| V Corps | |
|---|---|
V Corps shoulder sleeve insignia |
|
| Active | 1862–1865 1898 1918–1919 1940–present |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Type | Army Corps |
| Role | Tactical headquarters element |
| Part of | United States Army Europe |
| Garrison/HQ | Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Germany |
| Nickname | Victory Corps
(and The Chrysler Corps due to the shape of it's sleeve insignia) |
| Motto | It will be done |
| Engagements | Civil War Spanish American War World War I World War II Iraq Campaign |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander |
BG Michael A. Ryan (Acting) |
| Notable commanders |
Leonard Gerow Creighton Abrams Colin Powell Ricardo S. Sanchez Charles P. Summerall |
| Insignia | |
| Crest | |
| U.S. Corps (1939 - Present) | |
|---|---|
| Previous | Next |
| IV Corps (United States) | VI Corps (United States) |
The V Corps, also known as the Victory Corps, is a corps-level formation of the United States Army and the main land component of United States Army Europe. The corps headquarters is located at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield in Wiesbaden, Germany. Its organization is similar to a traditional division, with four brigade combat teams and one Combat Aviation Brigade.
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V Corps was organized 18 May 1862, while the Army of the Potomac, to which it belonged, was engaged on the Peninsular campaign. During the course of V Corps wartime service, the Corps took part in the battles of Hanover Court House; Mechanicsville; Gaines' Mill; Glendale; Malvern Hill; Manassas; Antietam; Shepherdstown Ford; Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Gettysburg; Rappahannock Station; Mine Run; Wilderness; Alsop's Farm; Laurel Hill; Spotsylvania; North Anna; Totopotomoy; Bethesda Church; Cold Harbor; Petersburg Assault; Siege Of Petersburg; Weldon Railroad; Poplar Spring Church; Hatcher's Run; Dabney's Mills; Gravelly Run; White Oak Road; Five Forks; and Appomattox. V Corps was demobilized on 28 June 1865.
V Corps was assembled at Tampa, Florida and sailed for Cuba on 12 July 1898 under the command of William R. Shafter. It was engaged in the battles of Las Guasimas, San Juan Hill, El Caney and the siege of Santiago. Due to sickness and disease the corps returned to New York and was officially disbanded in September 1898.
V Corps was re-established during World War I at Remiremont, France on 7 July 1918, initially organized by Maj.Gen. William M. Wright. Under the command of Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron it fought in the St. Mihiel offensive. By the end of the war, the Corps had participated in three campaigns and under the command of Maj. Gen. Charles P. Summerall, it carried the main attack in the decisive Meuse-Argonne offensive. Dubbed the "Victory Corps" in recognition of its rapid advance in the final phase of the war, V Corps returned to the United States in 1919.
V Corps was reactivated at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, in October 1940, and took part in the famous Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. The organization deployed to Ireland after Germany declared war on the United States, providing the first American soldiers and the first army headquarters deployed to the European theater in World War II.
V Corps was one of the formations that took part in the D-Day landings, on 6 June 1944. It landed on Omaha Beach with the 1st Infantry Division (United States) and 29th Infantry Division (United States) , and many casualties were suffered there due to the strong German defenses. During the Battle of Normandy, and indeed for almost the whole campaign up to the surrender of Germany, V Corps was assigned to First United States Army. The only exceptions were a brief detachment to Seventh United States Army during the autumn of 1944 and being switched to Third United States Army during the very final days before the enemy surrender.
After the war, V Corps remained in Germany until 1946 and then returned to South, then North Carolina. V Corps returned to Germany in June 1951 as part of the American occupation forces and the activation of the two corps US Seventh Army in USAREUR. V Corps' role then evolved into that of countering Soviet forces stationed in East Germany, specifically the 8th Guards Army. Along with VII Corps, it was one of the two main US combat formations in Germany. Specifically, it guarded the vital Fulda Gap against a possible Soviet attack.
With the end of the Cold War came the Gulf War. Although units from V Corps took part in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the corps headquarters itself did not deploy. They came under the control of VII Corps or XVIII Airborne Corps.
After the Persian Gulf War, VII Corps was withdrawn back to the United States and disbanded, leaving V Corps as the only major US combat field headquarters in Europe. Various peacekeeping operations during the 1990s took V Corps units to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. However, as during the Gulf War, the headquarters itself did not deploy. In September 2000, V Corps participated in Operation Victory Strike I, one of the first times American units had ever deployed in Poland. In September 2001, Victory Strike II repeated the exercise. 4000 U.S., Polish, and Italian soldiers took part. The exercise tested a modular plug-in command post system which is expected to be used by U.S. forces in the future.
In March 2002, General Wallace traveled to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to discuss contingency plans for deployment to the Middle East. A year later, for the first time since 1945, V Corps headquarters deployed for combat operations. It had many of the American forces committed to Operation Iraqi Freedom under its command. The main units under its command were the 3rd Infantry Division, 101st Airborne Division,and 1st Armored Division along with a brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division. V Corps then handed control over Iraq to III Corps.
A significant portion of V Corps redeployed from Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as Task Force Victory under the command of Lieutenant General Peter W. Chiarelli on 12 December 2006. V Corps returned to Germany in 2007. In accordance with the US Army's modularization plan, V Corps was to have been eliminated in 2009. This scheduled inactivation was initially postponed, then canceled.
V Corps manned its first Command Post and deployed it to Afghanistan in the summer of 2009, and deployed its second Command Post element in the summer of 2010. In early 2011, the reconstitution and relocation of V Corps to Wiesbaden Army Airfield (WAAF) were accelerated, and V Corps achieved initial operating capability at WAAF on 1 June 2011.[1] The corps headquarters was officially established at Wiesbaden on 12 August 2011.[2]
V Corps has 24,000 personnel and consists of the following formations:
Over the course of its history, V Corps has had fifty-four commanders[4]
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