Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Magnificent Infantry of WW II
November 11, 2014 | Self

Posted on 11/11/2014 6:04:22 PM PST 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 extraordinary 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, malaria, arthritis, etc. Most never returned to duty. In the jungles of the Pacific, non-combat losses exacted an even 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

National 4th Infantry (IVY) Division Association http://www.4thinfantry.org/content/division-history


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: army; infantry; veteransday; wwii
I wrote this essay to be my contribution to Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. My greatest contact with these men started about age nine when my dad began taking me out golfing on the weekends. There was a man who used the first golf cart I ever saw, because as a brigade commander of the 41th infantry in New Guinea he was debilitated by sickness. I remember one fairly good golfer who had kind of a weird back swing, because he was crippled while serving with the Big Red One in Sicily. I often ended up as a dishwasher at Michelbook Country Club. I noticed the chef always limped as he moved around the kitchen. When he saw my puzzled look, he said he got the limp from a wound received when he was with the Rangers at Pointe De Hoc. Those are just a few of the stories I remember among so many I could relate or have forgotten.

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. For the divisions with the high casualty rates, wouldn’t they have to reconstitute and retrain the rifle platoons every thirty to ninety days? However, that seems to have been the case, because I trust my sources and the math.

I know the corps and army commanders had favorites for the initial attacks and used these divisions repeatedly. It seems other divisions were usually sent to less active sectors, entered combat later in time, or occupied a flank in an attack.

1 posted on 11/11/2014 6:04:22 PM PST by Retain Mike
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

I guess the Infantry is what is often now called “the tip of the spear”. In WWII I think the armor was also one of the first if not the first in combat.

Daddy was in the Combat Engineers. I have noticed that former infantrymen always speak highly of them.


2 posted on 11/11/2014 6:14:20 PM PST by yarddog (G)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

“The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War.”

The single most staggering statistic I have learned this veterans day, or in a long time for that matter.

To the guys who were a little before my time, but taught me much... thank you and Happy Veterans Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUTQExmJ2qw


3 posted on 11/11/2014 6:24:50 PM PST by ameribbean expat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

I’ve never seen anyone spam with a thread so many times, what is this, the fifth thread of your vanity?


4 posted on 11/11/2014 6:27:02 PM PST by ansel12 (The churlish behavior of Obama over the next two years is going to be spellbinding.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

BUMP!


5 posted on 11/11/2014 7:01:52 PM PST by Fester Chugabrew (Even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

As an old infantry officer, I found this a good read. Thank you.


6 posted on 11/11/2014 7:33:09 PM PST by Always A Marine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Yours is a unique response compared to the 30 or more who found this essay a fitting tribute to the “Queen of Battle” on Veterans Day, and to the many who would have missed the insights found here if I had posted it only once.


7 posted on 11/11/2014 8:58:57 PM PST by Retain Mike
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

Posting your vanity five times so far, that is unique.


8 posted on 11/11/2014 10:43:34 PM PST by ansel12 (The churlish behavior of Obama over the next two years is going to be spellbinding.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike
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. ...There was a man who used the first golf cart I ever saw, because as a brigade commander of the 41th infantry in New Guinea he was debilitated by sickness.

Incredible.

9 posted on 11/12/2014 1:00:48 AM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12
Posting your vanity five times so far, that is unique.

That's nothing - you've disrupted over five hundred threads with your OCD to protect the MSM propaganda monopoly.

10 posted on 11/12/2014 1:12:38 AM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

Now that is one wild and crazy post that makes no sense at all, I wonder what liberal positions you take that I must have challenged you on in the past, to create this personal grudge in you.


11 posted on 11/12/2014 8:57:01 AM PST by ansel12 (The churlish behavior of Obama over the next two years is going to be spellbinding.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ansel12
Now that is one wild and crazy post that makes no sense at all, I wonder what liberal positions you take that I must have challenged you on in the past, to create this personal grudge in you

Your right, I mistook you for humblegunner. My apologies.

But jeez, you didn't have to call me a liberal ;)

12 posted on 11/12/2014 10:23:24 AM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

Well thanks, I was baffled by that one.


13 posted on 11/12/2014 10:26:09 AM PST by ansel12 (The churlish behavior of Obama over the next two years is going to be spellbinding.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

ROFLOL!!!!


14 posted on 11/12/2014 10:29:14 AM PST by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

Pics from the Past of WWII- It is amazing the difference in 70 years.

HOLD AND DRAG YOUR MOUSE ARROW GENTLY FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ON THE ORIGINAL 1944 PHOTOS AND IT WILL BECOME THE EXACT SAME LOCATION TODAY .... DRAG IT BACK OVER AND YOU ARE IN 1944 AGAIN. Then scroll down for next photo.
.
http://interactive.guim.co.uk/embed/2014/apr/image-opacity-slider-master/index.html?ww2-dday


15 posted on 12/03/2014 6:00:01 PM PST by morphing libertarian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: morphing libertarian

Now this is great. Thanks for posting.


16 posted on 12/05/2014 3:42:53 PM PST by Retain Mike
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Retain Mike

Glad to do it.


17 posted on 12/05/2014 5:56:44 PM PST by morphing libertarian (Defund , sue, impeach. Overturn Obamacare, amnesty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson