IV Corpswas acorps-sized formation of theUnited States Armythat saw service in bothWorld War IandWorld War II.
| IV Corps | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1918–19 1922–45 1958–68 |
| Country |  United States |
| Branch |  Army |
| Size | Corps |
| Engagements | World War I
|
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Charles Henry Muir Douglas MacArthur Stanley Dunbar Embick Alexander Patch Willis D. Crittenberger |
World War I
editThe corps was first organized on 20 June 1918, duringWorld War Ias part of theAmerican Expeditionary Forces.Under Major GeneralCharles H. Muirserving on theWestern Front,asHeadquarters IV Army Corps.It participated in the offensivesof St. Mihieland Lorraine, being demobilized inGermanyon 11 May 1919.[1]
Interwar period
editThe IV Corps was reconstituted in theOrganized Reservein 1921, allotted to the FourthCorps Area,assigned to theSecond United States Army,and activated with a headquarters composed of Regular Army and Organized Reserve personnel atAtlanta, Georgia,on 1 March 1922. The Headquarters Company was initiated on 29 March 1922 in Atlanta. on 15 June 1925, the headquarters was relieved from active duty, with all Regular Army personnel passing to the control of the Headquarters, Non-Divisional Group, Fourth Corps Area, which assumed the responsibilities of the IV Corps headquarters; both the Headquarters and Headquarters Company remained active in the Organized Reserve. The Headquarters, IV Corps, was withdrawn from the Organized Reserve on 15 August 1927 and allotted to the Regular Army, as was the Headquarters Company on 1 October 1933. The corps headquarters was partially activated at Atlanta with Regular Army personnel from the corps area headquarters and Reserve personnel from the corps area at large. On 1 October 1933, the IV Corps was relieved from the Second Army and assigned to the Third Army. For major maneuvers and command post exercises in the 1930s, the corps headquarters was occasionally organized provisionally using its assigned Reserve officers and staff officers from the Fourth Corps Area. The corps headquarters was fully activated on 20 October 1939, less Reserve personnel, atFort Benning, Georgia.[2]
World War II
editContinuing the lineage of the World War I IV Corps, a second IV Corps was constituted in the Regular Army and activated on 27 June 1944 in Italy, being consolidated with the second, active, IV Corps that had been formed in 1922.[3]IV Corps replaced theVI Corpsin theU.S. Fifth Army'sorder of battlein theItalian campaign,afterAllied forcesliberatedRomein the summer of 1944 and VI Corps was subsequently withdrawn from Italy to take part inOperation Dragoon,the Allied invasion of southern France. Initially the corps had two divisions—theU.S. 1standSouth African 6th Armoured Divisions—but was reinforced with theU.S. 92nd Infantry Divisionfrom August, the1st Brazilian Infantry Divisionfrom September, and theU.S. 10th Mountain Divisionin February 1945, as well as theU.S. 85th Infantry Divisionin April.[4]
Under command ofMajor GeneralWillis D. Crittenberger,the IV Corps took part in the fighting through the summer of 1944 as the Fifth Army, under the command ofLieutenant GeneralMark W. Clark,and theBritish Eighth Army,commanded byLieutenant GeneralSir Oliver W. H. Leese,advanced north to theRiver Arno.In the autumn and winter of 1944, the IV Corps formed the central wing of the Fifth Army's sector, taking the major role in the Fifth Army's assault on theGothic Linein the centralApennine Mountains,fighting to break through to the Lombardy plains beyond.[5][6][7]
Inactivation
editIn the spring of 1945 the corps, still in the Fifth Army's central sector, took part in the successfulItalian spring offensive,breaking out of the Apennines to outflank the units of theGerman TenthandFourteenth ArmiesdefendingBolognaand forming a pincer with the British Eighth Army on the right to surround them, and then driving on to theRiver Poand finallyVeronaandBrescia.
The corps was inactivated on 13 October 1945, at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, it was reactivated again at Birmingham, Alabama, in 1958 and inactivated at Birmingham in 1968.[8]
Bibliography
edit- Clark, Mark Wayne.Calculated Risk.New York: Enigma Books, 1950, republished 2007.ISBN978-1-929631-59-9
- Moraes, Mascarenhas de,The Brazilian Expeditionary Force, By Its CommanderUS Government Printing Office, 1966. ASIN B000PIBXCG
- Crittenberger, Willis D.,"The final campaign across Italy"; (1st Print 1952)ISBN85-7011-219-X(of 1997 printing(in Portuguese))
- Wilson, John B. "Armies, Corps, Divisions, and Separate Brigades | Army Lineage Series" U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999. CMH Pub 60-7-1.ISBN0160499925
Notes
edit- ^Wilson, 1999. Page 55.
- ^Clay, Steven E. (2010).U.S. Army Order of Battle, 1919-1941, Volume 1. The Arms: Major Commands and Infantry Organizatioms.Fort Leavenworth: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 151.
- ^Wilson, 1999. Pages 55-56
- ^Clark, 2007 (1950).
- ^Clark, 2007 (1950).
- ^Moraes, 1966.
- ^Crittenberger, 1952.
- ^Ibidem Wilson, 1999.