Army group

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An army group is a military organization (formation) consisting of several field armies, and is supposed to be self-sufficient for indefinite periods. An army group is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. In the Soviet Union an army group was called a "front". An Army Group is the largest field organization handled by a single commander in modern warfare, and usually includes between 400,000 and 1,500,000 troops.

Army groups may be multi-national formations. For example in 1944–45 during the Second World War, the Southern Group of Armies (U.S. 6th Army Group) comprised the US Seventh Army and the French First Army; and Montgomery's 21st Army Group comprised the British Second Army, the Canadian First Army, and the US Ninth Army.

1 World War II
2 NATO 'Army Groups'
3 See also

[edit] World War II

[edit] Germany

The German Army was organized into army groups (Heeresgruppen). (See List of German Army Groups in WWII). Some of these Army Groups were multinational, containing Armies from several Axis countries. For example Army Group Africa contained both German and Italian corps.

[edit] Soviet Union

The Soviet Army was organized into Fronts (фронт) which were often as large as an army group. (See List of Soviet fronts in World War II). Some of the Fronts contained both Soviet and Allied arimes. For example the Polish First Army was part of the 1st Belorussian Front.

[edit] Western Allies

In April 1943 the previously informal British-United States collaboration in the European Theater was strengthened by the establishment in London of a formal planning headquarters called Chief of Staff Supreme Allied Command, or COSSAC, and in February 1944 this headquarters was replaced by the final interallied headquarters for the Theater—Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). SHAEF was the operational command, headed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, that planned the invasion, and issued opperational commands once the invasion took place. General Eisenhower also became (in January 1944) the commanding general of the European Theater of Operations United States Army (ETOUSA) that was responsible for the administration of American forces in the theater (pay, recreation and such like). The staff organizations of SHAEF and ETOUSA were distinct. Each headquarters as a rule had its own staff sections manned by separate personnel. The staff organization in SHAEF was headed by the Chief of Staff and had as an important officer the Secretary of the General Staff. The G-2 and G-3 divisions of SHAEF, which comprise a portion of this accession, functioned according to the United States War Department General Staff pattern.

SHAFE had operational control over three inter-Allied ground commands known as Army Groups. The inital two were Twenty- first Army Group, the Twelfth Army Group, and in Spetember 1944 operational command of the Sixth Army Group that had landed in the south of France during Operation Dragoon passed from AFHQ to SHAFE. As part of the pre-invasion deception plan called Operation Quicksilver a paper army group was set up called First United States Army Group (FUSAG) but it never had more than a token presence.

Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) in the Meditaranian theater also had operational command of the Fifteenth Army Group (a multi national army group) fighting in Italy.

South East Asia Command (SEAC) in the South-East Asian theater had operational command of the of the British 11th Army Group that was later reorganised and redesignated Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA). Like most other Western Allied army groups ALFSEA cordinatied a mixture of Allied forces from several nations.

[edit] NATO 'Army Groups'

During the Cold War, NATO land forces in what was designated the Central Region (most of the Federal Republic of Germany) would have been commanded in wartime by two 'Army Groups'. Under Allied Forces Central Europe and alongside air force elements, the two Army Groups would have been responsible for the defence of Germany against any Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion. These two Principal Subordinate Commanders (PSCs) had only limited peacetime authorities, and issues such as training, doctrine, logistics, rules of engagement (ROE), etc., were largely a national, rather than Alliance, responsibility.

The two formations were the 'Northern Army Group' (NORTHAG) and the 'Central Army Group' (CENTAG). By World War II and previous standards these two formations were only armies, as they contained four corps each.^[1] NORTHAG consisted, from north to south, of I Netherlands Corps (I (NE) Corps), I German Corps (I (GE) Corps), I (BR) Corps, and I Belgian Corps (I (BE) Corps). Its commander was the British commander of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). CENTAG consisted, from north to south, of III GE Corps, V US Corps, VII US Corps, and II (GE) Corps in the extreme south of the Federal Republic of Germany. The commander of the U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army commanded CENTAG.

In November 1991, the NATO heads of state and government adopted the "New Strategic Concept" at the NATO Summit in Rome. This new conceptual orientation led among other things, to fundamental changes both in the force and integrated command structure. Structural changes began in June of 1993, when HQ Central Army Group at Heidelberg, and Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) at Mönchengladbach, GE were deactivated and replaced by Headquarters Allied Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT), which was activated at Heidelberg on 1 July 1993.