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Spring 1945 Offensive In Italy
The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allies of World War II, Allied attack during the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. The attack in the Lombardy, Lombard Plain by the 15th Army Group, 15th Allied Army Group started on 6 April 1945 and ended on 2 May with the Surrender of Caserta, surrender of all Axis forces in Italy. Background The Allies of World War II, Allies had launched their last major offensive on the Gothic Line in August 1944, with the British Eighth Army (United Kingdom), Eighth Army (Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese) attacking up the coastal plain of the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and the U.S. United States Army North, Fifth Army (Lieutenant general (United States), Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, Mark Clark) attacking through the central Apennine Mountains. Although they managed to breach the formidable Gothic Line defenses, the ...
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Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander Of Tunis
Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis (10 December 1891 – 16 June 1969), was a senior and highly decorated British Army officer who served in both of the world wars. In addition, following the end of his military career, he served as Governor General of Canada and became the first Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Lord Lieutenant of Greater London in 1965. Alexander was born in London and was educated at Harrow School, Harrow before moving on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, for training as an army officer of the Irish Guards. He rose to prominence through his service in the First World War, and continued his military career through various British campaigns across Europe and Asia during the interwar period. In the Second World War, Alexander, initially in command of a division, oversaw the final stages of the Allies of World War II, Allied Dunkirk evacuation, evacuation from Dunkirk and sub ...
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Army Group C
Army Group C () was an army group of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. In its first deployment between 1939 and 1941, its main assignment was the defense of the Franco-German border during the Phony War and the Western Campaign, after which it was moved to East Prussia to become Army Group North. When Army Group C was recreated from 1943 to 1945, it was used to coordinate German forces on the Italian front. History 1939–1941 Army Group C was first formed in Frankfurt on 26 August 1939, from Army Group Command 2 (itself formed on 1 October 1919 as ''Reichswehrgruppenkommando'') in Frankfurt/Main. The only commander of the army group throughout its first tenure of service was Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, who had been reactivated from retirement upon the outbreak of the war.Meyer, Georg (1985). Leeb, Wilhelm Ritter von'' In: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (in German). Vol. 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, ISBN 3428001958, pp. 51–53.Between September 1939 and June 1940, Army ...
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Operation Grapeshot Order Of Battle
The Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allies of World War II, Allied attack during the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. The attack into the Lombardy, Lombard Plain by the Allied 15th Army Group started on 6 April 1945 and ended on 2 May with the Surrender of Caserta, surrender of Axis forces in Italy. Allied Forces Headquarters Mediterranean Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theatre Field Marshal Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, Sir Harold Alexander : Deputy: Lieutenant General Joseph T. McNarney : Chief of Staff: Lieutenant-General William Duthie Morgan, William MorganJackson (1988), p. 196. : Air Commander-in Chief Mediterranean Allied Air Forces: Lieutenant General John K. Cannon Allied 15th Army Group General Mark Wayne Clark :Chief of Staff: Major General Alfred Gruenther, Alfred M. Gruenther US Fifth Army Lieutenant General Lucian Truscot ...
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Eighth Army (United Kingdom)
The Eighth Army was a field army of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed as the Western Army on 10 September 1941, in Egypt, before being renamed the Army of the Nile and then the Eighth Army on 26 September. It was created to better control the growing Allied force based in Egypt and to direct its efforts to lift the siege of Tobruk via Operation Crusader. It later directed Allied forces through the remaining engagements of the Western Desert campaign, oversaw part of the Allied effort during the Tunisian campaign and finally led troops throughout the Italian campaign. During 1943, it made up part of the 18th Army Group before being assigned to the 15th Army Group (later, the Allied Armies in Italy). Throughout its campaigns, it was a multi-national force and its units came from Australia, British India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Cyprus, the Free French Forces, Greece, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Poland, Rhodesia, South Africa, Mauritius, as well a ...
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United States Army North
The United States Army North (ARNORTH) is a formation of the United States Army. An Army Service Component Command (ASCC) subordinate to United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM), ARNORTH is the joint force land component of NORTHCOM.U.S. Army North (15 May 2020) Joint Forces Land Component Command
JFLCC component of NORTHCOM
ARNORTH is responsible for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities. ARNORTH is headquartered at , . Redesignated ARNORTH in 2004, it was first activated ...
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15th Army Group
The 15th Army Group was an army group in World War II, composed of the British Eighth Army and initially the Seventh United States Army (1943), replaced by the Fifth United States Army (from January 1944), which apart from units from across the British Empire and United States, also had entire units from other allied countries/regions, including: one corps from Free France and one from Poland; one division from Brazil; multiple separate brigades of Italians and Greeks; plus support to, and from, local Italian partisans. It operated in the Italian Campaign from 1943 to 1945. History The 15th Army Group was activated in 1943 in Algiers, North Africa, to plan the invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky. Its main forces for this job were the Seventh United States Army, under Lieutenant General George Patton, and the British Eighth Army, under General Bernard Montgomery. Following the capture of Sicily, the army group became responsible for the invasion of mainland Italy fo ...
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Rodolfo Graziani
Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli ( , ; 11 August 1882 – 11 January 1955), was an Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy's Royal Italian Army, Royal Army, primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and during World War II. A dedicated Italian fascism, fascist and prominent member of the National Fascist Party, he was a key figure in the Italian military during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Graziani played an important role in the consolidation and expansion of the Italian colonial empire during the 1920s and 1930s, first Pacification of Libya, in Libya and then Second Italo-Ethiopian War, in Ethiopia. He became infamous for harsh repressive measures, such as the use of Italian concentration camps, concentration camps that caused many civilian deaths, and for extreme measures taken against the native resistance of the countries invaded by the Italian army, such as the hanging of Omar Mukhtar. Due to his brutal methods used in Libya, he was nic ...
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Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, his overthrow in 1943. He was also of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until Death of Benito Mussolini, his summary execution in 1945. He founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). As a dictator and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired the List of fascist movements, international spread of fascism during the interwar period. Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and journalist at the Avanti! (newspaper), ''Avanti!'' newspaper. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but was expelled for advocating military intervention in World War I. In 1914, Mussolini founded a newspaper, ''Il P ...
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Joachim Lemelsen
Joachim Lemelsen (28 September 1888 – 30 March 1954) was a German general during World War II who rose to army-level command. During Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, troops of the XLVII Motorized Corps under his command executed the criminal Commissar Order, prompting Lemelsen to complain: "Soon the Russians will get to hear about the countless corpses lying along the routes taken by our soldiers (...). The result will be that the enemy will hide in the woods and fields and continue to fight--and we shall lose countless comrades". Early life Born in 1888 in Berlin, Lemelsen joined the army of Imperial Germany as an ''Fahnenjunker'' (officer cadet) in the artillery and later participated in World War I. Serving in the ''Wehrmacht'' of Nazi Germany, he commanded the Artillery ''Lehr'' Regiment in 1934 and from the following year taught at infantry school. In March 1938, Lemelsen was given command of the 29th Infantry Division. World War II Lem ...
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Traugott Herr
Traugott Herr (16 September 1890 – 13 April 1976) was a German general during World War II who commanded the 14th Army and the 10th Army of the Wehrmacht. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Early life Born in 1890, Herr joined the army of Imperial Germany in 1911 as an ''Fahnen-junker'' (officer cadet) in the infantry. Serving in the ''Wehrmacht'' of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, he commanded the 3rd Battalion of the 33rd Infantry Regiment. World War II Herr commanded an infantry regiment, part of the 13th Motorized Infantry Division, from 8 September 1939 to 14 October 1940, taking part in the Invasion of Poland (September 1939) and France (May 1940 to October 1940). In October 1940, the division was reformed in Vienna as 13th Panzer Division. Herr was given command of 13th Rifle Brigade, which controlled the division's two infantry regiments, on 14 October 1940. In the invasion of Poland, the division used civilians ...
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Heinrich Von Vietinghoff
Heinrich Gottfried Otto Richard von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel (6 December 1887 – 23 February 1952) was a German general (''Generaloberst'') of the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Vietinghoff commanded the German troops in German-occupied Italy in 1945. Career On 24 November 1938, Vietinghoff was appointed commander of the 5th Panzer Division and took part in the invasion of Poland under Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb. He was promoted to General in June 1940 after which he led the German XLVI Panzer Corps in the invasion of Yugoslavia. During Operation Barbarossa, his Corps was part of Army Group Centre under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock. As did all commanders of the German corps on the Eastern Front during the invasion, Vietinghoff implemented the criminal Commissar Order. Vietinghoff also later served with General Heinz Guderian in the 2nd Panzer Army. From December 1941 to August 1943, he was Commander-i ...
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