Russian-Guards vs. Russian Units

[Dog Soldier]

Others here at the blitz have more in depth knowledge about this than I to be sure.

FWIW, Guards is a battle honor designation. It did not relate to better trained or elite status or equipment though sometimes it did unless you consider survivors in the unit from a particular action had better OJT (on the job training) so to speak.

I could be wrong, but my impression is Guard units were created by the chance of being in a tight spot during combat, but coming through and completing / exceeding their mission requirements regardless of losses. The designation was meant to inspire sacrifice and motivate other units to "do their duty" for the Motherland.

Since Guard units were going to be intentionally given the tougher assignments, they tended to have higher casualty rates. The Guard status of the units was to inspire the replacements of a rebuilt unit to live up to the standard set by those who were gone.

IIRC, a few units lost Guard status during the war when they did not live up to expectations of STAVKA.

Dog Soldier