What did the US Second Army do in World War 2?

Answer 1

US 2nd Army

• My father was in the 2nd army during ww 2. he informed me that they were not their own unit but attached to all kind of other units. for instance my dad was attached to the 857th ordinance co. heavy automotive maintainance. he was a mechanic/driver and worked on anything that needed repaired. he was a tech 4 seargentand he said that whenever they would move out he would either be in the lead vehicle or in the last vehicle bringing up the rear and that kind of made him nervous he was in china burma India Africa he served from 1942-1945 and was honorably discharged. i hope this helpes you out a little for i was searching for it too and was frustated until i asked him some questions about the 2nd army. good luck in your search for answers and be proud of your grandfathers service. i know im very proud of my fathers.

• I don't know much about there history but I have my fathers old jacket with the 2nd army patch on one arm and a Black Panther chewing on a tank in the other he told me they were under Patton and took some heavy losses

Answer 2

During WW2, the 2nd and 4th Armies remained in territorial USA and never engaged in active operations. II Corps - Organized and fought in North Africa, later in Italy. 2nd US Infantry Division landed at Normandy a few days after the D-Day landings and fought in France and Germany. 2nd US Armored Division, nicknamed "Hell on Wheels", deployed to North Africa and Sicily and was then sent to UK for landings on Normandy. It was the first unit to reach the Elbe River. Custermen

Answer 3

Well, the ultimate measure of success in war is victory. US troops, after the initial onslaught which saw some isolated garrisons eventually overcome in the Pacific (the Philippines, Wake Island), only lost one battle after that, at Kasserine Pass (Sidi Bou Zid) in North Africa. This was the first engagement where American troops received a large-scale attack from the Germans. In every campaign, American troops ultimately prevailed.

Probably the best combat arm was the US Army Field Artillery, which on the eve of the war got everything they had been hoping and planning for since the first war - new weapons, new FM radios with which to communicate with forward observers in the front line for the correction of aim, new 2 1/2 ton trucks to pull their new field pieces and haul ammunition. The German prisoners frequently mentioned, with awe, the lavish use of artillery ammunition Americans indulged in. German troops were always on a tight budget of artillery ammunition. And at that, fully half the artillery ammunition the US produced for WWII never made it overseas. For many years my neighbor across the street was a French lady who had married a GI. She mentioned that the Americans tore things up much worse than the Germans had when they arrived. Of course, the Germans were only having to overcome the French Army, which lost France in six weeks, while the US troops were having to root out the Germans. One pioneering artillery development for WWII still in use is "TOT", Time on Target, which involves having every gun within range of a given target fire so that ALL their shells arrive on the target at the same instant. Very, very demoralizing. Every US infantry division had as organic components four artillery battalions (three with 105MM howitzers, one with 155s). In addition there were hundreds of "independent" artillery battalions, not a permanent part of any larger formation, assigned to corps or field army HQs, and called the "corps artillery" or the "army artillery" which could supplement the divisions as needed. These included 105s, 155s and 8 inch batteries.

The Germans also frequently expressed disdain for the tactical skills of US troops. When new to combat, they tended to be as overconfident as they were green, and this led to very costly errors in negotiating the learning curve. The Germans rated the US airborne divisions and a few of the veteran infantry divisions (3rd, 1st, 9th, 4th) as good, but had little regard for the rest. US tankers entered combat in Europe believing what they had been told - that in the Sherman they had the best tank. They swiftly learned the truth, that German machines, tank for tank, were far superior. The US had to rely on vastly outproducing Germany in tanks (88,000 Shermans were built, and only 1300 German Tigers). But if you were in the tank immediately confronted with a Tiger or Panther, it wasn't much help to you having thousands of more American tanks somewhere behind you. The US also never had a decent anti-tank gun, even though the 37MM WWI relic with which the US started the war was replaced with a 57MM gun, this was still underpowered and unable to damage German tanks except at extremely close ranges. You had to hide in the bushes, let them get close, then try to knock the treads off, then you could do your dirty work. The bazooka, the rocket launcher used against tanks by infantry was vastly inferior to the German panzerfaust, which was the granddaddy of the RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) so beloved by terrorists today.

One reason for the pedestrian performance of US infantry in the war was based in leadership. The US needed many thousands of junior officers, to become platoon and company commanders, far more than could be supplied by West Point or ROTC. Some prewar professionals, sergeants, were induced to take a commission, but there were nowhere near enough of them either. The main source of junior officers was Officer Candidate Schools (OCS), which cranked out "ninety day wonders", brand new second lieutenants, from among enlisted men meeting certain criteria who could successfully complete the three month course. To produce the number of junior officers needed time was of the essence, so these officer candidates were instructed in precisely one tactic: the holding attack. The army, on the eve of the war, went from the old "square" organization of WWI, to being "triangular". Instead of four regiments to a division, now there were three. In fact, at every level, there were three maneuver units. An infantry squad of twelve men had three four-man fire teams. A rifle platoon had three rifle squads, plus a weapons squad with machine guns. A rifle company had three rifle platoons plus a weapons platoon. An infantry battalion had three rifle companies plus a weapons company. An infantry regiment had three infantry battalions. An infantry division had three infantry regiments (plus four artillery battalions). So, at every level, from second lieutenant to major general, the holding attack could be used. The holding attack involved using one or two of your maneuver units to pin the enemy down in his position with fire, while the other one or two of your maneuver units tried to get around to the flank or rear of the enemy position, to hit them from the side or from behind. For many situations, this is adequate, but when it was not, US officers had nothing else to fall back on, and were driven from above to keep pounding away until eventually the enemy collapsed from attrition, or decided to pull out.