The British Second Army was extant in both World Wars.

World War I

During World War I, the army was formed on December 26, 1914 when the British Expeditionary Force was split in two due to becoming too big to control its subordinate formations. The army was originally commanded by General Horace Smith-Dorrien and later by General Herbert Plumer. It spent the most of the war around the Ypres salient but was moved to Italy between November 1917 and March 1918. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British army sent to Belgium in World War I and British Forces in Europe from 1939 - 1940 during World War II. The BEF was established by Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Boer War in case Britain ever needed to... General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien (May 26, 1858–August 12, 1930) was a British soldier and commander of the British II Corps of the BEF during the Great War. ... Herbert Onslow Plumer (1857-1932) was a British colonial official and soldier. ... The Bellfry of Ypres The Menin Gate Cloth Hall at night Ruins of Ypres - 1919 Ypres (French, generally used in English;1 Ieper official name in the local Dutch) is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of West Flanders. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

World War II

The World War II formation was commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey and served under 21st Army Group. Two of its formations, I Corps and XXX Corps took part in the D Day landings of Operation Overlord. The initial penetration on D Day was not as good as hoped, and this pattern was repeated during the rest of the Normandy campaign. A third British corps, VIII Corps, entered the line during June to add its weight to the assault. However, the main British objective of this part of the campaign, Caen, still did not fall. Second Army mounted several offensives to attempt its capture. The city finally fell at the end of June. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Miles Dempsey (15th December 1896 - 5th June 1969) was commander of the 2nd British Army during the D-Day landings in World War II. After graduating from Sandhurst Military Academy in 1915 Dempsey joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment. ... (Redirected from 21st Army Group) The British 21st Army Group was an important Allied force in the European Theatre of World War II. Commanded by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery it initially controlled all ground forces in Operation Overlord. ... The British I Corps has a long history, and was in existence as an active formation in the British Army for longer than any other corps. ... The XXX Corps was an infantry corps in the British Army. ... The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. ... The British VIII Corps was an army corps formation that existed during World War I and World War II. World War I The VIII Corps was first formed at Gallipoli during World War I. The main British battle front was at Cape Helles on the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula. ... Location within France Caen is a city and a commune of northwestern France. ...

By the end of July, American forces had broken out of Normandy. As the swept east, the German Seventh Army was pinned by Second Army and trapped in pocket around Falaise. The formation was subsequently annihilated. Second Army then commenced a dash across France in tandem with the Americans on its right, and the Canadians on its left. During the interim, I Corps had left its control and been assigned to the Canadian First Army, and the British XII Corps had come into the line to replace I Corps in Second Army. The German Seventh Army (German: ) was a World War II field army. ... Falaise is a commune in the Calvados département, in the Basse-Normandie administrative région, in Normandy, north-western France. ... The Canadian First Army was the overall command for the Canadian military forces in Europe during World War II. It was formed in early 1942 to command two corps composed of the three infantry divisions, two armoured divisions, and two armoured brigades that had assembled in England. ...

Second Army entered Belgium quickly, and cleared much of the country. Its captures included the capital Brussels and the great port of Antwerp Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, French: Bruxelles, German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium and is considered by many to be the de facto capital of the European Union, as two of its three main institutions have their headquarters... The Cathedral of our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp)in the Handschoenmarkt, in the old part of Antwerp is the largest cathedral in the Low Countries and is home to a number of triptychs by the Belgian painter, Rubens. ...

Second Army's most high profile operation in 1944, apart from Overlord was Operation Market Garden. British and American parachute troops were landed to capture vital bridges over several rivers in order to allow the Allied troops to cross the Rhine and advance into Germany. Second Army's XXX Corps was then supposed to push up a single road and relieve the parachute troops. However, the single road caused enormous logistical difficulties, and crack German troops that intelligence was unaware of were in the area. The American formations were relieved, but the British 1st Airborne Division, after holding the bridges at Arnhem far longer than had been specified in the plan, and even beyond the best estimates of what was possible, was largely destroyed before it could be relieved. Operation Market-Garden was an Allied military operation in World War II, which took place in September 1944. ... The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1,320 km Elevation of the source Vorderrhein: approx. ... The British 1st Airborne Division was a military unit that fought in World War II. It suffered terrible casualties, especially in Operation Market Garden. ...

After the failure of the operation, Second Army spent the rest of the year exploiting the salient that it had created to close up to the Rhine and Meuse rivers in the Netherlands. The final part of that phase too place in mid-January 1945, with the clearing of the Roermond Triangle by XII and VIII Corps. This enabled the completion of closing up to the River Roer. In military terms, a salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. ... Meuse is a département in northeast France, named after the Meuse River. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

During February, Second Army entered a holding phase. Whilst it pinned down the German forces facing it, the Canadian First Army and US Ninth Army made a pincer movement from north and south which piered the Siegfried Line in that area and cleared the remaining German forces west of the Rhine in conjunction with further American offensives in the south of the Rhineland. The Canadian First Army was the overall command for the Canadian military forces in Europe during World War II. It was formed in early 1942 to command two corps composed of the three infantry divisions, two armoured divisions, and two armoured brigades that had assembled in England. ... The US Ninth Army was one of the main US combat commands used during the campaign in northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945. ... Bunker on the Siegfried line The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany along their border with France in 1916-1917 during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built... The Rhineland (Rheinland in German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. ...

Second Army crossed the Rhine on 23 March. It then headed across the North German Plain, with First Army on its left wheeling to clear the north of Holland, and Ninth Army on its right helping to trap the German Army Group B under Model in an enormous pocket. With Army Group B trapped, the last major German formation in the west was out of the equation, and the German state began its final disintegration. March 23 is the 82nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (83rd in Leap years). ... The North German Plain is a lowland region extending from the North Sea and Baltic Sea southward to the uplands of central Germany. ...

Second Army reached the Weser on 4 April, the Elbe on 19 April on by 7 May the Soviet Army had met up with the British forces and the shore of the Baltic Sea had been reached. Shortly thereafer, the Second World War came to an end with the surrender of the government of Karl Dönitz. Weser watershed The Weser is a river of north-western Germany. ... The Elbe River (Czech Labe, Sorbian/Lusatian Łobjo, Polish Łaba, German Elbe) is one of the major waterways of central Europe. ... This article is about the armed forces of the Soviet Union. ... The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Eastern Europe and Central Europe, and the Danish islands. ... Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. ...