XXIV Corps (United States)

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Shoulder badge of the XXIV Corps
Coat of arms of the unit with the motto " Honed in Combat " (honed in combat)

XXIV Corps ( 24th Corps ) was the name of two major units of the US Army that were used in the Pacific War and the Vietnam War .

A corps of the same name previously existed for a short time in the American Civil War , but has no connection with the later associations.

Second World War

The corps was set up in Fort Shafter ( Hawaii ) on April 8, 1944 during World War II . It initially consisted of the 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions , at the end of 1944 the 77th and the beginning of 1945 the 27th Division were added.

As part of the 6th Army , the corps took part in the Battle of Leyte from October to December 1944 . From April 1945, the large association fought as part of the 10th Army on Okinawa .

After the capitulation of Japan , the Corps occupied Korea and remained here for the following years as part of the occupation forces. The corps was inactivated in January 1949 and formally assigned to the reserve the following year.

Commanders:

Vietnam War

The corps was reorganized or reactivated in 1968 during the hottest phase of the Vietnam War: the US military leadership in Vietnam ( MACV ) set up a meeting in Phú Bài on February 9, 1968 to defend against the Tet offensive , support the retaking of Huế and defend Khe Sanh send the MACV Forward Command Post to Huế . The northernmost part of South Vietnam formed the first tactical zone and was actually the operational area of ​​the III Marine Amphibious Force of the Marine Corps . However, due to the large hostile offensives taking place at the same time, the marines were at the edge of their forces, which is why larger army units were also relocated to the north. MACV Forward was to take over the supreme command of all US combat units in the north as a cross-armed force command under the leadership of the Army and thus coordinate the American counter-offensive.

On March 10th, MACV Forward became the Provisional Corps, Vietnam , from which the XXIV Corps was created on August 15th . In contrast to MACV Forward, the corps was a pure Army unit, which (despite being the same size) was subordinated to the Marine Amphibious Force. The name "XXIV Corps" was chosen because the corps of the same name fought together with the Marines during the Pacific War. Since the other US corps in Vietnam were called Field Force in order to avoid confusion with the South Vietnamese ARVN corps, it was the only US corps in Vietnam that was also called that.

After the Tet Offensive repulsed and the successful but strategically pointless defense of Khe Sanh, the III Marine Amphibious Force and XXIV Corps carried out several major offensives in 1969 and 1970 in the A-Shau Valley on the Laotian border, where a main route of the Ho Chi Minh Trail reached South Vietnam; including operations Dewey Canyon , Apache Snow and Texas Star . The goal of stopping troop transports and arms deliveries could not be achieved despite high US losses.

Since two large groups of equal rank in a region only unnecessarily complicated and additional bureaucratic work meant, the MACV leadership finally decided to withdraw the III Marine Amphibious Force from Vietnam and to give the XXIV Corps the command of the first tactical zone transfer. On March 9, 1970, the corps moved from Phú Bài to the previous headquarters of the Marines in Đà Nẵng and took over command of all US land units in the northern zone. Since the Marines could not be dispensed with at first, the III Marine Amphibious Force remained on site for over a year (until April 1971); in fact, the Army Corps and the Marine Force had merely swapped places in the command line.

By early 1972, most of the American soldiers had been withdrawn from Vietnam as a result of Nixon's Vietnamization concept. Between March and June 1972, the XXIV Corps was converted from a task force to the First Regional Assistance Command (FRAC) with a primarily advisory function. On June 30, 1972, the corps was formally inactivated in Oakland, California . The few combat units of the corps remaining in Vietnam were now referred to as US Army Forces, Military Region 1 . The First Regional Assistance Command was dissolved in March 1973 after the Paris Peace Agreement .

organization

The following units were subordinate to the large association during the course of the war:

  • Americal Division (23rd Infantry Division) :
    The Americal Division , originally Task Force Oregon , was created in Vietnam from several infantry brigades. It had already been in use in the north in the first zone since April 1967 to relieve the marines; their headquarters were in Chu Lai .
  • 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division :
    This airborne brigade was deployed in the north from February to September 1968; the headquarters were with the corps leadership in Phu Bài. The association was then relocated to Saigon.
  • 1st Cavalry Division (airmobile) :
    The cavalry division was an airmobile infantry unit ("air cavalry") and as such was always deployed as a "fire brigade" where the situation appeared particularly critical. She was stationed in the command area of ​​XXIV Corps from February to October 1968 and took part in all major battles in the region, with not the entire division being relocated to the north, but elements remaining in the second zone in the central highlands .
  • 101st Airborne Division (airmobile) :
    Despite its name, the 101st Division no longer contained paratroopers from August 1968, but like the 1st Cavalry Division, airmobile infantry. From February 1968 until the US withdrawal in early 1972, it remained largely under the command of XXIV Corps.
  • 1st Brigade of the 5th Infantry Division (mech.) :
    This brigade was in action in Vietnam from July 1968 to August 1971 and was stationed in Quảng Trị . In 1971, she provided support for the South Vietnamese Operation Lam Son 719 .
  • Task Force Clearwater :
    The so-called Task Force Clearwater was a boat association jointly by Army, Navy was operated and Marines and infiltration should prevent and arms smuggling across the coast.
  • all remaining Marine Corps units of the III Marine Amphibious Force from March 1970

In addition to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company with 367 men, the corps troops included the XXIV Corps Artillery (which consisted of the 108th Artillery Group and seven artillery battalions), the 29th Civil Affairs Company , Company A, 504th Military Police Battalion , the 108th Transportation Company , the 62d Aviation Company , the 7th Psychological Operations Battalion, and the 204th Military Intelligence Detachment .

Commanders

MACV Forward / Provisional Corps, Vietnam:

XXIV Corps:

First Regional Assistance Command:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The XXIV. Corps of the Union Army existed around the turn of the year 1864/65 as part of the Army of the James and took part in the siege of Petersburg and the two attacks on Fort Fisher . It consisted entirely of "white" soldiers.
    The Civil War Archive: Union Corps Histories: 24th Corps ( Memento of March 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ HP Willmott: The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action , Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN, 2005, p. 69
  3. ↑ Terry Foster, US Army Military History Institute: Provisional Corps Vietnam , www.army.mil, 2012 (accessed August 2015)
  4. ↑ Shelby L. Stanton : Vietnam - Order of Battle , US News Books , Washington DC, 1981, p. 67 ( Corps Level Commands )
  5. ^ Graham A. Cosmas: MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Withdrawal, 1968-1973 , Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 2007, pp. 208ff
  6. ↑ John B. Wilson: Armies, Corps, Divisions and Separate Brigades , Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1993, p. 106 ( XXIV Corps )
  7. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , p. 63
  8. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , p. 79
  9. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , p. 83
  10. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , pp. 71f
  11. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , pp. 83f
  12. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , p. 77
  13. ↑ Thomas J. Cutler: Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2012, Chapter 5 ( Task Force Clearwater )
  14. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , p. 96
  15. ^ Shelby L. Stanton: Vietnam - Order of Battle , new edition, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg PA, 2003, p. 67