On 20 October 1944, troops of the United States Sixth Army under the direct command of Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, invaded the Philippine island of Leyte . This operation was the beginning of General Douglas MacArthur's fulfillment of his promise in March 1942 to the Filipino people that he would liberate them from Japanese rule.
The choice of Leyte was the result of heated discussion at the highest levels of the US military and government. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King had forcefully advocated for an invasion of the island of Formosa, about 300 mi (480 km) north of the Philippines, insisting that it would both bolster the morale of the Nationalist Chinese, then fighting the Japanese occupation of their country, and provide a much closer base for military operations against the Japanese home islands. In the event, MacArthur's viewpoint that the United States needed to be seen as following through on its promise to liberate the Filipino people from Japanese oppression won out.
Summary of US ground forces:
US Sixth Army
Lieutenant General Walter Krueger
Approx. 202,500 total officers and enlisted [1]
Southwest Pacific Area
General Douglas MacArthur
US Sixth Army
Lieutenant General Walter Krueger
Approx. 202,500 officers and enlisted [2]
Southern Army (Southeast Asia) [11]
Field Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi [lower-alpha 2] at Manila
The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army specializing in parachute assault operations into hostile areas with a U.S. Department of Defense mandate to be "on-call to fight any time, anywhere" at "the knife's edge of technology and readiness." Primarily based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division is part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 82nd Airborne Division is the U.S. Army's most strategically mobile division.
The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the amphibious invasion of the island of Leyte in the Philippines by American forces and Filipino guerrillas under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The operation, codenamed King Two, launched the Philippines campaign of 1944–45 for the recapture and liberation of the entire Philippine Archipelago and to end almost three years of Japanese occupation.
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
The XVIII Airborne Corps is a corps of the United States Army that has been in existence since 1942 and saw extensive service during World War II. The corps is designed for rapid deployment anywhere in the world and is referred to as "America's Contingency Corps." Its headquarters are at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.
Operation Golden Pheasant was an emergency deployment of U.S. troops to Honduras in 1988, in response to Nicaraguan attacks on Contra logistics in Honduras.
The 1st Infantry Division (1ID) is a combined arms division of the United States Army, and is the oldest continuously serving division in the Regular Army. It has seen continuous service since its organization in 1917 during World War I. It was officially nicknamed "The Big Red One" after its shoulder patch and is also nicknamed "The Fighting First". The division has also received troop monikers of "The Big Dead One" and "The Bloody First" as puns on the respective officially sanctioned nicknames. It is currently based at Fort Riley, Kansas.
The VII Army Corps of the United States Army was one of the two principal corps of the United States Army Europe during the Cold War. Activated in 1918 for World War I, it was reactivated for World War II and again during the Cold War. During both World War II and the Cold War it was subordinate to the Seventh Army, or USAREUR and was headquartered at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, West Germany, from 1951 until it was redeployed to the US after significant success in the Gulf War in 1991, then inactivated in 1992.
The 1st Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War. The division was formed in late 1941 during the Second World War, after the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, demanded an airborne force, and was initially under command of Major-General Frederick A. M. "Boy" Browning. The division was one of two airborne divisions raised by the British Army during the war, with the other being the 6th Airborne Division, created in May 1943, using former units of the 1st Airborne Division.
The 24th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army that was inactivated in October 1996. Formed during World War II from the disbanding Hawaiian Division, the division saw action throughout the Pacific theater, first fighting in New Guinea before landing on the Philippine islands of Leyte and Luzon, driving Japanese forces from them. Following the end of the war, the division participated in occupation duties in Japan, and was the first division to respond at the outbreak of the Korean War. For the first 18 months of the war, the division was heavily engaged on the front lines with North Korean and Chinese forces, suffering over 10,000 casualties. It was withdrawn from the front lines to the reserve force for the remainder of the war after the second battle for Wonju, but returned to Korea for patrol duty at the end of major combat operations.
The 11th Airborne Division is a United States Army airborne formation based in Alaska.
The 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment (Rakkasans) is a regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
The 503rd Infantry Regiment, formerly the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment served as an independent regiment in the Pacific War during World War II; at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; in Okinawa, Japan; and in Germany. Regimental elements have been assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, the 11th Airborne Division, the 24th Infantry Division, 25th Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. Regimental elements have participated in campaigns in the Vietnam War, Operation Enduring Freedom–Afghanistan, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The regiment claims 15 Medal of Honor recipients: two from World War II, ten from Vietnam, and three from Afghanistan. A parent regiment under the U.S. Army Regimental System. The regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions are active, assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based at Caserma Ederle, Vicenza, Italy. The 3rd and 4th Battalions as well as Companies E, F, G, H, and I have been inactived.
This is the complete order of battle of Allied and German forces involved during Operation Market Garden.
The 5th Infantry Brigade was a regular infantry brigade of the British Army that was in existence since before the First World War, except for a short break in the late 1970s. It was an Airborne Brigade from the early 1980s until amalgamating with 24th Airmobile Brigade, in 1999, to form 16 Air Assault Brigade.
The maroon beret in a military configuration has been an international symbol of airborne forces since the Second World War. It was first officially introduced by the British Army in 1942, at the direction of Major-General Frederick "Boy" Browning, commander of the British 1st Airborne Division. It was first worn by the Parachute Regiment in action in North Africa during November 1942.
In the United States (US) military, a beret flash is a shield-shaped embroidered cloth that is typically 2.25 in (5.72 cm) tall and 1.875 in (4.76 cm) wide with a semi–circular base that is attached to a stiffener backing of a military beret. These flashes—a British English word for a colorful cloth patch attached to military headgear—are worn over the left eye with the excess cloth of the beret shaped, folded, and pulled over the right ear giving it a distinctive appearance.
This is the order of battle for the invasion of Iraq during the Iraq War between coalition forces and the Iraqi Armed Forces; Fedayeen Saddam irregulars; and others between March 19 and May 1, 2003.
The 11th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade is a Combat Aviation Brigade in the United States Army Reserve. The unit's lineage can be traced to the prior lineage and insignia of the 11th Aviation Group which was last headquartered in Illesheim, Germany in 2005. It is one of two aviation brigades of Army Reserve Aviation Command. The brigade consists of a headquarters company, two Black Hawk assault battalions, and one fixed wing battalion. The brigade was activated in its current formation on 16 September 2016.
The III Army Corps was one of three corps the Italian Army fielded during the Cold War. Based in the regions of Lombardy and Piedmont the corps was the army's operational reserve, while the 4th Alpine Army Corps and the 5th Army Corps, both based in the North East of Italy, were the army's front-line units. After the end of the Cold War the corps was reduced in size and on 1 December 2000 it ceded its last brigades to the 1st Defence Forces Command. The personnel of the 3rd Army Corps was used to raise the NATO Rapid Deployable Italian Corps in January 2001.
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