US Army V Corps History

The History
of
of
V Corps
Preface
V Corps soldiers, veterans, and friends:
V Corps has been serving the nation in peace and war since 1918. Organized overseas, in France, in World War I,
the Corps has spent most of its organizational life outside of the United States, either committed to battle in the two
World Wars or on the front lines of freedom in times of uneasy peace. Today, V Corps remains in Europe, committed
to supporting the NATO alliance and to carrying out the national security objectives of the United States.
The Victory Corps distinguished itself in eight campaigns in two World Wars, earning its nickname during the Meuse-
Argonne offensive of World War I and validating its reputation for hard, steady fighting at Omaha Beach in June of
1944. The post-war years have been no less demanding, although in a different way. Veterans of Cold War service in
V Corps well recall the exquisite state of training of Corps units and the high tension and watchful readiness of those
years.
In the course of the last decade, the demands on V Corps have, if anything, increased, as the Corps has learned to
deal with world events that remained somewhere between peace and war, and that ranged all across the spectrum of
conflict from peace enforcement through combat operations. Constantly involved in operations of one kind or another
On the cover: since 1990, V Corps has done much of the “heavy lifting” for the United States Army in places as widely separated as
American Troops Advancing by Harold Brett the Balkans and east Africa.
The scene is of American doughboys marching into battle in This short history of the Corps tells the story of Victory Corps soldiers in the 83 years during which they have invari-
Northern France during World War I, where V Corps was born and ably met the challenge and won success for the nation. We dedicate this history to those who have served in V Corps,
fought in the closing months of the Great War. who are serving now in V Corps, and who will serve in V Corps in the future.
The image is one of many pieces of original art prints and posters Victory Corps!
in the U.S. Army Center of Military Historys Army artwork collec-
tion. For information on ordering CMH products and publications,
go to www.army.mil/cmh-pg/catalog/HowTo.htm Charles E. Kirkpatrick
V Corps Historian
I
❂
1918-1919
Table Of Contents V Corps in World War I
PAGE
Preface The AEF is formed and armies was in the
Civil War. Therefore,
I. V Corps in World War I, 1918-1919 .................................................................................................... 1 The American Expeditionary Force that when General John J.
The AEF is Formed Pershing took the AEF
V Corps Organized in France
went to France in 1917 and 1918 was a
sketchily trained army built around a core overseas, his senior
St. Mihiel Offensive
commanders really had
Meuse-Argonne Offensive of fewer than 130,000 pre-war regular
End of the War and Return to the United States soldiers. National Guardsmen called to as much to learn about
duty had a solid basis of military training, the art of modern war as
II. Reactivation and Employment, 1940-1944 ....................................................................................... 7 did the newest soldier.
Reactivation of V Corps
but the bulk of the AEF consisted of
The Louisiana Maneuvers volunteersa and draftees that had never
Deployment to the European Theater been in uniform before. The United V Corps
III. The War in Europe, 1944-1946 ...................................................................................................... 11
States Army was as inexperienced
institutionally as its soldiers were
organized
The Normandy Landings and the Fight for Northern France
Breakout and the Race Across France
individually. Many regulars and National in France
The Siegfried Line Campaign and the Battle of the Bulge Guardsmen had recently served on the
The Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns Mexican border and in the Punitive The nine corps
Expedition into Mexico in pursuit of headquarters called for
IV. V Corps During the Cold War, 1946-1990 ......................................................................................... 18 Francisco “Pancho” Villa, but those in the General Organiza-
The Fort Bragg Interlude
The Move to Germany
operations rarely involved maneuver of tion Plan of the AEF
Divisional Reorganizations units larger than regiments. More often, were an essential part of
Defense of Western Europe they were independent troop and Pershing’s scheme to
Vigilance and Preparedness for War squadron patrols and raids. build and train an
The Army’s other recent combat independent American
V. V Corps After the End of the Cold War .............................................................................................. 26 U.S. ARMY PHOTO
The Persian Gulf War
experience was little more relevant. The Army in France. Train-
Spanish-American War had been brief, ing specific to the V Corps first commanding general, Maj. Gen.
Operation Provide Comfort
William M. Wright, 1918.
Operation Positive Force and although a Fifth Corps headquar- European theater of war
Operation Provide Promise ters—a unit that was later disbanded and was necessary not only
Operation Restore Hope that had no connection to the V Corps of to teach the soldiers the
Operation Support Hope
Task Force Able Sentry
World War I and afterward—was fielded, tactical lessons that the British and corps headquarters, the first task of each
Changes in Training, Organization, and Operational Techniques the conditions were undemanding by French had assimilated over four years of corps was to receive and begin the
The Headquarters Move World War I standards. Neither did trench warfare, but also to train them in training of divisions that would get their
Operations Joint Endeavor and Joint Guard suppressing guerrilla warfare in the using weapons with which they had no baptism of fire in a final phase of training
The Beirut Air Bridge and Other Aviation Missions Philippines or securing American experience. Among other things, the AEF in the trenches under British or French
Air Defense Deployments
Operation Victory Hawk
interests in China offer many useful had to learn about the employment of command. Only after that training was
Operation Joint Guardian lessons for senior commanders. The only field and heavy artillery and aerial artillery well advanced, and after Pershing
The Assault Command Post general officer in the entire AEF that had observation techniques; gas warfare; the activated First Army to command them,
Exercise Victory Strike commanded even a brigade in battle was use of the tank; and such weapons as would the corps assume a combat rôle.
A More Sophisticated Exercise Design Gen. John J. Pershing. trench mortars and heavy machine guns. Ultimately, Pershing’s goal was to create
The Immediate Ready Force
Toward the Future
Thus, as the Army went to war, first- Furthermore, corps commanders and the First U.S. Army with five subordinate
hand knowledge about commanding and staffs needed the opportunity to learn operational corps, a total of about one
Appendix 1: V Corps Commanding Generals, Deputy Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff ............... 44 administering large troop units was a how to command divisions that numbered million men. He intended each corps to
scarce commodity. The Army had briefly around 28,000 men each. By comparison, command four combat divisions and
Appendix 2: Units Commanded by V Corps, 1918-2001 .......................................................................... 46 experimented with organizing and French and British divisions were about control two replacement and training
employing a division in the years half as large, and German divisions divisions, but that scheme soon proved
Appendix 3: V Corps Order of Battle, 1990 ........................................................................................... 47 between the War with Spain and 1917, but roughly one-third the size of the Ameri- unworkable, and the corps became a
the last significant experience with corps can division. After the AEF activated purely combat organization, with replace-
Appendix 4: V Corps Order of Battle, 2000 ............................................................................................ 48
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 49 ❂ It Will Be Done 1

ment and training services handled by the he had arranged for many American over the top and made similar progress. In terms of numbers, the results of the
AEF headquarters. divisions to be assigned to the trenches By 1900 on the first day, the corps had St. Mihiel offensive were impressive.
Implementing Pershing’s orders, Maj. along its face for their combat seasoning. attained objectives specified for the American attacks had eliminated a salient
Gen. William M. Wright organized and Thus, although the American divisions second day, and the troops pushed on to of some 200 square miles, captured 16,000
activated V Corps headquarters at could only be characterized as green, take terrain beyond Dampierre-aux-Bois prisoners, and taken 443 cannon, at a cost
Remiremont between 7 and 12 July in they did have some familiarity with the and Dommartin by around midnight. of 7,000 casualties to the four allied corps
1918. Pershing activated First Army a terrain and the conditions they would The Germans had naturally observed involved. More important than the purely
month later, on 10 August, and AEF eventually face in their first major attack. the preparations for an attack, but did not military results, was the fact that elimina-
orders assigned V Corps to First Army on For the offensive, First Army commanded expect it to be made until the second half tion of the salient restored use of a
19 August. The following day, Gen. 550,000 Americans and 110,000 French of September. Economizing on forces, the number of important railroad links that
Wright turned over command of the corps troops in four corps, in what was the first German command had planned a with- German occupation of the ground had
to Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron, who entirely American-planned and -led drawal from the salient and had just disrupted. In terms of American battle
became its first combat commander. operation of the war. begun that withdrawal when the Ameri- prowess, however, the results were
Wright enjoyed the unusual distinction of IV Corps (1st, 42nd, and 89th Divi- can attacks commenced. Soon, reports of debatable. The Americans and French
commanding four different corps while in sions) and I Corps (2nd, 5th, 82nd, and rapidly withdrawing German units flooded outnumbered the German defenders of
France, overseeing their organization and 90th Divisions), on the southern side of in to Pershing’s headquarters, and he the salient by a factor of 46 to one.
early training, but of never commanding a the salient, delivered the main attack, with acted immediately to take advantage of Moreover, the Germans were disorganized
corps in battle. In battle, he instead II French Colonial Corps and V Corps the situation. and in the process of withdrawing when
commanded a division, for a while under (26th Division, 4th Division, and 15th Responding to First Army orders, V First Army attacked, and the final line the
V Corps control. French Colonial Division) making Corps rushed its 26th Division south offensive achieved coincided very nearly
The war was a relatively short one for supporting attacks on the western and through the forests to Vigneulles, where it with the new defensive line the Germans
V Corps, spanning the four months from northern faces, respectively. To increase met troops of the IV Corps’ 1st Division had intended to occupy after withdrawing
12 July through the armistice on 11 surprise, Pershing limited the preliminary about 0600 on 13 September, closing the from the area. Gen. Hunter Liggett,
November 1918. The combat actions artillery barrage to four hours, opening salient and cutting off the retreat of the commanding I Corps, remarked that the
encompassed the three campaigns of St. fire at 0100 on 12 September. At 0500, the Germans to their west. Minor operations “effect on the enemy, our own, and allied
Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and Lorraine infantry of the main attack jumped off and to take control of prisoners throughout morale was all that we had hoped for.” He
1918. In the course of those campaigns, made good progress, seizing Thiacourt, the area continued until 16 September, qualified his satisfaction with the results
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
the corps fought two major offensive Nonsard, and Bouillonville, the first-day when the American units turned over the of the battle by adding that “in our pride
actions at St. Mihiel and the Meuse- objectives. At 0800, artillery fire lifted in line to a French corps and redeployed for we should not forget that it had been no
Argonne. front of V Corps infantry, which went the next major offensive. even fight.” As V Corps marched to its
assembly areas for the forthcoming
offensive in the Argonne, however, it
St. Mihiel offensive took with it soldiers who had a successful
battle behind them and who had learned
Five weeks after its activation, V Corps the techniques of breaking through
moved into battle for the first time. On 19 elaborately protected trench systems.
August, the corps relieved a French
corps in the trenches along the western
side of the St. Mihiel salient in Lorraine. Meuse-Argonne
For almost a month, until 10 September, V offensive
Corps troops defended their sector
without incident, and with comparatively
light casualties. The V Corps sector was Following the St. Mihiel operation, V
on the left, or northern, flank of a salient Corps moved a short distance to the
that was 24 miles wide at its base and that northwest —the Meuse-Argonne sector
extended thirteen miles into allied lines. — and took up positions near Verdun-
The salient had changed little in shape in sur-Meuse. While the St. Mihiel offen-
four years, and combined three lines of sive was an American operation, the
excellent field fortifications with natural Meuse-Argonne attack in which V Corps
defensive advantages that the Germans was about to participate was a general
had steadily developed throughout the offensive involving both the American
war. An elaborate system of wire and French armies and planned by
COURTESY AMERICAN ARMIES AND BATTLEFIELDS IN EUROPE
entanglements covered defenses that Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the allied
ranged from six to eight miles in depth, supreme commander. The intention was ABOVE: The Meuse-Argonne offensive from 26 September to 4 Oc-
and that the French had unsuccessfully to push the Germans as far back toward tober 1918.
attacked several times. COURTESY AMERICAN ARMIES AND BATTLEFIELDS IN EUROPE the Rhine River as possible, depleting the TOP: Infantrymen from V Corps 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infan-
Because Pershing had been interested The St. Mihiel offensive. German reserves and preparing for the try Division, fighting in the Meuse-Argonne.
in the salient almost from the beginning, final offensive that Foch considered
2 The History of V Corps ❂ 3

necessary in the spring of 1919. was to capture it. First Army would then October. At that point, Pershing replaced one of the most brilliant tactical com- continued to advance until the cessation
The First Army’s mission was to attack use the heights at Montfaucon as an Cameron with Maj. Gen. Charles P. manders in the AEF. When he took of hostilities on 11 November.
northeastward between the Argonne artillery position to support the second Summerall as corps commander and command, Summerall promptly reorga-
Forest and the Meuse River in the
direction of Sedan. Foch expected that,
day’s attack through the Hindenburg Line
to seize Cunel and Romagne, both towns
reshuffled divisions, giving V Corps the
experienced 42nd and 32nd Divisions,
nized the artillery support corps provided
the infantry divisions, and the next attack
End of the war and
even if the Americans did not advance as in the V Corps sector. with the 89th Division as a reserve. on 21 October overran the German return to the
far as the plan called for, their attack While the attack began well, and the Summerall was the right choice to defenses around Cunel and broke the United States
would force the Germans to withdraw two adjacent corps advanced according command the corps at a difficult moment. third German defensive line, the
troops from other portions of the front to to plan, V Corps encountered difficulties An artillery officer with a considerable Kriemhilde Stellung. First Army was at
reinforce the Argonne sector. The almost immediately. The corps had only a reputation for innovation and aggressive- that point poised to attack the final Throughout the war, V Corps operated
American attack was also directed against single road leading to the front to handle ness, Summerall had previously com- under close control of First Army and
German line.
the German lines of communication, and all the troop movements and traffic of manded the 1st Field Artillery Brigade of suffered its due proportion of that Army’s
The final phase of the offensive began
aimed at cutting the two important artillery and support units, a factor that the 1st Infantry Division in the first 117,000 casualties. Some allied observers
on 1 November. V Corps launched the
railways that ran northward from the area complicated operations. Hitting heavy American attack of the war at Cantigny, in commented that Americans took undue
89th Division and the seasoned 1st and
around Metz and paralleled the front. resistance, the inexperienced divisions the summer of 1918, and then had losses because they did not properly
2nd Divisions toward the Freya Stellung,
Because the Germans used the railroads could not reach Montfaucon, and that commanded the 1st Infantry Division. learn their tactical lessons from the British
the final German defenses before Sedan,
to move troops laterally along the front failure retarded the whole First Army Disdainful of enemy fire himself, he and French. Criticisms notwithstanding,
and broke through by noon. The German
and to supply their divisions, Foch U.S. ARMY PHOTO plan. The corps finally took its first-day expected similar behavior of his com- the corps emerged from World War I with
army began a general withdrawal with the
the appellation “Victory Corps,” in
believed that cutting the rail lines would Maj. Gen. Charles P. Summerall, objectives on day three of the attack, manders and staff and was quick to Americans in close pursuit. On the night
recognition of its hard fighting and the
inevitably force the German army to V Corps commander during the primarily as a result of the brilliant relieve any officer he saw as incompetent, of 6 to 7 November, 1st Division of V
rapid advances it made during the last
withdraw, perhaps as far back as the Meuse-Argonne offensive, later fighting of the 91st Division, but the slow hesitant or shy under fire. Summerall had Corps captured the heights in front of
phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
Rhine. became Chief of Staff of the pace of the advance gave the Germans developed infantry-artillery coordination Sedan, opening the way for the XVII
In the years between the two World
Appreciating the importance of the Army. time to bring reinforcements up to the to a fine art, within the limitations of the French Corps to capture the city. During
area, the German high command laid front, with six infantry divisions arriving communications available in 1918, and Wars, professional soldiers carefully
the morning of 8 November, the corps
careful defensive plans that exploited the by 28 September to bolster the defenses. had already demonstrated that he was studied the problems American forces
began crossing the Meuse River and
difficult terrain of the Argonne Forest, Although an unfortunate development encountered in 1918, however, and one
where numerous east-west ridges 0530, the guns then began to fire a rolling for First Army, that fulfilled part of Foch’s result of the AEF experience was that a
provided strong, natural defensive barrage, behind which the infantry intent of drawing German troops away small, but influential number of officers
positions. The Germans organized their followed closely as it advanced into the from other portions of the line. laid the groundwork for the mechanized
defenses into four lines. In their sector, German defenses. V Corps was the center After a brief pause, during which V and armored style of war that the U.S.
the Americans outnumbered the Germans of the First Army line and commanded Corps rotated its divisions out of the line Army waged between 1942 and 1945.
by about six to one, but the German army three relatively inexperienced divisions, and received the veteran 1st, 3rd, and Officers assigned to V Corps had some
had up to 15 full-strength divisions ready the 92nd, 37th, and 79th. Pershing 32nd Divisions, with the 42nd Division in personal experience that helped them to
to bring forward if necessary. The planned to have I Corps, on the left, and corps reserve, the attack resumed on 4 understand later developments in the
defenders also had the advantages of III Corps, to the right, outflank the strong October. The attack went well for the first mechanization of military forces. In both
carefully prepared positions with good German defenses at Montfaucon, about four days, with V Corps advancing the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne
observation and fields of fire. three miles behind the front line trace. toward Romagne in coordination with III offensives, V Corps attacks were sup-
The attack began on 26 September. A While the other two corps Corps, but again the pace slowed, and ported by American armored battalions
total of 2,700 guns fired an artillery cut the German position Foch ordered another pause on 11 commanded by then-Col. George S.
preparation from 0230 through 0530. At off, V Corps Patton. Summerall’s practice of sending
howitzers forward to support the assault
troops presaged the development of
motorized artillery to accompany the
infantry. Especially in the Meuse-
Argonne offensive, V Corps leaders
learned something about developing
plans that included tactical air support
from the new Air Service. Finally, mobile
antiaircraft artillery, a new arm of service
developed in 1918, accompanied V Corps
units and protected river crossings,
artillery, supply depots, and headquarters
U.S. ARMY PHOTO U.S. ARMY PHOTO from German air attack.
ABOVE: V Corps logistical trains during the Meuse-Argonne A monument honoring V Corps soldiers who fought and died in France Another important aspect of the
offensive. during World War I was erected near Mouzon, France in November American experience in World War I was
LEFT: Renault light tanks supported the V Corps attack in 1918. The monument, later damaged by fighting in World War II, was that officers gained some understanding
the Meuse-Argonne. rebuilt and rededicated in 2001. of the cost of modern warfare and time
COURTESY WORLD WAR I PHOTO ARCHIVE needed to develop the industrial base for
4 ❂ It Will Be Done 5
II
❂
1940-1944
Reactivation and Employment
Reactivation of
V Corps
total war. The War Department General colonel. Later becoming one of the and at Soissons, and won two Silver V Corps reentered the active rolls of the
Staff estimated that World War I had cost Army’s foremost staff officers, Gerow Stars. Paul Baade commanded the 35th Army because of the growing threat of war.
the United States an average of $1 million became chief of the War Plans Division of Infantry Division in World War II. In the During the two years between the German
per hour for the 25 months of mobiliza- the War Department General Staff First World War, he was a company invasion of Poland in September 1939 and
tion, fighting, and immediate post-war immediately before the Second World commander in the 332nd Infantry of the the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the
occupation duty. Staff officers learned to War. During World War II, those two 81st Infantry Division in the last months Army conducted a partial mobilization to
think differently about costs, since pay officers commanded V Corps. of the war. Charles Gerhardt commanded prepare itself for the war many feared
for officers and men accounted for only Many other officers who later com- 29th Infantry Division during the assault would eventually involve the United
13 percent of that total of $22 billion, an manded divisions under V Corps control on Normandy in World War II. He went States. By the summer of 1940, the German
amount equivalent to the costs of in World War II had their first taste of to France in 1918 with the 3rd Cavalry army’s rapid conquest of France and the
operating the United States government battle in World War I as well. John Regiment, and was at the front as aide-de- German Luftwaffe’s aerial assault on the
for the entire period from 1791 through Leonard, who commanded the 9th camp to Maj. Gen. William M. Wright in V United Kingdom heightened concerns
1914. Armored Division, was an infantryman Corps, VII Corps, and in the 89th Infantry about American preparedness. Congres-
At the individual level, many of the who had marched into Mexico with the Division. Robert Hasbrouck, who sional reluctance to institute a peacetime
officers who commanded V Corps and its 6th Infantry in the Punitive Expedition of commanded 7th Armored Division, went daft was overcome in August when the
subordinate divisions during World War 1916 and who commanded the 3rd to France in 1918 with the 62nd Coast summer encampments of the National
II gained their battle experience in France, Battalion of that regiment in the St. Mihiel Artillery. Leland Hobbs, who commanded Guard revealed many deficiencies in what
many of them in V Corps, during the First and Meuse-Argonne battles, earning a the workhorse, and very successful, 30th was theoretically a combat-ready force.
World War. Two of those men were Distinguished Service Cross and being Infantry Division, arrived in France in As the Army gradually expanded
particularly significant. Clarence R. wounded in action. Edward Brooks, who 1918 with the 11th Infantry Division just U.S. ARMY PHOTO through the working of the newly enacted
Huebner stood out as one of the best commanded the 2nd Armored Division, in time for the armistice. Selective Service law and through bringing
combat leaders in the AEF. Enlisted for served in the 76th Field Artillery in World V Corps remained in Europe from the the National Guard under federal command,
six years in the 18th Infantry before the War I and was also decorated with the armistice through March 1919, respon- additional headquarters became necessary
war, Huebner obtained a commission and Distinguished Service Cross. Louis Craig sible for training the divisions that were to train the growing number of troops.
commanded at every level in the 26th commanded 9th Infantry Division. In to serve in the American Third Army, When he became chief of staff of General
Infantry from platoon through regiment. World War I, he served both in the line assigned to occupation duty in the Headquarters of the Army, Lt. Gen. Lesley
At the front from November 1917 through and on division, corps, and army staffs, Rhineland. In March, the corps stood J. McNair immediately recommended, and
the end of the war, Huebner fought in took part in four campaigns and earned down, as the Army inactivated all its then supervised, the activation of addi-
every major action and was decorated foreign awards that included the British corps headquarters, and on 2 May, V tional field armies and corps to train the
with two Distinguished Service Crosses Distinguished Service Order, the French Corps was demobilized at Camp Funston, draftees and National Guardsmen inducted
for valor and the Distinguished Service Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and Kansas. Two years later, on 29 July 1921, into federal service. Thus, War Department
Medal for leadership. He was twice Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the V Corps was among the headquarters general orders activated V Corps at Camp
wounded in action. A temporary lieuten- Belgian Order of the Crown of Leopold reconstituted as inactive units in the Beauregard, near Alexandria, Louisiana, on
ant colonel at the end of the war, Huebner and Croix de Guerre. Charles Helmick Army Reserve. The corps was briefly 20 October 1940, and assigned it to Third
outranked all of his contemporaries commanded V Corps Artillery in World active at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, from 17 U.S. Army, then under command of Lt. Gen.
commissioned in 1917. Leonard T. Gerow, War II, including the decisive action at February 1922 through 15 November Walter Krueger.
six years Huebner’s senior, did not have the Battle of the Bulge, where Corps 1924, and then remained in the active
the opportunity to command in battle Artillery orchestrated the fires of 37 field reserves. On 1 October 1933, the War U.S. ARMY PHOTO
the louisiana
during World War I. Instead, he served artillery battalions at Elsenborn Ridge. In Department allotted V Corps to the ABOVE: Louisiana Maneuvers, 1941.
on the staff of the AEF. Despite having World War I, he commanded Battery B, Regular Army, although the headquarters TOP: Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, V Corps headquarters in 1940 and maneuvers
no opportunity for distinction, he also 15th Field Artillery, was later regimental remained on the inactive list in the tiny 1941.
reached the temporary rank of lieutenant executive officer, fought on the Marne interwar service. Throughout the winter and spring of

1940-1941, Maj. Gen. Campbell B. advance to seize crossings over the Red V Corps had no such moments of dismembered to provide the cadres for a defense against invasion. Advance the United Kingdom and moved its
Hodges’ new corps supervised the River and then turned to march further distinction, but the maneuvers were rapidly expanding wartime Army. elements of the corps headquarters left headquarters from Brownlow House,
training of the 32nd, 34th, 37th, and 38th north as Krueger modified his plan to nonetheless important to the corps, both Instead, the point of the General the United States on 10 January 1942 and Lurgan, in Northern Ireland, to Clifton
Infantry Divisions, all National Guard allow for Second Army’s deployments. In as tests of its capabilities and as training Headquarters Maneuvers was that they established a command post in Belfast on College near Bristol, England.
units, conducting numerous small Phase II (21 to 29 September), the corps for its leaders and soldiers. Unfortu- set the pattern for operations that the 23 January. By 3 March, the first troop Once in England, the corps continued
exercises and then maneuver with larger confronted Second Army’s VII Corps nately, many of those benefits were short- corps would follow throughout World units began arriving as the 34th Infantry to receive and train units for eventual
formations as the regiments and divisions while the 2nd Armored, 2nd Infantry, and lived. Before long, Marshall decided to War II: maneuver with infantry-artillery Division and the 107th Engineer Battalion combat in Europe, including the 29th
gradually became more tactically profi- 1st Cavalry Divisions enveloped the left replace both senior commanders—some teams supported by independent tank debarked. Daley was retired from the Infantry Division from the United States
cient. In March 1941, Hodges retired from flank of Second Army, establishing the 31 generals in the two armies—and many battalions. The other important aspect of Army at the same time the movement and the 5th Infantry Division, which
active duty and handed over command to reputations both of the 2nd Armored overage company and field grade officers, the maneuvers was that they allowed the orders were issued, and Maj. Gen. William arrived from a brief tour of duty in
Maj. Gen. Edmund L. Daley. In one of his Division and of its commander, George S. particularly in the National Guard Army to begin to come to grips with S. Key took command briefly during the Iceland. On 15 July 1943, Maj. Gen.
first acts after assuming command, Daley Patton. divisions, with younger men. Nor did the those technical aspects of modern period of overseas movement. Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow assumed command of
gave the corps its motto, “It will be A plodding infantry organization when divisions themselves benefit from the warfare that had appeared, but that had Russell P. Hartle assumed command in the corps and moved the headquarters to
done!” In selecting the motto, Daley compared to the few, and highly publi- increased proficiency the maneuvers really not been developed, during World Ireland on 20 May 1942. Norton Manor Camp near Taunton in
intended to emphasize that V Corps cized, new mechanized and armored units, produced, because they were later War I or the succeeding peacetime years: It soon became clear that there was no Somerset, where the corps became a part
would routinely carry out the most the use of armored forces, the tactical use longer any serious threat of a German of First U.S. Army.
difficult of missions as a matter of course. of air forces, and the organization of invasion of the British Isles, and the Slated to take part in the eventual
The culmination of the corps’ pre-war antitank units. When the maneuvers corps concentrated on receiving and landings in France that were the keystone
training came during the General Head- ended, the corps returned to Camp training troops. Besides the 34th Infantry of American strategy for the war, V Corps
quarters Maneuvers of 1941, which pitted Beauregard, where it was still involved Division, V Corps supervised training of was also a part of the operational
Krueger’s Third Army against Lt. Gen. with training divisions at the time of Pearl the 1st Armored Division, which arrived planning process for the assault. Starting
Ben Lear’s Second Army. The 1941 Harbor. in Ireland in June, 1942. The corps in June, 1943, the corps carried out
maneuvers, involving more than 472,000 became a testing ground for the develop- Operation Wadham, a deception that
soldiers, were the largest that the Army Deployment to the ment of less conventional forces as well. involved planning and training for early
had ever conducted to that time. Gen.
George C. Marshall, Army chief of staff,
IT WILL BE DONE! European theater
Impressed with the capabilities of British
commando units and seeing a need for
landings on the Brest peninsula in
France. The purpose of Wadham, which
called them a “combat college for troop When Maj. Gen. Edmund L. Daley assumed similar forces, the War Department was part of a larger diversionary plan,
leading,” and announced that he pre- command of V Corps in March 1941, he wanted a motto Immediately upon declaration of war in authorized Maj. William O. Darby to was to pin down German divisions in
ferred for mistakes to be made in maneu- for the corps that stressed December 1941, the War Department organize the 1st Ranger Battalion from V France by threatening landings before the
vers, rather than in battle. As events that V Corps would carry selected V Corps to become a headquar- Corps volunteers. In November, 1942, end of 1943. Various parts of Wadham
turned out, the maneuvers fulfilled out the most difficult ters dubbed magnet force, and ordered it when II Corps left England to take part in eventually became part of the overlord
Marshall’s expectations about mistakes, missioins as a matter of to Northern Ireland with the two-fold the North African campaign, the 1st plan for the Normandy invasion.
but they also gave the Army a chance to course. His slogan: It Will mission of receiving American units as Armored and 34th Infantry Divisions Through it, the Allies learned something
test both its tactical assumptions and the Be Done! they were sent to the United Kingdom went with it. V Corps remained behind as about how many divisions could be
abilities of its recently promoted young and helping the British prepare for the senior U.S. Army tactical formation in mounted through the British coastal ports
majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels The motto has been
as tactical commanders. incorporated into the V
While other units were arriving in corps crest, approved in
Louisiana, Krueger took his Third Army 1969 for wear by members
to the field for a final round of corps of the corps.
training, maneuvering V Corps and VIII
Corps against IV Corps to practice the The design is based
battle he expected against Lear’s Second upon the authorized sleeve
Army. Then he marched his 10 divisions insignia for V Corps. The
into the assembly area to the north of first demi fleur-de-lis U.S. ARMY PHOTO
Lake Charles. The maneuvers themselves capping the design repre-
were a triumph for Third Army and for the sents France, where the corps was activated in 1918.
man generally credited with devising its The three stars commemorate the Lorraine, St. Mihiel
plan for battle, then-Col. Dwight D. and Meuse-Argonne campaigns the corps fought in
Eisenhower. During Phase I (15 to 18 during World War I.
September), V Corps was the pivot upon U.S. ARMY PHOTO
which Krueger maneuvered IV and VIII The second fleur-de-lis represents World War II.
LEFT: V Corps headquarters on board the RMS Queen
Corps in an attempt to trap Second Army The five radial lines represent the Central Europe,
Mary en route to Europe in January 1942.
against the Red River between Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, Northern France and
ABOVE: V Corps troops disembarking in Ireland in
Natchitoches and Alexandria. Normandy campaigns, with the line capped by the
January 1942, the first American troops in the Eu-
The corps, commanding the 32nd, arrowhead symbolizing the assault landing at Normandy.
34th, and 37th Divisions and the 106th ropean Theater.
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
Cavalry Regiment, made a textbook
III
❂
1944-1946
The War In Europe
for an invasion, and identified most of the first amphibious exercise, Duck, at
logistical problems that an invading force Slapton Sands on England’s south coast
would encounter. Meanwhile, the corps in December 1943 and January 1944,
continued to train its divisions in landing 29th Infantry Division troops in a
amphibious techniques. test of equipment, embarkation proce-
U.S. ARMY PHOTO To iron out problems discovered dures, and assault techniques. The
V Corps Exercise Atlantic with during the planning for Wadham and to landing exercises refined the techniques
M-3 Grant tanks in Ireland, 1942. test various concepts for landing troops corps troops would use in Neptune, the
over beaches, the corps conducted the First Army portion of Operation Overlord.
COURTESY U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY ARMY ARTWORK COLLECTION
On the Way to the Assault Boats, original painting by Olin Dows, 1944. The troops the
artist depicts moving into the English surf could well be V Corps soldiers, who played an
integral part in Operation Overlord.
On June 6, 1944, V Corps entered battle Corps troops sat in landing craft that lay naval gunfire bombardment with little
in France. Before World War II ended 11 10 miles off the Normandy beaches, damage to its prepared defenses on the
months and three days later, the corps awaiting the dawn. At 0630, local time, bluffs above the shore. Heavy seas and
saw 338 days of continuous combat and “Force O,” soldiers from the 1st and 29th bad weather complicated landings for the
advanced roughly 1,300 miles from Infantry Divisions under command of 34,142 soldiers and 3,306 vehicles of the
Normandy to Czechoslovakia in the Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner, com- initial assault wave. Almost three-fourths
course of five hard-fought campaigns. mander of the Big Red One, began of the assault vehicles and artillery were
wading through the surf on a beach code- lost when landing craft capsized or
The Normandy named Omaha. It was a hard fight from foundered, and nearly all of the amphibi-
landings and the the very beginning. Expecting to find ous (Duplex Drive) M4 Sherman tanks
only a single German regiment defending launched 6,000 yards out failed to reach
U.S. ARMY PHOTO fight for northern the beach, the assault troops were the shore. Those tanks that Army and
Training for the invasion of Normandy with M-4 Sherman tanks at Englands Wollacombe Training Center, France instead confronted by major elements of Navy commanders on the spot decided to
1943. the 352nd Infantry Division that had land directly on the beach, rather than
At 0415 on the morning of June 6, V come through the preliminary aerial and launching at sea, suffered heavy losses in

the opening minutes of the assault. casualties among officers and non- with a Distinguished Service Cross for his situation. Leaders
Soldiers struggled through heavy surf commissioned officers. actions on D-Day, was eventually able to of every rank began
and then across 200 to 300 yards of open, Desperate for information, Gerow, then report to an anxious Gerow and Huebner to collect groups of
mined beach, and then found themselves aboard the command ship U.S.S. Ancon, that the corps attack was making its way soldiers together
pinned down behind a seawall or, further dispatched his Assistant Chief of Staff, inland, but not before several anxious and took them up
down the beach, a line of dunes, by Col. Benjamin B. Talley, to find out what hours had passed. the bluffs, where
unexpectedly heavy fire. Eventually, they was happening on the beach. Talley Omaha turned out to be the most they assaulted the
also discovered that virtually every unit embarked on an amphibious truck, a tenaciously defended of the invasion German defenses
had landed in the wrong place, and that DUKW, and with a detachment of troops beaches, and the site of the bloodiest from the rear and
their carefully prepared assault plans, spent several hours cruising back and fighting. Around noon, Lt. Gen. Omar thus, at last, began
thoroughly rehearsed against terrain forth some 500 yards off Omaha beach, Bradley, First Army commander, feared to establish a
models in England, were worthless. ultimately landing there to serve as a that the landings on Omaha had failed beachhead. Gerow
When “Force B,” under Maj. Gen. Charles liaison officer between elements of the 1st and seriously considered evacuating the revised the landing
H. Gerhard, commander of the 29th Infantry Division and the corps com- beach. By the time that decision had to schedule for follow-
Infantry Division, began landing its mander. At first impression, the situation be made, however, the movement off the on waves of troops
25,117 men of the follow-on waves, most was a disaster, with the assault evidently beach that Talley had observed had to reinforce those
of the first two attack waves were still at stopped and follow-on boats milling finally begun to portions of the
the water’s edge, having taken heavy about offshore. Talley, later decorated retrieve the shore where
progress was
possible and
coordinated naval
gunfire to support U.S. ARMY
the assaults to take
V Corps operations in World War II stretched from England to Czechoslavakia.
the five draws that
led away from the
invasion beach.
“Thank God for the Navy,” Gerow told trees grew thickly. The fields were natural Argentan pocket.
Bradley, reporting that destroyers had forts that gave the Germans enormous V Corps, which had been holding on
literally sailed into the surf as little as 800 defensive advantages and denied the the left flank of the breakthrough,
yards from the beach to fire directly at allies the use of their single most impor- received orders to help close the trap at
bunkers and machine gun positions that tant advantage — mobility. The fighting the town of Coutances. In four days of
were holding up the attack. By mid-day, was extremely costly, and V Corps heavy fighting between 17 and 21
valor and leadership at all levels had suffered another 3,300 casualties before August, the corps cooperated with
resolved a dangerous situation. In the the hedgerows were behind it. By 11 British and Canadian units to prevent the
early afternoon, the corps beachhead and June, the corps had finally reached its D- Germans from escaping to the east.
all five exits from the beach were secured Day objectives, and two days later Although the pocket was closed too late
U.S. ARMY PHOTO and weary soldiers had begun to move occupied an eight-kilometer front that lay to encircle all the enemy that had origi-
inland. That afternoon, the corps 30 kilometers inland from the shore. nally been in the vicinity of Falaise, the
established its first command post in Defensive operations consumed the next corps ultimately captured elements of six
Europe five hundred yards from the front two weeks as the Allies brought suffi- armored and seven infantry divisions, a
line just below the bluffs along the beach cient supplies and ammunition ashore to total of more than 40,000 prisoners. The
at Le Rouquet. The first day of war had support a general attack. battles around the Falaise Gap marked the
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
been a sobering one. In 15 hours of end of German resistance west of the
ABOVE: Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Divisions Company E, 16th
Infantry assault Normandys Omaha Beach under V Corps command
combat, V Corps had taken approximately Breakout and the Seine River. The road to Paris was open,
2,500 casualties. and First Army ordered V Corps to
on 6 June 1944. The corps landed the remainder of the race across France liberate the city.
TOP RIGHT: Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner commanded the Big Red two assault divisions and the 2nd On 25 August, the 2nd French Armored
One during the invasion at Normandy. Huebner rose from the rank Infantry and 2nd Armored Divisions over First Army’s plan to break out of the Division, the 4th Infantry Division, and
of sergeant in 1916 to command a battalion of the 1st Infantry the succeeding days. During the next lodgment area was Operation Cobra, a 25 the 102nd Cavalry Group captured Paris
Divisions 26th Infantry. Huebner went on to assume command of two weeks, the corps gradually expanded July attack by VII and XIX Corps that without firing a shot. While the French
V Corps in January 1945 and lead it through the end of World War II its shallow lodgment on the Norman shattered the German defenses at the troops assumed control of the city, the
in Europe. coast, taking the fighting into the town of St. Lô and passed infantry and 4th Infantry Division marched through to
BOTTOM RIGHT: Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow was V Corps com- hedgerow country behind the beaches. armored columns through the gap and secure crossings over the river Seine to
mander on D-Day and through the Battle of the Bulge. A friend of A belt of land averaging 50 miles in out of the Brittany peninsula. Once clear the south. On 30 August, the corps
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Gerow was acknowledged as one of the depth, the hedgerows, or bocage, of the bocage country, the spearheads provided troops for a formal victory
Armys best and brightest. A consummate infantryman, he led the consisted of a seemingly endless series turned east toward Paris, rapidly encir- parade, marching the 28th Infantry
corps through some of the toughest fights of World War II. of interlocked fields, each bounded by cling portions of two German armies in Division down the Champs Élysées,
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
earthen berms on which shrubbery and what became known as the Falaise- through the city, and directly into
assembly areas to the north of the the day before. across France that brought U.S. forces to ing years. Still, the Germans rapidly
suburbs to continue the pursuit, joining On 29 August, V Corps marched on in the borders of Germany by the end of moved troops in to reoccupy the de-
other units of the corps that had attacked the direction of Sedan, joining in the race September. One week after leaving Paris, fenses, and the corps could count on
and 26 years after its previous visit there, facing prepared concrete pillboxes and
V Corps captured Sedan. Three days sophisticated antitank barriers known as
later, it liberated the city of Luxembourg, “dragon’s teeth,” fields of concrete
and on 10 September, although the pyramids as much as two meters in
advance was considerably slowed by height. Furthermore, the Germans had
shortages of gasoline, the corps closed sown extensive minefields, particularly of
on the German border. Lt. Gen. Courtney the dreaded S-mines and “Schuh” mines,
Hodges, the First Army commander, gave some of which had too little metal to react
V Corps permission to conduct a recon- to minesweeping devices. Again, the
naissance in force, and Gerow sent the infantry-artillery cooperation that had
4th and 28th Infantry Divisions, the 5th been a hallmark of V Corps operations in
Armored Division, and the 102nd Cavalry World War I and that had been empha-
Group forward to attack the Siegfried sized during the Louisiana Maneuvers,
Line. In the early evening of 11 Septem- offered a solution to cracking the
ber, the 85th Reconnaissance Squadron Siegfried Line. The artillery brought up U.S. ARMY PHOTO
of the 5th Armored Division sent a 155-mm self-propelled howitzers and fired Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division road march near Buetgenbach,
dismounted patrol into Germany itself, in them directly at the pillboxes the infantry Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.
the vicinity of the town of Wallendorf. had identified. At a rate of one shell, one
The 85th Recon was therefore the first pillbox, V Corps gradually opened a way
allied unit to enter Germany. through the German defenses. After two
weeks of intense fighting, V Corps broke killed, wounded, and missing, in one of true today. In the Ardennes, he wrote,
The Siegfried Line through the Siegfried Line in its sector. the most costly actions of the entire war. “the mettle of the American soldier was
Then, on 29 September, Gerow received Although a failure, the attack on Schmidt tested in the fires of adversity and the
campaign and the orders to suspend his attack, turn his did have a positive aspect, in that it quality of his response earned for him the
Battle of the Bulge sector over to VIII Corps, and break relieved pressure on the VII Corps front, right to stand shoulder to shoulder with
U.S. ARMY PHOTO through another section of the Siegfried from which the Germans withdrew units his forebears of Valley Forge,
Anticipating that the Germans would Line on a narrow front of 12 miles near to meet the 28th Division’s attack. Fredericksburg, and the Marne.”
resist fiercely on the Rhine River line, the Monschau, Belgium, with the objective of Worse fighting was yet to come, as It was not just the success of the Army
Allies planned a two-pronged attack that reaching the German town of Schleiden First Army directed V Corps to support as an institution that sustained Cole’s
would cross the river north of Koblenz and continuing toward the Roer dams. the VII Corps attack deeper into the evaluation. Above all, it was the fact that
and south of Mainz, setting up the By that time, the Germans had heavily Huertgen Forest. On 21 November, the the great battle was won by American
conditions necessary to take the indus- reinforced their defenses, and V Corps corps began an attack that was even soldiers in small groups, often isolated
trial Ruhr valley. The V Corps mission could make little progress. Operations costlier in terms of casualties than the and usually without knowing the overall
was to move through the frontier fortifica- were temporarily suspended during the debacle at Schmidt, but which was more situation, who fought tenaciously, with
tions and seize key terrain in the vicinity month (17 September through 16 October) successful. Fighting in bad weather and enormous determination and great
of Aachen, and particularly the dams over that the 1st Allied Airborne Army and dense forests, the corps captured courage, in the face of odds that almost
the Roer River, as part of the First Army British XXX Corps tried to cross the Huertgen and progressed in the direction always appeared overwhelming. Obsti-
attack into the Siegfried Line and the Rhine at Arnhem, Holland, in Operation of the Roer River by the 27th of the nately, the American soldier fought on
Huertgen Forest. The corps sector was Market Garden. On 2 November, with the month. Controlling the ridge overlooking when there seemed to be no hope, and
42 miles in width, extending from St. Vith weather by then considerably harsher, V the Roer valley by 7 December, V Corps his stand in the Ardennes confounded
in the south to the vicinity of the city of Corps resumed its attack, sending its 28th began an attack with four divisions Hitler’s hopes and the plans of the
Luxembourg in the north. When the Infantry Division into the dense Huertgen abreast four days later. The 99th, 2nd, German high command in Germany’s last,
attacks began on 14 September, Hodges, Forest to seize the key terrain around 8th, and 78th Divisions were making good desperate bid to win the war.
the First Army commander, also directed Vossenack and Schmidt. Later acknowl- progress when the German counterattack The weight of the German offensive,
V Corps to protect the flank of VII Corps, edging the attack to have been a mistake, in the Ardennes brought allied offensive which had been prepared in great secrecy
which was leading the First Army attack Gen. Omar Bradley characterized it as operations to a halt. and with exceptionally good operational
into Germany. some of the toughest fighting in the Beginning on 16 December, the Battle security, fell in the VIII Corps sector,
The Siegfried Line, constructed before European theater. Although the 28th of the Bulge, one of the greatest and although a secondary thrust threatened
U.S. ARMY PHOTO Infantry Division met with early success, certainly most decisive battles of World the inexperienced 99th Infantry Division
the German attack on France in 1940 as
ABOVE: A V Corps infantryman during the battle of the Huertgen the Westwall, was not as formidable a the corps was unable to make good use War II, was also the single greatest battle of V Corps. Gerow ordered a tactical
Forest. barrier as it had once been. Many of its of armor and tactical air support. Heavy that the United States Army fought at withdrawal, and the 99th Division slowly
TOP: V Corps infantry used direct fire from 155-mm self-propelled guns had been removed and emplaced on German counterattacks through 20 any time in the entire war. In it, the Army pulled back about 12 miles to the vicinity
howitzers such as this to crack open German pillboxes on the Siegfried the Atlantic and Channel coasts of November pushed the division out of reached maturity. The judgment of Hugh of Monschau, where it established
Line in 1944 and early 1945. France, and the fortifications themselves Schmidt and the surrounding villages, Cole, who wrote the definitive official defensive positions along Elsenborn
had fallen into disuse over the interven- inflicting losses of more than 6,000 men history of the battle, continues to ring Ridge with the other three divisions, right

at the boundary with VIII Corps. The While the dramatic events of the siege the direction of Schmidt and the Roer River, capturing Fritzlar on 31 March and tation to their homes. In addition, the Dutch military personnel from camps in
German Sixth Panzer Army, attacking on a and relief of Bastogne were unfolding River dams, finally taking the town on 5 Gießen on the first of April. Arriving in corps undertook the evacuation of Czechoslovakia. In March, 1946, V Corps
front 15 miles wide, rapidly gained further to the south, V Corps secured the February and securing the last of the Kassel on 5 April, the corps received recovered allied prisoners of war, evacu- received orders to return to the United
success on its left flank, with divisions northern shoulder of the Bulge against dams late on 9 February. orders to push on into eastern Germany ating American, British, French, and States.
advancing 30 miles from the starting line, continuous German attacks. In the and meet the Russians near Leipzig.
but was stopped early by the tough course of four weeks of fighting, the The Rhineland and The corps captured Leipzig on 19 April
American defense at Monshau, on its corps held its ground, so restricting the and elements of the 69th Infantry division
right flank. The artillery at Monschau width of the front that the Germans could Central Europe met Russian troops on the Elbe River near
literally stopped a German attack by itself, use only one Panzer army, instead of two, campaigns Torgau on 25 April. Responding to First
and in the V Corps sector, the 99th and disrupting the delicate timetable of Army orders, the corps again turned over
Infantry Division Artillery helped that the enemy advance. The cost of success With the capture of the Roer River its sector to VII Corps and on 29 April
green unit to hold its ground for two was high, though, with V Corps casual- dams, the way was open for VII Corps to moved into Czechoslovakia, where it
days, until the V Corps artillery on ties for the Battle of the Bulge amounting move on into Germany and for the First fought under Third Army control. On 6
Elsenborn Ridge began to carry the to almost 8,000 in its four divisions. Army to close on the Rhine. Because the May, V Corps took Pilsen and, three days
burden. The weight of fire was tremen- Gerow left the corps to assume Germans had committed the bulk of their later, on the last day of the war, accepted
dous: on the night of 17 December, for command of Fifteenth Army on 15 reserves to their Ardennes offensive, the surrender of representatives of the
example, one V Corps infantry battalion January 1945, and Huebner, until then in only limited force was available to resist German high command in Czechoslovakia
was covered by a defensive barrage of command of the 1st Infantry Division, the allied attacks of the late winter and and escorted them to surrender ceremo-
11,500 rounds. By the end of the Battle of succeeded him as corps commander just early spring. V Corps marched toward the nies. The last bullet to be fired by V
the Bulge, V Corps Artillery controlled 37 as it became clear that the German Rhine on 10 March and spent the next 12 Corps in the war against Germany was
field artillery battalions behind Elsenborn counteroffensive was over. In the days supporting III Corps as it built and expended by a rifleman in the 2nd
Ridge. With the stand of V Corps at the following two weeks, the corps resup- extended its bridgehead over the Rhine at Battalion, 16th Infantry, of the 1st
twin villages of Krinkelt and Rocherath plied and reorganized itself to resume its Remagen. Then the corps crossed the Infantry Division, at 0908 in the morning
and along Elsenborn Ridge, the entire attacks into Germany. In the center of the river and pushed out of the bridgehead, of 8 May.
German attack fizzled out. Thereafter, the line for the general offensive that began swinging north along the eastern bank of During World War II, V Corps estab-
German center of gravity shifted away on 30 January, V Corps pushed through the river to capture the town of Limburg lished and held the Normandy beach- U.S. ARMY PHOTO
from the crucial roads that the V Corps the Siegfried Line recaptured terrain it had by 26 March and the city of Koblenz and head, helped to make possible the
defense had denied the attackers and been forced to give up a month earlier. its fortress of Ehrenbreitstein the next breakthrough at St. Lô, effected a
focused on the only remaining alterna- Fighting in deep snow and difficult day. Following up those successes, the junction with the British and Canadian
tive, Bastogne. terrain, the corps once again marched in corps continued to drive up the Lahn forces to close the Falaise-Argentan
pocket, liberated Paris and marched
quickly through northern France,
Belgium, and Luxembourg, to be the first
allied unit to enter Germany. The corps
breached the Siegfried Line in three
places, held firm against the German
attack in the Battle of the Bulge, crossed
the Rhine River, and advanced to Leipzig,
making the first junction with the Russian
Army. In addition to offensive operations
that covered more than 1,300 miles, the
corps established command posts in 39
different locations and directed the
operations of 25 different divisions. By
the end of the war, modifying its motto to
suit the circumstances, V Corps was
justified in reporting to First Army that “It
has been done!”
After the cessation of hostilities, the
corps began executing its portion of U.S. ARMY PHOTO
Operation Eclipse, a plan than called for ABOVE: A sign that the end of the war in Europe was approaching.
units to retain possession of the areas Soldiers of V Corps 69th Infantry Division met the Russians at Torgau,
they occupied at the end of the fighting on the Elbe River, on 25 April 1945.
and disarm the remainder of the German TOP: V Corps soldiers escorted members of the German high com-
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
armed forces. In accordance with mand from Prague, Czechoslavakia to deliver the terms of Germanys
The Victor Bridge over the Rhine erected by V Corps engineers. At the time it was the longest tactical instructions, the corps simply discharged surrender in May 1945.
bridge in the world. most German enlisted soldiers in its
custody and arranged for their transpor-
IV were in the order of battle for the exercise,
but did not actually participate, instead
being represented by small planning
❂
1946-1990
staffs that served as response cells.
Small unit skirmishes in the sand hills
V Corps During the Cold War

around Fort Bragg involved the maneuver
of tank and infantry units, coordinated
with airborne assaults. Soldiers refreshed
their proficiency in basic tactical skills
while the battalion, regimental, and corps
staffs exercised themselves in the
planning and direction of tactical maneu-
The Fort Bragg had low Army General Classification Test the service. Exercise Tarheel, run in April ver. Hodge subsequently characterized
the exercise as successful and praised the
scores, and many more that had bad and May 1949, was typical of the kind of
interlude Army records. Many soldiers were only training the corps was able to do in those corps headquarters and subordinate
briefly assigned to the corps, while they austere years between the end of World units. Tactical procedures were generally
The great demobilization following awaited their discharge orders. One War II and the beginning of the Cold War. good, he thought, an indication that the
World War II swiftly returned most of the consequence of the corps’ personnel The headquarters reconstituted itself as Army was recovering the skills that the
wartime Army to civilian life. In 1946, V problems and the absence of a clearly Task Force Victor for an exercise the extended demobilization had allowed to
Corps left the European theater and was defined mission was that AWOL and VD Army commander, Lt. Gen. Alvin C. atrophy.
stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Indicative of the condition of the Army U.S. ARMY PHOTO
rates, traditionally the indicators of units Gillem, intended to use to train the
The Abrams
soon moving to Fort Bragg, North that had problems, soared. Part of the headquarters and V Corps troops in as a whole, however, was Hodge’s
Carolina, where it quickly become one of solution was an aggressive program to simulated combat conditions, and to concluding remark that the 82nd Airborne
the few organizations of its size that discharge such soldiers, and in time the provide the utmost in practicable training was “a very fine division — a now-
remained on the active rolls. Lt. Gen.
John R. Hodge assumed command of the
corps grew in stability, if not in size.
Again, just as in the years after World
in troop movement and field operations
for battalion and regimental combat
unusual division — but for the future it is
not to continue to be regarded as Building
post and of a much smaller corps than War I, there was no obvious potential teams. unusual, for there must be more divisions
European veterans remembered; the only enemy or impending conflict for which to Besides a small aggressor group and just as fine.” Upon its move to Germany,
maneuver unit was the 82nd Airborne prepare, and training concentrated on the various supporting units from corps V Corps took up residence in
Division. basic soldier skills that were rapidly troops, the major participant was the 82nd The move to Frankfurt am Mains I.G. Farben
The Army charged V Corps with the eroding as the Army dwindled in size and Airborne Division. The 3rd Infantry Building, which was renamed the
mission of preparing and modifying its combat veterans were discharged from Division and the 31st Infantry Division
Germany Abrams Building (above) in honor
contingency plans, but the headquarters of Lt. Gen. Creighton W. Abrams
spent the majority of its time and effort in International events soon underscored (right). The general asssumed
inspecting units of the General Reserve Hodge’s observation. Relations between command of the corps in 1963
throughout the country; training units of the Soviet Union and the West, never and later was named Chief of U.S. ARMY PHOTO
the reserve, civilian components, and really cordial even during the war, first Staff of the Army.
West Point cadets; preparing to activate cooled and then became progressively
or build up any active force units that more antagonistic as the great powers The Abrams Building was home to the corps for 43
Third U.S. Army, the corps’ superior debated the future political shape of the years, from 1951, until the end of 1994 when the headquar-
headquarters, might direct; and training world. The four-power occupation of ters began moving to its present location on Campbell
units assigned to the corps itself. Germany and of Berlin became a focus of Barracks in Heidelberg.
Because of drastic reductions in the the growing confrontation as the Soviets
Army’s budget and the general demobili- attempted to force the western Allies out
zation, much of the corps’ mission of Berlin during the blockades of the land
actually concerned itself with planning, routes into the city in 1948. The Korean
rather than doing. Inasmuch as the 82nd War that erupted in July 1950 further the eventual decision to station more aggressive policy the Soviet Union was
Airborne Division was virtually the only exacerbated fears that the Soviets were powerful forces in Europe. pursuing in Europe, the need to station
combat-ready and deployable force planning a general offensive. Many By 1946, most American military units conventionally organized combat troops
within the continental United States at thought that the war in Korea was a in Germany had been reorganized as in Germany to replace the 30,000 con-
the time, available training money and diversion that was intended to capture constabulary forces. Intended to regulate stabulary soldiers became evident. The
resources went chiefly to maintain that American attention and the majority of the American occupation zone, constabu- opening days of what came to be known
unit’s proficiency. Across the corps, American combat power. Once decisively lary units were lightly armed and struc- as the Cold War thus saw the movement
personnel shortages plagued tactical and involved in Asia, the United States tured for what was essentially police of major Army units from the United
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
support units alike and hampered training would, according to that line of reason- work. More to the point, their constabu- States to Germany. Among them was V
and readiness. The corps commander Exercise Tarheel, 1950. The exercise was conducted during the years ing, be unable to resist a Soviet takeover lary functions overrode their training as Corps, which moved from Fort Bragg to
complained of being hobbled with an (1945 to 1951) when V Corps was headquartered at Fort Bragg, N.C. of western Europe. Such fears turned out combat forces. As American leaders Bad Nauheim in 1951, and to the I. G.
excessively large number of soldiers that to be baseless, but they contributed to became increasingly alarmed about the Farben building in Frankfurt am Main

early the next year. take an objective and then rapidly the triangular division to task organize for two brigadier generals as assistant Divisions in the United States and the
As early as 1948, some of the con- disperse, so as not to present a profitable different missions. More directly, division commanders, one charged with lighter 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.
stabulary squadrons had been reorga- target for nuclear fires. however, the United States soon lost its directing the maneuver elements and the All ROAD divisions were larger than
nized as combat troops, forming three To enhance mobility, the goal was to monopoly on tactical nuclear weapons, other with the logistical support. Beyond Pentomic divisions and had at least twice
armored cavalry regiments, including the make all parts of the division air-trans- on which Pentomic operations were its maneuver brigades, the division had the artillery firepower. By early 1964, both
14th Armored Cavalry that eventually fell portable. Conventional weapons were based. More importantly, the United an armored cavalry squadron that of the divisions in V Corps were settled in
under V Corps control. With the function also improved, and the division was States Army came to realize that tactical included an air cavalry troop, a signal the new ROAD organization.
of the Army in Europe definitely changed given its own nuclear artillery. By 1958, nuclear war was almost certainly not a battalion, an engineer battalion that had a
from occupation to defense, additional the Corporal rocket, with range up to 75 viable concept, and that indulging in any bridge company, an aviation battalion, a Defense of
combat forces were quickly assigned. miles, was available, and the Redstone, kind of tactical nuclear exchange would military police company, a robust division
Seventh Army was activated in Stuttgart with a range of 200 miles, had reached probably lead to a strategic nuclear war. support command, and a division artillery western Europe
on 24 November 1950 to command the operational units. The Lacrosse, a short- Beginning, therefore, in 1961, although with three battalions of 105mm howitzers
units that rapidly began to arrive in range missile for close support of the delayed in Europe until after the resolu- and a composite battalion of 155mm guns Once committed to the defense of
theater. In 1951, Seventh Army took infantry, was soon to enter the inventory. tion of the 1961 Berlin Crisis, the Army and 8-inch howitzers. Western Europe, V Corps experienced no
command of V Corps and VII Corps to The corps had its own nuclear cannon carried through another reorganization of The Army established the standard real change of mission for more than three
assume the form it was to retain for the artillery in the 280-mm gun, of which its divisions. The Reorganization ROAD infantry division with eight decades. To describe the corps’ opera-
next four decades. Seventh Army had six battalions. Objectives Army Divisions, or ROAD mechanized infantry battalions and two tions for any given year between 1952
V Corps arrived in June 1951 and was Each battle group was a self-contained Divisions, returned the Army to the tank battalions, though that organization and 1990 was therefore essentially to
assigned to Seventh Army in August. Its U.S. ARMY PHOTO force capable of independent operations. triangular division organization, this time varied widely, particularly in Europe, describe operations for every year of the
two divisions were the 4th Infantry In Operation Gyroscope, the Specifically organized to enable it to with three brigades that resembled the where the Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces Cold War. The Victory Corps assumed
Division, arriving in May 1951, and the Army replaced entire divisions absorb new equipment, the Pentomic World War II combat commands in were so richly provided with armor. The responsibility for conducting United
2nd Armored Division, arriving in July. at once, rather than individu- division soon received the M-14 rifle in flexibility and adaptability, and particu- armored division, by contrast, was States Army, Europe, operations plans for
VII Corps arrived in Germany and took up als. Here the 3rd Armored Di- the standard NATO 7.62mm caliber, the larly in their ability to command whatever organized with six tank battalions and five the general defense of Germany from any
its position on the right flank of V Corps vision arrives in Bremerhaven, 7.62mm M60 machine gun, the diesel- mix of units was needed for a given mechanized infantry battalions. In the attack by the Warsaw Pact forces. That
in October, initially commanding the 28th Germany to join V Corps. powered M60 tank with 105mm cannon, mission. The ROAD division, to which V early years of the ROAD reorganization, portion of the general defense plan that
Infantry Division and the 43rd Infantry and the lower-silhouette M-113 armored Corps converted in 1963, could fight the designation “mechanized division” pertained to the corps was precise and
Division, along with the 1st Infantry personnel carrier that, together with either a nuclear or a conventional war and indicated that a division had seven oriented the staff’s attention and thinking
Division. In February 1952, Seventh Army Division, later to come under V Corps helicopters, gave the infantry high was powerful enough for sustained mechanized infantry battalions and three toward the east, and toward means of
transferred 1st Infantry Division to V command, arrived in October of 1956 in mobility. Smaller than a regiment, the offensive operations. The division was armored battalions, though that was a countering a single, overwhelming threat.
Corps from VII Corps. In the course of another Gyroscope rotation. Four years battle group was larger than a battalion, mechanized, which meant that its infantry distinction that soon became lost, except The V Corps sector was roughly 50
1952, the constabulary completely ceased after beginning Gyroscope, Department consisting of four rifle companies and a was mounted in armored personnel as the divisions in Europe were con- miles in width and focused on the Fulda
operation. of the Army decided to return to an mortar company in the standard infantry carriers. The division headquarters had trasted to the 82nd and 101st Airborne Gap, one of several natural avenues of
individual replacement system, and the division. The division had a tank
Divisional large unit rotations ended on 1 September battalion, an armored cavalry squadron, a
1959. 105mm artillery battalion of five batteries,
reorganizations The structure of the divisions them- and a composite gun and missile battalion
selves underwent profound change in that could deliver nuclear fires. The
A new Department of the Army plan those years as well. The Army in 155mm howitzer battalion was reorganized
approved on 1 July 1955 changed the way the 1950s assumed that future war would to retain two 155mm batteries, but
replacements were handled in Europe. inevitably be nuclear war, and Department substituted one 8-inch howitzer battery
Instead of an individual replacement of the Army in 1956 developed a plan to and one Honest John rocket battery for
system, whole units, together with family reorganize divisions to be not only more the other two. Supporting units were
members, were exchanged between survivable on a nuclear battlefield, but generally pooled outside the division and
Europe and the Continental United States also to be more flexible. The new organi- provided as needed. The Pentomic
in what was known as Operation Gyro- zation was intended to give the division division was smaller, at 13,748 officers
scope. The expectation was that such a mobility, dispersion, superior intelligence, and men, than the prior triangular
replacement concept would improve unit and communications. Under the Pentomic division.
morale and effectiveness, as well as concept, the division did away with the Following testing, the Army converted
producing cost savings. Each major unit combat command, the equivalent to the all of its divisions to the Pentomic
rotation to Europe was scheduled for a brigade echelon of command, as well as organization between 1958 and 1960,
33-month tour. In Operation Gyroscope I, the regiment and the battalion, instead including the divisions assigned to V and
26 May to 27 September 1955, the 10th organizing its companies into five battle VII Corps in Germany. Problems with the
Infantry Division replaced the 1st groups, each commanded by a colonel. Pentomic division quickly became
Infantry Division in the V Corps order of The assumption was that there would be apparent. Particularly evident to V Corps
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
battle. Likewise, from May to June 1956, no fixed lines on such a battlefield, and commanders were the facts that the
the 3rd Armored Division arrived in the division had to be organized to fight Pentomic division lacked the combat Tank gunnery remained a principal focus of V Corps during training during the Cold War. Here, the 3rd
Operation Gyroscope III to replace the in every direction at once. Conceptually, power for sustained offensive operations Battalion, 12th Infantry, tests its firing skill.
4th Infantry Division. The 8th Infantry the battle groups would concentrate to and that it was far more difficult than with
approach from the eastern part of new edition of Field Manual 100-5, Mechanized divisions) modified organiza- combat power of the
Germany into the west, and a place that Operations, and the corps continued to tional structure added air defense, divisions through the
Lt. Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, when he revise its own battle plans to reflect additional aviation, and TOW anti-tank fielding of more powerful
commanded V Corps in 1963 and 1964, changing doctrine. Gerow and Huebner missile units to the divisional tables of combat vehicles and
once called “a playground for tanks.” would probably have been quite comfort- organization, as well as additional tank helicopters. Division 86
Defensive guidelines continually evolved able with AirLand Battle doctrine, battalions. At the same time, V Corps reorganization began in V
to meet changing conditions, but the because it strongly reflected the style of artillery added the Lance missile battalion, Corps with the 3rd Infantry
dominant pattern was that the corps’ battle that V Corps had practiced at the which was capable of delivering nuclear Division, and involved
cavalry regiment (the 14th Armored end of World War II. AirLand Battle weapons. Department of the Army fielding the M-1 tank and
Cavalry, until it was replaced by the 11th emphasized swift, decisive operations personnel policy at that time focused on the M-2 Bradley fighting
Armored Cavalry on 17 May 1972, at the that synchronized all of the firepower and keeping the units in Europe fully up to vehicle to complete the
end of the Vietnam War) patrolled the maneuver forces available to the corps, strength, which meant that while divi- division structure and
inter-German border and observed the together with all of the supporting sions in Europe had three maneuver equipment that existed at
movements of the East German and functions of logistics, intelligence, and air brigades each, some divisions in the the end of the Cold War. On
Soviet forces deployed along that power, conducted violently and with the United States had only two Regular Army 15 September 1984, the 4th
boundary. Behind the cavalry screen, the agility that new mechanized equipment brigades and a round-out brigade from Brigade, 4th Infantry
corps was alert to maneuver the 3rd gave the maneuver units, and waged over the Army Reserve or National Guard. Division, inactivated in
Armored Division and the 8th Infantry the entire depth of the battlefield to fight V Corps strength was increased in 1976 Wiesbaden, to complete the
Division (Mechanized) in response to any not only the enemy forces in contact, but as a result of a 1974 bill sponsored by Division 86 reorganization
attack. also to attack his follow-on echelons of Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, requiring in the corps.
Original NATO defensive plans forces. the Army to reduce support personnel in In the early years of the
evolved to include units of the new West Division structure changed in conso- Europe by 18,000 and increase its combat Cold War, American leaders
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
German army, the Bundeswehr, after 1955. nance with the development of AirLand spaces. The result was the Brigade-75 thought than an attack on Third Armored Division tankers fire in REFORGER 81.
The background of the Bundeswehr was Battle. In the early 1970s, once the war in and Brigade-76 program, begun in 1975 to western Europe was
fairly complicated. Germany enacted the Vietnam was over, Army attention bring additional armored units to Ger- imminent, a belief that
Gundgesetz, the Basic Law that served as returned to Europe, where a plan drafted many. Brigade-75 was the 3rd Brigade, conditioned the American
its constitution, in May 1949 and united in 1969 began to be implemented to add 2nd Armored Division, from Fort Hood, response to the war in Korea, where the ity of the changing of the seasons. Corps the event. V Corps, then under command
the western occupation zones under a capabilities to the divisions of V and VII Texas which rotated its battalions Army sent National Guard divisions, commanders demanded skilled maneuver, of Abrams, was responsible for running
single civil government. In September of Corps. The AIM (Armored, Infantry, through Grafenwöhr, Wildflecken and rather than regular forces, in the early but for the individual soldier, platoon Big Lift, which had a political purpose as
that year, Konrad Adenauer became the Hohenfels training areas on six-month days of the fighting. Consequently, the leader, company commander, and battal- well as a military one. President John F.
first West German chancellor, and steered tours. In 1976, that brigade was perma- Army maintained its European units at ion commander, gunnery lay at the heart Kennedy wished to demonstrate, in the
Germany in the direction of closer ties nently assigned to Germany, under the highest possible state of readiness. of all training. The overwhelming aftermath of the 1961 Berlin confronta-
with the former Allies. In October 1954, In the early Seventh Army control, as 2nd Armored As time went on, Army planners came to numerical strength of the Warsaw Pact tion, that the United States was deter-
the Paris Peace Treaty was signed, years of the Division (Forward), at Garlstedt, in believe that a Warsaw Pact attack in forces confronting the corps demanded mined to defend Europe. That exercise
officially ending the European portion of Cold War, northern Germany. The role of 2nd Germany was increasingly less probable, proficiency in gunnery above all else, and was also a rigorous test of the concept of
World War II. At that time, Germany was Armored Division (Forward) was to be but that it remained the greatest of all tank crew qualification in the armored positioning equipment in Europe that
American lead-
invited to join NATO. The treaty came the lead element of III Corps, if that corps possible dangers to American national battalions and Expert Infantry Badge arriving troops could use.
into effect in March 1955, establishing the ers thought were deployed to Germany in the event of security if it ever materialized. For almost qualification in the mechanized infantry In 1967, the United States announced
Federal Republic of Germany as a than an attack war. 40 years, V Corps kept itself ready for that battalions were the most important plans to withdraw 28,000 troops, roughly
sovereign nation. In May, West Germany on western Brigade-76, arriving in Germany in that eventuality. In doing so, the corps’ measures of true happiness. Thus, the two divisions, from Europe in 1968. To
officially joined NATO. Two years later, Europe was calendar year, was the recently activated watchword remained readiness, and in the experiences of a V Corps soldier who demonstrate its continued commitment to
in April 1957, and amid great public 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, from opinion of many Cold War veterans, the manned an M-26 tank in 1952, or an M48 NATO, despite that drawdown, the U.S.
imminent... For
debate in Germany, the Bundeswehr Fort Carson, Colorado. The brigade was Army in Europe in general, and V Corps tank in 1960, or an M60 tank in 1975, or agreed to a large-scale force deployment
drafted its first class of 10,000 conscripts. almost 40 stationed at Wiesbaden Air Base, which and VII Corps in particular, was the most and M-1 tank in 1989, were precisely of not less than three brigades of a single
Thereafter, V Corps shared boundaries in years, V Corps had until recently, been a U.S. Air Forces, highly trained and ready part of the entire similar. The same was true for infantry- division to Europe in an annual exercise.
the south with VII U.S. Corps and in the kept itself Europe, installation. In the fall of 1976, the service. men, artillerymen and soldiers of all the Thus was born REFORGER – the Return
north with III (German) Korps. ready for that brigade was assigned to Seventh Army, other branches throughout nearly four of Forces to Germany exercise — which
In April 1976, Lt. Gen. Donn Starry,
eventuality. rotating its subordinate units from Fort Vigilance and decades. Technical and tactical profi- drew on the experience of Big Lift, and
then corps commander, began to review Carson on six-month tours of duty. In the ciency dominated the thoughts of leaders which become one of the most enduring
the corps general defensive plans to use autumn of 1977, the brigade was perma-
preparedness at all levels. symbols of the Army in Europe during
the doctrine of the active defense that nently assigned to Seventh Army and for war Exercises of all varieties filled the time the Cold War. REFORGER not only
emphasized the strength of the covering attached to a V Corps unit, the 8th that battalions were not involved in tested the ability of conventional forces
force and limited the designated reserves, Infantry Division (Mechanized), which Life in V Corps focused on the eternal gunnery and maintenance. Winter to fight in a conventional war scenario,
relying instead on mobility to concentrate had its headquarters in nearby Bad round of gunnery and field training maneuvers became an annual event, but while simultaneously testing the force
strength wherever required. Eventually, Kreuznach. exercises, and the battalions moved from in October 1963, Operation Big Lift, which projection capability of the American
the active defense concept became a part In 1983, V Corps began converting to garrison to Grafenwöhr, Vilseck, brought the 2nd Armored Division from military establishment, but it also re-
of a larger Army doctrine known as the new Division 86 structure, a process Baumholder, Hohenfels, and back to Fort Hood to participate in the annual mained a demonstration of American
AirLand Battle, a concept embodied in a that basically involved increasing the garrison with the regularity and inevitabil- exercise, set a new model for the scale of determination to preserve the freedom of

western Europe. The first REFORGER, continuous modernization of equipment. equipment that defined the state of the accompanying Soviet decision to encircle June and July 1982. Officers’ clubs in over, but had actually been won. The
which the Russians denounced as a The Warsaw Pact threat defined the art. M-1 and, eventually, M-1A1 tanks Berlin with combat divisions in support of Hanau, Gelnhausen, and Bamberg were cost had been principally in national
“major military provocation,” began on 6 requirements for new tanks and armored replaced the fleet of aging M60 variants, the East German action while the German bombed in June 1982, a year that saw the treasure, rather than in lives, as in
January 1969. Thereafter, V Corps personnel carriers, and the corps steadily while the M-2 and M-3 Bradley infantry Democratic Republic built the Berlin Wall. largest number of terrorist incidents (68) America’s earlier wars. The end result of
participated in each of those annual received the newest and most capable squad and cavalry scout vehicles Similarly, in October 1973, the Army in ever directed against American soldiers in many years of V Corps training, readi-
exercises. weapons the United States could replaced the venerable M-113 armored Europe moved to the field during the Germany. Finally, in November 1985, a car ness, and intense effort, the conclusion
In Wintex exercises, the corps validated produce. The centerpiece was naturally personnel carrier. Upgrades in cannon state of alert that was ordered at the bomb exploded at the Frankfurt post of the Cold War was not, however, the
general defense and war plans and the tank, but maneuver doctrine, particu- artillery were matched by fielding of the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli War. exchange, injuring 35 people. V Corps end of V Corps’ missions in Europe.
various administrative measures that larly after the publication of succeeding Multiple Launch Rocket System. Simi- In addition to threats of war, V Corps soldiers and their families lived under Almost immediately, veterans of Cold War
supported those plans. Other exercises editions of Field Manual 100-5, and larly, the UH-60 Black Hawk utility soldiers were also subjected to personal such threats for a dozen years. service became involved in attempting to
helped resolve questions about how best especially the version that outlined the helicopter and AH-64 Apache attack attacks through the 1970s and 1980s. The When the Warsaw Pact collapsed in bring calm to regions on the periphery of
to cooperate with the NATO allies, and V tenets of AirLand Battle, demanded the helicopter replaced the aging UH-1 Red Army Faction exploded bombs at V 1989 and both the Berlin Wall and the western Europe where the demise of
Corps troops regularly went to the field upgrading of every category of military Iroquois and AH-1 Cobra aircraft. Corps headquarters and at the Terrace inter-German border fence went down, it communist systems had left instability
with, or in conjunction with, French, equipment. Thus, for example, the M-113 Throughout the decades after 1952, V Club on the headquarters complex in May shortly became clear to everyone in and insecurity.
Belgian, Dutch, British, Canadian, and Armored Personnel Carrier replaced Corps stood in the center of the NATO 1972, again in June 1976, and yet again in Europe that the Cold War was not only
German units to become familiar with earlier equipment, and the M551 Sheridan line, literally and figuratively the keystone
those nations’ equipment, organization, light tank replaced the M-114 cavalry of the defenses of western Europe.
communications, and tactical doctrine. scout vehicle in the cavalry regiment. In Unlike the corps’ previous assignments,
Still other exercises tested United States turn, the M-3 Bradley scout vehicle that one turned out to have involved no
Army, Europe, operations plans. For replaced the Sheridan. The Lance missile great battles. The Cold War was none-
most Cold War veterans, however, one of replaced Honest John and Sergeant field theless a period of enormous stress and
the dominant recollections of duty in artillery rockets. Each of those weapons years of apprehensive and watchful
Germany was the periodic and unan- was replaced by still more modern waiting. Occasionally, war seemed to
nounced readiness test, when all soldiers equipment, thanks to increased funding come closer, sending V Corps troops up
were recalled to their units, generally in in the second half of the 1980s. By the to the border in times of crisis. The
the middle of the night, and the units end of the Cold War, V Corps’ cavalry Hungarian revolt of November 1956 was
moved out to their general defense regiment, two divisions, supporting one such occasion. More serious still
positions in accordance with a strict artillery, and other arms all had, or were in was the East German decision to close the
timetable that permitted no variance and the process of receiving, fighting border in Berlin in August, 1961, and the
admitted no excuses for failure. The
ringing of a telephone in the middle of the
night was, for many, the most enduring
symbol of service in Europe during those
tension-laden years.
Although the United States fought a
war in Vietnam from early 1961 through
1973, the Army attempted to maintain
high manning levels in Europe. V Corps
reports still complained of shortages in
certain ranks — particularly the middle-
grade non-commissioned officers and
company-grade officers that were in such
demand in Vietnam — but the corps
remained at more than 90 percent strength
throughout the Cold War despite the hot
war in Southeast Asia. In the late 1960s
and early 1970s, the rapid rotation of
junior leaders and the unsettled condition
of the Army as a whole produced serious
morale and discipline problems in Europe,
problems to which V Corps was not
immune. During the second half of the
1970s, however, the Army systematically U.S. ARMY PHOTO
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
cured the disciplinary and morale
The Iron Curtain, as seen at Fulda. During the Cold War, the border The Terrace Club behind corps headquarters in Frankfurt was bombed in May 1972 by members of the
problems that arose, in part, because of
between East Germany and West Germany might also contain tank or terrorits Red Army Faction. Throughout the 70s and 80s V Corps soldiers lived with the constant fear of
the Vietnam War.
vehicle obstacles, watch towers, dog runs and even minefields. terorism. In 1982 alone there were 68 terrorist threats against U.S. soldiers in Germany.
The other characteristic of V
Corps during the Cold War was a
V deter any future Iraqi aggression. In May
1991, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed
orchestrated the 11th Armored Cavalry
deployment to Kuwait, it kept a wary eye
replaced by an Air Force hospital, and
direct V Corps involvement in the mission
USAREUR to dispatch a brigade-sized on developments in the Balkans. came to an end.
❂ force to relieve the Ready First Brigade. That was a wise decision, for the
1990-1111 Responding to those orders, V Corps President on 22 October 1992 directed the Pperation
After the Cold War
deployed the 11th Armored Cavalry Army to send a Mobile Army Surgical
Regiment there in Operation Positive Hospital to Zagreb, Croatia, for an Restore Hope
Force. The Blackhorse, constituted as unspecified period starting on 15 Novem-
Task Force Victory, began its movement ber. The civilian hospitals in Croatia were The decade-long civil war in Somalia
to Kuwait on the last day of May and already overburdened with casualties was the cause of the next V Corps
assumed its mission on 15 June, when the from the fighting, and medical support mission, one that overlapped the hospital
last of its 3,700 troopers arrived. had to be provided for the 20,000-man deployment to Croatia. The refugees
The the war in the desert turned out to be a Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, under the The deployment was principally a
personnel flow, since the regiment was
United Nations Protection Force
(UNPROFOR) scheduled to begin
fleeing the war in Somalia, a country
impoverished not only by fighting, but
long and costly one. command of Lt. Gen. John Shalikashvili,
Persian Gulf War While VII Corps was waging its war in the deputy commander-in-chief. The U. able to take over equipment sets that the operations throughout the Former also by drought, were in a desperate state
Southwest Asia, Lt. Gen. David M. S. Army component of JTF Provide 1st and 3rd Armored Divisions had left in Republic of Yugoslavia that month. by the summer of 1992. Various attempts
Just as Americans began to think the Maddox kept V Corps focused other Comfort was drawn from USAREUR. Saudi Arabia. The task force established USAREUR gave the mission to V Corps, by civilian agencies to relieve the
threat of a major European war was at last possible missions that might arise. Task Force Bravo, commanded by Maj. a base camp near Kuwait City and a range which in turn selected the 212th Mobile situation not having been sufficient, the
a thing of the past, the Iraqi invasion of Political instability in eastern and central Gen. Jay Garner, the deputy corps and training area to the west of the city, Army Surgical Hospital, stationed at President directed U.S. Central Command
Kuwait demonstrated that the collapse of Europe made the situation on NATO’s commander, deployed to Turkey starting and then assumed its mission of observ- Wiesbaden Air Base. The 68th Medical to deploy 10th Mountain Division to
the Warsaw Pact did not necessarily periphery a risky one, and V Corps had to on 13 April, with the self-deployment of ing the border. By late summer, it had Group provided command and control for Somalia to stabilize the political situation
mean that the “new world order” would remain able to react swiftly if the need Task Force Thunderhorse, drawn from the become clear that there was little risk of what became known as TF 212, and both and orchestrate relief efforts. V Corps
be a peaceful one. In November 1990, arose. Consequently, throughout the 4th Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry further Iraqi military action, and 7th Medical Command and 21st Theater received the mission of augmenting the
U.S. Army, Europe, sent a corps to Saudi fighting in the Persian Gulf, V Corps Regiment. Very quickly, every major USAREUR concluded that a battalion Army Area Command attached personnel 10th Mountain Division’s helicopter
Arabia to take part in Operation Desert trained hard, keeping its units at a peak of command in USAREUR became involved, task force was ample for the mission. to enhance the hospital’s capabilities. units, and began working in December of
Shield and, later, in Operation Desert readiness. Once the war was over, the with the heaviest deployments coming Therefore, the corps prepared the 3rd Detailed staff work ensued that set the 1992 to prepare a unit from 12th Aviation
Storm. Partly because V Corps had just corps concentrated on recovering from V Corps units. Many troop units Battalion, 77th Armor, of 8th Infantry stage for the deployment. The hospital Brigade for the mission.
had a change of command, USAREUR soldiers and equipment from Southwest were involved, but the major deployments Division, to assume the Blackhorse’s was located at Camp Pleso, an area on the Basing the task force on the 5th
selected VII Corps headquarters for the Asia and continuing the drawdown came from the corps’ aviation units, equipment and mission by 15 September grounds of the international airport in Battalion, 158th Aviation, the corps sent
job. The Jayhawk Corps was, however, a process that had just been getting which assumed the mission in rotation 1991. At the end of November, TF 3-77 Zagreb, alongside units of other nations the battalion headquarters, a composite
composite of V Corps and VII Corps underway when the Persian Gulf War after it became evident that the deploy- Armor had completed its uneventful tour involved in the United Nations effort. UH-60 company drawn from the battalion
units. The Victory Corps sent its 3rd began. By the end of 1992, V Corps was ment would be a long one. The 4th of duty and returned to Mannheim. The hospital was shipped by rail from and the 1st Armored Division’s 7/227th
Armored Division and some battalions the only remaining corps in Germany, and (Combat Aviation) Brigade of the 3rd Thereafter, equipment remaining in Wiesbaden, while the soldiers deployed Aviation, a CH-47 company from the
from the 8th Infantry Division along with had reorganized to command the 11th Infantry Division, the initial command and Southwest Asia was used for training by air. The 90 officers, one warrant 502nd Aviation, the 159th Medical
VII Corps, because the Spearhead Armored Cavalry Regiment, the 8th control element, was replaced by the 11th rotations of battalions that used Camps officer, and 251 enlisted soldiers had the Company, an air ambulance unit attached
Division was well advanced in its Infantry Division (soon to be re-flagged Aviation Brigade in December 1991. The Doha and Monterey and the adjacent MASH operational, as planned, on 15 from 7th Medical Command, an aviation
modernization process and was largely as the 1st Armored Division), and the 3rd peak deployment involved 2,043 soldiers maneuver areas in Kuwait both to hone November 1992. After treating more than intermediate maintenance company from
equipped with Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Infantry Division, as well as a number of in the first phase of relief operations. By their skills in desert operations and to 3,000 patients from 30 countries, the 212th 7/159th Aviation, and an air traffic control
Even before VII Corps moved out, V separate brigades. Immediately, the first late 1992, the number had fallen to no serve as an earnest of American inten- MASH was relieved in place by another V element from 3/58th Aviation. TF 5-158
Corps received orders to send its 12th of many out of sector missions sent V more than 51, and the numbers of soldiers tions to defend Kuwait. Corps unit, the 502nd MASH, which took began its deployment the day after the
Aviation Brigade to Southwest Asia. The Corps troops out of Germany again. diminished steadily thereafter. over the mission at the end of April, 1993.
corps then took on the mission of helping Operation At the end of its 179-day tour of
VII Corps deploy out of Germany. The
corps provided additional equipment and
Operation Operation Provide Promise
duty, the 502nd MASH was
ammunition to VII Corps and assumed Provide Comfort Positive Force

control of those VII Corps troops — It soon became clear to V Corps
23,482 of them — who did not deploy to In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf Meanwhile, political and diplomatic planners that the post-Cold War world
Saudi Arabia. Units across V Corps gave War, Sadaam Hussein’s army began a developments further to the south would be a complicated place in which to
up soldiers and equipment to get the series of attacks on its internal Kurdish created the context for another V Corps operate, not least because operations did
The soldiers of V
deploying units up to 100 percent population, an action that propelled many mission. To ensure the security of not come one at a time, but often simulta-
Corps Task Force
strength. In all, V Corps sent 26,878 civilian refugees to the northern part of recently liberated Kuwait, U. S. Central neously instead. As early as April 1992,
5/158th Aviation
soldiers to the Persian Gulf. Once the the country, where Iraq shared a border Command had, upon the request of the the corps commander had asked for
conduct a cer-
deployment was complete, the corps with Turkey. In April 1991, reacting to a government of Kuwait and the approval regular updates on the rapidly deteriorat-
emony upon their
began training replacement squads, presidential order for the armed forces to of the President of the United States, left ing situation in Yugoslavia, and many on
return from Op-
crews, and sections in armor, infantry, assist in an international humanitarian the 1st (Ready First) Brigade, 3rd Ar- the staff anticipated that V Corps might
eration Restore
artillery, and engineer skills, and trained relief action for that displaced group, the mored Division, behind to occupy be called upon to perform some mission
Hope in Somalia.
individual ready reservists from the commander-in-chief, Europe, activated assembly areas as the theater reserve, there as part of the United Nations
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
United States in the same skills, in case Joint Task Force Provide Comfort at provide a continued U.S. presence, and response. While, therefore, the staff

corps was alerted for the mission and governmental agencies in Zaire, as time went on. The first V Corps unit to the isolation of the observation posts and equipment, but they also required
arrived in Mogadishu by 3 January, 1993. and other V Corps units that had deploy was the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, the lack of American hospital support additional training to permit them greater
Advance elements conducted the first of been alerted for deployment to of the 3rd Infantry Division, and it was imposed the need for greater indepen- autonomy in providing medical treatment.
six air assaults on 28 December and Africa were told to stand down. followed by a series of other battalions dence and autonomy on the part of the Operations in Macedonia, for the most
thereafter flew medical evacuation, Throughout that and other drawn from both the 3rd Infantry Division medics. One solution to the problem of part uneventful, were physically challeng-
combat service support, and administra- deployments, the corps had been and the 1st Armored Division. providing adequate medical support to ing for soldiers and, in the judgment of
tive missions for 10th Mountain Division learning important lessons in When the 1st Infantry Division observation posts along the border, as unit commanders, useful in developing
through the beginning of March, when working with the United Nations, replaced the 3rd Infantry Division in the V well as to the task force base camp, was good noncommissioned officers. Work-
the main body began to redeploy to in cooperating with non-govern- Corps order of battle, different numbered use of sophisticated new equipment such ing within the United Nations chain of
Germany. The task force officially mental organizations, and in battalions thereafter assumed the duty of as the Tele-Med, which allowed direct command was a learning experience for
disbanded on 5 April 1993. providing forces for operations providing task forces for the Able Sentry contact with U.S. Army hospitals and the the task forces, as well as drawing
under control of the Joint Chiefs mission. While the names changed, electronic transmittal of medical informa- logistical support from other than U.S.
Operation of Staff. One of the most impor- U.S. ARMY PHOTO
however, the soldiers were drawn from tion to doctors for their review. Medics Army sources. Other challenges awaited
tant issues that the V Corps staff the same locations in Germany as before. had to be trained in the use of that task force commanders upon return of
Support Hope brought to the attention of joint
V Corps soldiers kept an eye on the
With the deployment of 1st Armored their units to home station in Germany.
Yugoslavia-Macedonai border as part
planners was that U.S. Army units of Task Force Able Sentry, but there Division in December 1995 and January Once in garrison, the battalions had to be
Another civil war in Africa, this time in had to be deployed with appropri- 1996 to serve as the core of Task Force reconstituted as mechanized or armored
was no validated doctrine for the mis-
Rwanda, was the occasion for the next V ate command and control, support, Eagle in Operation Joint Endeavor in Operations in units, once again sundering teams that
sion at the time, and soldiers had to
Corps out-of-sector deployment. By and maintenance elements, if such learn how to be peacekeepers. Bosnia, changes had to be made in the Macedonia, for leaders in Macedonia worked hard to
April 1994, millions of refugees from the support was not explicitly planned battalion rotation for task forces the most part build. For the duration of the six-month
fighting had fled across the border into provided within the joint task deployed to Macedonia. Since mecha- deployment, each task force focused its
Zaire, and cholera and other diseases uneventful,
force. nized infantry battalions were at a attention on dismounted infantry
were causing deaths totaling around unique for combat arms soldiers, and premium in Bosnia, a tank battalion was were physically operations. Soldiers returned to Germany
1,000 a day in the refugee camps around
Task Force there was at that time no validated U.S. alerted and trained for the next rotation in challenging for in excellent physical condition and well
Goma. One of the principal problems was Army doctrine to guide them as they Macedonia. soldiers and, in versed in patrolling. They were, however,
a shortage of potable water. The United Able Sentry prepared for duty in Macedonia. To make Fundamentally, the V Corps experience the judgment of no longer proficient Abrams or Bradley
States agreed to take part in the humani- up for the deficiency, training exercises was that it was not easy to create a light drivers, mechanics, gunners, and
tarian relief operations already underway On January 6, 1994, V Corps assumed unit command-
prior to deployment drew on lessons infantry task force from a mechanized mounted infantrymen. Thus a major part
and established a joint task force head- from the Berlin Brigade the mission of learned by previous battalion rotations. infantry battalion—much less from a tank ers, useful in of the redeployment plan included re-
quarters at U.S. European Command providing an infantry battalion to the As time went on, leaders down to squad battalion. Because the mechanized developing training a battalion to resume mission-
headquarters in Stuttgart to manage the United Nations Protective Force in level went to Macedonia on brief orienta- infantry battalion did not provide the good noncom- capable status for the heavy force battle.
effort. EUCOM set up a forward operat- Macedonia. The UNPROFOR had a tion tours — “right seat rides” — before requisite number of dismounted riflemen, missioned offic- The Able Sentry deployments came to
ing base in Zaire through which to mission unique in UN history of provid- their units arrived for duty. Training for commanders were obliged to restructure an end on 28 February 1999, when the
channel food, medicines, and other relief ing a peacekeeping force before hostili- ers. ... Soldiers
dismounted peacekeeping operations their units such that platoons were mixed Republic of China vetoed a United
supplies, and created Joint Task Force 51 ties erupted, with the intention of also required changes in the way soldiers among companies. That posed leader- returned to Nations resolution further to extend the
under the commanding general, U.S. preventing fighting—in that case, and their leaders thought. There were a ship challenges, because well-established Germany in mission in Macedonia. The change came
Southeastern Task Force, to run the between the Former Republic of Yugosla- number of problems inherent in changing teams had to be broken up, and small unit excellent physi- just as Task Force 1-4 Cavalry arrived to
operation in Africa. via, generally referred to as Serbia, and the mindset of an infantry battalion from loyalties disrupted. Additional and cal condition take over from Task Force 1-18 Infantry.
V Corps provided forces to JTF 51, the Former Yugoslav Republic of its traditional mission to one of peace- unaccustomed requirements increased Because of other developments in the
based in Entebbe, in what became a very Macedonia, generally referred to simply and well versed
keeping. Fundamentally, peace enforce- the training burden. Soldiers had to learn region that suggested the need to retain
swiftly evolving situation. Calling upon as Macedonia. The V Corps battalions ment missions stood normal combat to deal effectively and appropriately with in patrolling. the base at Skopje, TF 1-4 Cavalry
the 3rd Corps Support Command, the manned the northeastern sector of the operations on their heads. In patrolling, the civilian population, a task that They were, remained in Macedonia and was reconsti-
corps in July deployed a water purifica- border between Macedonia and Serbia, for example, the object was not to move occupied the majority of soldiers’ time. however, no tuted as Task Force Sabre. The task force
tion unit to Zaire. The platoon had the with the Nordic Battalion (a composite quietly and unseen, but specifically to be Furthermore, the task force in Macedonia longer profi- then played a part in the NATO mission
capacity to produce 3,000 gallons of battalion of Swedes, Norwegians, and seen. Weapons were not carried at the was equipped with weapons and equip- in Kosovo that developed later that year.
water at each of three sites, store 60,000 Finns) manning observation posts to cient Abrams or
ready, but were often carried at sling ment that are not standard to a U.S. Army By the end of the Able Sentry mission, V
gallons of water at the production site, their left flank. The basic plan was to arms, with the muzzle downward, when battalion. Among them were five-ton Bradley drivers, Corps had trained and dispatched 12
and distribute water at eight forward alternate the mission between infantry patrols went through towns. Most trucks and the 81-mm mortar. Similarly, mechanics, battalion task forces for duty there.
water supply points, each of which could battalions of the 3rd Infantry Division fundamentally, the soldiers were not there soldiers had to learn to operate and gunners, and
store 15,000 gallons. In July, the corps and the 1st Armored Division. During the
deployed an engineer earthmoving December, 1994, to May, 1995, rotation,
to fight, but to observe, monitor, and
report the conditions along the border to
maintain non-standard generators and
what they dubbed the Small Unit Support
mounted infan- Changes in training,
platoon from the 94th Engineer Battalion the character of the operation changed. trymen. organization, and
the United Nations command. Vehicle, or SUSV, essentially a “Snow
to assist in handling the mass burials at
the various refugee camps, and aug-
Because a measurable degree of stability
had been assured, the United Nations
Soldiers of the Berlin Brigade experi- Cat.” Most of that training had to be operational
enced the most austere conditions of any done in Macedonia, on the run, because
mented medical teams in Zaire. renamed the deployed force the battalion rotation in Macedonia. Because the equipment was not available to the techniques
By August, the success of the humani- UNPREDEP, or United Nations Preventive each succeeding battalion worked hard to battalions in Germany.
tarian aid effort had enabled the Army to Deployment. improve conditions, the amenities the Specific additional training was Not only operations, but also training,
turn over much of the task to non- The peace enforcement mission was soldiers enjoyed improved substantially required for medical personnel because changed during those busy years, as the
training design began to accommodate represented a broadening of corps of very specific missions, and in a way V Corps. USAREUR signed the imple-
the shift away from operations based training to allow it to include support for that reflected the most current operational menting arrangement for the bi-national
entirely on the general defense plan and national objectives in the post-Cold War context to which the unit would have to corps with the Federal Republic of
buttressed the experience of ongoing world. PFP sought direct contact with the adapt. Forging a partnership with Germany in 1993, and V Corps signed the
deployments through exercises designed armed forces of the former Warsaw Pact USAREUR’s Seventh Army Training Technical Arrangement with II Korps on
to explore the new problems involved. By nations through a series of joint exer- Command, V Corps drew upon the 14 June 1994.
1990, the force-on-force REFORGER cises. In part intended to establish expertise of units then serving in Bosnia- Allied to the evolving exercise focus,
exercises, focused entirely on central relations with those nations, the PFP also Herzegovina for current information and corps planners also began considering
Europe, were things of the past. Thereaf- broadened the military horizons of all the built a series of mission rehearsal the new problem of displacing the corps
ter, both corps and USAREUR exercises armies involved as they learned from each exercises that prepared a succession of to the region in which it would give
had already begun the extensive use of other. V Corps took part in almost all of units for duty in the Balkans in a way that battle. The first step in that process was
computer-driven battle simulations and the PFP exercises. The corps also accommodated the rapidly changing a concept known as the Advance
were considering the requirements for dispatched a steady stream of soldiers, conditions there. The series of Mountain Support Echelon, in which the corps
operating in other places and against experts in various skills, as part of Mobile Eagle exercises proved a very successful placed its combat units in a corps
other threats. For the corps, that started Training Teams assisting the armed way to match the unit with its mission. marshaling area and then laid down PHOTO BY PFC R. ALAN MITCHELL
with a series of corps-level command post forces of eastern Europe. The Mission Rehearsal Exercise thereafter combat service support behind a cavalry
A trio of 1st Armored Division M-1 tanks coordinate their fire with a
exercises in 1991 and 1992. by 1992, with A further refinement of the exercise became a normal tool for training V Corps screen and under an air defense umbrella,
pair of Apache helicopters on a range in Glamoc, Bosnia and
Exercise Dragon Hammer in Sardinia, the program was the Mission Rehearsal task forces. subsequently passing the maneuver units
Herzegovina during Operation Joint Guard in April 1992.
focus of corps operations had shifted Exercise, which was foreshadowed in the As time went on, the V Corps force through the combat service support and
almost completely to out-of-sector carefully designed training through which structure introduced new variables into into battle. That was an important first
missions. Ultimately, when Exercise battalion task forces went before taking the planning process, for the corps by the step away from what one corps planner
Atlantic Resolve replaced REFORGER as up the Able Sentry mission in mid-1990s was much smaller than it had called “logistics to four decimal places,” center of the corps area, the community simultaneously in both Frankfurt and
the principal USAREUR annual exercise, Macedonia, but which took their final been during the Cold War years. That and toward the uncertainties of support- itself was too expensive to maintain. Heidelberg while the move progressed, in
operations in NATO’s central region had form when V Corps began sending troops meant not only that fewer units were ing a deployment outside of Europe and Thus, chiefly in the interests of cost order to provide the continuity of
clearly been supplanted by the expanded to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Opera- available for the various missions in an immature theater of operations savings, V Corps received orders to move supervision required by corps operations.
corps mission of reacting to contingen- tion Joint Endeavor at the end of 1995. assigned the corps, but also that there where the highly developed logistics to Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg, thus The success of the move planning may
cies anywhere in the EUCOM area of The Mission Rehearsal Exercise was a were fewer soldiers in each skill available infrastructure of NATO would not be ending a 43 year presence in the financial be gauged from the facts that corps
responsibility. carefully planned and structured exercise for taskings to support ongoing missions available. and banking capital of Germany and, training and deployment missions
The Partnership For Peace program, that rehearsed units for operations in a and the plethora of Partnership For Peace As the series of deployments outside incidentally, vacating the C. W. Abrams continued without interruption, and that
introduced at the end of the Cold War, specific theater of operations, in pursuit exercises conducted throughout eastern of Germany continued, the headquarters Building, probably better known as the I. the move of the headquarters went
Europe. In 1991, V Corps numbered and major subordinate commands G. Farben Building, one of the icons of largely unnoticed by both subordinate
112,000 soldiers. By 1995, that number developed a sophisticated understanding the Army’s Cold War service. Detailed and superior headquarters, neither of
had dropped precipitously, since the of how to move units of various size and planning had been undertaken prior to which noted any decrease in the capabil-
Army in Europe counted only slightly capabilities not only within Germany, but public announcement of the move, and ity of the staff or the efficiency with
more than 62,000 troops by then. By that also outside of Germany, and by using the corps immediately began to implement which the corps operated.
year, the V Corps Artillery retained only every imaginable means of transportation. the plans.
one field artillery brigade, and that From the point of view of V Corps, the Operations
brigade commanded a single battalion; The headquarters essential fact about the move was that it
had to be so planned, organized, and Joint Endeavor and
the corps’ armored cavalry regiment had
been reassigned to the United States; the move executed that it was possible for the Joint Guard
5th Personnel Group and 5th Finance headquarters to continue to function
Group had been inactivated; and each of On 25 February 1994, Department of the throughout the 18 months the process In many ways, the NATO deployment
the two divisions had been reduced to Army announced a decision that had would take. Normally, units scheduled to to Bosnia-Herzegovina was for V Corps
two maneuver brigades. been reached in 1993 to move V Corps move were permitted to stand down while the culmination of the preceding five
With that drawdown of forces nonethe- from Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg. that move was taking place. Because V years of preparation. When V Corps
less came additional missions. Incident The move was a logical extension of the Corps was the only tactical formation tanks and fighting vehicles moved during
to the post-Cold War reorganization of continued drawdown of U.S. forces in remaining in the theater at the time of its the winter of 1989-1990, they still invari-
NATO, V Corps contributed the 1st Europe. As a general principal, move, USAREUR could not afford to ably marched along the familiar paths
Armored Division to a NATO contin- USAREUR had attempted to consolidate grant the corps that luxury. Thus V Corps from their garrisons in Germany to their
gency force, the Allied Forces, Central its units in the military communities that conducted the move, with all of its units’ general defense positions along
Europe, Rapid Reaction Corps — ARRC had the best and most modern facilities, complications, against the background of the inter-German border, or else to ranges
for short. The corps also took part in the as well as the best locations in terms of a sustained high tempo of training and where crews honed their skills for
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
activation of a pair of bi-national corps to training and other administrative require- deployments. By December 1994, the conventional, heavy-force battle. The
Soldiers of the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital at work in Zagreb, be used in European contingencies. The ments. The general conclusion was that, move had been largely completed, and soldiers followed a routine that had
Croatia in 1992. In the early 90s it became apparent that in the 1st Armored Division was again assigned although the Frankfurt military commu- the building was returned to control of hardly changed in more than three
future V Corps missions would take it beyond its traditional central to the German II Korps, while the German nity was ideally located from the point of the German government in early 1995. decades of Cold War duty in Germany.
European boundaries. 5th Panzer Division, in 2001 replaced by view of communications and transporta- The essential element of the move plan On New Years’ Eve in 1995, however, the
the 13th Panzer Division, was assigned to tion nets, as well as being virtually in the was that the headquarters would operate M-1A1 Abrams tanks of the 1st Squad-

ron, 1st Cavalry, led the 1st Armored Support Command. All of V Corps’ Meanwhile, V Corps headquarters had those detachments, remained in Heidel- Regiment from the U.S. As the operation ment of State decided that it could no
Division across the Sava River bridge and separate brigades sent units or elements to constitute another general staff, this berg and commanded normal corps proceeded, other units from the United longer safely use the Beirut International
into a NATO peace enforcement opera- to Hungary or, as required, to Bosnia, to time in Germany. Task Force Victory, operations. With one division serving as States, including the 1st Cavalry Division, Airport, and the Department of Defense
tion in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a mission manage the support requirements for under Maj. Gen. Walter Yates, the Deputy the larger part of the 25,000 American took up the peace enforcement mission in stationed a helicopter detachment on
that no one would have envisioned only Task Force Eagle. The Initial Entry Force Corps Commander, and using the general troops in Bosnia and the bulk of the Bosnia in six-month rotation with 1st Ar- Cyprus to take diplomats, diplomatic
a few years before, in a place that the began arriving in Bosnia by 16 December staff of V Corps Artillery, commenced Corps Support Command serving in mored Division and 1st Infantry Division. papers, and a limited amount of cargo into
Cold War-era planners would have 1995 and paved the way for the 1st operations at Wiesbaden Air Base. TF Hungary, the troops-to-task ratio was well Aside from its direct involvement in the and out of the embassy. In 1986, what
considered highly unlikely. Armored Division deployment, which Victory commanded the rear detachments below that to which units in Germany many operations in Hungary and the was then the 12th Aviation Group took
It was not only a great physical reached into Bosnia from the base area in of deployed units and non-deploying were accustomed. Despite that, all normal former Yugoslav republics, V Corps over the mission, which V Corps units
distance from the Fulda Gap to the Hungary on 1 January 1996. Thereafter, units and managed the replacement flow corps operations, including training played a central role in preparing and retained from the time of the Persian Gulf
Posavina Corridor, but it was also a great USAREUR (Forward) and its NSE into Hungary and Bosnia. The Corps rotations and NATO exercises, continued training the forces that carried out the War until the embassy once again began
conceptual distance from the philosophy managed the support for TF Eagle. Main headquarters, much depleted by all without interruption throughout the NATO missions. The process began in using the Beirut airport in 1998.
of corps operations that underlay the duration of the Bosnian deployment. the summer and fall of 1995, when the The Executive Flight Detachment
notional conventional armored battle in Corps (Main) and TF Victory planned corps conducted Exercise Mountain stationed at Akrotiri Royal Air Force
NATO’s central region, to the philosophy the redeployment of 1st Armored Shield for a proposed Southern European Station, Cyprus, became a standing
of corps operations that enabled V Corps Division to Germany at the end of its year Task Force mission in Bosnia, and mission of the 5th Battalion, 158th
to serve in 1996 as what its commander, in Bosnia. A brigade of the 1st Infantry continued with the Mountain Eagle series Aviation, of the 12th Aviation Brigade,
Lt. Gen. John N. Abrams, called an Division entered Bosnia in December of exercises. Mountain Eagle exercises, and specifically of that battalion’s
“expeditionary corps.” That shift in 1996, as a covering force to facilitate the planned and conducted by the corps and Company C, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation.
focus was five years in the making, and withdrawal of 1st Armored Division, and its major subordinate commands, trained The flight detachment consisted of four
the deployment for Operation Joint then the Big Red One assumed the TF each unit that assumed the IFOR, and UH-60 Black Hawk aircraft equipped with
Endeavor represented the maturing of a Eagle mission as of 21 December. On that then SFOR, mission in Bosnia- special navigation equipment and other
more versatile forward-based corps that date, Operation Joint Endeavor ended Herzegovina. systems required by the mission and one
had drawn on the experience of the out- and the NATO Implementation Force platoon of 27 soldiers, rotated on a sixty-
of-sector operations that it had under- (IFOR) ceased operations. Immediately, day basis with the other platoons in Co.
taken since the end of the Persian Gulf Operation Joint Guard began, with 1st The Beirut Air C, 7/158th. In addition to being qualified
War. Infantry Division committed to the new Bridge and other for long over-water flights, the flight
At first purely a force-provider for the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR). aviation missions detachment also was qualified to land on
operation, V Corps quickly became more Subsequent rotations of forces into the decks of U.S. Navy ships operating in
deeply involved. Because the ARRC was PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. BRIAN CUMPER
Bosnia have included not just brigades of the Mediterranean. Because 5/158th
the headquarters commanding the the two divisions assigned to V Corps, After the 1984 bombing of the U.S. Aviation was at the same time maintaining
operation in Bosnia, the 1st Armored but also the 2nd Armored Cavalry embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, the Depart- a second Black Hawk company in support
Division, configured as Task Force Eagle, of the Operation Provide Comfort relief
fell under ARRC command. USAREUR operations in northern Iraq, management
determined that it was necessary to create of limited aircrew and critical aviation
a National Support Element to carry out maintenance skills became a continuing
all of the various Title 10 responsibilities issue.
for U.S. forces in Bosnia, however, and The standard mission from Cyprus to
therefore created a headquarters known Beirut and back consumed seven hours
as USAREUR (Forward), which it located from briefing through debriefing, and the
in Taszar-Kaposvar, Hungary. detachment planned to fly up to 15 on-
The USAREUR (Forward) headquarters call missions every month. The mission
was under command of Abrams, who profile required the standard two-aircraft
wore the second hat of Deputy Com- mission to land at the embassy after a
mander, USAREUR (Forward), and drew low-altitude final approach, remain on the
heavily on V Corps to provide his staff. V ground for a very brief period, and abort
Corps planners had already written the the mission if fired upon. As far as could
deployment plan that was incorporated in be determined, no flight detachment
the USAREUR operations plan, and many aircraft were ever fired at in the years the
PHOTO BY SPC ALEJANDRO CABELLO
of those officers moved to Hungary to Beirut Air Bridge was in operation. In
supervise creation of the Intermediate ABOVE: An engineer soldier beckons V Corps wheeled and tracked 1998, with a general easing of tensions in
Staging Base there and the execution of vehicles across the Sava bridge linking Zupania, Croatia with Bosnia Lebanon, a civilian service replaced the
PHOTO BY TROY DARR
the operations plan. The National and Herzegovina, Jan. 1, 1996. The 2,033-foot bridge was longer Army flight detachment and the platoon
Support Element was operated by the than New Yorks Brooklyn Bridge. V Corps soldiers from D Co., 5th Bn., 158th Aviation Regt. clean snow returned to Germany.
21st Theater Area Army Command TOP: A Combat Engineer Vehicle from V Corps 130th Engineer Bri- from the rotor blades of their Black Hawk helicopter in Garmisch, Another aviation mission attracted a
(Forward), which was itself manned gade smashes a bunker near Dubrave, Bosnia and Herzegovina during Germany on their way to help rescue tourists stranded by avalanches good deal of publicity when one of the
almost entirely by the commander and Operation Joint Endeavor in January 1996. in the town of Galtur, Austria. heaviest snowfalls in Europe in recent
general staff of V Corps’ 3rd Corps years caused an avalanche that engulfed
the town of Galtür, Austria, 40 kilometers stations. As part of that reorganization, Tactical developments that began in a Patriot missile task force to Israel in
northwest of Innsbruck, and blocked all the 69th ADA Brigade was assigned to V USAREUR’s 94th ADA Brigade and that Operation Shining Presence.
the roads to the site of the disaster. Some Corps, and it was soon reconfigured from were completed by 69th ADA Brigade Under command of the V Corps deputy
12,000 vacationers were trapped in Galtür standard corps air defense artillery made it much easier to deploy a Patriot commanding general, Maj. Gen. J. B.
and surrounding villages. The Austrian brigade organization to become a pure fire unit on short notice. The Minimum Burns, Joint Task Force Shining Presence
Government asked Switzerland, Germany, Patriot missile brigade. Engagement Package that the two deployed to Israel with an Army force
and the United States to help airlift the In June 1992, Operation Southern brigades developed involved only two built around Task Force Panther, which
stranded vacationers from the avalanche Watch officially began, under the ægis of launchers, one engagement control involved three MEPs from the batteries of
area. Ten aircraft and a ground support United States Central Command, and station, a radar and associated power the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense
package from the 5th Battalion, 158th specifically of Joint Task Force South- unit, 12 missiles, a small amount of Artillery. The task force arrived deployed
Aviation, arrived in Austria on 24 west Asia. Operation Southern Watch ancillary equipment, and 55 soldiers. The out of Germany within 48 hours of
February and started relief operations the monitored and controlled airspace south point was that the MEP could be trans- notification and arrived in Israel on 12
next day. After flying 186 missions and of the 33rd Parallel in Iraq, in accordance ported in a single sortie of four C-5 December. It immediately conducted joint
lifting 3,109 passengers out of the with United Nations Security Council aircraft. The battalions in 69th ADA exercises with Israeli air defense forces
affected area, the task force completed its resolutions regarding Iraq at the end of Brigade rigorously rehearsed the MEP before moving to firing locations at
operations on 26 February and returned the Persian Gulf War. As part of that concept and developed detailed plans for various key spots in Israel. The battalion
to Germany. operation, the United States dispatched a packaging and loading its equipment. remained in Israel until the coalition
regular rotation of Patriot missile battal- The concept was soon tested. bombing campaign ended on 20 Decem-
Air defense ions to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to In December 1998, Sadaam Hussein ber, and then returned to Germany over
secure the airspace. The battalions of again prevented United Nations weapons the next day and a half. PHOTO BY BILL ROCHE
deployments 69th ADA Brigade assumed that mission inspectors in Iraq from doing their work Iraq remained at the center of events. V Corps aviation assets have become more vital than ever, for mis-
on three occasions, each time on a six- to make certain that Iraq possessed no Allied determination to enforce the sions that couldnt have even been imagined 20 years ago.
After the end of the Persian Gulf War, month rotation, after 1992. The 6th weapons of mass destruction. In United Nations resolutions concerning
air defense artillery units in USAREUR Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery, response, the United States and its allies the “no-fly zone” in northern Iraq in
were reorganized. In the process the went to Southwest Asia from March threatened air strikes in what became January 1999 appeared likely to provoke
32nd Army Air Defense Command, which through July 1996 and again from June Operation Desert Fox. Israel feared that some response from Sadaam Hussein. Two things characterized the air president Slobodan Milosevic to agree.
had commanded all Army air defenses in through November 1998, and the 5th Sadaam Hussein might fire Scud missiles Since allied aircraft were operating from defense deployments that V Corps Thus, on 24 March, began Operation
theater, was returned to the United States, Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery had at Israel in retaliation and asked the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, it appeared commanded. The first was a very short Allied Force, an air campaign launched
and all but two of the air defense artillery the mission from December 1999 through United States to augment its air defenses. possible that Iraq might fire missiles at response time to a mission order, made against Serbia and Serb military forces in
brigades were likewise returned to other May 2000. Immediately, V Corps was ordered to send the Incirlik area to punish Turkey for possible in large part by the development Kosovo.
providing the bases from which allied of the MEP and careful brigade planning Gen. Wesley Clark, the Supreme Allied
aircraft were launched. Thus, the to detail how the deployment would be Commander, Europe, and Commander-in-
government of Turkey asked the United handled. The second was that overseas Chief of U.S. forces in Europe, directed
States to help augment the anti-ballistic operations of air defense artillery units USAREUR to send an aviation and
missile defenses of the Incirlik area. began decisively to affect the evolution artillery task force of almost 1,800 soldiers
On 15 January 1999, the Joint Chiefs of of air defense artillery doctrine, inasmuch to neighboring Macedonia as a means of
Staff gave USAREUR the mission of as the Air Defense Artillery School increasing the pressure on Milosevic.
sending a Patriot task force to Incirlik. quickly adopted the MEP concept and The planned Apache helicopter task
USAREUR passed the mission to V Corps made it a part of new editions of ADA force, supported by Multiple Launch
and its 69th ADA Brigade, which field manuals. Rocket Systems, offered another way to
dispatched a MEP from the 6th Battalion, attack Serb units, particularly armored
52nd Air Defense Artillery that arrived in Operation units, in Kosovo. USAREUR directed V
Turkey by 20 January. Task Force 6-52 Corps to prepare the task force. Lt. Gen.
came under control of Operation Northern Victory Hawk John W. Hendrix, the corps commander,
Watch upon arrival in Incirlik and swiftly rapidly put together a force that eventu-
set up a battery location that the soldiers When the ethnic Albanian population ally amounted to almost 5,000 soldiers
steadily improved over time. The initial of the province of Kosovo agitated for when the destination was changed from
force came from Battery D, with elements independence or union with Albania in Macedonia to Albania, where there were
of the Headquarters and Headquarters the spring of 1999, Yugoslav authorities more demanding security requirements.
Battery and the 549th Maintenance employed military force to regain control The mission was called Operation Victory
Company. When it became clear that the and bloodshed reminiscent of the worst Hawk, and the force employed was Task
Northern Watch mission would not be years of the civil war in Bosnia- Force Hawk.
short, the battalion established a rotation Herzegovina threatened. International Hendrix used the corps command post
of units, sequentially sending MEPs from talks not having produced an agreement, and deep operations coordination cell,
PHOTO BY 1ST LT JAMIE BROWN
Battery E, Battery A and Battery C to chiefly because Serbia refused to accept including V Corps Artillery command
A Patriot missile crew of V Corps 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade live fires a rocket in Israel during a Incirlik. In March 1999, the deployment the presence of a peacekeeping force in elements, to control operations and built
recent deployment. came to an end and the fire unit returned Kosovo, NATO decided in March of that a force structure that included an attack
to Germany. year to use force to compel Serbian helicopter organization of the 2nd and 6th

Squadrons, 6th Cavalry, from the 11th defenses, to the border, disclosed air then in Albania as the lead elements of Reasoning that the corps could not rely
Aviation Brigade; a general aviation defense locations, and did the essential Task Force Falcon. Thus, most of the on getting priority on strategic airlift, and
organization based around the 5th reconnaissance for combat operations in force came from those elements of the 1st that a command post that could be moved
Battalion, 158th Aviation, from the 12th the difficult, mountainous terrain along Armored Division and 82nd Airborne by the C-130 tactical airlift aircraft
Aviation Brigade; the 1st Battalion, 27th the border. Division that had been stationed at available in Europe would be more useful
Field Artillery (MLRS); the 7th Corps After 78 days of air operations, through Tirana, Albania. to the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Euro-
Support Group and ground forces of the most of which Task Force Hawk was The military technical agreement with pean Command, the corps began an
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored present and threatening its own opera- Serbia was signed on 9 June, and Serb intensive effort to make the command
Division. The 2nd BCT organization tions against Serb forces, the Yugoslav military forces began withdrawing from post smaller, lighter, more mobile, and
included the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry government finally agreed to sign the Kosovo on 10 and 11 June, with KFOR more quickly deployable.
(Mechanized) with an attached tank Military Technical Agreement authorizing brigades flowing into the province The resulting “Victory Vanguard”
company and supporting artillery, air the entry of NATO peace enforcement immediately to the areas the Serbs command post, designed in 2000 and
defense, signal, and other service forces, troops into Kosovo. That act, on 10 vacated. While other elements of the tested in the Victory Strike exercise in
and the 2nd Battalion, 505th Airborne June, ended Operation Allied Force. corps headquarters and supporting units Poland along with the deep operations
Infantry, attached from the 82nd Airborne Therewith, on 9 June, some elements of were moving from Albania back to their coordination cell, was the first step in a
Division. The 2/505th brought with it a TF Hawk began deploying to Macedonia home stations in Germany, the helicopters process of design and testing that led up
towed howitzer battery. In addition, task as part of TF Falcon. Four days later TF of the 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation, to the “Strike CP” that the corps exercised
force headquarters troops, controlled by Falcon started its deployment into carried the 2nd Battalion, 505th Airborne in Exercise Victory Strike II and demon-
the corps Special Troops Battalion, Kosovo as part of the Kosovo Force Infantry, from Tirana-Rinas Airfield to strated to the Secretary of the Army in
commanded elements of many of the (KFOR), while other Task Force Hawk secure an initial cantonment area in PHOTO BY BILL ROCHE September 2001.
corps separate brigades and a Special elements redeployed to Central Region. Kosovo, with other forces following by Secretary of the Army Thomas White (center) listens intently as The goal that the corps commander, Lt.
Forces detachment. By 2 August 1999, all the major TF Hawk road march. At the same time, the 26th U.S. Army Europe Commander Gen. Montgomergy Meigs (right) ex- Gen. James C. Riley, expressed, was for
The lead elements of Task Force Hawk units had left Albania. Marine Expeditionary Unit temporarily plains V Corps rapidly deployable command post, the Strike CP, the Strike CP to be deployable with less
arrived in Albania on 8 April 1999 and came under Craddock’s command to during a recent test trial for exercise Victory Strike II. than 20 C-130 air missions, and to be fully
forces continued to build up, the last
units arriving 29 days later. Shortly after
Operation increase the immediately available
combat power. The American brigade
deployed and operational in about two
weeks from initial mission notification.
arrival at Tirana-Rinas airport, a small and Joint Guardian melded into a British march unit and The specific design of the CP was
highly congested field that was already entered Kosovo at the same time, Force Hawk units were returned to command of various corps commanders, understood to vary depending on the
being used by military and civilian Following immediately upon the leading with the Task Force Falcon Germany and the Marine 26th MEU was but the overall structure remained more or mission of the force it was to command,
organizations from many nations to conclusion of Operation Victory Hawk, headquarters and a platoon from the likewise released. The 1st Infantry less unchanged until 1992, when V Corps and the goal was to give the com-
provide humanitarian relief to Albanian elements of V Corps’ 1st Armored 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Division and 1st Armored Division began considering ways to move its mander-in-chief a good command and
Kosovars crossing the border into Division and 1st Infantry Division moved Infantry Division, brigade shared the Task Force Falcon mission on forces to a battle somewhere other than control capability in the very early phase
Albania, heavy rains began that swiftly into the province of Kosovo as part of reconnaissance troop. Craddock 179-day rotations until 1 June 2001, when along the inter-German border. of a deterrence or defense mission.
reduced the land around the airfield to a NATO’s peace enforcement mission selected two base camp areas, one the XVIII Airborne Corps assigned units The first steps in that direction in Throughout 2001, the corps worked at
quagmire. Major engineering work had to under command of the Allied Forces, in the eastern part of the sector to Kosovo. With that transfer of author- 1992 and 1993 involved designing a making the Strike CP more strategically
be contracted before the Apache helicop- Central Europe, Ready Reaction Corps. and one in the west, which his ity, V Corps operations in Kosovo ceased very small, mobile command post on deployable and, at the same time,
ter task force and general aviation task The American contribution to Kosovo units then occupied and built up as for the time being, although USAREUR several trucks that the corps commander figuring out how to make it tactically
force, then waiting in Italy for permission Force, or KFOR, was a reinforced brigade Camps Bondsteel and Monteith. By 14 directed the corps to monitor and assist could use on the traditional battlefield mobile once in a theater of
to cross the Adriatic, would have any operating as Task Force Falcon in June, all of Task Force Falcon was in in subsequent transfers of authority when he was in transit between corps operations.
place to land or any firm dispersal areas. Operation Joint Guardian. The corps had Kosovo. between units assigned to Task Force command posts or visiting one of the Meanwhile, the corps retained the
The helicopters arrived on 21 April and planned to send the 3rd Brigade Combat As the brigade was built up, the corps Falcon. divisions, and that could also be used capability to go to the field with the full
established a minimum capability to Team, 1st Infantry Division, as the deployed four force packages into the The assault as the basis around which a command command post structure of tactical, main,
conduct offensive operations the next American component of the five multina- area of operations. The first were the post deployed outside of Germany and rear in the event of a heavy force
day. By 26 April, 18 days after the tional brigades under ARRC control. The Task Force Hawk units and the 26th command post could be build. That led directly to a operation of a conventional nature.
mission started, Task Force Hawk had a division built plans for a 3,497-man force MEU, and they were followed in the first new design for a deployable command Doing both allowed V Corps to plan
force of 51 helicopters, 24 of which were under command of the assistant division 30 days of the operation by the main The composition and operation post that the corps called the “Tac- realistically to command forces in
AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, fully commander, Brig. Gen. Bantz Craddock, body from Germany, and then by the of corps command posts was a matter of Plus,” and which was based upon the operations at any point on the spectrum
operational and had an additional 24 and carefully trained the base force, the multinational unit forces that came under deep interest for all corps commanders. tactical command post, augmented in of conflict with a command post appropri-
Apaches in Germany poised for deploy- 3rd BCT, in a series of exercises in the TF Falcon control—a Greek mechanized In the Cold War era, the corps maintained subsequent air missions by other ate to the troops employed and the
ment to Albania and awaiting orders from months prior to the deployment, complet- infantry battalion, a Polish airborne a structure of a rear command post that capabilities needed to sustain mission to be accomplished.
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ing a mission rehearsal exercise in battalion, and a Russian airborne task co-located with the Corps Support command of deployed forces in the
Once in place and with the command February still involved in a combat group. Command, a main command post where opening phases of a Exercise
post and DOCC functioning, Task Force maneuver training center rotation in the The brigade took up peace support planning for future operations and campaign.
Hawk began a series of mission rehearsal late spring, when the deployment order operations immediately in a seven-county support of current operations went on, When the corps moved its command Victory Strike
exercises for operations inside Kosovo. was issued. The need, however, to place area, performing the same kinds of tasks and a tactical command post that ran the post to Albania for Operation Victory
Called exercises, the frequent air missions American units in Kosovo as quickly as that Task Force Eagle had carried out current battle. There were many varia- Hawk, the vans, trailers, and other truck- The earlier work that V Corps had done
were more properly combat feints that possible led to a change, and V Corps earlier in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As 1st tions on the detailed operation of those mounted equipment required an inordi- in developing the mission rehearsal
drew Serb military force, and especially air framed orders to deploy combat units Infantry Division forces arrived, the Task command posts to suit the style of nate amount of heavy, strategic airlift. exercise was further elaborated upon in
2000 when the corps held its first Victory sophisticated new battlefield tracking provide real-time recording of exercise many types of battlefields the corps allowance for the fact that units and
Strike exercise. The mission in Albania systems expected to be the keystone in events and near-immediate feedback for A more could expect, at any point in the wide leaders arrived in differing states of
had revealed areas in which attack
aviation operations could be improved,
making Riley’s vision of providing NTC-
type training for aviation and maneuver
commanders. It also built upon prepara-
tory exercises in Germany by further
sophisticated range of missions from peace enforce-
ment or humanitarian relief to heavy force
training and with varying capabilities.
The conduct of training and exercises
and Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs in units available in the European theater, validating the Strike CP concept, putting exercise design combat, and in difficult operational needed to be managed so that a more
February 2000 sent the Chief of Staff of using a deployable training package to the CP to its first real field test. environments, particularly in the third capable and advanced unit, for example,
the Army an Aviation White Paper in As the corps and its major subordinate world. From the discussions emerged a would be given more complex and
which he detailed ways to make commands accumulated experience with consensus that leaders had to be challenging maneuver or other training
USAREUR Army aviation “the premier deployments, proficiency with a wider adaptable, innovative, aggressive, willing tasks. Revising the process of training
aviation force for the U.S. Army over the range of missions also developed as to act in the absence of orders, and was also necessary to subject units to
next two years.” successive corps commanders required a willing to take calculated risks on the real sustained operations in which
Riley assumed responsibility for a more concomitant increase in operational battlefield; that such leadership should commanders would have to rely on their
stringent form of aviation exercise as one sophistication. The evolution of the be rewarded; and that some adjustments staffs and subordinates rather than
of the major corps actions in support of mission rehearsal exercise was an to the way the corps did business needed running everything themselves, reserving
that initiative. Riley believed that attack A combined op- important step in that process. Another to be made to foster the growth of that the after action review for later. Laying
aviation battalions needed to have a posing force took came in 2001, when Riley linked exercises kind of leadership. stress upon “actions without orders,”
Capstone training event that was similar on V Corps 11th with leader development. In February of The first major aspect of corps opera- tactical initiative, and keying operations
to the National Training Center rotations Aviation Regiment that year, he convened a seminar with his tions to be so adjusted was the exercise to the commander’s intent, rather than
through which maneuver battalions had Apaches during senior commanders and staff to discuss program. Riley took the point of view merely to stated objectives, were all
been going since 1983. To provide for force-on-force ex- the attributes of the ideal leader in the that the kind of leadership necessary in elements of the change that Riley wanted
aviation battalions the same rigor, realism ercises in exercise modern operational environment and to the post-Cold War world had to be to make. He determined that leaders
of the battlefield, and high fidelity Victory Strike II. find ways to adjust the conditions within developed at home station according to a could not be flexible if their training was
feedback that combat training centers At top, a Stinger V Corps to foster development of those carefully thought out plan that involved inflexible.
gave maneuver battalions, he directed the team from Hanaus attributes wherever necessary. A key all of the corps training and exercises. As a first step, he applied that truism to
corps staff, working with USAREUR, to 5/7th Field Artil- point was that much would be demanded The seminar had addressed the idea, the major divisional training event, the
devise the exercise that became Victory lery tried to take of leaders at all levels if they were to noting that exercises and rotations in the Battle Command Training Program
Strike. out the attack operate effectively and efficiently on the combat training centers needed to make Warfighter Exercise, or WFX. The WFX
Conducted at the Drawsko Pomorskie copters with their scheduled for 2001 was to be given to 1st
training area in Poland, Victory Strike rocket simulator Armored Division and was based on the
exercised all of those elements of deploy- while their team- familiar heavy force operational scenario.
ing and employing a deep strike task mates, a Multiple From the point of view of developing the
force that previous corps missions shown Launch Rocket kind of leadership that Riley sought, the
were critical components of a successful System crew from BCTP had shortcomings, since the
operation. Deployment, both by various the Polish 23rd Bri- exercise was predictable and scripted and
ground means and by tactical airlift, was a gade of Artillery presented few opportunities for leaders at
key part of an exercise that involved live- (below), did the any level to be innovative. Working with
fire by attack helicopters, the employment same. Gen. (Ret.) Fred Franks, who was one of
PHOTO BY SPC KRIS STEWARD
of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems from the BCTP senior mentors, and with Lt.
the corps artillery to fire joint suppression Gen. W. M. Steele, commanding the
of air defense missions, and the use of Combined Arms Center at Fort
69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade units Leavenworth, Kansas, Riley developed a
to simulate an opposing enemy air different and more challenging scenario
defense force. In addition, the exercise for the exercise and then obtained
established ties with the Polish armed approval from Meigs, commander of
forces, which also took part, and exer- USAREUR and Seventh Army, and the
cised the deployment and employment of Chief of Staff of the Army, to implement
a much smaller and more mobile corps that scenario.
command post and deep operations The first major difference that distin-
coordination cell. guished Exercise Urgent Victory ’01 from
Exercise Victory Strike II in 2001 built prior Warfighter exercises was that it
upon the successes of the first exercise involved both of the V Corps divisions.
PHOTO BY SGT ALFREDO BARRAZA JR.
and was much more joint in nature. The As the exercise began, 1st Infantry
exercise was expanded to include An ammunition sergeant checks the munitions on an Apache helicop- Division and 1st Armored Division were
Poland’s Wedrzyn Training Area, and ter flown by V Corps 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry, 11th Aviation Regi- separated by 3rd Infantry Division, which
added Polish units such as the 23rd ment, prior to a live-fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Operation was represented by a response cell
Brigade of Artillery to the opposing force Joint Forge in 1998. Today, V Corps leaders at all levels have to be manned by members of the V Corps staff.
headed by 69th ADA. Exercise play was ready for all types of missions, from peacekeeping to heavy combat. Later in the exercise, the two divisions
PHOTO BY SPC JOHN SOUCY
closely monitored by a vast array of operated side by side, so that the corps

could consider cooperation across 1996 when V Corps turned its entire Total equipment included four tanks,
division boundaries and the other issues attention to the ongoing NATO mission five Bradley Fighting Vehicles, one M-113
involved with flank units. At a more in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but both the armored personnel carrier, three Heavy
fundamental level, however, Urgent corps and USAREUR resumed work after Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks
Victory ’01 offered a scenario more Task Force Hawk returned from Albania (HEMTTs), one High Mobility Multipur- battery, within twelve hours. The heavy force additional capabilities and to ment concept. The first test came in June
attuned the kind of situation that V Corps in the spring of 1999. pose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), one force from Central Region was intended sustain it. The final IRF configuration 2000, when Meigs directed an evaluation
could actually encounter. It began as a To give EUCOM a more rapidly M88 recovery vehicle, and the other to link up with the theater strategic included force enhancements of engi- of the IRF. Soldiers from the Southern
movement to contact exercise with all deployable force, Meigs began discuss- associated heavy equipment. The reserve on order to give USAREUR a neers for reconnaissance, mobility, and European Task Force’s 173rd Airborne
units in motion as the exercise started, ing the idea with Lt. Gen. John Hendrix, personnel strength amounted to seven quick strike capability. route clearance; military police for Brigade and 1st Armored Division
and developed into a meeting engage- the V Corps commander. Hendrix officers and 83 other ranks, among which Within V Corps, the Medium Ready security; scouts for reconnaissance or deployed as an IRF in C-130s and UH-
ment in which units had far less precise suggested using the model of the 3rd were one infantry platoon and one Company was the most ready force and security; combat service support; and a 60s to Hungary as part of Exercise
intelligence about the enemy forces than Infantry Division, which had created an armored platoon. The entire package, was mounted in M-113 Armored Person- tactical command and control force Lariat Response. Two months later,
was characteristic for the WFX. Given immediate ready company (IRC) for hasty chiefly because of the size of the tanks nel Carriers because those could be lifted enhancement module designed to provide USAREUR deployed 120 soldiers from
the experiences corps units and other deployments. The V Corps concept that and Bradleys, required eight C-5B or C-17 by C-130 aircraft. To follow the MRC, a mobile command and control for task 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion,
elements of the U.S. armed forces had evolved by September 1999 was a aircraft for aerial deployment. Heavy Ready Company with a tank force or battalion tactical command post. 18th Infantry, and 1st Military Police
undergone in Balkans operations, Riley balanced mechanized company team that When Meigs returned to Heidelberg platoon and a Bradley platoon were ready The corps planned a process by which Company when it sent the Medium Ready
believed that less information about the could be augmented as required by force from his position as COMSFOR in for airlift with a minimal number of C-17 the brigades of the 1st Armored and 1st Company to Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo,
enemy was more realistic. enhancement modules that included October 1999, he reviewed the concept sorties. Depending upon the mission, a Infantry Divisions could establish an to augment Task Force Falcon units
Innovative in many ways, Exercise command, control, communications, and incorporated the V Corps concept of series of force enhancement modules, as orderly rotation of the IRF mission and involved in the peacekeeping operation
Urgent Victory ’01 was a success for V computers, and intelligence; aviation; the Immediate Ready Company into the originally conceived for the IRC concept instituted a series of emergency deploy- there. The company remained in Kosovo
Corps. The exercise design provided multiple launch rocket system; logistics; evolving USAREUR plan. Meigs based and all capable of being moved on C-130 ment readiness exercises in conjunction just over a month before returning to
many opportunities for leaders to try out and engineers. The corps aimed at his concept on equipment that could be aircraft, was on call to give the deployed with SETAF to test and hone the deploy- Germany.
tactical ideas and develop the situation having such a company operational by 15 deployed quickly by the C-130 aircraft
within their understanding of the December 1999, and the concept assumed daily available in theater, which meant in
commander’s intent, thereby beginning that the designated ready company effect that the force had to be mounted in
the process of linking leader development would have normal standards of profi- M-113 Armored Personnel Carriers and
with the corps exercise program. At the ciency, so that the IRC would require only HMMWVs. The highest alert force was
same time, both divisions were well familiarization gunnery, not including SETAF’s 173rd Airborne Brigade, which
exercised and tested in the traditional Table 8. The 1st Armored Division took could deploy its 1st Battalion, 508th
sense, so that the basic BCTP objective over the IRC mission from December 1999 Airborne Infantry task force, including a
was accomplished as well. After the through 1 July 2000. field artillery battery and an air defense
BCTP, the corps began working to
implement the same exercise philosophy
at every echelon of command, and to
extend the same kinds of leadership
development opportunities throughout
the chain of command.
The Immediate
Ready Force
The development of USAREUR’s
Immediate Ready Force was closely
conceptually linked to the development
of the corps Strike CP—both represented
small, agile, rapidly and easily deployable
elements that the commander-in-chief
could use in a crisis. In 1994, the corps
staff began devoting some thought to
how heavy armored forces could be
quickly deployed outside of Germany if PHOTO BY SGT BRENT HUNT
the need arose. The initial concept was Soldiers from V Corps 22nd Signal Brigade and Special Troops Battal-
to create an alert roster for a heavy ion train on loading the Strike CP and its associated equipment at
U.S. ARMY PHOTO
company that would use a set of equip- Ramstein Air Base in the summer of 2001. Both the corps and U.S.
ment packaged in pre-configured air loads Army Europe are working toward command and control elements that A V Corps Military Policeman prepares to throw a grenade into a bunker in training at Grafenwoehr,
for a heavy company-team mission. Work can be quickly packaged, moved and set up wherever needed. Germany.
on the idea was interrupted in 1995 and
Toward the future
In 2001, V Corps found itself with a com-
pletely new set of missions, far removed
from the mission it accomplished during the
Cold War. Emphasizing the kind of agility and
flexibility that characterized Gen. Crosbie
Saints 1989 vision of the capable corps, V Corps remained
poised to respond to crises anywhere in the hemisphere. The
planning for regional operations throughout the EUCOM area of
responsibility prompted the corps to adopt an additional and in-
formal motto that V Corps was an ocean closer in case of emer-
gency.
As 2001 drew to a close, V Corps was sobered by the events of
September 11, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Towers
in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., causing
great destruction and loss of life. As a consequence, the corps,
along with the rest of the Army in Europe, enacted a series of
stringent security measures to protect its soldiers, families, and
installations and prepared itself to carry out its part in the war on
terrorism that had just begun. Having taken all of those precau-
tions, however, V Corps proceeded with its normal regimen of
exercises and other military activities to maintain its proficiency
for combat anywhere in the region and at any point along the
spectrum of conflict.
Thus, the 83rd anniversary of its activation found the Victory
Corps still in Europe, where it was created in 1918. After two
World Wars, decades of Cold War and threat of another world war,
the first hectic decade of what some called peace, and the open-
ing of an entirely different sort of war against international ter-
rorism, the corps remained where it has spent the greatest part
of its organizational life, an ocean closer to potential trouble
and prepared to do what is required of it. In 2001, as in 1918
and all the intervening years, the Victory Corps remained ready
to fulfill its motto . . .
It Will Be Done!

V CORPS DEPUTY COMMANDERS Col. George M. Peek Col. Jack A. Rogers
August 1940 - October 1941 17 October 1967-9June 1968
The position of deputy commanding Col. John H. Knuebel Brig. Gen. Marshall B. Garth
general was first authorized under Table of November 1941-June 1942 3 September 1969-26 March 1970
Organization and Equipment 52-2H (28 Col. Karl E. Henion Col. Thomas H. Tarver
Command Roster
September 1974), but V Corps did not or- July 1942 - December 1944 27 Mar 1970-30 June 1970
ganize under that TOE until 21 May 1977. Col. Stanhope Mason Col. Thomas W. Bowen
Until that time it was under TOE 52-1H. January 1945 - September 1945 1 July 1970-25 April 1971
Brig. Gen. Harold R. Aaron
Cold War era Cold War era 26 April 1971-28 August 1972
Maj. Gen. William L. Webb, Jr. Col. Thomas J. Ford Brig. Gen. Richard J. Eaton
15 January 1978-9 December 1978 October-December 1945 29 August 1972-30 June 1974
Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers Col. Wilhelm P. Johnson Brig. Gen. Daniel W. French
1 December 1978-9 July 1980 January-May 1946 1 July 1974-30 June 1975
Maj. Gen. Philip R. Feir Brig. Gen. Orlando Ward Brig. Gen. Jerry R. Curry
16 September 1980-23 July 1981 7 June 1946 - 15 November 1946 1 July 1975-25 April 1976
Maj. Gen. John W. Woodmansee, Jr. Col. Paul J. Black Brig. Gen. James H. Merryman
23 July 1981-10 June 1982 November 1946 - December 1947 26 April 1976-June 1977
Maj. Gen. Stephen E. Nichols Brig. Gen. Cornelius E. Ryan Brig. Gen. John L. Ballantyne II
1 July 1982-31 October 1983 January 1948-December 1949 2 January 1977-15 June 1979
Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry Brig. Gen. Homer W. Kiefer Brig. Gen. Joe S. Owens
1 November 1983-15 December 1984 January-December 1950 23 February 1979-28 September 1980
V CORPS COMMANDERS Lt. Gen. John R. Hodge Lt. Gen. William R. Desobry Maj. Gen. Lincoln Jones III Brig. Gen. Peerson Menoher Brig. Gen. Joseph L. Nagel
1 November 1948 to 31 August 1950 1 June 1973 to 24 August 1975 25 March 1985-16 July 1987 January-December 1951 22 July 1983-24 August 1984
World War I Lt. Gen. John W. Leonard Lt. Gen. Robert L. Fair Maj. Gen. Jack. D. Woodall Brig. Gen. George W. Read, Jr. Brig. Gen. Cecil N. Noely
Maj. Gen. William M. Wright 1 September 1950 to 18 June 1951 25 August 1975 to 4 January 1976 20 August 1987-3 May 1988 January -March 1952 7 September 1984-14 October 1985
12 July 1918 to 20 August 1918 Brig. Gen. Boniface Campbell Lt. Gen. Donn A. Starry Maj. Gen. Donald E. Eckelbarger Brig. Gen. Joseph H. Harper Brig. Gen. Ross W. Crossley
Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron 19 June 1951 to 1 August 1951 16 February 1976 to 17 June 1977 25 May 1988-9 August 1990 March 1952-April 1953 15 October 1985 - July 1988
21 August 1918 to 11 October 1919 Maj. Gen. John E. Dahlquist Lt. Gen. Sidney B. Berry Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Brig. Gen. Timothy J. Grogan
Maj. Gen. Charles P. Summerall 2 August 1951 to 4 March 1953 19 July 1977 to 27 February 1980 Post-Cold war era July 1953-September 1955 1 August 1988-5 October 1989
12 October 1918 to 2 May 1919 Maj. Gen. Ira P. Swift Lt. Gen. Willard W. Scott, Jr. Maj. Gen. Jay M. Garner Brig. Gen. Marion W. Schewe
5 March 1953 to 17 June 1954 27 February 1980 to 15 July 1981 9 August 1990-13 December 1991 6 September 1955-16 January 1956 Post-Cold War era
Reactivation and World War II Lt. Gen. Charles E. Hart Lt. Gen. Paul S. Williams, Jr. Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Rutherford Col. William E. DePuy Brig. Gen. James R. Harding
Maj. Gen. Campbell B. Hodges 18 June 1954 to 28 March 1956 15 July 1981 to 29 May 1984 21 January 1992-17 June 1992 January-June 1956 5 November 1989-9 June 1991
20 October 1940 to 16 March 1941 Lt. Gen. Lemuel Mathewson Lt. Gen. Robert L. Wetzel Maj. Gen. Jarrett J. Robertson Brig. Gen. William M. Breckenridge Brig. Gen. James S. Dickey
Maj. Gen. Edmund L. Daley 29 March 1956 to 16 August 1957 29 May 1984 to 23 June 1986 17 June 1992-23 February 1993 July-December 1956 10 June 1991-10 July 1992
17 March 1941 to 19 January 1942 Lt. Gen. F. W. Farrell Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell Maj. Gen. Henry A. Kievenaar, Jr. Brig. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell Brig. Gen. Henry A. Kievenaar, Jr.
Maj. Gen. William S. Key 17 August 1957 to 31 March 1959 23 June 1986 to 1 January 1987 18 May 1993-23 September 1994 January 1957-June 1959 3 August 1992-17 May 1993
10 January 1942 to 19 May 1942 Lt. Gen. Paul D. Adams Maj. Gen. Lincoln Jones III Maj. Gen. Walter H. Yates Brig. Gen. David W. Gray Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs
Maj. Gen. Russell P. Hartle 1 Aprl 1959 to 30 September 1960 1 January 1987 to 23 March 1987 26 September 1994-24 September 1996 July-December 1959 17 May 1993-28 August 1994
20 May 1942 to 14 July 1943 Lt. Gen. Frederic J. Brown Lt. Gen. John W. Woodmansee, Jr. Maj. Gen. Gregory A. Rountree Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Bastian, Jr. Brig. Gen. George H. Harmeyer
Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow 1 October 1960 to 28 August 1961 23 March 1987 to 21 July 1989 23 September 1996-28 August 1998 July 1960-June 1961 28 August 1994-25 June 1995
15 July 1943 to 17 September 1944 Lt. Gen. John K. Waters Lt. Gen. George A. Joulwan Maj. Gen. Julian Burns Brig. Gen. Frank T. Mildren Brig. Gen. George W. Casey, Jr.
Maj. Gen. Edward H. Brooks 29 August 1961 to 14 May 1962 7 August 1989 to 9 November 1990 28 August 1998-16 August 1999 July 1961-June 1962 3 October 1995-17 August 1996
18 September 1944 to 4 October 1944 Lt. Gen. J. H. Michaelis Maj. Gen. Reginal Graham Clemmons Brig. Gen. Michael S. Davison Brig. Gen. B. B. Bell
Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow 15 May 1962 to 14 July 1963 Post-Cold War era 16 August 1999- 1 November 2000 July 1962-March 1963 23 August 1996-30 May 1997
5 October 1944 to 14 January 1945 Lt. Gen. Creighton W. Abrams Lt. Gen. David M. Maddox Maj. Gen. Robert F. Dees Brig. Gen. Roderick Wetherill Col. (P) Raymond T. Odierno
Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner 15 July 1963 to 3 August 1964 9 November 1990 to 17 June 1992 1 November 2000 - April 1963-December 1964 21 July 1997 - 15 August 1998
15 January 1945 to 11 November 1945 Lt. Gen. James H. Polk Lt. Gen. Jerry R. Rutherford Brig. Gen. Julian J. Ewell Brig. Gen. William H. Brandenburg, Jr.
1 September 1964 to 27 February 1966 17 June 1992 to 6 April 1995 V CORPS CHIEFS OF STAFF 2 June 1965 - 15 May 1966 16 August 1998 – 21 June 1999
Cold War era Lt. Gen. George R. Mather Lt. Gen. John N. Abrams Brig. Gen. Olinto M. Barsanti Brig. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes
Maj. Gen. Frank W. Milburn 28 February 1966 to 31 May 1967 6 April 1995 to 31 July 1997 World War I 16 May 1966-29 September 1966 21 June 1999 – 11 August 2000
12 November 1945 to 6 June 1946 Lt. Gen. Andrew J. Boyle Lt. Gen. John W. Hendrix Brig. Gen. Wilson B. Burtt Brig. Gen. Franklin M. Davis, Jr. Brig. Gen. Randal M. Tieszen
Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward 1 July 1967 to 31 July 1969 31 July 1997 to 16 November 1999 12 July 1918 - 10 February 1919 30 September 1966-16 July 1967 11 August 2000 – 2 August 2001
7 June 1946 to 15 November 1946 Lt. Gen. C. E. Hutchin, Jr. Lt. Gen. James C. Riley Col. Robert M. Tarbox Brig. Gen. Kenneth J. Quinlan
Maj. Gen. S. LeRoy Irwin 15 September 1969 to 23 January 1971 16 November 1999 – 18 July 2001 Reactivation and World War II 17 July 1967-17 September 1967 27 August 2001 -
16 November 1946 to 31 October 1948 Lt. Gen. Willard Pearson Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace Col. Walter S. Drysdale Col. Jack. F. Belford
14 February 1971 to 31 May 1973 18 July 2001 to June - August 1940 18 September 1967-16 October 1967

V Corps Order of Battle, 1990
Units Commanded By V Corps

Order of Battle at the end of the 2/4th Attack Helicopter 18th Military Police Brigade
Cold War, 1990 3/4th Attack Helicopter 709th MP Battalion
23 Maneuver Battalions and Squadrons H/4th Combat Aviation Company 93rd MP Battalion
10 Battalions General Support and G/4th Support Company
General Support Reinforcing Artillery Division Support Command 22nd Signal Brigade
118th Forward Support Battalion 17th Signal Battalion
This list includes divisions and regimental maneuver units assigned to V Corps control. During wartime, the corps 3rd Armored Division 208th Forward Support Battalion 32nd Signal Battalion
commanded an average of three to five divisions at any one time. Army and field army orders often shifted divisions Headquarters & Headquarters Company 202nd Forward Support Battalion 440th Signal Battalion
among corps, in response to the prevailing tactical situation. The normal Cold War era organization was one armored 1st Brigade 708th Main Support Battalion
2/36th Infantry I/4th TAM Company 130th Engineer Brigade
division, one mechanized infantry division, and one armored cavalry regiment. Changes in V Corps organization at the 3/36 Infantry Division Artillery 54th Combat Engineer Battalion
end of the Cold War resulted from deployments of units to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and from 2/32nd Armor 6/29th Field Artillery 317th Combat Engineer Battalion
reorganization incident to the drawdown of the Army. V Corps has always had a Corps Artillery organization assigned, 4/32nd Armor 4/29th Field Artillery (155 mm) 547th Combat Engineer Battalion
and has also commanded a wide range of supporting arms and services of regimental, brigade, and smaller-sized units. 2nd Brigade 2/29th Field Artillery (155 mm) 568th Engineer Company (Combat Support
1/48th Infantry C/333rd Field Artillery Target Acquisition Equipment)
3/8th Cavalry Battery 814th Engineer Company (Assault Float
4/8th Cavalry C/16th Artillery (Multiple Launch Rocket Bridge)
3rd Brigade System) 516th Engineer Company (Medium Girder
1/36 Infantry 12th Engineer Battalion Bridge)
2/67th Armor 5/3rd Air Defense Artillery 8591st Civil Support Group (attached)
4/67th Armor 8th Signal Battalion
Aviation Brigade 108th MI Battalion 205th Military Intelligence Brigade
3/12th Cavalry 8th MP Company 1st MI Battalion (Aerial Exploitation)
2/227th Attack Helicopter 25th Chemical Company 165th MI Battalion (TEB HVY)
3/227th Attack Helicopter 302nd MI Battalion (CEWI)
H/227th Combat Aviation Company 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
G/227th General Support Company 1st Squadron 5th Personnel Group
Division Artillery 2nd Squadron 52nd Personnel Services Company
2/3rd Field Artillery 3rd Squadron 55th Personnel Services Company
World War I, 1918-1919 World War II, 1941-1946 Fort Bragg, 1946-1951 4/82nd Field Artillery 4th (Aviation) Squadron 177th Personnel Services Company
1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”) 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”) 82nd Airborne Division (“All American”) F/333rd Field Artillery Target Acquisition Support Squadron 178th Personnel Services Company
2nd Infantry Division (“Indianhead”) 2nd Infantry Division (“Indianhead”) Battery 198th Personnel Services Company
A/40th Field Artillery (Multiple Launch V Corps Artillery 258th Personnel Services Company
3rd Infantry Division (“Marne Division”) 4th Infantry Division (“Ivy Division”) Cold War, 1951-1990 Rocket System) Headquarters & Headquarters Battery 259th Personnel Services Company
4th Infantry Division (“Ivy Division”) 5th Infantry Division (“Red Diamond”) 1st Infantry Division (“Big Red One”) Division Support Command 41st Field Artillery Brigade 261st Personnel Services Company
26th Infantry Division (“Yankee”) 8th Infantry Division (“Pathfinder”) 4th Infantry Division (“Ivy Division”) 45th Forward Support Battalion 1/32nd Field Artillery (Lance) 368th Personnel Services Company
32nd Infantry Division (“Red Arrow”) 9th Infantry Division (“Old Reliables”) 8th Infantry Division (“Pathfinder”) 54th Forward Support Battalion 4/18th Field Artillery (8-inch) 378th Personnel Services Company
503rd Forward Support Battalion 4/77th Field Artillery (8-inch) 257th Personnel Services Company
33rd Infantry Division 28th Infantry Division (“Keystone”) 10th Infantry Division 122nd Main Support Battalion 2/75th Field Artillery (155 mm) 400th Personnel Services Company
42nd Infantry Division (“Rainbow”) 29th Infantry Division (“Blue and Gray”) 2nd Armored Division (“Hell on Wheels”) I/227th TAM 1/27th Field Artillery (Multiple Launch 520th Personnel Services Company
77th Infantry Division (“Statue of Liberty”) 30th Infantry Division (“Old Hickory”) 3rd Armored Division (“Spearhead”) 23rd Engineer Battalion Rocket System) 569th Personnel Services Company
3/5th Air Defense Artillery 42nd Field Artillery Brigade 574th Personnel Services Company
79th Infantry Division (“Lorraine”) 35th Infantry Division (“Santa Fe”) 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
143rd Signal Battalion 2/32nd Field Artillery (Lance) 575th Personnel Services Company
89th Infantry Division (“Middle West”) 69th Infantry Division (“The Blackhorse Regiment”) 533rd MI Battalion 3/32nd Field Artillery (Lance) 64th Replacement Detachment
91st Infantry Division (“Wild West”) 78th Infantry Division (“Lightning”) 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment 503rd MP Company 5/3rd Field Artillery (8-inch)
15th (French) Colonial Infantry Division 80th Infantry Division (“Blue Ridge”) 22nd Chemical Company 2/20th Field Artillery (8-inch) 5th Finance Group
4/7th Field Artillery (8-inch) 3rd Finance Services Unit
82nd Airborne Division (“All American”) Post-Cold War, 1990-present 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized) 8th Finance Services Unit
Interwar years, 1922-1924 90th Infantry Division (“Tough ‘Ombres”) 1st Infantry Division (“Big Red One”) Headquarters & Headquarters Company 3rd Corps Support Command 14th Finance Services Unit
(Organized Reserve Headquarters) 97th Infantry Division 3rd Infantry Division (“Marne Division”) 1st Brigade 16th Support Group 17th Finance Services Unit
5th Infantry Division (“Red Diamond”) 99th Infantry Division 8th Infantry Division (“Pathfinder”) 3/8th Infantry 8th Maintenance Battalion 22nd Finance Services Unit
5/8th Infantry 19th Maintenance Battalion 39th Finance Services Unit
(Regular Army, Inactive) 106th Infantry Division 1st Armored Division (“Old Ironsides”) 4/34th Armor 85th Maintenance Battalion 78th Finance Services Unit
37th Infantry Division (“Buckeye”) 2nd Armored Division (“Hell on Wheels”) 3rd Armored Division (“Spearhead”) 1/68th Armor 142nd Supply and Services Battalion 105th Finance Services Unit
38th Infantry Division (“Cyclone”) 3rd Armored Division (“Spearhead”) 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment 2nd Brigade 68th Medical Group 106th Finance Services Unit
5th Armored Division (“Victory”) (“Second Dragoons”) 1/13th Infantry Special Troops Battalion 117th Finance Services Unit
1/39th Infantry 181st Transportation Battalion 201st Finance Services Unit
Interwar years, 1940-1941 7th Armored Division (“Lucky Seventh”) 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment 2/68th Armor 15th Ordnance Battalion 501st Finance Services Unit
32nd Infantry Division (“Red Arrow”) 9th Armored Division (“Remagen”) (“The Blackhorse Regiment”) 3rd Brigade 8/158th Aviation (Aviation Intermediate 503rd Finance Services Unit
34th Infantry Division (“Red Bull”) 16th Armored Division 5th (German) Panzer Division 4/8th Infantry Maintenance)
37th Infantry Division (“Buckeye”) 102nd Cavalry Group (Mechanized) (in the Bi-National Corps) 3/77th Armor Special Troops Battalion (Provisional)
5/77th Armor 12th Aviation Brigade
38th Infantry Division (“Cyclone”) 2nd (French) Armored Division 13th (German) Panzer Division Aviation Brigade 5/6th Cavalry Band
106th Cavalry Regiment (in the Bi-National Corps) 3/7th Cavalry 5/158th Aviation

V Corps Order of Battle, 2000
Bibliography
Order of Battle, 2000 2nd Brigade 12th Aviation Brigade

14 Maneuver Battalions and Squadrons 1/18th Infantry 5/158th Aviation Manuscript sources for the history of V Corps are held by the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington,
6 Maneuver Battalions and Squadrons 1/26th Infantry 3/58th Aviation D.C., and College Park, Maryland. Papers of Generals John J. Pershing and Charles P. Summerall are in the Library of Congress
stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas 1/77th Armor F/159th Aviation Manuscripts Division, Washington, D.C. Other relevant materials, including Corps annual historical reports and privately pub-
1 Battalion General Support and 3rd Brigade lished histories of the Corps and its subordinate units, as well as personal papers of soldiers assigned to V Corps and experi-
General Support Reinforcing Artillery 2/2nd Infantry 18th Military Police Brigade ences questionnaires of soldiers who served in the Corps in the two World Wars, are held by the U. S. Army Military History
1/63rd Armor 709th MP Battalion Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
1st Armored Division 2/63rd Armor 793rd MP Battalion
Headquarters & Headquarters Company 4th (Aviation) Brigade Detailed information about V Corps operations and the Seventh United States Army context in which they were carried out
1st Brigade 1/1st Aviation (Attack) 22nd Signal Brigade were drawn from the series of V Corps Annual Historical Reports, 1972-1989, in V Corps and USAREUR History Office files, and
1-36th Infantry 2/1st Aviation 17th Signal Battalion from the Seventh Army Annual Historical Reports and subsequent USAREUR and Seventh Army Annual Historical Reports, 1954-
1-37th Armor Division Artillery 32nd Signal Battalion 1990, in the USAREUR History Office, where a series of important unpublished manuscripts, reference files and shorter papers
2-37th Armor 1/7th Field Artillery 440th Signal Battalion were also consulted.
2nd Brigade 1/5th Field Artillery
1/6th Infantry 1/6th Field Artillery 30th Medical Brigade Historians files in the V Corps history office supply miscellaneous data and details on current operations. Most records for the
2/6th Infantry 1/33rd Field Artillery 93rd Medical Battalion (DS) period 1949-1973 are unclassified. Unclassified portions of subsequent annual historical reports provide additional information
1/35th Armor Engineer Brigade 226th Medical Battalion (Log) for this edition of the Corps history. V Corps lineage files, as well as biographical sketches of V Corps commanding generals, are
3rd Brigade (Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas) 9th Engineer Battalion 421st Medical Battalion (Evac) held by the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D. C. The following selection from the many books and other
1/41st Infantry 1st Engineer Battalion (Located at Fort 67th Combat Support Hospital studies about the general subject of U.S. Army operations since 1918 includes those most directly pertinent to the history of V
1/13th Armor Riley, Kansas) 212th Surgical Hospital Corps.
2/70th Armor 82nd Engineer Battalion 100th Medical Detachment (Vet HQ)
4th (Aviation) Brigade Division Support Command 79th Medical Detachment (Vet Small) General
1/501th Aviation (Attack) 1st Forward Support Battalion 21st Medical Detachment (Vet Small) Ganoe, William A. The History of the United States Army. Ashton, Maryland: Eric Lundberg, 1964 (reprint of 1942 edition
2/501th Aviation 201st Forward Support Battalion 72nd Medical Detachment (Vet Svc) issued by Appleton Century Company, Inc.)
Division Artillery 701st Main Support Battalion 64th Medical Detachment (Vet Svc) Weigley, Russell F. History of the United States Army. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1967.
2/3rd Field Artillery 601st DASB 51st Medical Detachment (Vet Medicine) Wilson, John B. Armies, Corps, Divisions and Separate Brigades. Army Lineage Series. Washington: USGPO, 1987.
4/1st Field Artillery 1/4th Cavalry Wilson, John B., Maneuver and Firepower: The Evolution of Divisions and Separate Brigades. US Army Center of Military
4/27th Field Artillery 4/3rd Air Defense Artillery (Bradley/Avenger) History, Washington, DC, 1998.
C/333rd Field Artillery Target Acquisition 101st Military Intelligence Battalion 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade
Battery 121st Signal Battalion 5/7th ADA (Patriot) World War I
A/94th Field Artillery (Multiple Launch 1st Military Police Company 6/52nd ADA (Patriot) [American Battle Monuments Commission]. American Armies and Battlefields in Europe. Washington: USGPO, 1938.
Rocket System) 12th Signal Company Berry, Henry. Make the Kaiser Dance. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1978.
Division Support Command Band 130th Engineer Brigade Braim, Paul F. The Test of Battle: The American Expeditionary Forces in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. Newark: University
501st Forward Support Battalion 94th Engineer Battalion (Construction) of Delaware Press, 1987.
47th Forward Support Battalion V Corps Artillery 54th Engineer Battalion Coffman, Edward M. The War to End all Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I. New York: Oxford University
125th Forward Support Battalion Headquarters & Headquarters Battery 565th Engineer Battalion Press, 1968.
123rd Main Support Battalion 41st Field Artillery Brigade Cooke, James J. Pershing and His Generals: Command and Staff in the AEF. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997.
127th DASB 1/27th Field Artillery (Multiple Launch 205th Military Intelligence Brigade Friedel, Frank. Over There: The Story of Americas First Great Overseas Crusade. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964.
Engineer Brigade Rocket System) 1st MI Battalion (Aerial Exploitation) Harbord, James G. The American Army in France, 1917-1919. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1936.
16th Engineer Battalion 165th MI Battalion (TE) Heller, Charles E., and William A. Stofft (eds.). Americas First Battles, 1776-1965. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
40th Engineer Battalion 3rd Corps Support Command 302nd MI Battalion (Operations) 1986.
70th Engineer Battalion (Located at Fort 16th Corps Support Group [Historical Division, War Department General Staff]. United States Army in the World War, 1917-1919. 17 Volumes. Wash-
Riley, Kansas) 18th Corps Support Battalion Special Troops Battalion (Provisional) ington: USGPO, 1948.
1/1st Cavalry 485th Corps Support Battalion [Historical Section, Army War College]. The Genesis of the American First Army. Washington: USGPO, 1945.
1/4th Air Defense Artillery (Bradley/Avenger) 7th Corps Support Group Band [Historical Section, Army War College]. Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. 5 volumes.
501st Military Intelligence Battalion 71st Corps Support Battalion Washington: USGPO, 1937.
141st Signal Batalion 7/159th Aviation (Aviation Intermediate 617th Air Support Operations Group Liggett, Hunter. Commanding an American Army: Recollections of the World War. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1925.
501st Military Police Company Maintenance) (USAF) Paschall, Rod. The Defeat of Imperial Germany 1917-1918. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books, 1989.
69th Chemical Company 181st Transportation Battalion Pershing, John J. My Experiences in the World War. 2 volumes. New York: Frederick J. Stokes, 1931.
Band 19th Corps Materiel Management Center Smythe, Donald. Pershing: General of the Armies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
27th Transportation Battalion 1 This unit is usually referred to, although Thomas, Shipley. The History of the A. E. F. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1920.
1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) Special Troops Battalion incorrectly, as the “11th Aviation Regiment.” By [U. S. Army, American Expeditionary Force]. Final Report of Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief. Washington:
Headquarters & Headquarters Company MTOE, it is an aviation group and is so known USGPO, 1920.
1st Brigade (Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas) 11th Aviation Regiment1 by HQ, DA. [U. S. Army, American Expeditionary Force]. First Army. Summary of Operations, First Army, American Expeditionary
1/16th Infantry 2/6th Cavalry Forces, Aug. 9 to Nov. 11, 1918. N.p.: n.d.
1/34th Armor 6/6th Cavalry Vandiver, Frank E. Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1977.
2/34th Armor Wilson, Dale E. Treat em Rough! The Birth of American Armor, 1917-20. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1990.

Interwar years
Kirkpatrick, Charles E. Orthodox Soldiers: U.S. Army Formal Schools and Junior Officers between the Wars, in Elliott V.
Converse III (ed.), Forging the Sword: Selecting, Educating, and Training Cadets and Junior Officers in the Modern World.
Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1998.
Odom, William O. After the Trenches: The Transformation of U.S. Army Doctrine, 1918-1939. College Station, Texas: Texas
A & M University Press, 1999.
World War II
Blumenson, Martin. Breakout and Pursuit. United States Army in World War II. Washington: USGPO, 1961.
Blumenson, Martin. The Duel for France, 1944. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963.
Blumenson, Martin. The Patton Papers: 1940-1945. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.
Bradley, Omar N. A Soldiers Story. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1951.
Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. United States Army in World War II. Washington: USGPO, 1965.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1948.
Eisenhower, John S. D. The Bitter Woods. New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1969.
[First United States Army]. Reports of Operations, 20 October 1943 -1 August 1944. 7 volumes. Paris: n.p., 1946.
[First United States Army]. Reports of Operations, 1 August 1944 - 22 February 1945. 4 volumes. Washington: USGPO,
1946.
[First United States Army]. Report of Operations, 23 February - 8 May 1945. 3 volumes. Washington: USGPO, 1946.
Gabel, Christopher R. The U.S. Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941. Washington: USGPO, 1991.
Harrison, Gordon. Cross Channel Attack. United States Army in World War II. Washington: USGPO, 1951.
[Historical Division, War Department]. Omaha Beachhead (6 June - 13 June 1944). Army in Action Series. Washington:
USGPO, 1945.
History V Corps June 6, 44. 688th Engineer Topographic Company, 1945.
Huebner, Clarence R. V Corps From Belgium to Czechoslovakia, Army and Navy Journal: 83 (4 December 1945).
Intelligence Operations of the V U. S. Army Corps in Europe. N.p.: 1945.
Kirkpatrick, Charles E. An Unknown Future and a Doubtful Present: Writing the Victory Plan of 1941. Washington: USGPO,
1990.
Kirkpatrick, Charles E. The Very Model of a Modern Major General: Backgrounds of World War II American Generals in V
Corps, in Judith L. Bellafaire (ed.), The U.S. Army and World War II: Selected papers From the Armys Commemorative
Conferences. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1998.
MacDonald, Charles B. The Battle of the Huertgen Forest. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1963.
MacDonald, Charles B. The Last Offensive. United States Army in World War II. Washington: USGPO, 1973.
MacDonald, Charles B. The Siegfried Line Campaign. United States Army in World War II. Washington: USGPO, 1963.
MacDonald, Charles B., and Sidney Matthews. Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo and Schmidt. United States Army in World
War II. Washington: USGPO, 1952.
Patton, George S. War as I Knew It. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1947.
Pogue, Forrest C. The Supreme Command. United States Army in World War II. Washington: USGPO, 1954.
V Corps Operations in the ETO, 6 January 1942 - 9 May 1945. Paris: Paul Viviers, 1945.
Weigley, Russell C. Eisenhowers Lieutenants. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981.
Cold War and post-Cold War period
Benton, Barbara (ed.) Soldiers for Peace: Fifty Years of United Nations Peacekeeping. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1996.
Boettcher, Thomas D. First Call: The Making of the Modern U. S. Military, 1945-1953. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1992.
Bolger, Daniel P. Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990s. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1995.
Bradford, Edward M.. The Replacement and Augmentation System in Europe (1945-1963). Heidelberg, Germany: USAREUR
Historical Section, Operations Division, unpublished manuscript, 1964).
Condon, Edward, and Raymond Matthews. A Historical Report of the V Corps1949. N.p.: 1950.
Frederiksen ,Oliver J. The American Military Occupation of Germany 1945-1953. Historical Division, United States Army
Europe, 1953.
Gehring, Stephen P. From the Fulda Gap to Kuwait: The U.S. Army, Europe, in the Gulf War. Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1998.
Kirkpatrick, Charles E. Building the Army for Desert Storm. Association of the United States Army, Institute of Land Warfare,
Land Warfare Paper No. 9. Arlington, Virginia: AUSA, November 1991.
Kirkpatrick, Charles E. Ruck it up! The Evolution of V Corps from the GDP to an Expeditionary Corps, 1990-2001.
Forthcoming from USGPO, 2002.
[McGrath, John]. U.S. Army Stationing in Germany 1945-2001. United States Army Center of Military History Historical
Resources Branch Reference Tool, 16 January 2001.
Morrison, Charles E. and Daniel T Murphy. The United States Constabulary. Occupation Forces in Europe series, 1945-46.
Office of the Chief Historian, European Command. Frankfurt Am Main, Germany, 1947.
Snyder, James M. The Establishment and Operations of the United States Constabulary, 3 October 1945 30 June 1947. United
States Constabulary, 1947.
Soeldner, Robert, et al. Blackhorse: The History of the 11th U.S. Cavalry 1901-1991. Bad Kissingen: T. A. Schachenmayer,
1991.
Sorley, Lewis. Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
Stacy, William E. U.S. Army Border Operations in Germany 1945-1983. (Heidelberg, Germany: HQ, USAREUR and Seventh
Army History Office unpublished manuscript, 1984).
Tevington, William M. The United States Constabulary: A History. Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, Kentucky, 1998.
US Army Europe and Seventh Army, Annual Command History 1 Jan 92- 31 Dec 92.
50 The History of V Corps ❂

Americas victory corps!
Published November 2001

Author: Dr. Charles E. Kirkpatrick, V Corps Historian
Editing, layout and design: Bill Roche, V Corps Public Affairs Office
Learn more about V Corps by visiting our site on the World Wide
Web at www.vcorps.army.mil

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The History

V Corps soldiers, veterans, and friends:

Table Of Contents V Corps in World War I

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 49 ❂ It Will Be Done 1

2 The History of V Corps ❂ 3

Reactivation and Employment

6 The History of V Corps ❂ 7

The War In Europe

COURTESY U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY ARMY ARTWORK COLLECTION

10 The History of V Corps ❂ 11

14 The History of V Corps ❂ 15

V Corps During the Cold War

18 The History of V Corps ❂ 19

22 The History of V Corps ❂ 23

ammunition to VII Corps and assumed Provide Comfort Positive Force

26 The History of V Corps ❂ 27

30 The History of V Corps ❂ 31

34 The History of V Corps ❂ 35

38 The History of V Corps ❂ 39

42 The History of V Corps ❂ 43

44 The History of V Corps ❂ 45

Units Commanded By V Corps

46 The History of V Corps ❂ 47

Order of Battle, 2000 2nd Brigade 12th Aviation Brigade

48 The History of V Corps ❂ 49

Cold War and post-Cold War period

50 The History of V Corps ❂

Published November 2001

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