87th Infantry Division (United States)

87th Infantry Division
Division badge
active	1917 to 2015
Country	United States
Armed forces	United States Armed Forces
Armed forces	United States Army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry division
Nickname	Golden Acorn
motto	Stalwart and Strong
Butcher	Second World War Battle of the Bulge

The 87th Infantry Division ( German  87th US Infantry Division ) was a large unit of the US Army .

history

First World War

The division was set up on August 25, 1917 in Arkansas . She came to France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces in September 1918, but the division was not involved in any combat there. In January 1919, the division returned to the United States, where it was demobilized a little later.

Second World War

Soldiers of the 87th Infantry Division take in supplies in the form of food. Taken near La Roche , Belgium in January 1945

In 1921 the division was renewed as a reserve association, a real reactivation did not take place until December 1942. In October 1944 the division came to Great Britain to further prepare for the deployment on the Western Front . At the beginning of December, the 87th Infantry Division landed on the Channel coast, from there it went towards Metz to the 3rd Army . On December 8th, the remaining crews of the Feste Kronprinz surrendered to the division. Then the division advanced to the border of the German Reich on the Saar . Rimling , Obergailbach and the Erching district of Guiderkirchen were liberated there for a short time .

At the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge , the unit was in reserve, and from the end of December it took part in the fighting. Moircy was occupied on December 30, Remagne on December 31 and in early January 1945 Gérimont and Tillet. On January 15, the division came to Luxembourg to replace the 4th Infantry Division there. There Wasserbillig was liberated on January 23rd . Afterwards one was involved in the liberation of the city of Sankt Vith . After further operations in the same region, the occupation of Neuendorf on February 9th reached the Reich territory. At the end of February, Ormont and Hallschlag were taken during nightly attacks . After crossing the Kyll , a tributary of the Moselle , on March 6th, Dollendorf was conquered on March 8th. On March 18 and 19, the 87th Infantry Division captured Koblenz and a little later crossed the Rhine over a pontoon bridge . Then Großenlinden and Langgöns were conquered. In Langgöns a police officer was arrested by soldiers of the division who had previously shot three shot down members of the USAF . At the beginning of April they advanced further east to Saxony . On April 16, Plauen , which had previously been the target of several Allied air raids, was handed over to the division without a fight. The machines found there, u. a. those of VOMAG were dismantled. On April 20, the border to Czechoslovakia could be reached, but it was not crossed. Falkenstein was occupied on May 6 , where the division saw the end of the war two days later, on May 8. The conquered area in eastern Germany was cleared a little later and handed over to the Red Army . In July 1945 the division returned to the United States, from where it was to be used for the planned invasion of Japan . This venture was no longer implemented due to Japan's surrender in early September. The division was demobilized again in 1945.

During the war, 1,154 soldiers of the division died in combat and 4,342 were wounded.

post war period

The division was reactivated as part of the army reserve in 1946. The 87th Reconnaissance Troop became an independent association and exists to this day as the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team . In 1954 the reactivated division was dissolved again. As the 87th Army Reserve Support Command , the association was set up again in 1993; In 2015 this unit was also deactivated.

organization

The division comprised the following units in World War II:

• 345th Infantry Regiment
• 346th Infantry Regiment
• 347th Infantry Regiment
• 87th Reconnaissance Troop
• 312th Engineer Combat Battalion
• 312th Medical Battalion
• Artillery Division
  • 334th Field Artillery Battalion
  • 335th Field Artillery Battalion
  • 336th Field Artillery Battalion
  • 912th Field Artillery Battalion
• Special troops
  • 549th AAA Battalion
  • 787th Ordnance Light Maintenance
  • 87th Quartermaster Company
  • 87th Signal Company
  • Military Police Platoon
  • tape

Division commanders

• Major General Samuel D. Sturgis (from August 25, 1917)
• Brigadier General Robert Campbell Van Vliet (from November 13, 1917)
• Colonel John O'Shea (from October 6, 1918)
• Major General Samuel D. Sturgis (from October 23, 1918)
• Brigadier General WF Martin (November 22, 1918-January 1919)
• Maj. Gen. Percy W. Clarkson (December 1942-October 1943)
• Major General Eugene M. Landrum (October 1943-April 1944)
• Major General Frank L. Culin (April 1944 – September 1945)

Web links

• Stalwart and Strong: The Story of the 87th Infantry Division
• 87th Infantry Division Association

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hofmann: Lang-Göns, a village book from the Hüttenberg . 1955, p. 232.
2. ↑ Gerd Naumann: Plauen in the bombing war 1944/45 . Plauen 2011.