39th Guards Motorized Rifle Division
The 39th Guards Rifle Division of the Workers and Peasant's Red Army was formed during the Great Patriotic War as part of the 62nd Army and assigned to the defense of Stalingrad, officially arriving in the theater in August 1942. In September the division fought thru German forces which were attempting to encircle the city, and was assigned to defend the 'Volga Corridor,' the last supply line remaining for Soviet units in the city.
On October 14th 1942 the 39th repulsed a major German counterattack involving three Infantry divisions, two Panzer divisions, and 3,000 combat sorties by the Luftwaffe. For five months the 39th Guards maintained their tenuous hold on the Red October factory, holding an area only 3000 yards wide and 1000 yards in depth.
They played a critical role in the defense of Stalingrad and the subsequent encirclement and eventual surrender of Gen. Friedrich Paulus's 6th Army. In 1943 the 39th Guards would go on to become the conerstone unit of the 8th Guards Army at which time they would receive the honorific 'Guards' in honor of their heroic defense of Stalingrad.
The 39th would continue on as the vanguard of the Red Army's push into Germany. The final banner of the division, which had served from the center of Stalingrad to the center of Berlin, read: "39th Barvenkovskikh Guards Order of Lenin, Twice Order of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Second Class and Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Second Class Rifle Division."
Following the Second World War, the 39th Guards was refit along with the rest of the 8th Guards Army as a motorized formation and was stationed in Ohrdruf, GDR(East Germany) at the strategically vital Fulda Gap, opposite elements of the U.S. V Corps (3rd Armored Division and 8th Infantry Division). Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany, the division was disbanded in 1992.
During Fulda Gap 2009 the core team for the 39th Guards will be Team Boxer based out of Concord, North Carolina. Team Boxer is a MilSim Scenario Paintball Team drawing close to 100 members from all over the Charlotte-Greensboro area.
Captained by Wendell "Runaway" McInnis,Team Boxer is well known as specialists in command and control and tactical communications.
For more information about what's going on with 39th Guards please contact Wendell "Runaway" McInnis or register for this unit at Scenario Supply.
For more information about Team Boxer, visit their website by clicking on the icon below.
