Calculated attempts to dehumanize and degrade German POWs. The 45th Infantry Division was formed in 1924 from National Guard units in the southwestern United States. AAA Group, 31.08.1944-10.11.1944 & 23.11.1944 &18.02.1945 Campaigns of the 45th Infantry Division: Southern France, Campaigns of the 45th Infantry Division: Rhineland. [83] The division retained many of its best officers as senior commanders as the force downsized, and it enjoyed a good relationship with its community. We searched the National Archives Catalog and located Morning Reports, ca. To access these records for the 1940s, you will need to either make an appointment to visit the National Archives at St. Louis or hire a researcher. The muster rolls often indicate which unit a soldier is transferring from when he is first noted on the muster rolls as transferring to the unit. "[19][18] In spite of these deficiencies, less than one month later, the men's tour of duty was extended for another eighteen months, much to their chagrin, because of concerns of an impending American entry into World War II.[17]. The 45th Infantry Division guardsmen saw no major action until they became one of the first National Guard units activated in World War II in 1941. Campaigns Commanding General Assistant Division Commander Artillery Commander 15.08.1944 Originally organized in the continental U.S. in 1917, this organization sailed to the Philippines with all of its records and colors. [23], The division's two combat commands, the 89th and 90th Infantry Brigades, were inactivated in 1942, as the Army favored smaller and more versatile regimental and battalion-level commands for the new conflict. & 05.03.1945-15.03.1945 & 20.03.1945-25.03.1945 & 11.04.1945-10.05.1945, 1st Platoon, A Battery, 353rd AAA SL Battalion, 15.08.1944-25.08.1944 & 30.08.1944-09.11.1944 Hometown - Argyle. You may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RL-SL. and see if I can find a CIB for your dad. They trace their lineage from frontier militias that operated in the Southwestern United States throughout the late 1800s. [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. [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. That's the most information, all in one place, nailing things down to a specific place and time, that I've seen on Dad. The 45th Infantry Division guardsmen saw . 1912 - 1946 for Army units that may include morning reports of the component units of the 45th Infantry Division and the 3rd Infantry Division, as well as the 290 Infantry Regiment. Welcome to our 45th Infantry Division photo Galleries. You can not post a blank message. 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 [39] The division remained on the line with the U.S. 6th Army Group the southernmost of three army groups advancing through France. The 45th Infantry Division was formed in 1924 from National Guard units in the southwestern United States. He never claimed to have liberated Dauchau, just that he was there, no other details, and we only learned that toward the end of his life. Thank you so much!Katie Capra Geuin(i am new to this page and didn't see a way to send a message without replying to this one with the same subject line), [Moderation Note: Please see How To: Contact Another User], I checked the 29 June 1945 Division Roster as well as my General Orders' Worksheet and. 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. OMPFs and individual medical reports for soldiers of the U.S. Army who served during World War II and who separated from the service before 1960 are in the custody of NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. 45th Inf Div (WWII & Korea) ATTN: National Secty 2145 NE 36th St Oklahoma City, OK 73111-5302 405/424-5393 45th Infantry Division Association. [62] The cremation ovens, which were still in operation when the soldiers arrived, contained bodies and skeletons as well. I checked the 1944 and 1945 Division rosters (45th Div. Nevertheless, the Army officials in charge of this camp advised us that there were 50 of these cars in this 1 train and that at least 100 of these civilians had been jammed into each car . Documents. The 816 surviving prisoners were taken to barracks within the camp. [1], On 16 September 1940, the 45th Infantry Division, under Major General William S. Key, was federalized from state control. [110] Chinese troops were well dug-in and better trained than the troops of the inexperienced 45th, and it suffered casualties and frequently had to disengage when it was attacked. TheDivision was pulled off the line for rest and training. Two regiments of the 45th (the 179th and 157th Infantry) were sent to the Aprilia sector to reinforce the British. Please turn JavaScript back on and reload this page. A non-commissioned officer, Sergeant Horace T. West, 33 years old, later confessed to the crimes in the first incident and was found guilty. [15] Its men immediately began basic combat training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. So he might have actually meant one of the subcamps which would increase the number of possible units. Division, 2nd Battalion, 411th Infantry Regiment, [113] Heavy rainstorms prevented the divisions from retaking the hill for around a month, and when it was finally retaken it was heavily fortified to prevent further attacks. Please complete a. and mail it to NARA's National Personnel Records Center, (Military Personnel Records), 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138-1002. [55] On 17 February the division was pulled off the line for rest and training. [49] The division was allowed a one-month rest, resuming its advance on 25 November, attacking the forts north of Mutzig. I also examined the lists of names in the History of the Third Infantry Division without success. [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]. Your relative might have been told at the time that his unit was liberating a Dachu camp and it just stuck that it was "the" Dachu camp instead of one of its many sub camps. last revision document.write(document.lastModified). This explains the book he had on the 180th Regiment. To access these records for the 1940s, you will need to either make an appointment to visit the, For more information about these records, please contact the National Archives at St. Louis (RL-SL) at, You may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RL-SL. [28], The division was subsequently assigned a lead role in the amphibious assault on Sicily, coming ashore on 10 July. No record of Clarence E. LaHayne in the June 1945 Roster of the 45th Infantry Division nor. Nora Drewry wrote on January 10, 2014. 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". like the original poster my grandfather was originally in the army air corp as a belly gunner in I believe the B24, but was transferred to infantry after a perforated eardrum. But the mule drivers were shot and buried in the holes they had dug. News of Dachau's liberation spread swiftly. [47] On 4 June the 45th Division crossed the Tiber River below Rome, and entered the city along with other VI Corps troops. When US troops arrived in Dachau on April 29, they found 2,310 additional corpses on the train. Also in that collection are two Army Air Corps patches - he started out in the Air Corps - and one USSTAF patch, which the Air Corps evolved into sometime prior to the crossing of the Rhine. [37] Against stiff resistance, the 45th pushed to the Calore River after a week of heavy fighting. [94] Its anti-aircraft and armor assets were used as mobile artillery, which continuously pounded Chinese positions. On April 20, it captured the city of Nuremberg and on April 30, Munich. They assumed he meant the more well known D-Day in Northern France in June 1944, but what he was actually talking about was the D-Day in Southern France in August 1944. After landing in France during Operation Dragoon, they joined the 1945 drive into Germany that ended the War in Europe. 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. [112] Around that time, the 45th Infantry Division relinquished command of Old Baldy Hill to the 2nd Infantry Division. After the North Korean People's Army invaded the Republic of Korea, four understrength U.S. divisions on occupation duty in Japan were rushed to South Korea to stand alongside the Republic of Korea Army. Based in Oklahoma City and one of the first National Guard units to be activated for World War II, from the shores of France and all the way to Berlin liberating Dachau along the way, they later served in the brutal Korean War. He died in 1966. 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. 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. Lucas then ordered the rest of the division ashore. & 01.01.1945-16.02.1945 & 04.03.1945-09.05.1945, 191st Tank Battalion (less A Company & 3rd In many cases where personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 fire, proof of service can be provided from other records such as morning reports, payrolls, and military orders, and a certificate of military service will be issued. 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. & 24.11.1944-14.02.1945 & 05.03.1945-15.03.1945 & 20.03.1945-22.03.1945, 15.08.1944-28.11.1944 & 22.12.1944-27.12.1944 If you havent already done so, we suggest that you request a copy of his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF). PFC Donald E. Thompson, member of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, per the 29 June 1945 Roster of the. The following month, the division landed in Sicily, where it engaged Axis troops in combat. They had few soldiers left, very little ammunition, and even food was running out in some places. Veterans and next of kin of deceased veterans also may use eVetRecs to request records. To search PDF documents, download and open in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Adobe is unable to convert all 75 year old text to searchable text. History. He described often witnessing similar behavior by fellow, Orders from unit commanders during a mission. 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. [citation needed]. [105], The 45th Infantry Division, along with the 7th Infantry Division, fought off repeated Chinese attacks all along the front line throughout 1952, and Chinese forces frequently attacked Old Baldy Hill into the fall of that year. The 45th moved north to the Sarreguemines area and smashed through the Siegfried Line. Please type your message and try again. families that they liberated Dachu, when technically it was a subcamp called Kaufring II in Landsburg. Company Morning Reports. The 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions and the 20th Armored Division liberated Dachu, however there were many subcamps and soldiers with our unit, the 36th Infantry Division, often related in the stories they told to their families that they liberated Dachu, when technically it was a subcamp called Kaufring II in Landsburg. The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States; , U.S. Government Printing Office. [120] In its place, the independent 45th Infantry Brigade (Separate) was established. After Action Reports. "Train, No. In March 1945, the "Thunderbird" division crossed the Rhine River and headed southward. [31] After initially encountering resistance from armor of the Hermann Goering Division, the division advanced, supported by paratroopers of the 505th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, who landed inland on 11 July. The 3rd Div patch is on the left shoulder. On 23 May, VI Corps, now commanded by Major General Lucian Truscott, went on the offensive, breaking out of the beachhead to the northeast, with the 45th Division forming the left half of the attack. The division remained a National Guard formation until its downsizing in 1968. The proximity of the US Army gave hope to the prisoners in the camp and to anti-Nazis outside it. [85] Only 10 percent of the division's officers and five percent of its enlisted men had combat experience with the division from World War II. Since its inception, Native Americans from the tribes of Oklahoma have served in the National Guard with pride and honor. Following Sicily the division landed at Salerno and Anzio, as part of the forces in the taking of Italy. Anzio - Operation Shingle, 22 January- 24 May, 1944: The 45th began landing at Anzio on 22 January, 1944, with the 179th Regiment seeing the Division's first action of the campaign at Aprilia, also known as "the factory" on 27 January. In the Dachau camp itself, an international committee composed of representatives of the various nationalities imprisoned there was established to organize resistance. In company with the British 1st Infantry Division, they advanced north along the Anzio-Albano road and captured the Aprilia "factory", but encountered ingrained resistance from German armored units a few miles further on. Devers. Ray, E. D. 3rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron 914. We hope this is helpful. [79] Soldiers of the division also received 61 Distinguished Service Crosses, three Distinguished Service Medals, 1,848 Silver Star Medals, 38 Legion of Merit medals, 59 Soldier's Medals, 5,744 Bronze Star Medals, and 52 Air Medals. These cars were an assortment of odd boxcars, some of which were locked, and some were coal-car type. In later interviews with Charles Brandt, he divided such massacres into four categories: During World War II, the 45th Division fought in 511 days of combat. We have no records for him other than his registration card and photos. Several units were activated to replace the division and carry on its lineage. Thank you for posting your request on History Hub! In Section 1, Item 1, where it asks which items you are requesting, please check Other and specify that you want the entire file. Group, 21.10.1944-24.10.1944 & 01.11.1944-11.11.1944, 15.08.1944-18.08.1944 & 19.09.1944-27.10.1944 [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. [81] During this time the division was also reorganized and as a part of this process the 157th Infantry was removed from the division's order of battle and replaced with the 279th Infantry Regiment. The 45th, in turn, was under constant artillery and mortar attack. View of a Clearing Station, somewhere behind Utah Beach, Normandy, taken June 6 - 7, 1944 - triage of Airborne casualties and patients . Immediately after Dachau's liberation, US Army authorities and other Allied representatives began treating the sick prisoners, implementing health and sanitary measures to curb the typhus epidemic, and bringing in tons of food to feed the starving prisoners. [39] The advance continued, with Aschaffenburg falling on 3 April, and Nuremberg on the 20th. [125], As of 1 August 1950, the division consisted of 698. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 Error: You don't have JavaScript enabled. [10], The 45th Infantry Division engaged in regular drills but no major events in its first few years, though the division's Colorado elements were called in to help quell a large coal mining strike. Read more about the division insignia and there nickname. Assignments 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. His old dress uniform has a 3rd Infantry Division shoulder patch. [39] At this time, VI Corps was attached to the Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General Alexander Patch, itself part of the Sixth United States Army Group under Lieutenant General Jacob L. Division, 1st Battalion, 315th Infantry Regiment, Documents: All of the files from The 45th Division in World War II: The Thunderbirds Facebook Group in searchable PDF format plus other documents. The soldiers of the 45th Division who liberated the camp were outraged at the malnourishment and maltreatment of the 32,000 prisoners they liberated, some barely alive, and all victims of the Holocaust. For more information about these records, please contact the National Archives at St. Louis (RL-SL) at stl.archives@nara.gov. This tool uses JavaScript and much of it will not work correctly without it enabled. In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing and medical assistance. Sheeran later joked that they did so without complaint, likely hoping that he and his buddies would change their minds. Campaigns of the 45th Infantry Division: Rome-Arno. The 45th Infantry Division was a National Guard Unit. The 45th Infantry Division World War II in Germany. Detachments In the 45th Division Bill Mauldin 45th Division NewsAngelo Casertano UnknownWilson Kale UnknownHerb Alexander 120th QuartermasterEloy Bacca C/ 120th EngineersErnesto Padilla F/ 120th EngineersAllan Osbourne Sr UnknownHistory B Company 120th Medical Bn. In September of 1940, the War Department called the 45th Infantry to federal service and began training for a possible war with Germany and Japan. The independent 45th Infantry division was pulled off the line for rest and training Thunderbird... From unit commanders during a mission liberated Dachu, when technically it was a subcamp called II! The division ashore would increase the number of possible units as of 1 August 1950, division! Might have actually meant one of the division and carry on its lineage insignia and nickname! The left shoulder of which were locked, and Nuremberg on the train 45th Infantry Brigade Separate! 816 surviving prisoners were taken to barracks within the camp experience a delay in an! 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