France, 1944 The formation was commanded by Lieutenant-General
Miles Dempsey and served under the
21st Army Group. Two of its formations,
I Corps (also containing Canadian units) and
XXX Corps took part in Operation Neptune, the 6 June
D-Day landings that commenced
Operation Overlord, with its remaining units coming ashore during the remainder of Overlord's Normandy campaign. The third corps to land,
VIII Corps, entered the line during late June to add its weight to the assault; in particular for the launching of
Operation Epsom. The main British objective during the early stages of the campaign was to capture the French city of
Caen, the so-called
Battle for Caen. However, due to various factors the city was not captured until mid-July during
Operation Atlantic, conducted by Canadian troops under the command of Second Army. By the end of July, American forces had broken out of Normandy. As they swept east, the
German Seventh Army was pinned by the Second Army and trapped in pockets around
Falaise. The German formation was subsequently annihilated during the
battle of the Falaise pocket. The Second Army then commenced a dash across France in parallel with the Americans on its right, and the Canadians on its left. During the interim, I Corps was transferred from Second Army's control, and assigned to the
First Canadian Army. Due to the heavy casualties sustained by the army during the Normandy campaign, the
59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division was disbanded in August 1944 to make up for the infantry deficit.
Belgium and the Netherlands Second Army entered
Belgium quickly, and cleared much of the country. Its captures included the capital
Brussels and the port city of
Antwerp. Second Army's highest profile operation in 1944, apart from Operation Overlord, was providing the main force for
Operation Market Garden. During the operation, American (
82nd and
101st), British (
1st) and Polish (
1st Polish Parachute Brigade)
airborne troops, outside the control of Second Army, were landed to capture vital bridges over several rivers in the east of the Netherlands, in order to allow Second Army's XXX Corps to cross the
Rhine and advance into
Germany, relieving the parachute troops en route. However, the single road XXX Corps had to traverse caused enormous logistical difficulties and, combined with German counterattacks, the operation failed resulting in the loss of much of the 1st Airborne Division during the
Battle of Arnhem. Second Army spent the rest of 1944 exploiting the
salient in the German line that it had created during Operation Market Garden, to advance on the Rhine and
Meuse rivers in the
Netherlands. The final part of this advance took place in mid-January 1945, with the clearing of the Roermond Triangle (codename
Operation Blackcock) by
XII and VIII Corps. This enabled the completion of the advance on the
River Roer. During February, 1945, 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 (Operations
Veritable and
Grenade) which pierced 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.
Germany, 1945 Second Army crossed the Rhine on 23 March in an attack codenamed
Operation Plunder. It then headed across the
North German Plain towards
Osnabrück, with the First Canadian Army on its left wheeling to clear the north of the Netherlands and the area of
Lower Saxony west of
Oldenburg. The US Ninth Army on its right turned south-east towards
Lippstadt to trap the German
Army Group B, under General
Walter Model, in an enormous
pocket in the Ruhr. With Army Group B trapped, the last major German formation in the west had been neutralized. Second Army reached the
Weser on 4 April, the
Elbe on 19 April, the shore of the
Baltic Sea at
Lübeck on 2 May. On 3 May,
Hamburg capitulated. By 7 May the
Soviet Army had met up with the British forces. Shortly thereafter, the Second World War in Europe came to an end with the surrender of the government of
Karl Dönitz, who had succeeded
Adolf Hitler after his suicide.
Commanders • July 1943 – January 1944
Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson • January 1944 – August 1945 Lieutenant-General
Miles Dempsey Order of battle Operation Overlord •
I Corps •
VIII Corps •
XII Corps •
XXX Corps Operation Market Garden • VIII Corps • XII Corps • XXX Corps ==See also==