General George S. Patton served as the Commanding General of the 15th Army

On 07/10/1945, General George S. Patton Jr. spent his final full day as commander of the Third United States Army in occupied Germany, following mounting controversy over his public remarks about Allied denazification policy. In September 1945, Patton gave interviews to reporters in which he compared former members of the Nazi Party to members of American political parties and questioned the removal of large numbers of German officials from administrative roles. These statements drew criticism from Allied leadership because they appeared to conflict with occupation policy intended to remove Nazi influence from German civil administration. General Dwight D. Eisenhower subsequently decided to remove Patton from both operational command of the Third Army and his responsibilities connected to military governance in Bavaria, where Third Army headquarters oversaw occupation administration. The change took effect on 07/10/1945, ending Patton’s tenure leading the Third Army after its rapid advances across France, Luxembourg, and Germany during 1944 and 1945. The decision followed internal discussions within Allied command about maintaining consistency in occupation policy and limiting further public controversy. After being relieved, Patton was reassigned the same day to command the Fifteenth United States Army at Bad Nauheim, Germany. The Fifteenth Army had been activated in October 1945 with a mission centered on compiling operational histories and documentation of the European Theater. The reassignment removed Patton from frontline authority while keeping him within the U.S. Army command structure in Germany. He remained in that position until he was injured in a car accident near Mannheim on 09/12/1945 and died on 21/12/1945.