V Corps (United States)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

V Corps
XXX

Association badge

5th US Corps shoulder badge
Lineup July 1918 (temporarily out of service)
Country United StatesUnited States United States
Armed forces Mark of the United States Army, svg United States Army
Subordinate troops

see text

Strength approx. 650
headquarters Fort Knox / KY United StatesUnited States

The Fifth Corps ( V Corps ) ( German  V. US Corps , The Victory Corps ) is primarily a military headquarters of the United States of America . The corps, reactivated in 2020, is expected to have 650 posts. 200 members at a time are to occupy an outpost in Poland on a rotation basis in order to maintain cooperation with European NATO partners. It should be fully operational by the end of 2020.

Previously, it was until 2013 a major unit of the corps level of the US Army . The V US Corps was set up in the American Civil War for the Army of the Potomac on the side of the Union .

history

During the Civil War, the V Corps was under the Potomac Army . It existed from 1862 to 1865.

First World War

General Charles P. Summerall

During the First World War , the V. Corps was again set up in Remiremont in France in July 1918 and, after training, took part in the fighting on the Western Front . At the Battle of St. Mihiel (September 12-15, 1918), the V Corps under Major General George Cameron had the subordinate 4th and 26th Divisions on the left wing against Fresnes and the Combres-Höhe on the western front of the front arc. The 26th Infantry Division (Major General Edwards) was able to successfully break through the Woëvre level on Vigneulles and establish the connection to the IV Corps .

During the Meuse-Argonne offensive in the center of the 1st US Army , the Corps successfully took part in the breakthrough towards Montfaucon-d'Argonne from September 26th with the subordinate 91st, 37th and 79th divisions . In the second phase of this offensive, Major General Charles P. Summerall took over command of the corps on October 12. The corps command returned to the USA in 1919 and was subsequently disbanded.

Second World War

Leonard T. Gerow

The reactivation took place in October 1941 during the Second World War at Camp Beauregard in the state of Louisiana. After successful maneuvers, the corps was transferred to Ireland in the spring of 1941.

With the invasion , the V Corps landed under Major General Leonard T. Gerow as part of the 1st US Army (Lieutenant General Omar Bradley ) in Normandy . The landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 began at 6:30 a.m. with the arrival of the 16th Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division (General Huebner) and the 116th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division (General Gerhardt) assigned on the first day of the attack . Many units were driven off to a greater or lesser extent and missed their goals. The landing troops suffered the greatest losses because the 2nd Bombardment Division of the Eighth Air Force missed the German positions, or the defenses remained largely intact despite the bombing. After overcoming the Aure section, the 1st Infantry Division supported the British XXX Corps, which landed on the left near Arromanches , in the conquest of Bayeux on June 7th . On June 10, the V Corps and the XIX Corps on the right broke out of the 5 km deep bridgehead to the south. As a result of Operation Cobra , initiated by the VII Corps on July 25, the Corps took part in the further liberation of northern France. During Operation Totalize , the V Corps met the Canadian II Corps (General Simonds) on August 18 via Argentan northwards and closed the Falaise pocket . After the liberation of Paris (August 25), the further advance northward to the Aisne took place . Leaving the Sedan area across the Meuse , the advance to liberate Luxembourg City followed at the beginning of September 1944 . After the transition to trench warfare in the area south of Monschau , the German Ardennes offensive took place in December 1944 .

At the beginning of March 1945 with the breakout of the 1st US Army from the eastern Rhine bridgehead near Remagen , the advance of the V Corps across the German Reich to Saxony followed. The V Corps had meanwhile passed into the command area of ​​the 3rd US Army . Between April 16 and April 20, Leipzig was taken and on April 25, soldiers of the 69th Infantry Division met with Soviet soldiers in Torgau . This was followed by the liberation of Pilsen in early May 1945 . In 1943 the short film Tomorrow We Fly was made , which deals with the training of the corps.

Cold War

After the Second World War, the V Corps belonged to the 7th US Army and during the Cold War it was reorganized from 1951 with headquarters in the General Creighton W. Abrams Building (IG Farben House) in Frankfurt am Main in the Federal Republic of Germany . From 1960 the V US Corps belonged to the NATO command structure alongside the VII US Corps, which was deployed further south, as one of two upstream corps of the 7th US Army of the Central Army Group (CENTAG).

Modern times

Structure of the 5th US Corps

After the collapse of the Warsaw Pact , the corps took part in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq . In 1994 the headquarters moved from Frankfurt am Main to the grounds of the Campbell Barracks near Heidelberg and formed the V. (US / GE) Corps from 1993 to 2005. In 1995, V Corps troops took part in Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia and Herzegovina .

From 2002 the transfer to Kuwait and subordination to CENTCOM took place and the corps took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom for the invasion of Iraq from 2003 . After the capture of Baghdad, the V Corps belonged to Combined Joint Task Force 7 from June 2003 . In February 2004 she returned to Heidelberg. From January 2006 the V Corps dissolved the XVIII. US Airborne Corps in Iraq and was part of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq . At the beginning of 2007 she will be relocated to Germany again.

Due to the conversion of the US Army into an intervention army in 2007, the V Corps was originally supposed to be dissolved in 2009. Parts of the headquarters were relocated to Afghanistan from summer 2009. In January 2011 the realignment and restructuring of the V Corps began and in June 2011 the move from Heidelberg to the Wiesbaden Army Airfield took place . On August 12, 2011, the headquarters was officially relocated to Wiesbaden. After returning from Afghanistan, the V Corps was disbanded on June 11, 2013 in Schloss Biebrich in Wiesbaden.

Commanding generals

By 2013, the V US Corps had 58 Commanding Generals :

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Army announces activation of additional corps headquarters , US Army News, February 11, 2020
  2. ↑ Official website of the 5th US Corps, as of August 18, 2011 ( Memento from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  3. ^ Peter Badenhop: Wiesbaden: Last roll call for the "Victory Corps" . In FAZ from June 11, 2013.
  4. ↑ Daniel Cole: V Corps inactivates after nearly a century of service to US Army article from June 12, 2013 on army.mil (English)
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vcorps.army.mil
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eucom.mil