12th Army Group

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12th Army Group

1st Army shoulder badge

12th Army Group shoulder badge
active July 14, 1944 to August 1, 1945
Country United States 48United States United States and allies
Armed forces US armed forces
Armed forces Army
Type Army Group
Wars Second World War
Supreme command
Commander in chief Omar N. Bradley
Chief of Staff Leven C. Allen

The 12th Army Group ( German  12th US Army Group ) was a large unit ( Army Group Command ) of the Western Allies in World War II , which was active in 1944 and 1945. It was under US leadership and, with up to 1.3 million soldiers, was the largest army unit in American history.

history

During the preparation for Operation Overlord , the Allies decided to place the participating armies of the US armed forces under an American high command after the first phase of operations (carried out by the British 21st Army Group ) on the continent. For this purpose, the 1st US Army Group (FUSAG) was formed in October 1943 under General Omar N. Bradley , who also led the 1st US Army . On July 14, 1944, the 12th Army Group was activated under Bradley in the United Kingdom, which took over the FUSAG subordinate units with a few exceptions. FUSAG continued to exist without subordinate associations. This measure ( Operation Quicksilver ) was intended to simulate the existence of another US Army Group in Great Britain and to leave the German leadership in the dark about a possible second landing on the continent.

The 12th Army Group took control of the 1st ( Courtney Hicks Hodges ) and 3rd US Army ( George S. Patton ) in France on August 1, 1944 . Your Commander-in-Chief Bradley was initially subordinate to the head of ground operations for Operation Overlord, British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , until the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force under Dwight D. Eisenhower took over operations on the continent in early September . The 12th Army Group was formed at that time the center of the Allied army groups on the Western Front after mid-August in southern France, the 6th Army Group ( Jacob L. Devers ) in the Operation Dragoon had landed. To the north, the 21st Army Group joined under Montgomery. The 12th Army Group was reinforced a little later by the 9th US Army ( William Hood Simpson ), which had previously been deployed in Brittany . In the period up to the German Ardennes offensive in the winter of 1944/45, the armies of the Army Group took part in the battles on and in front of the Western Wall (including the battle in the Hürtgenwald , battle of Aachen , battles in Lorraine ).

As part of the defensive measures of the Bulge Offensive, the 9th US Army was temporarily subordinated to the 21st Army Group . In January 1945, the 15th US Army ( Leonard T. Gerow ) was assigned to the 12th Army Group . In February 1945 the troops of the Army Group broke through the Siegfried Line, started to cross the Rhine in March and closed the Ruhr basin at the beginning of April . By the end of the war, the troops of the Army Group had reached the Elbe and occupied parts of Austria and Czechoslovakia.

On July 31, control of US forces in Europe was transferred to the newly formed US Forces headquarters , European Theater (USFET), and the 12th Army Group was disbanded the following day.

Outline in May 1945

Order of battle on May 8, 1945

literature

  • Headquarters 12th Army Group (Final After Action Report), Volume 1.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Forrest C. Pogue: The Supreme Command. Appendix D: Forces Under SHAEF, 1944-45 .
  2. Omar Bradley : A Soldier's Story. New York: Henry Holt and Company (1950), pp. 557-561.