![]() ![]() At that time VIII Corps was operating as an independent corps with direct access to Communications Zone, an arrangement that continued until the reduction of Brest on 18 September. By then, the worst of the period of hard times in supply was over, and the opening of Antwerp a few weeks later heralded the beginning of the era of plenty.Īrriving on the Continent at the end of August, the Ninth's headquarters on 5 September assumed command of one corps, the VIII, with the mission of reducing the Brittany peninsula and protecting the south flank of 12th Army Group along the Loire. Not until mid-November did Ninth Army have the responsibility for supporting a full-scale offensive. Though it resented being called a new army, because its headquarters had worked together for two years, first in the United States and later in England, in terms of the European campaign it was young, and in a sense it was like a family's youngest child that arrives when father is coming up in the world. 1 One reason for the normality of Ninth Army was its youth. "Unlike the noisy and bumptious Third and the temperamental First, the Ninth remained uncommonly normal," according to General Bradley. In this short but bloody battle Ninth Army, the latest to enter the European campaign, had earned the respect of the seasoned veterans of First and Third Armies and justified its proud code name, CONQUER. ![]() Painful lessons had been learned not only in the Ardennes but in Ninth Army's offensive on the Roer plain in November 1944. In preparing for the coming battle for Germany, army commanders had some sobering reflections on the quality of some of their weapons-notably tanks.
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