30th Infantry Division (United States)

The 30th Infantry Division was a unit of the Army National Guard in World War I and World War II. It was nicknamed the "Old Hickory" division, in honor of President Andrew Jackson. The Germans nicknamed this division "Roosevelt's SS".[1] The 30th Infantry Division was regarded by a team of historians led by S.L.A. Marshall as the number one infantry division in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), involved in 282 days of intense combat over a period from June 1944 through April 1945.[2] In the present day the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team is now a part of the North Carolina National Guard and their most recent combat deployment was in 2019

30th Infantry Division
Shoulder sleeve insignia
Active1917–1919
1926–1945
1947–1974
Country United States
Branch United States Army
TypeInfantry
SizeDivision
Nickname(s)"Old Hickory"
EngagementsWorld War I

World War II

World War I

The division was originally activated as the 9th Division (drawing units from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee) under a 1917 force plan, but changed designation to the 30th Division after the American entry into World War I in April 1917.[3] It was formally activated under its new title in October 1917, as an Army National Guard division from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Order of battle
  • Headquarters, 30th Division
  • 59th Infantry Brigade
  • 60th Infantry Brigade
  • 55th Field Artillery Brigade
    • 114th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 115th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 113th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
    • 105th Trench Mortar Battery
  • 113th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 105th Engineer Regiment
  • 105th Field Signal Battalion
  • Headquarters Troop, 30th Division
  • 105th Train Headquarters and Military Police
    • 105th Ammunition Train
    • 105th Supply Train
    • 105th Engineer Train
    • 105th Sanitary Train
      • 117th, 118th, 119th, and 120th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals
King George V and Major General Edward Mann Lewis inspecting troops of the 30th Infantry Division, 6 August 1918. Photograph possibly taken at Achicourt, France.

In May 1918 the division was sent to Europe and arrived in England, where it departed for the Western Front soon after. The division, along with the 27th Division, was assigned to the U.S. II Corps but did not serve with the main American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and was instead attached to the Second Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), trading American equipment for British equipment.

The major operations the 30th Division took part in were the Ypres-Lys, and the Somme offensive, in which it was one of the two American divisions to break the Hindenburg Line in the Battle of St. Quentin Canal. The division had, in three months, from July until October 1918, sustained 1,237 officers and men killed in action (KIA), with a further 7,178 wounded in action (WIA) or missing in action (MIA).

Commanders
  • Major General John Frank Morrison (28 August 1917)
  • Brigadier General William S. Scott (19 September 1917)
  • Major General Clarence P. Townsley (14 October 1917)
  • Brigadier General Samson L. Faison (1 December 1917)
  • Major General Clarence P. Townsley (6 December 1917)
  • Brigadier General Samson L. Faison (17 December 1917)
  • Brigadier General Lawrence D. Tyson (22 December 1917)
  • Brigadier General George G. Gatley (28 December 1917)
  • Brigadier General Samson L. Faison (1 January 1918)
  • Brigadier General Lawrence D. Tyson (30 March 1918)
  • Brigadier General Samson L. Faison (7 April 1918)
  • Major General George W. Read (3 May 1918)
  • Brigadier General Robert H. Noble (12 June 1918)
  • Major General George W. Read (14 June 1918)
  • Major General Samson L. Faison (15 June 1918)
  • Major General Edward Mann Lewis (18 July 1918)
  • Brigadier General Samson L. Faison (23 December 1918)

Interwar period

Order of battle, 1939
  • Headquarters, 30th Division (Macon, GA)
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 30th Division (Griffin, GA)
    • Headquarters Company, 30th Division (Griffin, GA)
    • 30th Military Police Company (Springfield, GA)
    • 30th Signal Company (Canton, NC)
    • 105th Ordnance Company (Medium) (Nashville, TN)
    • 30th Tank Company (Light) (Forsyth, GA)
  • 59th Infantry Brigade (Columbia, SC)
    • 118th Infantry Regiment (Columbia, SC)
    • 121st Infantry Regiment (Macon, GA)
  • 60th Infantry Brigade (Graham, NC)
    • 117th Infantry Regiment (Knoxville, TN)
    • 120th Infantry Regiment (Raleigh, NC)
  • 55th Field Artillery Brigade (Savannah, GA)
    • 105th Ammunition Train (Georgia National Guard)
    • 113th Field Artillery Regiment (Raleigh, NC)
    • 115th Field Artillery Regiment (Memphis, TN)
    • 118th Field Artillery Regiment (Savannah, GA)
  • 105th Engineer Regiment (Raleigh, NC)
  • 105th Medical Regiment (Henderson, NC)
  • 105th Quartermaster Regiment (Charleston, SC)

Asterisk indicates state of headquarters allocation; headquarters not organized or inactive.

World War II
  • Called into federal service: 16 September 1940 (National Guard division from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee)
  • Assigned to:
    Fort Jackson, South Carolina 16 September to October 1942
    Camp Blanding, Florida October 1942 to May 1943
    Camp Forrest, Tennessee May 1943 - 9 November 1943
    Camp Atterbury, Indiana 10 November 1943 to 26 January 1944[4]
  • Overseas: 11 February 1944
  • Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe
  • Days of combat: 282
  • Distinguished Unit Citations: 8
  • Awards: MH-6 ; DSC-50 ; DSM-1 ; SS-1,773 ; LM-12; DFC-3 ; SM-30 ; BSM-6,616 ; AM-154.
  • Foreign Awards: Belgian Fourragere-2[1] per Belgian decree #1393, dated 20 November 1945
  • Commanders:
    Maj. Gen. Henry D. Russell (September 1940 – April 1942),
    Maj. Gen. William H. Simpson (May–July 1942),
    Maj. Gen. Leland S. Hobbs (September 1942 – September 1945),
    Maj. Gen. Albert C. Smith (September 1945 to inactivation.)
  • Returned to U.S.: 19 August 1945
  • Inactivated: 25 November 1945.

Order of battle
  • Headquarters, 30th Infantry Division
  • 117th Infantry Regiment
  • 119th Infantry Regiment
  • 120th Infantry Regiment
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, DIVARTY
    • 113th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
    • 118th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
    • 197th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
    • 230th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
  • 105th Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 105th Medical Battalion
  • 30th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 30th Infantry Division
    • Headquarters Company, 30th Infantry Division
    • 730th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
    • 30th Quartermaster Company
    • 30th Signal Company
    • Military Police Platoon
    • Band
  • 30th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

See all attached units: 30thInfantry.org

Combat chronicle

After training in the United States for just over two years, the 30th Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Leland Hobbs, arrived in England, 22 February 1944, and trained for the Allied invasion of Normandy until June.[5]

It landed at Omaha Beach, Normandy, on 11 June 1944, five days after the initial D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, secured the Vire-et-Taute Canal, crossed the Vire River on 7 July.[6] Beginning on 25 July, the 30th Division spearheaded the Saint-Lô break-through of Operation Cobra, which was intended to break out of the Normandy beachhead, thus ending the stalemate that had occurred.

During the battle of Mortain, Typhoons devastated German tank and mechanized columns attempting to reach the French coast, 7 August 1944.

During the operation, on both 24 and 25 July, the 30th Division encountered a devastating friendly fire incident. As part of the effort to break out of the Normandy hedgerows, US Army Air Force (USAAF) bombers from England were sent to carpet bomb a one-by-three-mile corridor of the German defenses opposite the American line. However, USAAF planners, in complete disregard or lack of understanding of their role in supporting the ground attack, loaded the heavy B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with 500-pound bombs, destroying roads and bridges and complicating movement through the corridor, instead of lighter 100-pound bombs intended as antipersonnel devices against German defenders. Air planners switched the approach of attack by 90 degrees without informing ground commanders, thus a landmark road to guide the bombers to the bombing zone was miscommunicated as the point to begin the bombing run. Start point confusion was further compounded by red smoke signals that suddenly blew in the wrong direction, and bombs began falling on the heads of the American soldiers. There were over 100 friendly fire casualties over the two days, including Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, commander of Army Ground Forces.

The division relieved the veteran 1st Infantry Division near Mortain on 6 August.[7] The German drive to Avranches began shortly after. The 30th Division clashed with the elite 1st SS Panzer Division, and fierce fighting in place with all available personnel broke out. The division frustrated enemy plans and broke the spearhead of the enemy assault in a violent struggle from 7–12 August. After the liberation of Paris, the division drove east through Belgium, crossing the Meuse River at Visé and Liège on 10 September. Elements of the division entered the Netherlands on 12 September, and Maastricht fell the next day. Moving into Germany and taking up positions along the Wurm River, the 30th Division launched its attack on the heavily defended city of Aachen on 2 October 1944, and succeeded in contacting the 1st Division on 16 October, resulting in the encirclement and takeover of Aachen.

Men of the 117th Infantry Regiment, part of the 30th Infantry Division, move past a destroyed American M5 "Stuart" tank on their march to capture the town of St. Vith at the close of the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945.

After a rest period, the 30th Division eliminated an enemy salient northeast of Aachen on 16 November, pushed through Alsdorf to the Inde River on 28 November, and then moved to rest areas. On 17 December the division rushed south to the Malmedy-Stavelot area to help block the powerful enemy drive in the Battle of the Bulge—the Germans's last attempt to win a decisive victory over the Western Allies. Again the division met the 1st SS Division, and again broke the spearhead of their assault. The 30th Division launched a counterattack on 13 January 1945 and reached a point 2 miles south of St. Vith, Belgium on 26 January, before leaving the battle and moving to an assembly area near Lierneux on 27 January, and to another near Aachen to prepare for attack deeper into the western edge of Germany at the Roer River. The Roer was crossed on 23 February 1945, near Jülich.

The 30th moved back for training and rehabilitation on 3 March, and on 24 March made its assault crossing of the Rhine. It pursued the enemy across Germany, mopping up enemy pockets of resistance, took Hamelin on 7 April, Braunschweig on 12 April, and helped to reduce Magdeburg on 17 April. The Russians were contacted at Grunewald on the Elbe River. The end of World War II in Europe came soon afterwards and, after a short occupation period, the 30th Division began its return to the United States, arriving on 19 August 1945. The surrender of Japan followed soon, which brought the war to an end.

Casualties
  • Total battle casualties: 18,446[8]
  • Killed in action: 3,003[8]
  • Wounded in action: 13,376[8]
  • Missing in action: 903[8]
  • Prisoner of war: 1,164[8]
An M8 reconnaissance armored car of the 30th Infantry Div., rolls through the streets of Kinzweiler, November 21, 1944.

Assignments in ETO
  • 18 February 1944: XIX Corps, First Army.
  • 15 July 1944: VII Corps
  • 28 July 1944: XIX Corps
  • 1 August 1944: XIX Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group
  • 4 August 1944: V Corps
  • 5 August 1944: VII Corps
  • 13 August 1944: XIX Corps
  • 26 August 1944: XV Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to First Army
  • 29 August 1944: XIX Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group
  • 22 October 1944: Ninth Army, 12th Army Group
  • 17 December 1944: Ninth Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to V Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group
  • 22 December 1944: XVIII Airborne Corps, and attached, with the First Army, to the British 21st Army Group
  • 18 January 1945: XVIII Airborne Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group
  • 3 February 1945: XIX Corps, Ninth Army, 12th Army Group
  • 6 March 1945: XVI Corps
  • 30 March 1945: XIX Corps
  • 8 May 1945: XIII Corps

Postwar

Following the war, the 30th Division was once again reactivated as a National Guard formation in 1947, split between three states.[9] It included the 119th, 120th, and 121st Infantry Regiments.[10]

In 1954, the division became an entirely North Carolina Army National Guard manned formation, as Tennessee's portion became the 30th Armored Division, which was maintained with the Alabama Army National Guard. In 1968 the division was designated as the 30th Infantry Division (Mechanized). On 4 January 1974 the division was again inactivated, and the brigade in North Carolina become the 30th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Separate). The 2nd Brigade, 30th Infantry Division, became the 218th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Separate).[13]

Shoulder sleeve insignia

Description: The letters "O H" blue upon a red background, the "O" forming the elliptical outline of the device long axis to be 2 1⁄2 inches (6.4 cm) and short axis 1 5⁄8 inches (4.1 cm). The letter "H" within the "O". The letters "XXX" on the bar of the "H". The insignia to be worn with long axis vertical.[14]

Symbolism: The letters "O H" are the initials of "Old Hickory" and the "XXX" is the Roman notation for the number of the organization.[14]

Background: The shoulder sleeve insignia was originally approved on 23 October 1918 for the 30th Division. It was redesignated for the 30th Infantry Brigade on 20 February 1974. The insignia was redesignated effective 1 September 2004, with description updated, for the 30th Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina Army National Guard.[14]

Notable members

References

Notes
  1. "Fact Sheet - The 30th Infantry Division Veterans of WWII".
  2. Haas, Darrin. "Still Shocking". National Guard Magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  3. "Chapter II: Genesis of Permanent Divisions". Archived from the original on 4 June 2008.
  4. "Home Page - Indiana Military Org".
  5. Featherston, Alwyn (1998). Battle for Mortain: the 30th Infantry Division Saves the Breakout August 7-12, 1944. Novato, CA: Presidio. p. 16. ISBN 0891416625.
  6. Featherston, Alwyn (1998). Battle for Mortain: the 30th Infantry Division Saves the Breakout August 7-12, 1944. Novato, CA: Presidio. pp. 16–17. ISBN 0891416625.
  7. Beevor, Antony (2010). Battle for Normandy. Penguin. p. 402. ISBN 978-0-241-96897-0.
  8. Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths (Statistical and Accounting Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
  9. Old Hickory Association, , accessed September 2009 Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Aumilier, United States Army Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry/Armor Battalions
  11. Adjutant General of North Carolina 1961, pp. 19–21.
  12. Adjutant General of North Carolina 1964, pp. 18–21, 100–101.
  13. McGrath, The Brigade, 240.
  14. "30th Infantry Brigade". The U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2019. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Bibliography
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