Active 1943–952008–present Type Field army Nickname(s) "Alamo Force" Founded 1943 | Branch United States Army Role Component command Motto Born Of War Engagement World War II | |
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Country United States of America Notable commanders Walter Krueger, Joseph Stilwell, Robert Milchrist Cannon Similar Fourth United States Army, Tenth United States Army, X Corps (United States) | ||
Sixth Army is a field army of the United States Army. The Army service component command of United States Southern Command, its area of responsibility includes 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston.
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The Sixth Army saw extensive service in the South Pacific during World War II, including in New Britain, New Guinea, and the Philippines. Postwar it served stateside training army forces till its inactivation during force reduction in 1995. The army was reactivated in 2007.
History
The Sixth United States Army was activated in January 1943, commanded by Lieutenant General Walter Krueger. Under the code name Alamo Force, it assumed control of the majority of US Army units involved in Operation Cartwheel, the campaign to isolate and neutralize the Japanese base at Rabaul in New Britain. Following the completion of Cartwheel, Sixth Army joined Australian Army and other US forces on the north coast of New Guinea. Similar in conception to the island hopping operations of the central Pacific, the object of the attacks was to land, establish a garrison and airfield which could support the next strike, and then move on.
In September 1944, Sixth Army was relieved from operations in New Guinea by the Eighth United States Army. On 20 October 1944, X Corps and XXIV Corps, under Sixth Army, invaded Leyte in the Philippines. By December, Leyte was secured, and the Sixth Army was relieved again by Eighth Army to prepare for the invasion of Luzon. As a prelude to that invasion, the island of Mindoro was invaded by the Western Visayan Task Force comprising the 19th and 503rd Regimental Combat Teams. Sixth Army took part in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945 with the subordinate units of I and XIV Corps. Sixth Army units fought south until they met up those of Eighth Army advancing from around Manila. Sixth Army then continued to clear the north of Luzon until the end of the war. Sixth Army was to have provided the ground forces for the first phase of the invasion of Japan, but the surrender changed that.
Occupation duty then followed for a short while until Sixth Army returned to the United States, headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco. Sixth Army then took responsibility for training of Army forces from part of the continental United States, until it was inactivated as part of force reductions in June 1995.
Reactivation
In 2007 it was decided that US Army South will be redesignated as US Army South (Sixth Army) under the Army modularization program. It is garrisoned at the Old Brooke Army Medical Center building at Fort Sam Houston.
In popular culture
The Sixth U.S. Army is portrayed prominently in the 1953 film War of the Worlds, and is shown defending Los Angeles from an attack by Martians. In the film, the 6th Army Commander (General Mann) is portrayed by actor Les Tremayne.