About the 2 ^nd Guards Tank Army (2 ^nd GTA): Army was created in January 1943. In spring and summer of 1943 2 ^nd GTA was engaged in the fierce battles at Sevsk and Kursk. Combat experience was heavily paid by blood. Army played a critical role in containing a strike of the German III. Panzer Korps in February 1944 to rescue the German units in Cherkassy pocket. In March-April 1944 2 ^nd GTA carried out a deep raid to Uman and was amongst the first Russian units crossed Romanian border. In May – June 1944 Army was engaged in combats at Tyrgul Frumos and Jusy against strong German anti-tank defence of GD and 24. PD. The rapid and deep 2 ^nd GTA tank raid from Kovel (Ukraine) to Warsaw (Poland) forced German command to engage five German panzer divisions against it. These included Waffen-SS Totenkopf, Wiking and Wehrmacht 4. PD, 19. PD and Herman Goering. This tank battle fougth in July-August 1944 near Warsaw was the biggest tank engagement on the Eastern Front in 1944. German panzer divisions managed to push back units of the 2 ^nd GTA but were not able to destroy it. In January 1945 2 ^nd GTA just in few weeks swiftly advanced from Vistula to Oder river, defeated strong German troops in Pomerania and ended the war in the captured Berlin.