106th Infantry Division (United States)

106th Infantry Division

Shoulder Sleeve Insignia
Active 15 March 1943 – 2 October 1945
1 May 1948 – 12 October 1950
Country  United States
Allegiance Army of the United States
Branch  United States Army
Type Infantry
Size Division
Garrison/HQ Puerto Rico (1946–50)
Nickname(s) Golden Lion
Engagements

World War II

Battle honours Distinguished Unit Citation: Ardennes-Alsace Campaign
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 MG Alan W. Jones (March 1943)
BG Herbert T. Perrin (December 1944)
MG Donald A. Stroh (February 1945)

The 106th Infantry Division was a division of the United States Army formed for service during World War II. Two of its three regiments were overrun and surrounded in the initial days of the Battle of the Bulge, and they were forced to surrender to German forces on 19 December 1944. The division was never officially added to the troop list following the war, despite having been almost completely organized in Puerto Rico by 1948; subsequently, the War Department determined the division was not needed and inactivated the division headquarters in 1950.

History

The 106th Infantry Division's Headquarters and Headquarters Company was constituted on paper on 5 May 1942. It was actually activated on 15 March 1943 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, with a cadre from the 80th Infantry Division. Following Basic and Advanced Infantry Training, the Division moved on 28 March 1944 to Tennessee to participate in the Second Army #5 Maneuvers.

The 106th Infantry Division relieved the 2nd Infantry Division in the Schnee Eifel on 11 December 1944, with its 424th Infantry Regiment was sent to Winterspelt. Prior to the battle, according to the US Army Service Manual, one division should be responsible for no more than 5 miles (8.0 km) of front. On the eve of the battle, the 106th was covering a front of almost 26 miles (42 km).[1]

In the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign, the Germans attacked the 106th on 16 December 1944. The division's 422nd and 423rd Infantry Regiments were encircled and cut off by a junction of enemy forces in the vicinity of Schonberg. They regrouped for a counterattack, but were blocked by the enemy. The two regiments surrendered on 19 December. The Germans gained 6000 prisoners in one of the largest mass surrenders in American military history. Nearly 50% of the division's strength was brushed aside in the first days of the Battle of the Bulge.

The remnants of the division were reinforced by the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division and withdrew over the Our River and joined other units at Saint Vith. Along with the city of Bastogne to the south, St. Vith was a road and rail junction city considered vital to the German goal of breaking through Allied lines to split American and British forces and reach the Belgian port city of Antwerp. A scratch force of 106th Division personnel, in particular the division's 81st Engineer Combat Battalion, was organized and led by the 81st's 28-year-old commanding officer, Lt. Col. Thomas Riggs, in a five-day holding action (17–21 December) on a thin ridge line a mile outside St. Vith, against German forces vastly superior in numbers and armament (only a few hundred green Americans versus many thousands of veteran Germans). For this action, the 81st Engineer Combat Battalion was later awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation for gallantry. The defense of St. Vith by the 106th has been credited with ruining the German timetable for reaching Antwerp, hampering the Bulge offensive for the Germans.[2]

The 81st and other units, including 168th Engineer Combat Battalion, pulled back from St. Vith on 21 December, under constant enemy fire, and withdrew over the Saint River at Vielsalm on 23 December. The following day, the 424th Regiment, attached to the 7th Armored Division, fought a delaying action at Manhay until ordered to an assembly area. From 25 December to 9 January 1945, the division received reinforcements and supplies at Anthisnes, Belgium, and returned to the struggle, securing objectives along the Ennal-Logbierme line on 15 January after heavy fighting. After being pinched out by advancing divisions, the 106th assembled at Stavelot on 18 January for rehabilitation and training. It moved to the vicinity of Hunningen on 7 February for defensive patrols and training.

In March, the 424th advanced along the high ground between Berk and the Simmer River and was again pinched out at Olds on 7 March. A period of training and security patrolling along the Rhine River followed, until 15 March, when the division moved to St. Quentin[3] for rehabilitation and the reconstruction of lost units.

The division was reconstituted on 16 March when the 3rd Infantry Regiment (the Old Guard) and the 159th Infantry Regiment were attached to replace the two lost regiments. The division then moved back to Germany on 25 April, where, for the remainder of its stay in Europe, the 106th handled POW enclosures and engaged in occupational duties.

In the meantime, the 422nd Infantry Regiment and the 423rd Infantry Regiment were reconstituted from replacements in France on 15 April, were attached to the 66th Infantry Division in training status, and were still in this status when the Germans surrendered on 8 May 1945.

At the end of the war, the division had seen 63 days of combat. It had suffered 417 KIA, 1,278 WIA, and 53 died of wounds. It lost 6,697 personnel taken prisoner. Of that total, 6,500 POWs were eventually returned to American military control after being released at war's end. The remainder were listed MIA.

Lineage

Order of battle

Assigned units

1942 ("Triangular") Organization

Attached units

Honors

Campaign participation credit

World War II

Decorations

Unit recognition

Individual recognition

All infantry members who received the Combat Infantryman Badge were also later awarded the Bronze Star.

Shoulder sleeve insignia

The blue is for infantry, while the red represents artillery support.
The lion's face represents strength and power.

Notable members

Kurt Vonnegut served in this division and used his experiences during the Battle of the Bulge (and captivity as a prisoner of war) in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five.[6]

Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds (died 1985), who was captured on 19 December 1944 as a member of the 422nd Infantry Regiment, was recognized in 2015 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum as the first American serviceman from World War II to be honored with the title Righteous Among The Nations[7][8] for risking his life to save Jewish-American POWs under his command from being taken from the POW camp in Germany to concentration camps, where they likely would have been murdered or worked to death.

As the senior noncommissioned officer, Edmonds was responsible for 1,275 American POWs. The camp commandant ordered Edmonds to tell only the Jewish-American soldiers to present themselves at the next morning's assembly so they could be separated from the other prisoners. Instead, Edmonds, of Knoxville, Tennessee, ordered all 1,275 to assemble outside their barracks. The German commandant rushed up to Edmonds in a fury, placed his pistol against Edmonds' head and demanded that he identify the Jewish soldiers under his command.[7] Instead, Edmonds responded "We are all Jews here," and threatened to have the commandant investigated and prosecuted for war crimes after the conflict ended, should any of Edmonds' men be harmed.[7] The commandant backed down. Edmonds' actions are credited with saving up to 200 Jewish-American soldiers from nearly certain death.[7] Edmonds survived 100 days of captivity, and returned home after the war, but never told his family of his actions.

His wife gave his son, Baptist Rev. Chris Edmonds, a couple of the diaries his father had kept while in the POW camp. Rev. Edmonds began researching his story, locating several of the Jewish soldiers his father saved, who provided witness statements to Yad Vashem. Rev. Edmonds is currently seeking to have his father's bravery recognized with the Medal of Honor.[8]

Notes

  1. ↑ "106th Infantry Division". US Army Center of Military History. US Army Center of Military History. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "The Battle of the Bulge".
  3. ↑ "106th Infantry Division". United States Army Center of Military History. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Destroyed in Schnee Eifel salient 19 December 1944 near Schonberg; rebuilt in France, but did not rejoin the division until 16 May 1945. Unit replaced by 3rd Infantry Regiment for the duration.
  5. ↑ Destroyed in Schnee Eifel salient 19 December 1944 near Schonberg; rebuilt in France, but did not rejoin the division until 16 May 1945. Unit replaced by 159th Infantry Regiment for the duration.
  6. ↑ Boomhower, Ray. "Kurt Vonnegut". Indiana Historical Society. Indiana Historical Society. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Oren Liebermann (21 December 2015). "'We are all Jews': World War II soldier honored for saving lives in POW camp". CNN. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 "American WWII vet becomes first soldier honored for saving Jews". Associated Press. 2 December 2015.

Bibliography

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, December 25, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.