79th Infantry Division (United States)

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79th Infantry Division
79th Division
79th Infantry Division Shoulder Sleeve Insignia
Active
  • 1917–1919
  • 1921–1945
  • 2009–present
Country United States
Branch United States Army
TypeInfantry
SizeDivision
Part of United States Army Reserve
Nickname(s)"Cross of Lorraine" (special designation)[1]
EngagementsWorld War I
  • Meuse-Argonne

World War II

Commanders
Notable
commanders		Ira T. Wyche
Anthony McAuliffe

The 79th Infantry Division (formerly known as the 79th Division) was an infantry formation of the United States Army Reserve in World Wars I and II.

Since 2009, it has been active as the 79th Theater Sustainment Command.

World War I

  • Activated: August 1917
  • Overseas: July 1918
  • Major operations: Meuse-Argonne
  • Casualties
    : Total-6,874 (KIA-1,151 ; WIA-5,723)
  • Commanders: Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (25 August 1917), Brig. Gen. William Jones Nicholson (26 November 1917), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (17 February 1918), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (16 April 1918), Brig. Gen. W. J. Nicholson (22 May 1918), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (8 June 1918), Brig. Gen. W. J. Nicholson (28 June 1918), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (23 July 1918), Brig. Gen. Evan M. Johnson (29 December 1918), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (31 December 1918), Brig. Gen. Evan M. Johnson (19 January 1919), Brig. Gen. John S. Winn (2 February 1919), Brig. Gen. Andrew Hero Jr. (3 February 1919), Brig. Gen. Evan M. Johnson (9 February 1919), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (28 February 1919), brig. Gen. Evan M. Johnson (16 March 1919), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (30 March 1919), Brig. Gen. John S. Winn (4 May 1919), Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn (8 May 1919).
  • Returned to U.S.: May 1919
  • Inactivated: June 1919

Order of battle

  • Headquarters, 79th Division
  • 157th Infantry Brigade
    • 313th Infantry Regiment
    • 314th Infantry Regiment
    • 311th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 158th Infantry Brigade
    • 315th Infantry Regiment
    • 316th Infantry Regiment
    • 312th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 154th Field Artillery Brigade
    • 310th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 311th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 312th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
    • 304th Trench Mortar Battery
  • 310th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 304th Engineer Regiment
  • 304th Field Signal Battalion
  • Headquarters Troop, 79th Division
  • 304th Train Headquarters and Military Police
    • 304th Ammunition Train
    • 304th Supply Train
    • 304th Engineer Train
    • 304th Sanitary Train
      • 313th, 314th, 315th, and 316th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals

Combat chronicle

The division was first activated at

Meuse-Argonne Offensive
area where it earned the name of "Cross of Lorraine" for their defense of France. The division was inactivated June 1919 and returned to the United States.

Throughout its entire World War I campaign, the division suffered 6,874 casualties with 1,151 killed and 5,723 wounded. Private Henry Gunther, the last American soldier to be killed in action during World War I, served with the 313th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Division.

Interwar period

The 79th Division was reconstituted in the

Corps Area, and assigned to the XIII Corps. The division was further allotted to the eastern half of Pennsylvania as its home area. The headquarters of the “Lorraine Division” was originally organized on 29 September 1921 at the Schuylkill Arsenal, 2620 Gray’s Ferry Road in Philadelphia
. It was later relocated in 1930 to the Gimbal Building at 35 South Ninth Street. It was again relocated in 1935 to the New Custom House Building at Second and Chestnut Streets and remained there until activated for World War II. After activation, the division’s recruiting efforts were such that by 1926, the division was at 85 percent of its authorized strength. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the division staff published a newsletter, the “79th 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 designated mobilization and training station for the division was Camp George G. Meade, the location where much of the 79th’s training activities occurred in the interwar years. The division headquarters usually conducted its summer training there, and on a number of occasions, participated in command post exercises there as well. During these camps, the 79th Division headquarters occasionally trained with the staff of the 16th Infantry Brigade, 8th Division. In May 1929, the 79th Division conducted a "contact camp" at Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, and almost 500 of the division’s officers attended. The highlight of the camp was an aerial demonstration performed by the 99th Division
’s 324th Observation Squadron.

The subordinate infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the units of the 16th Infantry Brigade. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster trained at various posts in the Second and Third Corps Areas usually with units of the

Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and the 304th Observation Squadron trained with the 99th Observation Squadron at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the CMTC training held at Camp Meade each year. On a number of occasions, the division participated in Third Corps Area or First Army CPXs in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. Perhaps the division’s most ambitious CPX was a division-level exercise conducted around the clock for almost 2 weeks from 31 July to 12 August 1938. In January 1940, many officers of the 79th Division headquarters attended a week of additional annual training performed by the 28th Division; the training was part of a War Department-directed effort to increase the readiness of National Guard units that winter. The 79th Division officers voluntarily participated in the training without pay. Unlike Regular Army and National Guard units in the Third Corps Area, the 79th Division did not participate in the Third 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 war strength for the exercises. Additionally, some were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.[2]

World War II

Order of battle

  • Headquarters, 79th Infantry Division
  • 313th Infantry Regiment
  • 314th Infantry Regiment
  • 315th Infantry Regiment
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 79th Infantry Division Artillery
    • 310th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
    • 311th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
    • 312th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
    • 904th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
  • 304th Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 304th Medical Battalion
  • 79th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 79th Infantry Division
    • Headquarters Company, 79th Infantry Division
    • 779th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
    • 79th Quartermaster Company
    • 79th Signal Company
    • Military Police Platoon
    • Band
  • 79th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

Combat chronicle

The division was activated at

Camp Pickett, Virginia on 15 June 1942. It participated in the Tennessee Maneuver Area, after which it moved to Camp Laguna near Yuma, Arizona, where it trained in the desert. It was then ordered to Camp Phillips, Kansas for training in winter conditions. At the beginning of April 1944, the division reported to the port of embarkation at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts
.

"Through France; 14 Jun - 29 Aug 1944" poster 1 of 4 of battle movements of the 79th Infantry Division.

The division arrived in Liverpool on 17 April and began training in amphibious operations. After training in the United Kingdom from 17 April 1944, the 79th Infantry Division landed on

Meurthe Rivers, 13–23 September, cleared the Forêt de Parroy in a severe engagement, 28 September – 9 October, and attacked to gain high ground east of Emberménil
, 14–23 October, when it was relieved, 24 October.

After rest and training at

Ruhr Pocket until 13 April. The division then went on occupation duty, in the Dortmund, Sudetenland, and Bavarian
areas successively, until its return to the United States and inactivation.

Casualties

Assignments in European Theater of Operations

  • 18 April 1944: VIII Corps,
    Third Army
    .
  • 29 May 1944: Third Army but attached to VII Corps,
    First Army
    .
  • 30 June 1944: Third Army, but attached to First Army.
  • 1 July 1944: VIII Corps.
  • 1 August 1944: VIII Corps, Third Army,
    12th Army Group
    .
  • 8 August 1944: XV Corps.
  • 24 August 1944: XV Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to First Army.
  • 26 August 1944: XV Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group.
  • 29 August 1944: XII Corps.
  • 7 September 1944: XV Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group.
  • 29 September 1944: Third Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to the XV Corps,
    6th Army Group
    .
  • 25 November 1944: XV Corps, Seventh Army, 6th Army Group.
  • 5 December 1944: VI Corps.
  • 6 February 1945: Seventh Army, 6th Army Group.
  • 17 February 1945: Seventh Army, 6th Army Group, but attached to the XVI Corps,
    Ninth Army
    , 12th Army Group.
  • 1 March 1945: XIII Corps.
  • 7 March 1945: XVI Corps.
  • 7 April 1945: XVI Corps, Ninth Army, 12th Army Group.

79th Sustainment Support Command

The 79th Infantry Division is now the

79th Sustainment Support Command (SSC) headquartered at Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) Los Alamitos, California. The 79th SSC was officially activated on 1 December 2009 with the mission of providing trained, ready, cohesive, well-led sustainment units for worldwide deployment to meet the U.S. Army's rotational and contingency mission requirements in support of the National Military Strategy. The 79th SSC is the higher headquarters of over 20,000 U.S. Army Reserve sustainment soldiers organized into over 200 units dispersed throughout the western half of the United States. Major subordinate commands of the 79th SSC include the 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) in San Antonio, Texas, the 311th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) in Los Angeles, California, the 364th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) in Marysville, Washington, and the 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command
in Wichita, Kansas. As the operational command posts of a theater sustainment command – the ESCs plan, coordinate synchronize, monitor, and control operational- level sustainment operations for Army service component commands, joint task forces and joint forces commands throughout the world.

  • Reactivated: 1 December 2009
  • Commanders
    • Major General William D. Frink, Jr. (1 December 2009 – 8 February 2013)
    • Major General Megan P. Tatu (9 February 2013 – 4 December 2015)
    • Major General Mark Palzer (5 December 2015 – 8 December 2018)
    • Major General Eugene J. Leboeuf (8 December 2018 – Present)

Subordinate units

As of 2020 the following units are subordinated to the 79th Theater Sustainment Command:[5]

General

  • Nickname: Cross of Lorraine Division.
  • Shoulder patch: White bordered blue shield on which is superimposed a cross of Lorraine.

In popular culture

  • The HBO period drama Perry Mason depicts the titular character as a Captain who served in the 79th Infantry during World War I before receiving a blue discharge. The second episode depicts a flashback with Mason participating in the Meuse–Argonne offensive of 1918.

See also

Notes

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950. United States Army Center of Military History.

References

  1. ^ "Special Unit Designations". United States Army Center of Military History. 21 April 2010. Archived from the original on 9 July 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  2. ^ Clay, Steven E. (2010). U.S. Army Order of Battle, 1919-1941, Volume 1. The Arms: Major Commands and Infantry Organizations, 1919-41. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 247-248.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ "The Normandy Invasion: Medal of Honor Recipients". history.army.mil. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008.
  4. ^ a b c d e Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
  5. ^ "79th TSC". www.usar.army.mil. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  6. ^ "U.S. Army Reserve > Commands > Functional > 79th TSC > 4th ESC > 4thESCUnits". www.usar.army.mil. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  7. ^ a b "U.S. Army Reserve > Commands > Functional > 377th TSC > 4th ESC > 4thESCUnits".

6. The Cross of Lorraine: A Combat History of the 79th Infantry Division, June 1942-December 1945. Army and Navy Publishing Co., 1946. [Official Division history]

Sources

External links

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