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The 97th Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II. Nicknamed the "Trident division" because of its shoulder patch, a vertical trident in white on a blue background, it was originally trained in amphibious assaults as preparation for deployment in the Pacific Theater. It was deployed to Europe in 1944 when casualties from the Battle of the Bulge needed to be replaced.[1]
| 97th Infantry Division | |
|---|---|
97th Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia | |
| Active | 5 September – 20 November 1918 25 February 1943 – 31 March 1946 |
| Country |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | Division |
| Nickname(s) | Trident |
| Engagements | World War II |
The 97th Division was one of the divisions planned to be activated in late 1918 and deployed to France in 1919 to reinforce the American Expeditionary Force. The division was organized at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico and activated on 5 September 1918. It included the 193rd and 194th Infantry Brigades, and the 172nd Field Artillery Brigade. The 194th was to be organized and trained at Camp Cody, the 172nd at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and the 193rd was to be organized in France with the AEF. The division's cadre consisted of over 1,000 trained officers and enlisted men, and Colonel Carl A. Martin became its first commander on 26 September.[2]
The division was intended to be composed of National Army draftees mainly from Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, but in October, over 5,000 draftees, mainly from Oklahoma and Minnesota, were sent to the division at Camp Cody. Initial instruction at Camp Cody went relatively well, but the 172nd Brigade's training at Camp Jackson was delayed by a lack of personnel. Its regiments were at less than half-strength as late as the beginning of November.[2] In late October, the 97th was struck by the 1918 flu pandemic, which sickened over 500 soldiers and killed more than 100. On 25 October, Brigadier General James R. Lindsay became division commander as Martin became its chief of staff. The war ended with the Armistice of 11 November, and the 97th was ordered to be demobilized on 20 November. At the time, it was only partially organized and consisted of 402 officers and 7,889 men. The demobilization was completed on 22 December/[3]
Neptune's trident was originally adopted as the division's symbol, to represent the coastal states of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, from which the first recruits were drawn in 1918. The three prongs of the trident represent the three states, the blue symbolizes the states' numerous fresh water lakes, and the white of the border and trident represents the snow that covers these states' mountains.
172nd Field Artillery Brigade
The brigade was organized at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, under the command of Brigadier General Dennis H. Currie.
Commanders
The 97th Division was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the First Corps Area, and assigned to the XI Corps. The division was further allotted to the states of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont as its home area. The headquarters was organized in December 1921 initially at Augusta, Maine, then relocated in September 1922 to the Bell Building at 922 Elm Street in Manchester, New Hampshire. The headquarters was again relocated in August 1923 to the Federal Building in Manchester. In late 1937, the headquarters was transferred to the new Post Office Building in Portland, and remained there until activated for World War II. The 373rd-375th Infantry Regiments, part of the provisional 94th Division in World War I which was intended to be composed of Puerto Rican soldiers, were allotted to Puerto Rico's 211th Infantry Brigade as part of a hypothetical division which was never organized, and the unorganized 376th Infantry was assigned to the 94th Division, which was allotted to Massachusetts. To flesh out the rest of the 94th Division's infantry, the 301st and 302nd Infantry Regiments (part of the 76th Division in World War I) were assigned, along with the newly-constituted 419th Infantry. The 76th Division retained only its World War I-era 304th Infantry, taking the 385th Infantry from the 97th Division and adding the newly-constituted 417th and 418th Infantry Regiments, while the 97th Division took the 76th Division's 303rd Infantry and retained the 386th-388th Infantry Regiments.[4]
After its organization, the 97th Division rapidly built its strength. Although the division area had virtually no major population centers and possessed a poor highway network, the division was above 90 percent complete by November 1923. Due to the poor road network and because the division’s officers tended to be concentrated in the larger towns, the division’s personnel, less those in the infantry regiments, tended to hold their inactive training meetings as “group” meetings (i.e., without respect to unit assignment) rather than unit meetings. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the division staff published a newsletter titled the “97th Division Bulletin.” The newsletter informed the division’s members of such things as when and where the inactive training sessions were to be held, what the division’s summer training quotas were, where the camps were to be held, and which units would be assigned to help conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps (CMTC).
The mobilization and training station for the division was Camp Devens, Massachusetts, the location where much of the 97th’s training activities occurred over the next 20 years. For the few summers when the division headquarters was called to duty for training as a unit, the 97th Division trained with the staff of the 9th Division's 18th Infantry Brigade at Camp Devens, and occasionally with the staff of the 5th Infantry Regiment at Fort Williams, Maine. The summer training for the personnel assigned to the division headquarters was varied and included staff training, branch-specific training, and division-level command post exercises (CPXs). For several summers, however, the division conducted a “Special Officers Camp” at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, which consisted of training for unassigned officers, officers who could not attend training with their assigned units, and basic officer training for recent ROTC and CMTC commissionees. The division also held periodic contact camps during the inactive training period, usually at Poland Spring, Maine.
The division’s subordinate units trained all over the First Corps Area. Divisional infantry regiments, for example, held their summer training primarily with the units of the 18th Infantry Brigade at Camp Devens; Fort Ethan Allen; Fort Adams, Rhode Island; and Forts McKinley and Williams, Maine. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the First, Second, and Third Corps Areas with Regular Army units of the same branch. For example, the 322nd Engineer Regiment usually trained with elements of the 1st Engineer Regiment at Fort DuPont, Delaware; the 322nd Medical Regiment trained with the 1st Medical Regiment at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and the 322nd Observation Squadron trained with the 5th Observation Squadron at Mitchel Field, New York. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the CMTC held at Camp Devens, Fort McKinley, and Fort Ethan Allen each year.
On a number of occasions, the division participated in First Corps Area and First Army CPXs in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. These training events gave division staff officers’ opportunities to practice the roles they would be expected to perform in the event the division was mobilized. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the First Corps Area, the 97th Division did not participate in the various First Corps Area maneuvers and the First Army maneuvers of 1935, 1939, and 1940 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to full peace strength for the exercises. Additionally, some officers were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.[5]
The 97th Infantry Division was ordered into active military service during World War II on 25 February 1943 at Camp Swift, Texas, the last of the Organized Reserve infantry divisions to enter active duty. Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.[6]
Because the activation rate of Army units in late 1942 was proceeding faster than the expected induction rate of new soldiers and there was an urgent need for personnel to participate in the Operation Torch landings in North Africa planned for November 1942, the reorganization of the 97th was deferred until early 1943 and three partially-trained divisions were stripped to less than 50 percent strength. Most of the cadre for the 97th came from the 95th Infantry Division stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In February 1944 the division was moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for additional training. During 1944, approximately 5,000 soldiers were stripped from the division and sent as replacements to other units in Europe. Division strength was eventually restored when the Army Specialized Training Program and aviation cadet training program were sharply reduced or terminated and many of their personnel were reassigned to Army Ground Forces for retraining as infantry.[1]
In July 1944 the division relocated to Camp San Luis Obispo, California. Under the supervision of the Navy and Marine Corps, the division began amphibious training and exercises at Camp Callan, Coronado Strand, San Clemente Island, San Nicolas Island and Camp Pendleton. In September 1944 the 97th was transferred to Camp Cooke, California, for further amphibious training.[7]
In early January 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied forces on the Western Front, was alarmed over the swift progress the Germans had made during the waning Battle of the Bulge and was concerned that the Germans could move additional reinforcements to the west from the Eastern Front. He requested additional divisions over and above those already earmarked for the European theater. The 86th and 97th Infantry Divisions, allocated for service in the Pacific, were ordered to the European Theater of Operations (ETO) instead for the final assault on Germany.[8] The strength of the division upon deployment in Europe was 600 officers and 14,000 men.[7]
Commanders
After assembly and training at Camp Cooke in California, the 97th Infantry Division was transported by train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. The division embarked on troopships in New York and landed at Le Havre, France on 2 March 1945, then moved to Camp Lucky Strike. After crossing France by troop train, the division passed through Maastricht and crossed the German border west of Aachen on 28 March, taking up a defensive position along the west bank of the Rhine River opposite Düsseldorf.[7] As all bridges over the Rhine had been destroyed and the city was well-defended, the 97th was ordered to move south along the west bank of the Rhine, crossing over it near Bonn on 3 April and taking up a position on the southern bank of the Sieg River at Hennef.
The division then entered the battle of the Ruhr pocket, crossing the Sieg River on 7 April, battling German Wehrmacht troops defending Schloss Allner.[14] According to the after action report:[14]
In two days the 922nd Field Artillery Battalion fired over three thousand rounds at the area around the castle.[17] Pfc John Hedrick seized an abandoned assault boat while under heavy enemy fire and used the craft to help ferry troops across the river. He was awarded the Silver Star. After crossing the river, elements of the 387th Infantry Regiment assaulted the castle:
Entering Siegburg on 10 April, troops again encountered heavy resistance at the Glockner works.[9]
On 12 April Pfc Joe R. Hastings of Company C, 386th Infantry Regiment, distinguished himself in action at Drabenderhöhe, Germany while attacking an enemy position.[11] According to his citation:
He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions.
On 14 April, intelligence officers from the 97th Division liberated approximately 800 prisoners of war, including 177 Americans, being held at a POW camp in Hoffnungstal, near Much, Germany.[18]
Pushing on toward Düsseldorf through difficult terrain and heavy resistance in densely wooded areas, the division captured Solingen on 17 April.[7] Düsseldorf fell without much fighting the next day, after the German Resistance launched Aktion Rheinland, and the Ruhr pocket was eliminated by 21 April.[9]
On 23 April elements of the 97th, together with members of the 90th Infantry Division, liberated Flossenbürg concentration camp near Floß in Bavaria. A military police patrol from the 303rd Infantry Regiment may have been the first U.S. Army unit to reach the camp, although the 2nd Cavalry Group, Mechanized[19] and a colonel from the 90th Infantry Division later took credit for liberating the camp.[18] Members of the 97th Division treated sick and dying prisoners and buried the several hundred corpses discovered in the camp. Brigadier General Milton B. Halsey inspected the camp as did General Sherman V. Hasbrouck, the commanding officer of the division artillery.[20] Members of the Counter Intelligence Corps, which included Robie Macauley,[21] Ib Melchior[22] and Anthony Hecht,[23] interviewed former prisoners and gathered evidence for trials of former camp officers and guards.[1] The 97th also liberated Helmbrechts concentration camp, a sub-camp of Flossenbürg for female prisoners.[24]
The following day a unit of the 97th CIC Detachment led by Captain Oscar M. Grimes captured about two hundred Gestapo officers and men in hiding near Hof, Bavaria. They were in possession of American uniforms and equipment, but had evidently made the decision to surrender.[18][25][26]
On 25 April the division entered Czechoslovakia, moving to protect the left flank of the Third Army on its southern drive. The 97th took Cheb, Czechoslovakia, on 25 April 1945 and attacked the Czechoslovak pocket near Weiden, Germany on 29 April.[7] It had advanced to Konstantinovy Lázně, Czechoslovakia, when it received the ceasefire order on 7 May.[15] Part of the division was in Teplá where the German 2nd Panzer Division had surrendered. The troops used the monastery there as a POW camp for the Germans.[27]
The 97th Infantry Division was credited with firing the last official shot in the European Theatre of Operations during World War II. This shot was fired by Pfc. Domenic Mozzetta (1925-2001) of Company B, 387th Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division, at a German sniper near Klenovice, Czechoslovakia shortly before midnight, 7 May 1945.[7]
The division left Le Havre on 16 June 1945 aboard the SS Brazil, arriving at Camp Shanks on 24 June.[29] After a 30-day leave, the division reassembled at Fort Bragg, crossed the US by troop train and on 1 September embarked aboard the USS Grundy for redeployment to the Pacific, arriving at Cebu, Philippine Islands on 16 September and then sailing to Japan for occupation duty, the first unit previously stationed in Europe to arrive in Japan after the end of the war. Arriving at Yokohama on 25 September 1945, the division relieved the 43rd Infantry Division[30] and established its headquarters at Mitsugahara Airfield in Kumagaya.[31][32] By December the 97th had reached its maximum deployment through six prefectures: Saitama, Gunma, Nagano, Niigata, Fukushima, and Tochigi.[33]
Confiscating and disposing of Japanese military property proved to be the Division's prime task. The 97th returned 198,142,046 pounds of foodstuffs, 670,226 gallons of gasoline, 8,568,857 yards of cloth and 480,343 pairs of boots and shoes to the Japanese government for distribution to civilians.[33]
On 26 October counter-intelligence officers from the 97th Division located $2.5 million worth of stolen radium in the German consulate in Osaka, and another $3 million in silver bullion in a warehouse in Iida, Nagano.[34] On 31 October, Special Agent Robie Macauley of the division's counter-intelligence unit arrested 26 prominent Nazis who were in hiding in Karuizawa.[35]
The division was inactivated on 31 March 1946 in Yokohama.[7][33]
On 15 July 1962, the division's 97th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop was converted and redesignated, less the 3rd Platoon, as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 193rd Infantry Brigade, and relieved from assignment to the 97th Infantry Division. Concurrently, it was withdrawn from the Army Reserve and allotted to the Regular Army.
The 3rd Platoon, 97th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop was concurrently converted and redesignated as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Infantry Brigade - hereafter separate lineage).[37] The unit was reactivated shortly thereafter on 8 August 1962 in the Panama Canal Zone.[38]
On 22 December 1967, the 97th Army Reserve Command was activated at Fort Meade, Maryland. While the 97th ARCOM was allowed to wear the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 97th Infantry Division and use its number, Department of the Army policy does not allow for the lineage of Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE) units, such as infantry divisions, to be perpetuated by Table of Distribution (TDA) units, such as ARCOMs.
Three medical units of the 97th were mobilized and deployed to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
In U.S. military Operations in Panama to oust dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, the 97th deployed troops to neutralize key Panamanian Defense Forces positions on the Pacific side of the Canal Zone; civil affairs soldiers from the 97th later assisted in rebuilding the new Government of Panama.[39][40]
During operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, more than 3,000 division troops deployed to missions in the Persian Gulf.
In 1996, as part of the overall force reduction following the end of the Cold War, the 97th Army Reserve Command was inactivated and its units were absorbed into the 99th Regional Readiness Command.[41]
Years later the lineage of the 97th Infantry Division was reactivated as the 97th Training Brigade, a subordinate unit of the 100th Training Division.[citation needed]
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