Posted on 05/25/2015 6:16:41 PM PDT by Retain Mike
The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War. Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services plus eight categories of combat arms. Units such as artillery, engineering, and heavy weapons engaged the enemy directly. Yet of all categories, the foot soldier faced the greatest hazard with the least chance of reward. Except for the Purple Heart and the coveted Combat Infantryman’s Badge, recognition often eluded them because so few came through to testify to the valor of the many. The infantryman confronted the most dismal fate of all whose duty was uninterrupted by missions completed or a fixed deployment time. They were enveloped within a most chaotic, barbaric, and brittle existence against resolute enemies where victory often required actions pushing beyond prior limits for impossibility.
Omar Bradley said, “Previous combat had taught us that casualties are lumped primarily in the rifle platoons. For here are concentrated the handful of troops who must advance under enemy fire. It is upon them that the burden of war falls with greater risk and with less likelihood of survival than any other of the combat arms. An infantry division of WW II consisted of 81 rifle platoons, each with a combat strength of approximately 40 men. Altogether those 81 assault units comprised but 3,240 men in a division of 14,000…..Prior to invasion we had estimated that the infantry would incur 70 percent of the losses of our combat forces. By August we had boosted that figure to 83 percent on the basis of our experience in the Normandy hedgerows.”
Nearly a third of the 65 divisions in the Pacific and European theaters suffered 100% or more casualties. However, their regimental staffs saw frontline units obliterated three to six times over. To deal with this problem there were never enough infantrymen coming from the states. Replacement centers continually reassigned artillerymen, machine gunners, cooks, and clerks to infantry duties. The situation in Europe became so severe that rear area units in France and Great Britain were tasked to supply soldiers for retraining as infantrymen. Those suffering battle fatigue came off the line for a few days for clean uniforms, bathing, hot food, and sleep. However, scarcity compelled their repeated return until crippling wounds, mental breakage, death, or victory brought final relief.
For example the 4th and 29th Infantry landed on D-Day and suffered about 500% battle casualties in their rifle platoons during the eleven months until VE-Day. Added to these numbers were half again as many non-battle human wrecks debilitated by trench foot, frost bite, pneumonia, hernia, heart disease, arthritis, etc. Many never returned to duty. In the jungles of the Pacific, non-combat losses often exacted a greater price. But somehow the infantry crossed Europe and the Pacific and always remained in the forefront of attacks.
Ernie Pyle said of them, “The worst experience of all is just the accumulated blur, and the hurting vagueness of being too long in the lines, the everlasting alertness, the noise and fear, the cell-by-cell exhaustion, the thinning of the surrounding ranks as day follows nameless day. And the constant march into the eternity of one’s own small quota of chances for survival. Those are the things that hurt and destroy. But they went back to them because they were good soldiers and they had a duty they could not define.”
Partial bibliography: A Soldier’s Story by Omar N. Bradley
Brave Men by Ernie Pyle (the quote named Tommy Clayton, but was generalized here because Ernie Pyle saw him as an example of the infantrymen he loved.)
Crusade in Europe by Dwight D. Eisenhower
The U.S. Infantryman in World War II by Robert S. Rush Foot Soldier by Roscoe C. Blunt, Jr. Links for Listings of United States Divisions during WW II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Army_divisions_during_World_War_II http://www.historyshots.com/usarmy/
Army Battle Casualties and Non-battle Deaths in World War II http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/Casualties/index.html
3rd 'Marne' Infantry Division http://www.custermen.com/ItalyWW2/Units/Division3.htm Total casualties greater than 34,000
National 4th Infantry (IVY) Division Association http://www.4thinfantry.org/content/division-history Total casualties of 34,000
29th Infantry Division http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
45th Infantry Division http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
Remembering the Thunderbirds – Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Division http://www.baptistmessenger.com/remembering-the-thunderbirds-oklahomas-45th-infantry-division/ Total casualties of 62,640
When Gen. George S. Patton described the 45th Infantry Division, he said it was “one of the finest, if not the finest infantry division in this history of modern warfare.”
My motivation for this subject and what I have a hard time understanding still is the casualty rates in those divisions chosen repeatedly for initial assaults. The corps and army commanders had favorites and somehow division staffs responded to reconstitute and retrain the rifle platoons every thirty to ninety days without losing the quality of the assault forces. It seems other divisions were usually sent to less active sectors, entered combat later in time, or occupied a flank in an attack. These were the most ordinary of men, so I keep hearing Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man as I read this narrative.
I am a baby boomer. My Cousin was killed in the Battle of Meuse Argonne in WWI. The family never talked about it. I never gave much thought as a kid to what my Dad did when he served in the South Pacific. He never talked about it till the day he died. I never asked. Nor, did my Uncle, his twin brother, who was a waist gunner on a B17 flying over Europe. I just thought it was something people were supposed to do. I am proud of my Father and Uncle’ service, and wish I had told them so when they were alive. I wish they could/would have talked to me about it back then. They would be 95 now.
I’ve told this story before but about 14 years ago a friend of mine at work was doing a documentary about veterans. My Uncle Jimmy who is 80 at the time I think decided to do the interview for me as a favor. He talked about being a machine gunner on a tank and crying as he mowed down Germans but they kept coming. He was also in the Battle of the Bulge. I never saw him look vulnerable before but when he told his story he did. He went straight to work when he got home at a belt making factory and worked there for 50 years. I wish I was half the man he was
During WWII, 93% of the United States Army was Draftees.
It was a magnificent fighting force, in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific, and in all forms of operations, including amphibious, conducting the largest, and the most, amphibious landings in all theatres, and also conducting Airborne operations in Europe and in the Pacific.
The Army continued using Indian Wind-talkers as radio operators, a practice they started in WWI, and in WWII continued their use in all theaters of the war, the Pacific, Europe, and North Africa.
I guess the infantry was typically the “point of the spear”.
The armored divisions I think operated with infantry support. I suppose everyone had their job and they were all important but some were surely more dangerous than others.
My dad was an Infantry officer in the pacific during WWII.
Until the day he died he hated the Japs for the atrocities he witnessed.
You are blessed with good genes and memory.
Thank you
When Gen. George S. Patton described the 45th Infantry Division, he said it was “one of the finest, if not the finest infantry division in this history of modern warfare.” "
Thanks for the links.
Patton was in distinguished company, the German general Kesselring once described another US division (reserve division from a state neighboring Oklahoma) as the best division he had gone up against, except for the 45th.
When the 45th Division was formed late in WWI, the Thunderbird from native American folklore was chosen as its emblem. (The 1918 armistice came before the 45th could be deployed to Europe.)
The Thunderbird is, of course, the supernatural bird that brings thunder. Problem is, no one ever sees the Thunderbird and lives to tell about it for the Thunderbird also brings death to anyone who lays eyes on it.
If you're ever in Oklahoma City, a visit to the 45th Division museum out on NE 36th street is well worth it.
God bless the soldiers.
That said, let the g-damn bankers fight the wars. Let the politicians be drafted and fight the wars they bring about. Let the billionaires and the major corptocracies put their businesspeople on the lines for their interests they want us soldiers to protect.
Keep the military forces for us military and country needs. Not for new world order/globalist/big corporations to play with as they desire. Let them hire their own mercs and foot the damn bill in their own money and lives.
Nearly a third of the 65 divisions in the Pacific and European theaters suffered 100% or more casualties. However, their regimental staffs saw frontline units obliterated three to six times over. To deal with this problem there were never enough infantrymen coming from the states.
Your numbers are in fact wrong.
Profile of US Servicemen (1941-1945)
38.8% (6,332,000) of U.S. servicemen and all servicewomen were volunteers
61.2% (11,535,000) were draftees
Average duration of service: 33 months
Overseas service: 73% served overseas, with an average of 16 months abroad
Combat survivability (out of 1,000): 8.6 were killed in action, 3 died from other causes, and 17.7 received non-fatal combat wounds
Non-combat jobs: 38.8% of enlisted personnel had rear echelon assignments—administrative, support, or manual labor.
Average base pay: enlisted—$71.33 per month; officer—$203.50 per month
No they aren’t, read my post.
Yours are the numbers for the entire military and the Coast Guard, not the Army, which was 93% draftee.
I was in the 36th, the unnamed "USdivision (reserve division from a state neighboring Oklahoma)".
I was just thinking of my Father’s WWII service. He was in the combat engineers.
There were times when they were at the tip of the spear, such as clearing mines. They also were often the last ones to retreat, blowing bridges, etc.
I chose not to name the 36th because of the comparison between the two divisions, which I didn't want to make a point of. We're on the same side, you know?
In a combined arms team "support" is mutual.
Huh? If you are on the same side, then don’t hesitate to use their name and mention the state they are from.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.