XV Corps ( United States ) The XV Corps of the US Army was initially constituted on 1 October 1933 as part of the Organized Reserves , and was activated on 15 February 1943 at Camp Beauregard , Louisiana . During the Second World War , XV Corps fought for 307 days in the European Theater of Operations , fighting from Normandy through France and southern Germany into Austria . The corps was commanded in combat by Major General Wade H . Haislip , initially as a subordinate unit to the Third U . S . Army and later as part of the Seventh U . S . Army . After the end of the war the corps was inactivated and reactivated several times , finally being inactivated in 1968 . Normandy . XV Corps took part in the July , 1944 breakout from Normandy ( Operation Cobra ) . The corps liberated Le Mans on 8 August 1944 . In a controversial decision by the Twelfth United States Army Group commander , Lieutenant General Omar Bradley , the corps was halted at Argentan on 13 August 1944 , before it effected juncture with Canadian troops , allowing Germans trapped in the Falaise Pocket an escape route to the east . Seizing a bridgehead over the Seine River on 20 August 1944 , the corps then mopped up German resistance along the west bank of the river . Subsequently , the corps had no divisions assigned to it and used its corps troops to screen the southern flank of the U . S . XII Corps . Lorraine . On 11 September , XV Corps drove toward the Moselle River and crossed it at Charmes the following day . On 13 September , the French 2nd Armored Division , assigned to the corps , destroyed a German Panzer brigade in the town of Dompaire . After several days of battle , XV Corps liberated Lunéville on 22 September 1944 . From 28 September until 10 October 1944 , the corps cleared the Parroy Forest in Lorraine against determined German resistance . For another 12 days , XV Corps fought to capture the hill mass east of the Parroy Forest . On 1 November 1944 , the corps ' French 2nd Armored Division took Baccarat after a two - day battle . From 13 to 19 November 1944 , XV Corps pierced German defenses in the Vosges Mountains near Sarrebourg , enabling the French 2nd Armored Division to force the Saverne Gap and liberate Strasbourg on 23 November 1944 . This breakthrough unbalanced German defenses in the northern Vosges and opened the way for Seventh Army troops to advance into Alsace and reach the Rhine River . Alsace . On 5 December 1944 , the corps moved north against German defenses in the Maginot Line around Bitche . The fighting for the old French forts continued until 20 December 1944 . Thereafter , the corps assumed a defensive stance . The corps withstood a fierce German counter - offensive ( Operation Nordwind ) into Alsace during January , 1945 . During this period , XV Corps defended well , restored most of its original position by 7 January 1945 , and assumed a defensive stance again until mid - February . From 15 to 23 February 1945 , the corps made limited attacks , seizing Forbach , Gros Recherding , and hills south of Saarbrücken . Subsequently , the corps rested and prepared for offensive action designed to breach the Siegfried Line and invade Germany . Germany and Austria . On 15 March 1945 , XV Corps ( along with the VI Corps and the XXI Corps ) launched a major offensive ( Operation Undertone ) . On 20 March 1945 , the corps broke through the Siegfried Line , captured Homburg and Zweibrücken and then assaulted across the Rhine River in the region of Worms and Mannheim on 26 March 1945 . Taking Bamberg on 13 April 1945 , the corps moved south and seized Nuremberg on 20 April 1945 after five days of house - to - house combat . On 3 May 1945 , the corps took Munich , and by the next day the corps had advanced to Salzburg , Austria , where combat operations for the corps ceased . Campaign credits and inactivation . XV Corps is credited with service in the Normandy , Northern France , Rhineland , Ardennes - Alsace , and Central Europe campaigns . XV Corps Headquarters was inactivated in Germany on 31 March 1946 . Subsequent to the Second World War , the corps was activated and inactivated several times , with the last inactivation occurring on 31 March 1968 at the Presidio of San Francisco , California .