102nd Infantry Division (United States)

102nd Infantry Division
Division badge
Lineup	1942
Country	United States
Armed forces	United States Armed Forces
Armed forces	United States Army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry division
Nickname	Ozark
motto	Distinction, Valor, Marksmanship
Butcher	Second World War

The 102nd Infantry Division ( German  102nd US Infantry Division ) was a major unit of the US Army in World War II . It continues to exist indirectly as the 102nd Training Division (Maneuver Support) .

history

Division Commander General Frank A. Keating

Commemorative plaque of the division at what is now the Isenschnibber Feldscheune memorial.

The 102nd Infantry Division was formed on September 15, 1942 in Camp Maxey, Texas . After the soldiers of the division had completed their training. On January 20, 1944, General Frank A. Keating had taken command of the division, which landed at Cherbourg in France on September 23 . From the end of October the soldiers fought as part of the III. Corps on the Western Front ; the areas of application locations u. a. at the Wurm , Waurichen and Linnich . After the end of the Ardennes offensive , in the spring of 1945 the German army took offensive action . When the 9th US Army opened Operation Grenade on February 23, 1945 , the 102nd Division was part of the XIII. Corps (Lieutenant General Alvan Gillem ). Lövenich was liberated on February 25th, and Erkelenz and the surrounding area followed on February 26th . By March 1, the heavily destroyed city of Mönchengladbach was also completely conquered. The Americans then marched into Krefeld on March 2, but the Krefeld-Uerdinger Bridge could not be conquered due to the destruction by the Wehrmacht. Nevertheless, on April 9th, the Rhine was crossed over a pontoon bridge near Düsseldorf . Then the soldiers went further north, in the Weser Mountains they met again with fierce resistance. On April 12th, Hessisch Oldendorf was occupied, after which it continued towards the Elbe . Breitenfeld was taken in eastern Germany on April 14th.

Only a little later, on April 15, some soldiers from Company F, 2nd Battalion of the 405th Regiment of the division discovered a barn near Gardelegen . A few hours earlier, members of the SS , the Waffen-SS , soldiers from various troops, police officers and members of the Volkssturm and Hitler Youth had murdered over 1,000 concentration camp inmates there. After the bodies were found, the US soldiers ordered an honorable burial by the citizens of the nearby town. Some of the scenes filmed in the process can be seen in the documentary The Death Mills , the site of the massacre still exists today as a memorial.

The division could with reaching the Elbe u. a. Take Storkau on April 16 and Fallersleben on April 21 . The western bank of the Elbe near Tangermünde was also reached. Thousands of civilians and soldiers from Wenck's Army and 9th Army crossed the Elbe Bridge, which had already been destroyed but was still poorly passable, to avoid being taken prisoner by the Soviets. The total number of prisoners at Tangermünde was 118,000 men, including 18 generals. The units that surrendered to the 102nd Infantry Division there included u. a. the 32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier Division “30. January " . The future German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher was also taken prisoner near Tangermünde. The division's soldiers were also used as occupation troops in Gotha . On May 3, they met with soldiers from the 156th Rifle Division of the Red Army west of Berlin . The conquered areas in eastern Germany were handed over to the Soviet military administration a little later. By the end of the war on May 8, 932 soldiers of the division had died and 3,668 had been wounded. In 1945 and 1946, the 102nd Infantry Division served as an occupation force in the American zone of occupation . a. stationed in Bayreuth . The dissolution took place in March 1946 in the United States.

In 1947 the division was reorganized. It is still active today as the 102nd Training Division (Maneuver Support) , but is not a combat force, but a support unit with military police and engineer units .

Web links

• US Army Reserve website
• With the 102d Infantry Division through Germany

Individual evidence

1. ^ US War Report, pp. 173–178
2. ↑ Daniel Blatman: The death marches 1944/45…. P. 541ff, p. 594.
3. ↑ End of the war in Wendland: Gorleben prison camp, Volume 4
4. ↑ Last Hope Tangermünde