(Redirected from
US Fifth Army)
The US Fifth Army was one of the principal formations of the US Army in the Mediterranean during World War II. It was activated on January 4, 1943 and made responsible for the defence of Algeria and Morocco. It was also given the responsibility for planning the American part of the invasion of mainland Italy. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark.
It first saw action during Operation Avalanche, the assault landings at Salerno in September 1943. Due to the low numbers of American troops available in theatre it was made up of one American and one British corps. It had the British X Corps and the US VI Corps under command. At Salerno, X Corps landed on the left flank, and VI Corps on the right flank. Progress was initially slow, due in part to lack of initiative by the American corps commander, Maj. Gen. Ernest J. Dawley, who was subsequently replaced. However, after heavy naval and air bombardment had saved the forces from any danger of being driven back into the sea, and also with the approach of the British Eighth Army (which had landed further south), the German forces retreated.
Progress was then good for a couple of months until the Germans turned, stood and fought. The Germans established a position on the Winter Line, which included the formidable defensive position at Monte Cassino. By this point, Fifth Army had been reinforced by a second American corps, II Corps. With the failure of the first operations to capture Monte Cassino, an attempt was made to exploit the Allied preponderance in seapower before the coming invasion of Normandy robbed the Mediterranean of the naval forces necessary for an amphibious assault.
VI Corps was withdrawn from the line and replaced by the French Expeditionary Corps under General Alfonse Juin . They made a second attempt to capture Monte Cassino in conjunction with the amphibious assault by VI Corps, which again failed. VI Corps landed at Anzio on January 22, 1944 in Operation Shingle, and suffered many of the same problems as had been seen at Salerno. A lack of initiative on the part of the US commander, Maj Gen. John P. Lucas, combined with worries about the Germans catching VI Corps off balance if it advanced too far in land resulted in the bridgehead being bottled up. The Germans nearly breached the last beachhead defences before again being driven off by heavy naval and air support.
After the failure of Shingle, a large reorganisation took place. Previously the Apennines had been the rough dividing line between Fifth and Eighth Armies. However, the dividing line was shifted westwards, to allow the concentration of both armies on the western side of Italy for maximum firepower to break through to Rome. the British V Corps was left on the Adriatic coast to pin down any German units there. Fifth Army was relieved of responsibility for Cassino and the final phases of that battle saw Indian, New Zealand and finally Polish troops thrown against the fortress. Fifth Army also lost X Corps at this time, since it was felt that having exclusively American-organised units under Fifth Army and British-organised units under Eighth Army would ease logistics.
The breakthrough was achieved during the spring of 1944. Coordinated assaults by all the Allied forces, except V Corps, which was confined to a holding action, broke through. II Corps attacked along the coast, the French Expeditionary Corps, in a classic demonstration of mountain warfare, broke through on the right flank of Fifth Army, and VI Corps broke out of the Anzio beachhead. By early summer, Allied forces were well on their way to capturing Rome.
At this point, one of the more controversial incidents in the history of Fifth Army occurred. The strategic conception of General Harold Alexander, commanding 15th Army Group was that the forces of VI Corps, coming out of Anzio would trap the retreating German forces, and leave them to be annihilated by the advancing Fifth and Eighth Armies. However, in contravention of orders, Clark diverted units of VI Corps towards Rome, leaving a small blocking force to attempt to stop the Germans. It failed to do so, and the German forces were able to escape and reestablish a coherent line to the north of Rome. Clark claimed that there were significant German threats which necessitated the diversion, but many believe that he was primarily glory-seeking by being the first to liberate Rome.
Two days after Rome fell, Operation Overlord was launched. The strategic conception of Overlord called for a supporting operation to be mounted by invading southern France. In order to do so, forces would have to be withdrawn from Allied Armies in Italy. In the end, VI Corps was withdrawn, forming the nucleus of the field forces of the US Seventh Army for the invasion of the French Riviera, Operation Dragoon. The French Expeditionary Corps was also withdrawn, to allow its men to be used to form French First Army, a followup formation for Dragoon. However, another US corps had arrived, IV Corps , and so two US corps were maintained within Fifth Army.
The Germans reestablished their line across Italy at the level of Pisa and Rimini. The Allied forces spent another winter frustrated at their lack of ability to break through. This time Fifth Army was straddling the Apennines, with many of its units occupying high, exposed positions which were miserable to garrison. That winter also saw a significant change of command. General Clark moved to command 15th Army Group, and Lieutenant General Lucian Truscott was appointed to command Fifth Army in his place. Truscott would command the Army for the remainder of the war.
In the final operations against the German Army Group C , Fifth Army played a supporting role. Eighth Army launched the main offensive on the Adriatic coast, and then once the German units had been drawn towards that sector, Fifth Army also opened up. The German units, in the main, were pinned against the Po River and destroyed, or at the very least deprived of their transport and heavy weapons, which effectively made many of them useless. Fifth Army units raced towards the French frontier, driving a few German stragglers in front of them. They also occupied the great port of Genoa.
Its role in Italy had cost Fifth Army dear. It suffered 109,642 casualties in 602 days of combat. 19,475 were killed in action. October 1945 saw Fifth Army inactivated in Italy. Its next role was considerably less violent, and it was reactivated in June 1946 at Chicago.
Its postwar role was as an Army Reserve formation, formally responsible for the training of many Army troops and also the ground defence of part of the continental United States. In June 1971, Fifth Army moved to its current base at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
External links
Last updated: 05-07-2005 12:58:24
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
