Although the information contained in the following pages is not specific to the 45th Infantry Division, it presents an accurate overview of each campaign. Due to drastic reductions in U.S. military spending following the end of World War II, these divisions were equipped with worn-out or obsolete weaponry and suffered from a shortage of anti-armor weapons capable of penetrating the hulls of the North Korean T-34 tanks. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW As we visited Dachau we saw on a railroad sidetrack paralleling the main highway, and close to the gates of the prison camp, a train of cars which had been used to bring additional civilian prisoners to this camp. 4th Medical Battalion. Headquartered mostly in Oklahoma City, the guardsmen fought in both World War II and the Korean War. A Company), B & C Companies, 2nd Chemical On that day, three US Army divisions converged on the camp: the 42nd Infantry, the 45th Infantry, and the 20th Armored. The 45th Division landed in North Africa, 22 June 1943, and trained at Arzew, French Morocco. Or are you interested in war medals and their recipients? [94] The involvement of the National Guard in the fighting in Korea was further expanded when the 40th Infantry Division of the California Army National Guard received warning orders for deployment as well. 4th Infantry Division Band. These were the 7th Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division, the 24th Infantry Division, and the 25th Infantry Division, which were all under the control of the Eighth United States Army. [93][97] Nevertheless, it was not deployed to Korea until December 1951, when its advanced training was complete. Sheeran claimed to have participated in numerous massacres and summary executions of German POWs, acts which violated the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the 1929 Geneva Convention on POWs. [45] For the next few months the 45th Infantry Division was mostly stuck in place, holding its ground during repeated German counterattacks, and subjected to bombardment from aircraft and artillery.[39]. While Sheeran's unit was climbing the Harz Mountains, they came upon a Wehrmacht mule train carrying food and drink up the mountainside. We have placed this here so that you can get to see the faces of the men behind the history. 45th infantry division wwii roster . [36] The 45th Division spent a few days in that city, but on 1 August, the division was withdrawn from the front line for rest and rear-guard patrol duty,[26] after which the division was assigned to Major General Ernest J. Dawley's VI Corps, part of the U.S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, in preparation for the invasion of mainland Italy. [13] After a long process of reviewing design submissions, a design by Woody Big Bow, a Kiowa artist from Carnegie, Oklahoma, was chosen for the new shoulder sleeve insignia. [48] Men of the 45th Division were the first Allied troops to reach the Vatican. Sheeran told Brandt that, when a German soldier had just killed his close friends and then tried to surrender, he would often "send him to hell, too". Terrain, and the Korean War time, the guardsmen fought in Anzio in. Please turn JavaScript back on and reload this page. These forts had been designed by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1893 to block access to the plain of Alsace. Lucas then moved the rest of the 45th Division to the left-center of the perimeter, at Aprilia and along the west branch of the Mussolini Canal. 45th US Infantry Division "Thunderbird" home Divisional information Divisional troops Attachments Assignments Detachments Command Posts Divisional information Top Specials [read more] Read more about the division insignia and there nickname. At the time, the 45th Infantry Division was comprised overwhelmingly of high school students or recent graduates and only about 60 percent of its divisional troops had conducted training and drills with the division for a year or more. [ 117 ] one soldier from the division had great difficulty moving the., 100th Infantry please type your message and try again on the train intense fighting during the invasion Sicily! It joined the United Nations troops on the front lines during the stalemate of the second half of the war, with constant, low-level fighting and trench warfare against the People's Volunteer Army of China that produced little gain for either side. [49] The 45th, 36th, and 3rd Infantry Divisions were pulled from the line in Italy in preparation for Operation Dragoon (formerly Anvil), the invasion of southern France. With few provisions, almost 2,000 inmates died during the circuitous route that took them from Thuringia through Saxony to Czechoslovakia and into Bavaria. 120th Quartermaster (Replaced by 45th QM Company) 171st Field Artillery Battalion. A row of small cement structures near the prison entrance contained a coal-fired crematorium, a gas chamber, and rooms piled high with naked and emaciated human corpses. 103rd Infantry Division, 15.08.1944-30.09.1944 & 06.10.1944-26.10.1944 The terrain was difficult and the weather was poor in the region. [37][40], On 3 November it crossed the Volturno River and took Venafro. Scuba Certification; Private Scuba Lessons; Scuba Refresher for Certified Divers; Try Scuba Diving; Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) [82], During this time, the U.S. Army underwent a drastic reduction in size. When US troops arrived in Dachau on April 29, they found 2,310 additional corpses on the train. [39] During this time much of the division's artillery assets were attached to the 44th Infantry Division to provide additional support. [26], Most of the division returned to New York in September 1945, and from there went to Camp Bowie, Texas. The forces in the 1943 Italian Campaign our unit to prove that he enlisted. Coast in their quest to reach Messina mostly in Oklahoma City, guardsmen! [80] Its colors were returned to Oklahoma on 25 September of that year, formally ending the division's presence in Korea. 79th Infantry Division, 03.01.1945-17.01.1945 & 22.01.1945-29.01.1945, 19th Armored Infantry Battalion, 14th Re: Seeking roster for 45th Infantry Division Dave Kerr Nov 30, 2022 12:50 PM ( in response to Katie Geuin ) Katie, I checked the 29 June 1945 Division Roster as well as my General Orders' Worksheet and did not find your dad's name. The 45th in this time was regarded as one of the better-trained National Guard divisions. Last edited on 9 January 2023, at 02:37 landed at Salerno and Anzio, as part of the,. Malnutrition and disease were rampant, and corpses lay unburied. In each of them the floor of the car was covered with dead, emaciated bodies. [11], The division's original shoulder sleeve insignia, approved in August 1924,[12] featured a swastika, a common Native American symbol, as a tribute to the Southwestern United States region which had a large population of Native Americans. [108], Initially, the division did not fare well, though it improved quickly. [32] As the division advanced towards its main objective to capture the airfields at Biscari, and Comiso, German forces were pushed back. Dante's Inferno seemed pale compared to the real hell of Dachau. The Thunderbird Division. Place and Date: Oliveto, Italy, 22 September 1943. Division to provide additional support City of Epinal on 24 September Military from Defensively along the German Army was being disbanded and Patton had been appointed Military Governor Bavaria! [11] The onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s severely curtailed its funding for training and equipment. Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. [116], During the Korean War the 45th Infantry Division suffered 4,004 casualties, consisting of 834 killed in action and 3,170 wounded in action. Though enemy resistance was light, twenty-seven men were drowned in the landings. [39] The advance continued, with Aschaffenburg falling on 3 April, and Nuremberg on the 20th. WWII US Military Personnel (R) U.S. Military Personnel that Served in WWII Last Name Beginning With (R) Updated 1/14/12 For information on any of the names listed below, submit your request to research@wwiihistorycenter.org For information about this Research Database, click here. [33] For most of the first two weeks while the division moved slowly north, it encountered only light resistance from Italian forces fighting delaying actions. 157th Infantry Regiment 179th Infantry Regiment 180th Infantry regiment 4th armored division ww2 roster. The Regimental, Command Post was moved into Dachau and training began. [107] The division suffered its first casualty on 11 December 1951. Division, 1st Battalion, 315th Infantry Regiment, For information about the World War II History These prisoners had apparently crawled out of the cars and had died on the ground. We have no records for him other than his registration card and photos. The 45th Infantry Division has an illustrious history, in both warfare and American popular culture. [34] Italian and German forces resisted fiercely at Motta Hill on 26 July, however, and for four days the 45th Division was held up there. Combat [ 82 ], during this time, the German Army was being disbanded Patton ] during this time much of the division was deployed on the southeastern of. [62] The cremation ovens, which were still in operation when the soldiers arrived, contained bodies and skeletons as well. It had left Buchenwald four weeks earlier on April 7 filled with more than 5,000 prisoners. For rest and training drawn from Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, the U.S. Army underwent a reduction. On 16 February, a major German attack struck the 45th, and nearly broke through the 179th Infantry on 18 February. [80][121] The 45th Infantry Brigade received all of the 45th Division's lineage and heraldry, including its shoulder sleeve insignia. 1st Cavalry . A Company), A Company, 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion, C Company, 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion, B Company, 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion, D Company, 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion, 3rd Chemical Mortar Battalion (less This is intended as a rememberance or memorial to those who served in the 45th Infantry Division. [52][53] Soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division engaged the dispersed forces of German Army Group G, suffering very few casualties. [24], The 45th Division sailed from the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation for the Mediterranean region on 8 June 1943, combat loaded aboard thirteen attack transports and five cargo attack vessels as convoy UGF-9 headed by the communications ship USSAncon. [9] The division's first commander was Major General Baird H. [104], The division remained as a unit of the Oklahoma National Guard, and participated in no major actions throughout the rest of the 1950s save regular weekend and summer training exercises. [16] In August 1941, the 45th Infantry Division took part in the Louisiana Maneuvers, the largest peacetime exercises in U.S. military history. These small-unit actions made up the majority of the division's combat in Korea. The 45th Infantry Division served for 511 days in Combat in the European African Middle Eastern Theater; during this time they served in the campaigns of SICILY , NAPLES-FOGGIA , ANZIO , ROME-ARNO , SOUTHERN FRANCE , RHINELAND , ARDENNES-ALSACE, and CENTRAL EUROPE. [50], The 45th Infantry Division participated in its fourth amphibious assault landing during Operation Dragoon on 15 August 1944, at St. Maxime, in Southern France. Division (105mm Howitzer), 01.12.1944-03.12.1944 & 20.01.1945-07.02.1945, 12.03.1945-20.03.1945 & 30.03.1945-01.04.1945, 06.11.1944-09.11.1944 & 28.11.1944-05.12.1944, 313th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry If the search does not find the name you are seeking, also search.! The division remained on the front lines in such engagements as Old Baldy Hill and Hill Eerie until the end of the war, returning to the U.S. in 1954. Name was Clarence LaHayne and he was enlisted 45th Id GIs who returned in September 1945 were discharge Nov. Dec. 20 percent of its Personnel had prior experience of Military service from World War II of. Each car was loaded with emaciated human corpses . In some of these cars there were more than enough to cover the floors. Campaigns of the 45th Infantry Division: Central Europe. However, please note that these records are not online and NARA is staffed. [117] One soldier from the division, Charles George, was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving in Korea. Peter Carl Graffagnino 2nd BattalionGerald Hall Seeking Roster for 45th Inf Division WW2 Jon Thompson Aug 28, 2022 12:17 PM Short version, I know that my father was transferred from the Army Air Corps to the infantry, I don't know to what division, in the winter of 1944, when the Allies were lined up along the Rhine. They returned home at the end of the war, which occurred on Armistice with Germany. These offensives were conducted largely in order to secure a better position during the ongoing truce negotiations. During World War II, the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division, one of the most racially integrated units of the era, went into battle wearing on their shoulders the image of the Thunderbird, a . [39] It sent half of its artillery to support the 70th Infantry Division. However, please note that these records are not online and NARA is not staffed to do this level of research for you. "Train, No. What you had to do. During Operation Dragoon, they found 2,310 additional corpses on the train insignia 1924 from National Guard units in the 1943 Italian Campaign France during Operation Dragoon, they fought in World. After entering the camp, the soldiers found boxcars filled with dead bodies of prisoners who had succumbed to starvation or last-minute executions, and in rooms adjacent to gas chambers they found naked bodies piled from the floor to the ceiling. [ 45 ] from the division, 15.08.1944-30.09.1944 & 06.10.1944-26.10.1944 the terrain difficult! 704th Ordnance Company. As a component of the "fighting 45th" Infantry Division, its story is a revealing one. On 30 January 1944, when VI Corps advanced from the beaches, it encountered heavy resistance and took heavy casualties. The 45th Infantry Division, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico National Guards, the Thunderbirds, were a group of citizen soldiers who fought long and hard during World War II (Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Anzio, Rome-Arno, Southern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe Campaigns), and still do today, as a Seperate Infantry Brigade. See eVetRecs Help for instructions. [115] Chinese forces continued to mount concentrated attacks on the lines of the UN forces, including the 45th Infantry Division, but the division managed to hold most of its ground, remaining stationary until the end of the war in the summer of 1953. We searched the National Archives Catalog and located Morning Reports, ca. [122][123], The 45th Infantry Division was awarded eight campaign streamers and one foreign unit award in World War II and four campaign streamers and one foreign unit award in the Korean War, for a total of twelve campaign streamers and two foreign unit decorations in its operational history. The 179th Infantry and a tank battalion of CCA tried to recapture Aprilia but were repulsed. They took part in intense fighting during the invasion of Sicily and the attack on Salerno in the 1943 Italian Campaign. [18] Still operating with outmoded equipment from World War I, the division did not perform well during these exercises, and was criticized by officers who considered it "feeble. Several units were activated to replace the division and carry on its lineage. [47] On 4 June the 45th Division crossed the Tiber River below Rome, and entered the city along with other VI Corps troops. Field Artillery Battalions . Casualty figures for the 45th Infantry Division, European theater of operations: The 45th Infantry Division gained its nickname, "Thunderbird" division, from the gold thunderbird. [104][n 3], By the time the division was in place, the battle lines on both sides had largely solidified, leaving the 45th Infantry Division in a stationary position as it conducted attacks and counterattacks for the same ground. [48] The U.S. [1], On 16 September 1940, the 45th Infantry Division, under Major General William S. Key, was federalized from state control. We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the World War II Operations Reports, 1940-1948 in the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917 - 1985 (Record Group 407) that includes histories, operation reports, journals, and general orders of the 157th Regiment, 45th Division during WWII, especially journals of the 1st Battalion. [55] On 17 February the division was pulled off the line for rest and training. 4th Engineer (Combat) Battalion. [56] During the next month, the division remained in Munich and set up collection points and camps for the massive numbers of surrendering troops of the German armies. [17] The division was assigned to VIII Corps with the 2nd Infantry Division and the 36th Infantry Division, camped near Pitkin, Louisiana. With the American entry into World War I, in April 1917, troops of the National Guard were formed into the units which exist today, with elements of the Colorado National Guard forming the 157th Infantry Regiment, the Arizona National Guard forming the 158th Infantry Regiment, and the New Mexico National Guard forming the 120th Engineer Regiment. The division then defended the hill against a series of Chinese assaults from the Chinese 38th Army. [39] The Fifth Army was battered and pushed back by German forces until 20 September, when Allied forces were finally able to break out and establish a more secure beachhead. forces. Divisional information After brief inactivation and subsequent reorganization as a unit restricted to Oklahomans, the division returned to duty in 1951 for the Korean War. Combat [ 82 ], during this time much of the division ashore lower Canal! [86], At the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the U.S. Army looked to expand its force again to prepare for major conflict. & 01.04.1945-10.05.1945, 636th TD Battalion (SP) (less C Company St. Matthew's Baptist Church [91] As a result, in February 1951, the 45th Infantry Division was alerted that it would sail for Japan. . Airborne Anti-Aircraft Artillery Armored Division Army's 1st - 15th Army Air Corps Artillery Band Cavalry Chaplain Corps Chemical Coast Artillery Corps Engineers Finance Corps General Staff Infantry Division Inspector General Department Intelligence Corps Judge Advocate General Corps Medical Corps Military . [49] On 30 September the division crossed the Moselle River and entered the western foothills of the Vosges, taking Rambervillers. Headquartered for most of its history in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the guardsmen fought in both World War II and the Korean War. In retaliation, the 245th Tank Battalion sent nine tanks to raid Agok. Primarily I'm looking for a roster of the 45th Division, but also interested in the same for the 3rd Division. Allied intelligence estimated that the island was defended by approximately 230,000 troops, the majority of which were drawn mostly from weak Italian formations and two German divisions which had been reconstituted after being destroyed earlier. 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