Second Army ( United Kingdom ) The British Second Army was active during both the First and Second World War s . During the First World War the army was active on the Western Front and in Italy . During the Second World War the army was the core element in the British contribution in the Normandy landings and subsequent advance across Europe . First World War . The Second Army was part of the British Army formed on 26 December 1914 , when the British Expeditionary Force was split in two due to becoming too big to control its subordinate formations . The army controlled both III Corps and IV Corps . Second Army spent most of the war positioned around the Ypres salient , but was redeployed to Italy between November 1917 and March 1918 . In 1919 it was reconstituted as the British Army of the Rhine . Second World War . 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 the D - Day landings of Operation Overlord , with its remaining units coming ashore during the remainder of the 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 of 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 tandem 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 , British and Polish parachute 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 British 1st Airborne Division during the Battle of Arnhem . Second Army spent the rest of the 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 Walther 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 .