[2] From March to July 1942 5th Airborne Corps was in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Stavka reserve), training personnel, but at the beginning of August, due to the sharp deterioration of the situation in the southern sector of the Soviet-German front, the corps was immediately reformed as the 39th Guards Rifle Division (and joined the Stalingrad Front).
[1] In Summer 1942 the Stavka converted all ten airborne corps into guards rifle divisions to bolster Soviet forces in the south.
The reformed 10th Airborne Corps was commanded by Major General Alexander Kapitokhin (29 August – December 1942).
David Glantz wrote in 1984:[6] In August [1944], the Stavka formed the 37th, 38th, and 39th Guards Airborne corps.
By October, the newly formed corps had combined into a separate airborne army under Maj. Gen.
As testimony to the elite nature of airborne-trained units, the Stavka held the 9th Guards Army out of defensive actions, using it only for exploitation during offensives.From December 1944, the original VDV divisions were reconstituted as Guards Rifle formations.