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Constituted on 10 July 1943, the 10th Mountain Division (Alpine) (often just called “the 10th”) was conceived as a light infantry division able to maneuver against Axis forces in Europe’s frigid mountains.

Via the Army’s Center of Military History:

Reports of combat operations involving Finnish, Italian, and German mountain troops prior to America’s entry into World War II convinced the National Ski Association, the National Ski Patrol, and later the American Alpine Club and the National Ski Patrol that the American army needed a mountain and winter warfare capability. Throughout 1940, Charles Minot Dole, Chairman of the National Ski Patrol, acting as spokesman, lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt, Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall, and many others, to organize a cadre of trained mountain troops. Dole also assisted in the initial recruitment of experienced skiers for the Army.

Beginning in November 1940, the War Department authorized the formation of small ski patrol units within several Army divisions. However, it was not until November 15, 1941, that the First Battalion of the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment began training at Fort Lewis, Washington, just 22 days prior to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. By March 1942, the Army had formulated a plan to activate a full mountain division in 1943. To reach this goal, construction of a large training facility began at Pando, Colorado in April 1942. This facility, named Camp Hale in honor of General Irving Hale, Colorado National Guard, was completed by November 1942. The Second and Third Battalions of the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment were authorized in May and June 1942, and by December 1942, all three battalions of the 87th Regiment had moved to Camp Hale.

In June 1943, the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment transferred from Camp Hale to Fort Ord, California to engage in amphibious training prior to participating in the invasion and recapture of Kiska Island in the Aleutians. Amphibious landings occurred on August 15, 1943. However, Japanese forces had evacuated the Island just before the landings. The 87th Regiment remained on Kiska until November 1943.

Meanwhile, the 10th Light Division (Alpine) was activated at Camp Hale on July 15, 1943. It consisted of the previously activated 86th Infantry Regiment and the 85th and 90th Regiments, which were also activated on July 15, 1943. Upon completion of operations at Kiska, the 87th Regiment returned to Camp Carson, Colorado, and joined the 10th Light Division at Camp Hale on February 23, 1944, replacing the 90th Regiment. Three infantry regiments, the 85th, 86th, and 87th, along with engineering, artillery, and other support units, now comprised the 10th Light Division. The division’s intense training program at Camp Hale included winter survival, rock climbing, skiing, mule packing, and the extraordinarily demanding “D-Series” winter exercises, which occurred during the Spring of 1944.

In late June 1944, the 10th Light Division departed Camp Hale for Camp Swift, Texas to participate in maneuvers and regular infantry training under extremely harsh, hot conditions. The 10th Light Division officially became the 10th Mountain Division on November 6, 1944. Brigadier General George P. Hays arrived at Camp Swift on November 23 to take command of the reorganized Division. Hays ordered the addition of heavy weapons companies to each battalion, and additional artillery support units were authorized.

Deployment to Italy began on December 11, 1944, when the 86th Regiment embarked for Naples aboard the USS Argentina, arriving on December 22. The 85th and 87th Regiments sailed aboard the USS West Point on January 4, 1945. Support units, including the 604th, 605, and 616 Field Artillery Battalions and the 126th Mountain Engineer Battalion followed on board the transport General Meigs.

The 10th Mountain Division began combat patrols in mid-January 1945 and launched its first offensive on the evening of February 18, 1945, with a surprise, and successful night assault on Riva Ridge. The next night the assault continued with an attack and capture of Mount Belvedere, the key German observation point. The first offensive lasted through February 25 when Mount Della Torraccia was secured. During a second offensive, from March 3 to March 6, 1945, the 10th Mountain Division attacked and cleared German forces from Mount della Torraccia to Mount della Spe, where the Allied command temporarily halted the offensive.

The Division’s final offensive began on April 14, 1945, and lasted until the German surrender in Italy on May 2, 1945. During this final operation, the 10th Mountain division broke through the German mountain defenses and into the Po River Valley. On April 23, 1945, the 87th Infantry regiment crossed the Po River under fire, and the entire division then advanced to Lake Garda in northern Italy by the war’s end.

Following the German surrender, the 10th Mountain Division deployed near the Italian border with Yugoslavia, to participate in what some historians have called the first engagement of the Cold War. Anticipating a deployment to the Pacific Theater, the Division returned to the United States in August 1945. Reports of the dropping of the Atomic Bombs and the announcement that the Japanese forces would surrender came while much of the Division was still crossing the Atlantic. Many men returned to Camp Carson, Colorado, where the division was inactivated on November 30, 1945.

Over 32,000 men served with the 10th Mountain Division between 1942 and 1945. Of these, approximately 20,000 men engaged in combat operations in Italy. The 10th Mountain Division sustained nearly 5,000 casualties during World War II, with 999 men being killed in action. Among the combat deaths were twenty men who died during the Kiska operation, eleven of whom died as a result of friendly fire during intense fog.

Reactivation

After a brief reactivation from 1948 to 1958 as a conventional infantry division, the 10th MD (Light Infantry) was revived on 13 February 1985, returning to its roots as a rapid response and maneuver infantry unit. In this capacity, the 10th MD saw action in domestic disaster relief and overseas missions in Somalia (see: Black Hawk Down), Haiti, Kosovo, and the Sinai.

At the outbreak of the Global War on Terror, elements of the 10th MD became the first conventional force to deploy after September 11th and maintained a presence in the Middle East almost continuously from 2002’s Operation Anaconda to 2019’s Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Of note, the DPL has a huge stack (12 boxes) of the 10th’s WWII records.