appointed to command Fifth Army in his place. Truscott would command the Army from 16 December 1944 until the war's end. Another change came in January 1945 when XIII Corps reverted to control of British Eighth Army, which had also seen many changes in composition and command, and was now commanded by Lieutenant-General Richard L. McCreery. In the final offensive of the Italian campaign, launched in April 1945, against the German Army Group C, the Eighth Army initiated the main offensive on the Adriatic coast, and then the Fifth Army also broke through the German defenses around Bologna. The German units, in the main, were pinned against the Po River and destroyed, or at the very least deprived of their transport and heavy weapons, which effectively made many of them useless. II Corps units raced through Milan towards the French frontier and the great port of Genoa. IV Corps pushed due north through Verona, Vicenza and as far as Bolzano and to the Brenner Pass, where they linked up with elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General Alexander Patch. Its role in Italy cost Fifth Army dearly. It suffered 109,642 casualties in 602 days of combat, of which 19,475 were killed in action. The Fifth Army headquarters returned to the United States in September 1945. Fifth Army was inactivated on 2 October 1945 at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. In the informal athletic competitions held between units of the European and North African theaters, the Fifth Army was among the most successful, winning titles in baseball, boxing, swimming and football during the 1944 season. The football championship was gained after a victory over 12th Air Force in the Spaghetti Bowl on 1 January 1945. Order of Battle August 1944 (Part of 15th Army Group) United States Fifth Army – (Lieutenant General Mark Clark) U.S. II Corps – (Major General Geoffrey Keyes) U.S. 34th Infantry Division – (Major General Charles L. Bolte) U.S. 88th Infantry Division – (Major General John E. Sloan) U.S. 91st Infantry Division – (Major General William G. Livesay) U.S. IV Corps – (Major General Willis D. Crittenberger) 6th South African Armoured Division – (Major-General Evered Poole) U.S. 85th Infantry Division – (Major General John B. Coulter) Brazilian Expeditionary Force – (Major General Mascarenhas de Morais) U.S. 442nd Infantry Regiment British XIII Corps – (Lieutenant-General Sidney Kirkman) British 1st Infantry Division – (Major-General Charles Loewen) British 6th