Shoulder Sleeve Insignia of the U.S. Fifteenth Army.

The US Fifteenth Army was the last field army to see service in northwest Europe during World War II. It was first activated in early 1945, with Lieutenant General Leonard T. Gerow assuming command on 15 January. Fifteenth Army never entered the main line of battle. However, its formations did see some action, when it contained and then reduced the enormous Ruhr Pocket from the west during April 1945 in conjunction with elements of Ninth Army. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II... Gerow was commander of the V Corps in the D-Day assault on Normandy, June 1944. ... The Ruhr Pocket was a battle that took place at the end of World War II in the Ruhr Area, Germany. ... The US Ninth Army was one of the main US combat commands used during the campaign in northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945. ...

Gerow remained in command of Fifteenth Army until he was succeeded by General George S. Patton in October 1945. Gen. Patton was appointed Commander, Fifteenth Army, and President of the European Theater General Board on 14 October 1945. George Smith Patton, Jr. ...

The Fifteenth Army was originally intended to command occupation forces in the Rhine Province, Saarland, Palatinate (Pfalz), and part of Hesse, areas now primarily parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. However, in the summer of 1945, the occupation mission in this sector was assumed in the north by the British Army and in the south by the French Army. North Rhine-Westphalia (German: Nordrhein-Westfalen, usually shortened to: NRW) is - in population and economic output - the largest Federal State of Germany. ... The Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz, sometimes Lower Palatinate or Niederpfalz) occupies rather more than a quarter of the German Bundesland (federal state) of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and contains the towns of Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Pirmasens, Landau and Speyer. ... Saarland is one of the 16 states of Germany. ...

Subsequently, the Fifteenth Army consisted solely of a small staff quartered at Bad Nauheim in the interior of Germany. It consisted of a headquarters and special troops assigned to gather historical data on Allied operations during the war. In November 1945 Patton replaced Gen. Eisenhower as commander of US Forces in Europe. However, as a result of a car accident Gen. Patton died on 21 December 1945. Bad Nauheim is a small city in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army. ...

Major General Hobart Raymond Gay became commander of the U.S. Fifteenth Army in January 1946. Gay had been Chief of Staff of Third Army from February 1944 to October 1945, and then Chief of Staff of Fifteenth Army. He remained commander of Fifteenth Army for only about a month, becoming commander of the 1st Armored Division in February 1946.