Tag Archives: 16th Infantry regiment

The Butgenback Shuffle

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Jan. 13, 1945: a Big Red One Soldier, from the 16th Infantry Regiment, in a protective snowsuit (aka Spok suit) advances toward enemy positions in the Butgenback sector of Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.

Signal Corps Photo 248311

PFC George Kelly of Philadelphia near Bütgenbach Belgium – January 1945. LIFE Magazine, George Silk Photographer. Kelly was KIA shortly after this picture was snapped, at age 25.

For more on the 16th Infantry’s trip through snow “knee-deep on the level and drifted to two to three times that depth where the wind could get at it,” check out the regimental historical society’s detailed account.

The long walk back from Chihuahua

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US infantrymen in Mexico during the hunt for Pancho Villa. January, 1917. Image via The Great War 1914-1918

US infantrymen in Mexico during the hunt for Pancho Villa. January 1917. Image via The Great War 1914-1918

100 years ago today, the end of the Punitive Expedition:

In the image above, a column of 6th and 16th Infantry regiments, are shown en route back to the States, between Corralitos Rancho and Ojo Federico, Jan 29th, 1917. Co. A, 16th Inf. in the foreground. Note the “Montana” campaign hats and Springfield 1903s.

This was the longest hike of the return march, 28 miles.

The longest “march” in one day on the way down was actually a lighting fast ride of the made by the artillery of the “Flying Column” consisting of Battery B of the 6th (horse-drawn) Field Artillery, who covered 145 miles in hours over March 15-16, 1916 including a blistering 88 on the first day alone.

As noted by Col. Frank Tompkins, who rode as a Major with the 13th Cav on the Expedition and later penned an excellent work on the subject, that rate of travel was unmatched by any artillery unit anywhere in prior military history.

Remember the USCG today as well

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“The Jaws of Death.”

A photo by CPHOM Robert F. Sargent, USCG. A Coast Guard-manned LCVP from the USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division on the morning of June 6, 1944, at Omaha Beach. The Coast Guard was one of the great-unsung players on D-Day, and more Coast Guard vessels were lost or damaged that day than at any time in its history before or since.