 6th Army on February 8. 3rd Guards Army was assigned in succession to the Soviet Southwestern Front, 3rd, 4th and since March 1944 the First Ukrainian Front led by Marshal Ivan Konev. After a brief stint under the command of Lieutenant General Dmitry Ryabyshev in February and March 1944, from April 1944 to the end of the war in Europe Colonel General Vasily Gordov was in command. The Army participated in the Middle Don and Voroshilovgrad offensive operations, the defensive battles