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33-793: The Ninth Army was a field army of the United States Army , most recently garrisoned at Caserma Ederle , Vicenza , Italy . It was the United States Army Service Component Command of United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM). Activated just eight weeks before the June 1944 Normandy landings , the Ninth Army was one of the main U.S. Army combat commands used during the campaign in Northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945. It

66-725: A corps-level unit . Prior to 1945, this was the case with a gun ( 軍 ; 'army') within the Imperial Japanese Army , for which the formation equivalent in size to a field army was a hōmen-gun ( 方面軍 ; 'area army'). In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Forces , an army was subordinate in wartime to a front (an equivalent of army group ). It contained at least three to five divisions along with artillery, air defense, reconnaissance and other supporting units. It could be classified as either

99-523: A combined arms army (CAA) or tank army (TA); and while both were combined arms formations, the former contained a larger number of motorized rifle divisions while the latter contained a larger number of tank divisions . In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district . Modern field armies are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility. For instance, within NATO

132-451: A field army is composed of a headquarters, and usually controls at least two corps, beneath which are a variable number of divisions . A battle is influenced at the field army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. NATO armies are commanded by a general or lieutenant general . Ninth Army (Germany) The 9th Army ( German : 9. Armee )

165-717: A geographical name in addition to or as an alternative to a numerical name, such as the British Army of the Rhine , Army of the Potomac , Army of the Niemen or Aegean Army (also known as the Fourth Army). The Roman army was among the first to feature a formal field army, in the sense of a very large, combined arms formation, namely the sacer comitatus , which may be translated literally as "sacred escort". The term

198-477: Is derived from their being commanded by Roman emperors (who were regarded as sacred), when they acted as field commanders . While the Roman comitatensis (plural: comitatenses ) is sometimes translated as "field army", it may also be translated as the more generic "field force" or "mobile force" (as opposed to limitanei or garrison units). In some armed forces, an "army" is or has been equivalent to

231-403: The 2nd Infantry Division , the 8th Infantry Division , 8th Armored Division , the 2nd Ranger Battalion , the 5th Ranger Battalion , the 29th Infantry Division , the 30th Infantry Division , the 6th Armored Division , the 104th Infantry Division , the 7th Armored Division , and the 79th Infantry Division . In 2012, U.S. Army Africa was re-designated as US Army Africa (Ninth Army) under

264-468: The Army modularization program . Following its reformation, the army controlled the following units; In 2020, U.S. Army Africa was merged with U.S. Army Europe to form a new command, U.S. Army Europe-Africa . The nine-sided figure indicates the numerical designation of the organization. The shoulder sleeve insignia was approved on 21 September 1944. The red and white colors reflect that the headquarters of

297-576: The Pacific Theatre of Operations . The first responsibility for Ninth Army, upon its arrival on 5 September was to take part in the final reduction of the German forces holding out in the French port of Brest . After the surrender of the town fifteen days later, Ninth Army was sent east to take its place in the line. It came into the line between Third Army and First Army. In November, Ninth Army

330-404: The 4th Army would spearhead the offensive on Moscow. However, the attack failed due to the cold weather, a deteriorating supply situation, and stubborn Soviet resistance. The Germans suffered severe manpower losses and large parts of the 9th Army's troops were reallocated to the other depleted German Armies. The 9th Army remained in defensive positions in 1942, dug in 200 miles outside of Moscow as

363-461: The 9th Army was destroyed in the summer of 1944. The army was then rebuilt by German units redeployed from Italy and was involved in the defence of Warsaw in autumn and winter of 1944. On 1 January 1945, the 9th Army (then under Army Group A ) had a total strength of 110,930 soldiers, spread across four infantry divisions ( 17th , 73rd , 214th , 251st ), three Volksgrenadier divisions ( 6th , 45th , 337th ), two panzer divisions ( 19th , 25th ),

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396-642: The 9th Army was exhausted, but it had received some badly needed reinforcements and was defending the area of Bobruisk in the first half of that year. On 22 June, the third anniversary of Operation Barbarossa , the Soviets began their colossal Operation Bagration whose overall objective was the destruction of Army Group Center. The action against the 9th Army was called the Bobruysk Offensive . The 9th Army suffered nearly 80,000 casualties during Bagration of which 65,000 were taken prisoner. Nearly 40% of

429-590: The German garrison in Warsaw and an autonomous blockade brigade. The Red Army crossed Germany's border on January 12, 1945, and forced the 9th Army to retreat all along the front until it was deployed westward to the river Oder . Three of the 9th Army's formations were tasked with defending the Seelow Heights , which was the last defensible region before Berlin. To the north was the CI Army Corps , in

462-654: The Germans concentrated their offensive in Southern Russia. As the tide of the battle turned in Southern Russia, the Soviets launched Operation Mars , a major offensive against Army Group Center. The well dug in positions of Army Group Center defeated the Soviet offensive with heavy casualties. The Germans tried again in 1943 to regain the momentum in the Eastern Front by launching a massive pincer movement at

495-432: The Germans even surpassing the much vaunted 6th Army with 335,000 men along with 600 tanks. Leading the advance from the north, the 9th Army ran into powerful Soviet defenses, and it gained no more than 10 km on the first day. Walter Model ordered the capture of the key and heavily fortified Ponyri railway station , which was needed to continue the advance towards Kursk. However, the Soviets had massively reinforced

528-474: The Kursk salient where 1/6th of all Soviet forces were deployed. The spearheads would be the German 9th Army and the 2nd Panzer Army from the north and the 4th Panzer Army along with Army Detachment Kempf from the south. The Soviets believed the heaviest blow would come from the north and massively reinforced the sector directly opposite 9th Army. By July 1943, the 9th Army had become the largest army ever fielded by

561-602: The Ninth Army was the headquarters of the Fourth Army under a new name Field army Specific field armies are usually named or numbered to distinguish them from "army" in the sense of an entire national defence force or land force. In English , the typical orthographic style for writing out the names field armies is word numbers , such as "First Army"; whereas corps are usually distinguished by Roman numerals (e.g. I Corps) and subordinate formations with ordinal numbers (e.g. 1st Division). A field army may be given

594-646: The Rhine itself ( Operation Flashpoint ). However, after doing so, the Army quickly struck east around the north of the Ruhr . An enormous pocket soon formed containing the German Army Group B under Walter Model . By 4 April, Ninth Army had reached the Weser and was switched back to 12th Army Group. The end was now clearly in sight, and as part of Ninth Army, along with the newly arrived Fifteenth Army , reduced

627-611: The Seelow Heights started on 16 April 1945 when Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front attacked across the Oder. The 9th Army held the line for about three days. After heavy fighting Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps was driven back towards Berlin. Most of the CI Army Corps divisions, now north of the salient created by the 1st Belorussian Front were reassigned along with LVI Panzer Corps to Army Detachment Steiner which

660-583: The Soviet Union. During the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa the 4th Army formed the Southern pincer of a massive encirclement of Soviet troops deployed at Białystok , with the German 9th Army forming the Northern pincer. It continued its advance, and soon launched another pincer movement of Soviet troops at Smolensk . Even though successful in encircling Soviet troops, many Soviet troops escaped

693-655: The centre General Helmuth Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps , and to south of the Heights was the XI SS Panzer Corps . In addition south of Frankfurt (which was defended by the Frankfurt Garrison ) was the V SS Mountain Corps . In total the 9th Army was reduced to 100,000 men and 800 tanks and assault guns against which the Soviets had over 1,000,000 men and 10,000 tanks and assault guns. The Battle of

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726-580: The command of 21st Army Group for the remainder of the Rhineland Campaign . In late February 1945 the Ninth Army launched Operation Grenade , which was the southern prong of a pincer attack coordinated with Canadian First Army 's Operation Veritable , with the purpose of closing the front up to the Rhine . By 10 March, the Rhine had been reached in all sectors of Ninth Army's front. It was not until after 20 March that Ninth Army units first crossed

759-662: The enormous Ruhr Pocket , other elements reached the Elbe on 12 April. On 2 May 1945, the whole of Ninth Army's front reached the agreed demarcation point with the Russians, and the advance ceased. Around 7 May 1945, the Ninth Army accepted around 100,000 prisoners from the German Twelfth Army under General Walther Wenck , and the German Ninth Army (Germany) under General Theodor Busse . On 15 June 1945

792-476: The first was 251 km long in front of Vyazma and the second on Mozhaysk . The 9th Army struck from the north, out-flanking the Vyazma defensive line and, along with the 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies, encircling Soviet forces at Vyazma. This would prove to be the last major encirclement operation launched by the 9th Army. The 9th Army was placed on the northern flank as the German 2nd, 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies and

825-458: The pockets due to the large distances it had to secure. Hitler then sent the Panzer forces from Army Group Center to the northern and southern fronts to inflict severe economic damage to the Soviet Union. The 9th Army remained static from late July 1941 until October 1941 when Hitler finally decided to launch his long-awaited attack on Moscow. In front of Moscow were two elaborate defensive lines:

858-489: The reduction of the salient that the Germans had created. Many of Ninth Army's units passed to the command of First Army, which was doing the main work of reducing the German salient from the north. In the meantime, the remainder of Ninth Army continued to hold the line along the Roer. When First Army and Third Army had finished reducing the salient, First Army returned to the command of 12th Army Group, but Ninth Army remained under

891-417: The same date of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The headquarters then was moved to Camp Shanks , New York for administrative processing prior to deployment to China. The Japanese surrendered on 15 August and the planned deployment to China was cancelled. The headquarters was moved to Fort Bragg , North Carolina in mid-September for demobilization and was inactivated on 10 October 1945. Units included

924-412: The town's defenses, which meant the attackers took very heavy losses. After a week of ferocious fighting, the 9th Army had gained just 20 km. After being unable to breach the enemy lines, the army was then forced to deal with the Soviet counter-offensive which if not checked could have encircled the entire 9th Army. It fought a fighting withdrawal westwards throughout the remainder of 1943. By 1944,

957-640: The units of the Ninth Army were turned over to the Seventh United States Army and the Ninth Army headquarters prepared to redeploy to China to support combat operations against the Japanese. On 8 July Ninth Army headquarters had moved to Deauville, France to prepare for re-deployment to the United States. On 27 July the headquarters boarded the Army transport ship John Ericsson bound for New York City, where it arrived on 6 August,

990-462: Was a World War II German field army. It was activated on 15 May 1940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz in command. The 9th Army first saw service along the Siegfried Line during its involvement in the invasion of France. It was kept as a strategic reserve and saw little combat. By 1941, the 9th Army was heavily strengthened and was deployed with Army Group Center for the invasion of

1023-622: Was commanded at its inception by Lieutenant General William Simpson . It had been designated Eighth Army, but on arrival in the United Kingdom it was renamed to avoid confusion with the famous British formation of the same designation , taking the name of a unit of the fictitious First United States Army Group prepared for Operation Quicksilver . All American field armies in the European Theatre of Operation were designated with odd numbers; even numbered field armies served in

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1056-690: Was shifted to the very northern flank of 12th Army Group . It undertook operations to close the front up to the Roer River . 16 December saw the opening of the last great German offensive of the war, the Battle of the Bulge . Ninth Army was isolated from the headquarters of 12th Army Group, and it was thus placed (on 20 December) under the command of General Bernard Montgomery 's 21st Army Group along with First Army , despite opposition from General Omar Bradley . Simpson reoriented his command quickly to help in

1089-563: Was tasked with counter-attacking and pinching off the salient in an unrealistic plan conceived by Hitler. In the end Weidling's corps was driven back into Berlin and he was promoted to commander of the Berlin Defensive Area, reporting directly to Hitler. Theodor Busse and the rest of the 9th Army were driven into a pocket in the Spree Forest south of the Seelow Heights and west of Frankfurt an der Oder . From inside

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