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24-750: 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

48-700: 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

72-519: 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

96-478: 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 . Theodor Busse Ernst Hermann August Theodor Busse (15 December 1897 – 21 October 1986)

120-692: 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

144-631: A specific command arrived from the Führer . Eventually Busse's Ninth Army was driven into a pocket in the Spree Forest south of the Seelow Heights and west of Frankfurt, where it became fully encircled by two prongs of the massive Soviet assault on Berlin. In the ever-shrinking pocket, Busse's forces were all but annihilated in what is known as the Battle of Halbe , but remnants ultimately managed to break through to

168-473: 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

192-403: 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

216-464: 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

240-561: 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

264-596: 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

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288-626: 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

312-587: The Soviets continued to advance into Germany, he fought to protect the German capital. Specifically, Busse commanded the 9th Army during the Battle of Seelow Heights and the Battle of the Oder-Neisse . In April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin , Busse's Ninth Army was cut off from the armies on its flanks and almost encircled by Soviet Forces. General Gotthard Heinrici tried to convince Busse to withdraw several times, but Busse refused even to consider withdrawal unless

336-568: 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

360-636: 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

384-535: 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

408-417: 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

432-617: 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,

456-571: Was Chief of Staff of Army Group South , both on the Eastern Front. Serving with Army Group South, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 January 1944. He spent a short time in reserve and was then appointed General Officer Commanding German 121st Infantry Division . In July 1944, he commanded I Army Corps . While Busse took command of the 9th Army on 21 January 1945, his appointment

480-631: Was a German officer during World War I and World War II . Busse, a native of Frankfurt (Oder) , joined the Imperial German Army as an officer cadet in 1915 and was commissioned in February 1917. He also won the Knight's Cross with Swords of the Hohenzollern Order. After the armistice, he was accepted as one of 2,000 officers into the new Reichswehr in which he steadily rose in rank. Busse

504-750: Was a General Staff officer in April 1939 and prepared a training program that was approved by the Chief of the General Staff in August and covered a period from 1 October 1939 to 30 September 1940. Between 1940 and 1942 , he served as the Chief of Operations to General (later Field Marshal ) Erich von Manstein in the 11th Army on the Eastern Front . He remained serving on von Manstein's staff from 1942 to 1943 as Chief of Operations of Army Group Don and then from 1943 to 1944 he

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528-607: 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

552-418: Was never confirmed. It would appear that it was customary for commanders of formations of the status of an Army and higher to be on six months probation before their final appointments as Commanders-in-Chief. Germany surrendered unconditionally before Busse's probationary period had expired. During the last five months of the war, Busse commanded the 9th Army , which had become part of Army Group Vistula . As

576-628: 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

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