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Twelfth Army (United Kingdom)

Field	Value
unit_name	Twelfth Army
image	12th army.svg
image_size	150px
caption	12th Army formation badge.
dates	May — November 1945
country	United Kingdom
branch
type	Army
size	Field army
colors
colors_label
battles	Battle of the Sittang Bend

The Twelfth Army was a British Army formation during the Second World War. The Twelfth Army denotation was actually used twice; firstly, in 1943, for a fictional formation and secondly, in 1944/45, in Burma.

The Twelfth Army moniker was originally used by Advanced Headquarters 'A' Force, a Cairo-based deception department created by Dudley Clarke, for a formation used in Operation Barclay and Operation Zeppelin. It was later used for a real formation in Burma, which took over operations from the Fourteenth Army and would later become Burma Command.

1943: Middle East

A British Twelfth Army was initially invented by 'A' Force as part as the deception plan for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The Western Allies attempted to convince the Germans that their main effort during 1943 would be to land the Twelfth Army in Greece and then advance into the eastern Balkans during the early part of the summer of 1943 with the aim of bringing Turkey into the war and then linking up with the Soviet Red Army. The deception plan attempted to convince the Germans that this army had twelve divisions under its control and was located in Egypt. The army's formation insignia was a trained seal balancing on its nose a terrestrial globe showing the Eastern Hemisphere, black on a white background. The insignia was supposed to symbolize an amphibious creature treating the whole world as its own.

Subordinate units

Between 1943 and 1945, when it was disbanded to allow the formation of the second British Twelfth Army, its nominal existence was used to create the impression of a standing threat to the Balkans. During this period the units shown under its control varied, depending on the target chosen. The following list includes all units mentioned as forming part of the Twelfth Army or its component corps.

Corps

[[File:III corps.svg|22px]] British III Corps (fictional)
[[File:XIV Corps WW1.svg|22px]] British XIV Corps (fictional)
British XVI Corps (fictional)
Polish III Corps (fictional)

Divisions

Polish 2nd Armored Division
[[File:UK 6th Airborne Division Patch.svg|22px]] British 4th Airborne Division (fictional)
[[File:UK 6th Airborne Division Patch.svg|22px]] British 5th Airborne Division (fictional)
[[File:5th UK Infantry Division.svg|22px]] British 5th Infantry Division
Polish 7th Infantry Division
[[File:8ArmDiv.png|22px]] British 8th Armoured Division (fictional)
Polish 8th Infantry Division (fictional)
[[File:15th deception armoured.svg|22px]] British 15th Motorized Division (fictional)
[[File:33rd Division WW2 deception.svg|22px]] British 33rd Infantry Division (fictional)
[[File:34th Division sign WW1.svg|22px]] British 34th Infantry Division (fictional)
[[File:40th Infantry Division Second World War (deception).svg|22px]] British 40th Infantry Division (fictional)
[[File:42nf inf (armd) division WW2.svg|22px]] British 42nd Infantry Division (fictional)
[[File:British 56th (1st London) Division insignia.png|16px]] British 56th Infantry Division
[[File:57th Division ww1.svg|22px]] British 57th Infantry Division (fictional)

1945: Burma

The insignia of the second British Twelfth Army

The second British Twelfth Army was formed on 28 May 1945, to take control of operations in Burma from the Fourteenth Army, which was being withdrawn to plan for Operation Zipper, the planned invasion of Malaya by amphibious assault, which was due to take place in August 1945. The army HQ was created by re-designating the HQ of the Indian XXXIII Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir Montagu Stopford.

Kimura]], hands over his sword to Brigadier J. D. Shapland his opposite number on the staff of the British Twelfth Army at a formal ceremony held in Rangoon.

After the war, Twelfth Army continued in existence until 1 October, when it was re designated Burma Command. The formation insignia was a Chinthe on a red background, with a superimposed horizontal black stripe on which was written "XII" in white letters.

Notes

References

{{harv. Howard. 1995
Bacon. 1998
"badge, formation, British, 12th Army". www.iwm.org.uk.
{{harv. Holt. 2005
{{harv. MacIntyre. 2010
"New Burma Army, 1945-1949".
(26 January 2011). "Obituary:Tun Ibrahim Ismail". The Daily Telegraph.
"Stopford, Montagu George North". Generals.dk.
"Badge, formation, 12th Army". Imperial War Museum.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

military-units-and-formations-established-in-1943 military-units-and-formations-disestablished-in-1945 field-armies-of-the-united-kingdom field-armies-of-the-united-kingdom-in-world-war-ii fictional-units-of-world-war-ii military-units-and-formations-of-the-british-empire-in-world-war-ii military-units-and-formations-in-burma-in-world-war-ii

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