When the German troops were making their attack on Stalingrad, the First Guards Army was facing the Italian Eighth Army in the upper part of the Don River.

The Army participated in Stalingrad strategic offensive Operation Uranus.

During the operation the Soviets defeated the Italian Eighth Army and gained a respectable amount of territory.

In August, the 1st Guards Army became the headquarters of the Kiev Military District.

When air defense units were reorganized on 30 July 1960 due to the replacement of anti-aircraft guns by surface-to-air missiles, the division was reorganized as the 108th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade of the 1st Separate Army, a unit of the Air Defense of the Ground Forces.

[2] The 108th AA Rocket Brigade was based at Zolotonosha as the air defense brigade of the army for the rest of the Cold War[3] In 1960 the army consisted of the 72nd, 81st and 115th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions, as well as the 35th Guards Tank Division.

On 5 October 1967, it was renamed the 1st Guards Combined Arms Army at the request of now-Minister of Defense Grechko, who had commanded the army's third formation during World War II.

In 1992 it was reduced to the 1st Army Corps of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, and then Territorial Directorate "North".