Category Archives: World War Two

The Red Circle’s ’45 European Vacation

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Activated 15 July 1943 at Camp Carson, Colorado– some 79 years ago this week– the U.S. Army’s 71st Light Division (Pack, Jungle) was a rarity when it came to WWII infantry divisions as it was not descended from units that had a Great War history. Formed from two regiments of regulars– the 5th and 14th– that had long been assigned to defend the Panama Canal, augmented with new units such as the 66th Infantry Regiment, it was originally meant to fight in the triple canopy green hell of the South Pacific.

With a TO&E that included hundreds of horses and mules to carry and support 75mm pack guns– rather than the more standard 105mm howitzers and trucks– it had a small footprint, just 9,000 men, only about two-thirds the size of a traditional “leg” infantry division.

“7200 rounds of 75mm pack how. Ammunition is required per battery for operations of the 609th F.A., 71st Div. (L), atop a ridge on firebreak trail near hill #3905 during mountain maneuvers. Here are men of Hq and Service Batter, 609th, 71st L. Div., unloading dummy ammunition after a long 5-mile haul up the steep firebreak trail. 900 rounds a day is a good haul, as one mule can carry only 9 rounds. HLMR Mtn. Man. 168-9-44-593.’ Army Signal Corps photograph Photographer: J. P. Johnson. 22 March 1944

However, the 71st (L) never did make it to New Guinea or the Philippines.

Proving a bad idea in stateside tests in California, the 71st (L) was recast as a standard 14,000-man infantry division, sent to Fort Benning for additional training, and left its 75mm guns and beasts of burden behind.

This put it late to mature and the outfit only reached the European Theatre of Operation (still with jungle-trained Panama regulars of the 5th and 14th Inf Rgts making up two-thirds of its combat force, because this is the Army we are talking about!) in the Winter of early 1945.

The 71st ID’s patch had a red circle around it, earning the unit the easy nickname of “The Red Circle.” This uniform, of WWII combat veteran Staff Sergeant Harold R. George, is in the American Legacy Museum.

Hitting France on 6 February 1945, some 245 days after D-Day, it would enter combat on 10 March and spend 49 days engaged, suffering 1,879 total casualties in that short period, some 13.3 percent of its strength. The division earned two battle streamers, for the Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns, and notably took 107,406 enemy POWs, including bagging most of the battered stragglers of the dreaded “Black Edelweiss” of the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord.

In doing so, the men of the 71st earned over 800 individual awards including 166 Silver Stars and 651 Bronze Stars. In the final days of the war, on 4 May 1945, the Division liberated Gunskirchen, one of the many subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Three days later they made contact with advancing Soviet Red Army elements near Waidhofen after capturing Steyr and were already making merry by the time VE-Day hit on the 8th.

The most excellent war chronicle map below, drawn by T4s Emil Albrecht and Roland Wille, covers the 71st 49-day war with the Seventh and Third Armies from Limesy, France to Sierning, Austria.

(3500×2200) National Archives Identifier: 152951241 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/152951241

Recalled!

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80 years ago today, official caption: “CPO George Sanderson. View was taken in 1942. Sanderson held the distinction of being the oldest man in the armed forces on active duty. Joined (sloop-of-war) USS Iroquois on 7 July 1882, recalled to active duty on 15 July 1942. Born 3 January 1862.”

Original print signed: Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, best wishes, George Sanderson. Naval History and Heritage Command, Yarnell collection NH 81981

The Chief Boatswains Mate has 10 (gold) hash marks on his sleeve, denoting at least 40 years of active service.

Mustachioed Gunners Mate First Class (Gun Captain) George Sanderson in the center with his gun crew, USS Oregon (BB-3) before the battle of Santiago, 1898. LOC LC-D4-32321 det 4a16563

As described over at the US Militaria Forum:

After a life of service on Civil War Sloops of War, a Coast Survey Ship in the Arctic, Screw Gunboats, Screw Sloops of War, Protected Cruisers, the first Battleships, a prize Spanish Gunboat, Hospital Ship, Schooner Rigged Steamer, Armored Cruiser plus a fleet of Receiving ships, he wanted more sea duty. Over 40 years of service ‘Sandy’ Sanderson had rounded the world 21 times, landed Marines in Panama in the 1880s, served in the Spanish American War as a Gun Turret Captain, fought Philippine Insurrectionists, Boxer Revolutionaries, Panamanian Revolutionaries, Zulu uprisings, protected seals in the Bering Sea, and made liberties in the Hawaiian Kingdom, as Sandy put it, “when they were something – when old King Kalakaua was in charge”. Recalled during World War I, he organized and was placed in charge of a gunnery school in New York City with 542 men assigned there and retired again in 1922.

Putting on his old uniform again after Pearl Harbor, he asked for sea duty.

He asked for sea duty.

Ultimately taken back into service, though restricted to shore assignments, he was assigned to Treasure Island and Recruiting Duty,

“Sandy” became one of the Navy’s best recruiters of Sailors, Seabees and in particular, WAVES, having had experience with the first Yeomanettes during World War I when he ran the NYC Gunnery School. 80-G-359957: “CBM George “Sandy” Sanderson, 81, oldest man on active duty in the Navy was nearly swamped by WAVES when he visited Portland, Oregon, recently and appeared at the Navy Mother’s Club tea on Navy Day.”

Discharged in August 1945, he earned his 11th service stripe!

CBM (PA) George ‘Sandy’ Sanderson, USN – The oldest US Navy sailor serving in World War II. All Hands, March 1949.

Attempting to reenlist for Korea but denied, Sanderson passed the bar in 1954.

Not that Georgia

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On or around July 14, 1943, official caption:

“Private Lloyd Culuck, Company A, 1st Battalion., 172nd Infantry Regiment, eats chow from a can of Ration B on New Georgia Island, SW Pacific during the New Georgia Campaign against Imperial Japanese military forces. He uses the can lid in lieu of fork or spoon. On the island since the first beachhead was established on July 2, 1943, he hasn’t changed clothes in 12 days.”

Signal Corps Photo: 161-43-2537 (DiPaola)

The 172nd was then and is now a unit of the Vermont National Guard, and has since the 1980s specialized in mountain warfare.

For more on its involvement in the New Georgia campaign and the grueling push up the Munda Trail, see Operation Toenails. 

Abbreviated Warship Wednesday: Tennessee by the pale moon light

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I’m on the road, haunting New England on a gun industry-related trip all week (although I do plan to catch the screening of “Master and Commander” on the deck of the USS Constitution on Friday night!). As such, I didn’t have the time to do a proper Warship Wednesday today.

Until then, enjoy this haunting image– photographed by scout aircraft from USS Ranger (CV 4)— of the dreadnought USS Tennessee (Battleship No. 43) with San Francisco Bridge in the background, 84 years ago today, 13 July 1938. The image was likely snapped by the observer in a Vought SBU-1 (Corsair) belonging to the “Ducks” of Scouting Squadron Forty-Two (VS-42).

U.S. Navy photo now in the National Archives 80-CF-14-2054-12

Achnacarry echos

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The seven elite green beret-wearing Commando units of the French Commandos Marine (Jaubert, de Montfort, de Penfentenyo, Trépel, Hubert, Kieffer, and Ponchardier) number fewer than 1,000 operators all told, including their training pipeline. We’ve talked about these very well-trained Bérets Verts types a few times over the years, and for good reason, they have been getting it done since 1942.

Speaking of which, 50 French Commandos recently traveled to Achnacarry Castle in the Scottish Highlands to visit the location where tens of thousands of the Allied Commandos and candidates troops underwent training in WWII. There, they paid homage to their ancestors and teamed up with a group of Royal Marine Commandos to mark the occasion of the organization’s 80th anniversary with a ceremony at the Commando Memorial.

To this day, the Commando Marine wear their berets pulled to the right with the badge over the left eye – the opposite of other French military units but the same as today’s Royal Marine Commandos – in recognition of their origins.

How the British Army’s mortar primer needs sparked an Ammo Plant in Minnesota

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Federal ammo is celebrating its Centennial this year, as I’ve discussed before, and they are increasingly doing an archival dump, which I find very interesting. During WWII, the company was charged with standing up the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant by the Army, one that continued in operation through Korea and Vietnam. However, what really got Federal that deal was an earlier one for mortar shell igniters for the British Army.

As detailed by Federal:

In 1940, as World War II ramped up, the British Purchasing Commission placed an order for 1.4 million mortar ignition cartridges.

If you’re not familiar with the term, an ignition cartridge is essentially a blank 12-gauge shotshell that is inserted in the base of the mortar bomb just before firing. The bomb is positioned in the upward-pointing muzzle of the mortar tube. It is released to slide down the tube, and the primer of the ignition cartridge impacts on a fixed firing pin at the bottom

This ignites the powder charge in the ignition cartridge, which in turn ignites the propelling charge of the mortar round. In some mortars, this can be adjusted by adding or subtracting propellant rings on the round.

The British continued to order ignition cartridges, and soon the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps was buying them as well. Federal’s fast and reliable fulfillment of these contracts gave it the credibility to bid for the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant contract.

Federal’s first foray into military production was with 1.4 million mortar ignition cartridges ordered by the British in 1940. 

This led to similar orders from the U.S. military.

Federal also provided trap and skeet ammunition during the war for aerial gunnery training and recreational use. These were in Monark and Hi-Power configuration, while Hi-Power ammo was offered in 00 Buck.

USAAF gunner with a training weapon, a Remington Model 11 set up to emulate flexible-mount .50 caliber M2 Browning. The military used millions of rounds of low brass 12 gauge for training

On the skeet range at N.A.S. Saint Louis, Missouri, 29 April 1944. Gunner is Lieutenant Junior Grade Rothschild, instructed by Martin. Shotgun is a Remington Model 11, 12 gauge semiautomatic, on a shotgun mount assembly Mk. 1 Mod. 0 consisting of gun mount adapter Mk. 12 mod.2 and .30 caliber stand Mk.23 Mod.0. Note boxes of Peters “Victor” brand skeet cartridges. Description: Catalog #: 80-G-237387

Some buckshot loads were made with brass collars at the front of the hull for more reliable feeding from the variety of pump and autoloader shotguns being issued.

Federal supplied buckshot loads with brass collars at the front for more reliable feeding in the wide variety of shotguns in use by the various U.S. armed services.

Federal remains in the mortar igniter biz today, as the firm continues to make No. 150D primers for 60-120mm mortars and the No. 215D primer for the Mk 19 40mm automatic grenade launcher. These are almost identical to the Federal primers civilian handloaders use, except they have slightly shorter anvils, thus the D for “desensitized.” This lets them stand up to rough handling in combat.

Screaming Eagles Headed Back to Europe After 80 Years

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U.S Army Maj. Gen. JP McGee, right, commanding general, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), and Command Sgt. Maj. Veronica Knapp, left, case the division colors during a color casing ceremony at McAuliffe Hall, Fort Campbell, Ky., July 5, 2022. The ceremony was held to officially mark the Screaming Eagle’s deployment to the European Command theater of operations to assure NATO allies and deter Russian aggression in the region. The casing of the colors symbolizes their departure from Fort Campbell, Ky. Their colors will remain cased until they redeploy the European Command theater of operations. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Sinthia Rosario, 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs)

While the 101st famously started their 1944-45 European vacation at Normandy– including the capture of Carentan– and ended 214 days later at the Eagle’s Nest, suffering 11,548 battle casualties along the way, the division’s post-WWII logs have seen it stay more Asia-way.

Earning 12 battle streamers in Vietnam as well as two for Southwest Asia service (along with a Meritorious Unit Commendation), the unit as a whole has kept out of Europe with the exception of exercises. However, that has changed as the division headquarters and the 2nd Brigade as a whole are headed there for the next several months.

From the Army:

Elements of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) began arriving to the Mihail Kogalniceanum Airbase in Romania June 20, and are scheduled to continue arriving during the next several days.

Headquarters, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, will support the U.S. Army V Corps’ mission to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank and engage in multinational exercises with partners across the European continent in order to reassure allies and deter further Russian aggression.

The deploying 101st Soldiers do not represent additional U.S. forces in Europe, but are taking the place of Soldiers assigned to 82nd Airborne Division Headquarters and the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division.

As noted by local media around E-Town: 

Considering Fort Campbell soldiers haven’t been deployed to Europe in 80 years, to put that in perspective – in 1942, gas was 20 cents.

The most-watched film that year was Bambi, and Bing Crosby released “White Christmas” in July 1942, which would be the Billboard top hit for three months that year.

The 4,700 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division began deploying to Europe in late June.

The latest troop will depart Fort Campbell at 10:30 Wednesday night.

In related news, it is almost ironic that Bradford Freeman, the last survivor of the Easy 506th’s famed “Band of Brothers,” died on Sunday in Columbus, Mississippi. He was 97.

Banzai meets Brooklyn

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Soldiers of the New York National Guard’s 105th Infantry Regiment on Saipan during World War II.

(New York State Military Museum)

Formerly the 2nd New York Volunteer Infantry of the 19th Century, the 105th had a long and distinguished record in federal service including the Civil War, the Spanish-America War, the Mexican Border dispute of 1916, World War I, and finally World War II.

Assigned to the 27th “New York” Infantry Division on 15 October 1940, after training at Alabama’s Fort McClellan, the New Yorkers shipped out for the Pacific and cleared Butaritari Island in the Makin Atoll campaign before landing on Saipan 17 June 1944.

The fighting on the long-held Japanese territory continued up Mount Tapotchau where the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th in the predawn hours of 7 July “bore the brunt of the largest Banzai charge of the entire war,” standing their ground against 4,300 fanatical Japanese, an action that resulted in three of the New Yorkers earning the Medal of Honor for the price of some 918 men from the two battalions listed on the casualty rolls, more than half of their effective strength.

MAJ Edward McCarthy, then in command of 2-105 and one of the few officers of the regiment to survive the 15-hour attack, described the scene as follows:

“It reminded me of one of those old cattle-stampede scenes of the movies. The camera is in a hole in the ground and you see the herd coming and they leap up and over you and are gone. Only the Japs just kept coming and coming. I didn’t think they’d ever stop”.

The 105th, after rest and refit, was thrown into the hell that was the Shuri Line at Okinawa and was bled white once more. It was disbanded back home in December 1945 and has never been reformed.

‘It was against Japanese regulations and discovery would have meant death’

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Enjoy your BBQ today but remember those who made it possible.

80 years ago today. Official caption: “American prisoners of war celebrate the 4th of July in the Japanese prison camp of Casisange in Malaybalay, on Mindanao, Philippine Islands. It was against Japanese regulations and discovery would have meant death, but the men celebrated the occasion anyway. 7/4/1942.”

Signal Corps Photo: 111-SC-333290. National Archives Identifier: 531352

 

Marines do Gettysburg to Prep for Guadalcanal

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Some 100 Years Ago This Weekend: Across early July 1922, the Marine Corps East Coast Expeditionary Force, based at Quantico, Virginia, headed to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for maneuvers and field exercises on the 59th anniversary of the great Civil War battle there. Spearheaded by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, the maneuvers and exercises, were also utilized as a method of obtaining favorable publicity and were often attended by the President and other dignitaries at the time.

All photos are via the Marine Corps History Division which has a great catalog of the event.

Two Civil War veterans post for a photograph with Marine Corps artillery in Gettysburg in July 1922

Excercise included road march via vehicle from Virginia to Gettysburg. Note the back tractor tows a 155mm heavy artillery piece.

Marine participants in the reenactment are carried off the field. Gettysburg 1922

Marine perform maintenance on three M1917 FT17 Renault light tanks during the 1922 Gettysburg maneuvers helped win the battle for Confederates

Marines skirmishing along the Emmitsburg Road during the 1922 Gettysburg maneuvers

Of note, Chesty Puller and the gang would use abatis, or chevaux de frise, a classic defensive anti-cavalry measure common in the Civil War, to defend Henderson Field against the Japanese in August 1942.

Cheval de frise/Frisian horses by Ponder House, Battle of Atlanta, Fort X 1864

Chevaux de frise anti-cavalry measures at Fort Blakely, Alabama. Dating to medieval times, they were still effective in the 1860s. photo by Chris Eger

Bamboo cheval de frise gates around the Coffin Corner area covering trails into Marine lines Guadalcanal 1942. Hey, if it works, it ain’t stupid. Those who don’t study history…

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