5th Infantry Division (United States)

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5th Infantry Division

US 5th Infantry Division.svg

Division badge
active 1917, 1939, 1947, 1974 to 1921, 1946, 1971, 1992
Country Flag of the United States.svg United States
Armed forces United States Armed Forces
Armed forces United States Army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry division
Nickname Red Diamond
motto We will
Butcher Second World War
Operation Overlord
Battle of the Bulge
Ruhrkessel
insignia
Distinctive Unit Insignia 5 Inf Div DUI.png

The 5th Infantry Division ( German  5th US Infantry Division ) was a major unit of the US Army in the First and Second World Wars and in the Vietnam War .

history

First World War

Major General John E. McMahon

The 5th Infantry Division was set up on December 11, 1917 at Camp Logan Army Base near Houston , Texas . One of the division's soldiers at the time was General Mark W. Clark . She came to France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces in May 1918, where she received further training from the French army . From June 1918 the division took part in combat operations, for example in September 1918 at the Battle of St. Mihiel . During the following Meuse-Argonne offensive , the 5th Division was on the right wing of the III. Corps (Major General John L. Hines ) facing major challenges. The march through the section of the 80th Division to the heights around Cunel and Romagne took place under German artillery fire. Poor planning resulted in the 5th Division's attack on October 14 not having sufficient artillery support to adequately cover the advance of the infantry. But the division managed to capture Cunel and advance to the southern edge of the Bois de la Pultière. On the morning of October 15, the 5th Division resumed its attacks, but the artillery could not adequately support the advance of the infantry. The division managed to fight its way through the Bois de la Pultière and after fierce fighting with the 9th Infantry Brigade to reach the northern edge of the Bois des Rappes. The commander, Major General John E. McMahon , received the false report that panic broke out in the 9th Brigade and had prompted them to withdraw completely. McMahon ordered his division prematurely to give up all terrain gains and to retreat to the Bois de la Pultière. On October 16, General Pershing had McMahon replaced by Major General Hanson E. Ely for this wrong decision . The division continued the attack until October 22, when it was relieved by the 90th Division and moved to Malancourt . The 5th Division had losses of 779 dead and 3,108 wounded in its short deployment. The 5th Division remained deployed at the front until the end of the war and then stationed in Belgium and Luxembourg . In July 1919, the division returned to the United States, where the association was stationed at Camp Gordon, Georgia and then Fort Jackson, South Carolina . The division was disbanded on October 4, 1921, with the exception of the 10th Infantry Brigade and the division's support units.

Second World War

General Stafford LeRoy Irwin
Soldiers of the division force German civilians from Wallern in the Sudetenland to look at the exhumed corpses of Jews. The Jews were murdered and buried by the SS during a death march in the last days of the war near the village .

In 1939 the division was reactivated for various maneuvers and u. a. stationed in Kentucky and Louisiana .

After the United States entered the war in 1941, the division came to Iceland in May 1942 . She stayed there until August 1943 when she came to Great Britain to prepare for Operation Overlord . On July 9, 1944, just over a month after D-Day , the division landed at Utah Beach on the Normandy coast . Over the next week, she freed u. a. Vidouville , Angers and Chartres . On August 24th the Seine was crossed and a little later the Marne . The division then took part in the XX. Corps (under General WH Walker ) participated in the battle for Metz . On December 4th, the soldiers of the division crossed the border with the German Reich and were able to take Lauterbach near Völklingen . The 5th Infantry Division then stayed on the west side of the Saar and took part in the defense of the Ardennes offensive during the winter of 1944/1945 . After the end of these heavy fighting, the division advanced over the Sauer to Germany in February 1945.

On March 22, 1945, the 3rd US Army began crossing the Rhine at Nierstein across the Rhine . The 5th Infantry Division led in the Association of the XII. Corps under General Eddy carried out a nightly surprise attack north of Oppenheim , while the 90th Infantry Division launched a mock attack further downstream near Mainz . After crossing the Rhine, Frankfurt am Main was largely taken without a fight on March 26th. The division then fought at the Ruhr basin and then met in the Association of XII. Corps continued eastward. At the beginning of May 1945, shortly before the end of the war, the border with Czechoslovakia was reached. There the places Vimperk and Volary were liberated. In Volary, after being captured without a fight, the US soldiers found a mass grave with the dead from a death march from the Helmbrechts satellite camp . The bodies were exhumed and local residents were forced to march past the bodies on May 11th. The dead were later buried in the local cemetery. A little later, the division withdrew from Czechoslovakia and handed the area over to the Red Army .

The 5th Infantry Division, which suffered 2,298 deaths during the war, was disbanded again on September 20, 1946. But already on July 15, 1947, it was reactivated and relocated as an occupation force to the American occupation zone . It remained there until the 1950s, now as part of the NATO armed forces. Later the relocation to the USA followed.

Vietnam War

After the reclassification of numerous parts of the division, the 5th Infantry Division was stationed as a mechanized division in Fort Carson , Colorado . Several battalions and other parts of the division came to Vietnam after the Tet Offensive in 1968 . These units were mostly infantry and artillery units. The locations included a. Quảng Trị , Đà Nẵng and Ba Long, where they operated alongside the US Marine Corps and the ARVN . In 1971 he took part in Operation Lam Son 719 . After that, the division parts returned to Colorado and were deactivated again.

Invasion of Panama

On October 21, 1974 the division was reactivated. Vehicles like the M1 Abrams and numerous units from other associations came to the division to reinforce it . The 5th Infantry Division was now stationed in Louisiana and provided soldiers from its 1st and 2nd Brigade for the US invasion of Panama in late 1989. They were also involved in the search for the ruler there, Manuel Noriega . After the invasion ended, the division was active until 1992 before it was deactivated.

organization

When it was first deployed in 1917, the 5th Infantry Division had this deployment:

  • 9th Infantry Brigade
    • 60th Infantry Regiment
    • 61th Infantry Regiment
    • 14th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 10th Infantry Brigade
    • 6th Infantry Regiment
    • 11th Infantry Regiment
    • 15th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 5th Field Artillery Brigade
    • 19th Field Artillery Regiment
    • 20th Field Artillery Regiment
    • 21st Field Artillery Regiment
  • Division Troops
    • 13th Machine Gun Battalion
    • 7th Engineer Regiment
    • 9th Field Signal Battalion
    • Headquarters Troop
  • Trains
    • 5th Train Headquarters and Military Police
    • 5th Ammunition Train
    • 5th supply train
    • 7th Engineer Train
    • 5th Sanitary Train

When deployed in World War II, the division was organized as follows:

  • Headquarters division
  • 2nd Infantry Regiment
  • 10th Infantry Regiment
  • 11th Infantry Regiment
  • 5th Division Artillery
    • 19th Field Artillery Battalion
    • 46th Field Artillery Battalion
    • 50th Field Artillery Battalion
    • 21st Field Artillery Battalion
    • 7th Combat Engineer Battalion
  • 5th Reconnaissance Troop
  • 5th Medical Battalion
  • Special troops
    • 705th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
    • 5th Quartermaster Company
    • 5th Signal Company
    • Military Police Platoon
    • tape

In the Cold War as follows:

  • Division Headquarters and Headquarters Company
  • 1st brigade
    • Headquarters and Headquarters Company
    • 1st Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment
    • 4th Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment
    • 5th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment
  • 2nd Brigade
    • Headquarters and Headquarters Company
    • 3rd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment
    • 3rd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment
    • 4th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment
  • 4th Brigade
    • Headquarters and Headquarters Company
    • 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment
    • 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment
    • 2nd Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment
  • 5th Infantry Division Artillery
    • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery
    • 4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery Regiment
    • 5th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery Regiment
    • 1st Battalion, 141st Field Artillery Regiment
    • C Battery, 21st Field Artillery Regiment
    • H Battery, 25th Field Artillery Regiment
  • 5th Infantry Division Support Command
    • Headquarters and Headquarters Company
    • 75th Forward Support Battalion
    • 105th Forward Support Battalion
    • 705th Main Support Battalion
  • 7th Combat Engineer Battalion
  • 3rd Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment
  • 105th Signal Battalion
  • 105th Military Intelligence Battalion
  • 5th Military Police Company
  • 45th Chemical Company

Division commanders

  • Colonel William M. Morrow, December 1-11, 1917
  • Major General Charles H. Muir, December 12, 1917
  • Colonel William M. Morrow, December 13-31, 1917
  • Major General John E. McMahon, January 1 - October 16, 1918
  • Major General Hanson E. Ely, October 17, 1918 - July 22, 1919
  • Major General John L. Hines , September 27, 1920 - July 7, 1921
  • Brigade General Ulysses G. McAlexander, July 13, 1921 - October 4, 1921
  • General Campbell B. Hodges Brigade, October 24, 1939 - September 3, 1940
  • Major General Joseph M. Cummins, September 4, 1940 - July 23, 1941
  • Major General Charles H. Bonesteel, July 24 - August 19, 1941
  • Major General Cortlandt Parker, August 20, 1941 - June 23, 1943
  • Brigade General Allen D. Warnock, June 24-July 2, 1943
  • Major General Stafford LeRoy Irwin , July 3, 1943 - April 20, 1945
  • Major General Albert E. Brown, April 21, 1945 - June 20, 1946
  • Brigade General Harry B. Sherman, June 20 - July 20, 1946
  • Major General Jens A. Doe, July 20, 1946 - September 20, 1946
  • Brigade General John H. Church, July 15, 1947 - October 1, 1947
  • Major General William B. Kean, October 2, 1947 - June 30, 1948
  • Major General George H. Decker, July 1, 1948 - February 28, 1950
  • Brigade General Frank C. McConnell, March 1, 1950 - April 30, 1950
  • Colonel Thomas J. Wells, March 4, 1951 - March 20, 1951
  • Major General Laurence B. Keizer, March 21, 1951 - November 30, 1952
  • Major General George B. Barth, December 1, 1952 - September 1, 1953
  • Major General Richard C. Partridge, May 25, 1954 - June 30, 1955
  • MG William T. Sexton, July 1, 1955 - February 28, 1956
  • Brigade General Hiram D. Ives, March 1, 1956 - April 30, 1956
  • Brigade General Cyrus A. Dolph, May 1, 1956 - June 30, 1956
  • Major General Gilman C. Mudgett, July 1, 1956 - May 31, 1957
  • Brigade General William M. Breckinridge, February 1, 1957 - June 1, 1957

Web links

Commons : 5th Infantry Division  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Article on the end of the war in Frankfurt
  2. ^ Documents on the death march in Volary
  3. ↑ Contribution to the mission in Vietnam