Posted on 11/11/2016 6:54:09 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 the most chaotic, barbaric, and brittle existence against extraordinary enemies where victory often required actions well 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, though large numbers were transferred from Army Service Forces and Army Air Forces to Army Ground Forces. Replacement centers overseas 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. and 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
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.”
As a young boy though, they seemed common men who behaved as if they had experienced an ordinary rite of passage. My most often contact 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 permanently debilitated by sickness. I remember one fairly good golfer who had kind of a weird back swing. I found out he was crippled while serving with the Big Red One in Sicily. My Economics professor in college served with one of the first UDT teams clearing barricades and mines in the surf zone before Pacific landings. I often ended up as a dishwasher at Michelbook Country Club and noticed the chef always limped as he moved around the kitchen. He saw my puzzled look, and 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 others I could tell or have forgotten.
I remain amazed how certain infantry divisions could be chosen repeatedly for initial assaults where they incurred terrible casualties. The corps and army commanders had favorites and somehow division staffs responded to reconstitute and retrain the rifle platoons every few weeks 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. Again, these were the most ordinary of men, so I keep hearing Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man as I read the narratives for this essay.
The Man With the Rifle Knows
(Author Unknown)
Men may argue forever on what wins their wars
and welter on cons and pros.
And seek their answers at history’s doors,
But the Man With the Rifle Knows.
He must stand on the ground on his own two feet,
And he’s never in doubt when it’s won.
If it’s won he is there, if he’s not it’s defeat.
That’s his test when the fighting is done.
When he carries the fight it’s not with a roar
of armored wings spitting death.
It’s creep and crawl on the earthen floor,
Butt down and holding his breath.
Saving his strength for the last low rush,
Grenade throw and bayonet thrust;
And the whispered prayer before he goes in,
Of a man who does what he must.
And when he’s attacked, he can’t zoom away,
When the shells fill the world with their sound.
He stays where he is, loosens his spade,
And digs his defense in the ground.
That ground isn’t ours till he’s there in the flesh
Not a gadget, or a bomb, but a man.
He’s the answer to theories which start afresh
With each peace since war began.
So let the wild circle of argument rage
On what wins as war comes and goes.
Many new theories may hold the stage,
BUT THE MAN WITH THE RIFLE KNOWS.
18 year olds too.
Compare and contrast to the special snowflakes of today...
I remember that Napoleon was quoted as saying “artillery kills soldiers”. I have also read that the majority of casualties are caused by artillery.
Still the rifle platoons are the tip of the spear and it is necessary for them to occupy ground in order to win.
My uncle was a Marine rifleman who died at Peleliu in September 1944. Blown apart by a Japanese mortar shell as his platoon advanced across open ground. He was 18 years old; dropped out of high school to join the Corps and “do his part” during World War II.
Today’s snowflakes and cupcakes are unworthy of his sacrifice.
I recall seeing statistics that indicated that the
number of combat unit soldiers who actually fired
their weapons in combat was incredibly low in WWII.
It was so low, in fact, that I didn’t believe it
then and I still dont. My father was with the 11th
Airborne held in reserve on New Guinea. They landed
on and fought their way across Leyte and jumped on to
Luzon. Attending various reunions with my dad I never
got the impression that relatively few of his fellow
paratroopers ever fired their Garands, BARs, or
Thompsons. I think the stats I saw must have included
desk jockies at Taccoa.
No wonder another name for them was cannon fodder.
My dad served in the infantry in WWII, and was proud to have been assigned to the First Division, “Big Red One”. The winter of 1944 was bitterly cold and he always remembered their commander promising the infantrymen one hot meal a day and if possible, a dry pair of socks.
Those young men did their part ot make America great.
Great poem. Thank you.
Daddy was in the combat engineers in Europe.
He spoke often of the bitter cold they had to endure.
I synthesized a good deal from the books I read into the statement, “Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services”. Certainly none of those guys fired small arms. Even regimental and division artillery probably never got closer than 6,000 to 10,000 yards of the front.
1. To exclude heavy weapons companies from the “foot soldier” category shows an inadequate understanding of infantry organization.
2. The weapons platoons in the rifle companies don’t count either?
3. Engineer units rarely engaged the enemy.
4. Why did you leave out the 6 infantry divisions in the Mediterranean Theater on V-E Day?
5. The 144 rifle platoons in the armored divisions don’t count?
I don’t believe your statement that combat engineers rarely engaged the enemy is correct. They often were behind the front lines repairing bridges, roads etc. but were often involved in assault crossings of rivers.
Also in retreat, combat engineers were often left behind to try and stop the enemy by blowing bridges etc. after the rest of the army had crossed.
You do realize that nothing in my post was intended
to contradict your thread. Airborne units were a
different breed, travel light and fast.
I’ve often thought what I would say if called upon to speak to the bravery of these brave men and settled on naming famous battles beginning with Bunker Hill and on from there chronologically ie: Ticonderoga, Trenton, New York, Yorktown, Tripoli, Gettysburg, Antetum, Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Chancellorsville, Custer’s Last Stand, San Juan Hill, Verdun, Marne, Ypres, Somme, Belleau Wood, Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor, Midway, North Atlantic, Operation Torch, Kasserine Pass, Sicily, Anzio, Monte Casino, 8th Air Force B-17 Daylight Bombings, Normandy, Battle of the Budge, Wake Island, the Doolittle Raid, Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Kwajalein Atoll, Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, Leyte Gulf, Luzon, Manila, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Battle of The Bulge, Osan, Inchon, Chosin Reservoir, Ia Drang Valley, Khesan, Ton Son Nhut, Con Thien, Tet, Hue, Hamburger Hill, Rolling Thunder, Kabul, Kandahar, Tora Bora, Anaconda, Baghdad, Fallujah, Mogadishu, Najaf, Benghazi and hundreds more. But you get the idea, by saying the name it would evoke powerful memories.
Yes, I do. I can’t seem to find the authorized strength of a WW II airborne division, but if it was about the size of a regular infantry division then only half or less made the jump into Normandy. Certainly guys like postal clerks and parachute riggers stayed behind.
Plus a few Marines....
I know that the 11th AB included close to 8,300 men.
Originally the 511th PIR was the single parachute
regiment. The 187th and 188th were glider regiments.
The division also included the 127th Engineer Battalion
and the 457th Light Artillery Battalion.
Thank you.
One objective I had for this year was writing an essay about the Marines. I was going to write about Guadalcanal, which was the last Japanese offensive against the Americans in the Pacific and drill down to the night John Basilone received his Medal of Honor in the battle that sealed the fate of the Japanese on the island.
I have not gotten there yet, but I have all the books I need to read. I have a warm place in my heart for the Marines, because as an amphibious warfare officer there was never a four month period I was not serving with Marines during my 3.5 years of active duty. My younger son is a former Marine and served with Marine Presidential Security Forces and with India Company 3/4 Marines.
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