History of the XVI Corps from its activation to the end of the war in Europe

Authors

United States Army

Files

Description

With the activation of the XVI Corps on 7 December 1943, the War Department added another fighting Corps to its rapidly expanding Army of the United States, a Corps that was destined within little more than a year to make an historic assault across Europe's Rhine River and to play an important part in the United States Ninth and First Armies' encirclement of the vital Ruhr industrial area and the total defeat of Nazi Germany.

Under the command of Maj. Gen. John B. Anderson, Corps commander since shortly after its organization, the XVI Corps proved in training and in combat operations its right to a place among the leading Corps of the United States armies. It conducted an efficient training program in preparation for combat prior to its departure from the United States. Arriving in France, it assumed the responsibility of processing troops as they arrived on the European Continent and protected the Normandy beaches from possible counter-attacks by hostile forces on the nearby Channel Islands.

The XVI Corps protected the Ninth United States Army's northern flank in the Roer River assault, driving the German foe from the Roer to the Rhine River so relentlessly that enemy units in the north were unable to aid the hard-pressed German forces being hammered on other sectors of the Ninth Army front. It smashed across the Rhine in a great inland amphibious operation and drove inexorably onward to assist in trapping crack German Armies in the Ruhr valley.

The Corps swept the Germans from the big industrial cities north of the Ruhr River, including Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg, and Gelsenkirchen, swinging south as the Ninth and First Armies combined to crush all enemy resistance in the Ruhr. Then, turning from tactical operations to other duties, it directed the military occupation and government of the greater section of the German provinces of Westphalia, Lippe, and Schaumburg Lippe.

Publication Date

1947

Publisher

Infantry Journal Press

City

Washington

Keywords

United States Navy, World War 1939-1945, Regimental Histories, XVI Corps, Western Campaign

Disciplines

Military History

Recommended Citation

United States Army, "History of the XVI Corps from its activation to the end of the war in Europe" (1947). Regimental Histories. 80.
https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/ww_reg_his/80