division_history

"ROCK OF THE MARNE" -- A TRIBUTE TO STRENGTH

WHEN the late President Roosevelt and former Prime Minister Churchill decided on the invasion of North Africa they told their army chiefs to select crack divisions for the amphibious operation, the toughest operation in the books. The 3rd was picked to hit the west coast of French Morocco and capture the highly important port of Casablanca.

Both the 3rd's history in World War I and its state of readiness in this war governed its selection. Along the banks of the Marne in 1918, the 3rd stood fast while two German divisions pounded it from three sides. But the 3rd held, the enemy was forced to retreat and the peril to Paris was eliminated. Thereafter, the 3rd became known as the "Rock of the Marne" Division.

The 3rd took part in the fighting at the Somme, Chateau-Thierry, Champagne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and Aisne-Marne. In August, 1919, after a stretch as occupation troops, the division left France for the States and was demobilized.

Reactivated in September, 1921, at Fort Lewis, Wash., the 3rd remained in Washington and California until it went to Camp Pickett, Va., in September, 1942, to prepare for the invasion of North Africa.

The division's background was rooted in the history of its regiments. Their battle honors include the campaigns of 1812, Spanish-American War, Indian Wars, Mexican and Civil Wars. The 7th Regt. was first organized in 1798, mustered out in 1800, reorganized in 1808 and has had continuous service since. Its long list of battle honors begins with the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

The 15th Regt. was organized as a regiment of volunteers to fight the British in 1812. It also saw action in the Mexican War and took part in six major battles during the Civil War. The regiment served twice in China, first during the Boxer Rebellion and later for a 26-year period ending in 1938, when it returned to the States and was assigned to the 3rd.

The 30th Regt. participated in the War of 1812 and in the Civil War, but the history of the present regiment began with its formation in 1901 at Fort Logan, Colo. It and the 7th were part of the division in World War I.

"Blue and White Devils" is only one of the nicknames belonging to the 3rd. That name is a grudging tribute from the Germans who were defeated at the Anzio beachhead. Nazis also called the 3rd the "Sturm" Division, a name often applied to their own units.

The 3rd's invasion off Fedala, French Morocco, in the inky blackness of Nov. 8, 1942, was far from being a perfect landing. Amphibious landings were new and when the ships' deployment in the transport area became mixed, H-hour was set back 45 minutes. A dangerous shore line, rocks and a heavy sea, capsized many boats. Once inland, friendly naval gun fire occasionally hit advancing troops.

But it was a start and it was successful. While the division prepared its assault on Casablanca, Nov. 11, the French asked for an armistice. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., commanding Western Task Force, told Maj. Gen. J. W. Anderson, then CG of the 3rd: "Thanks for the birthday present, Andy."

Next followed a long period free from combat. The 30th sent troops northward to patrol the borders of Spanish Morocco. One battalion commanded by Col. (then Maj.) Charles E. Johnson, acted as honor and security guard at the Casablanca conference.

Gen. Anderson left the division Feb. 22 and was replaced by Lt. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, later Fifth Army Commander. A vigorous training program followed General Truscott made it his business to see that the division could march five miles an hour for the first hour, and four miles an hour thereafter. The pace was called the Truscott Trot; it made the 3rd famous.

Other American divisions, the 1st, 9th, 34th and 1st Armored, were fighting for Tunisia. When the Afrika Korps was about to collapse, the 3rd's 15th Regt. was committed to action. It hadn't fired a shot when the Germans surrendered.

"Hell," said 1st Lt. Don G. Taggart, current division historian. "We got that battle star for maneuvering into position."

That star was the only gift the 3rd ever received without working for it.

SICILY -- SPRINGBOARD TO ITALY

NEXT amphibious operation for the Marne Division was Sicily. It was rough. Not only were Italians and Germans fighting to hold on to Sicily but it was mid-July, hottest time of the year in a hot country. Water was scarce; climbing one mountain meant only another mountain to climb.

Licata was the scene of the 3rd's invasion. Marne-men exhibited their Truscott Trot immediately. In the drive for Palermo they covered 90 miles in three days, all on foot. During the attack, the 30th's 3rd Bn. covered, by marching over mountainous terrain, 54 miles in 33 hours -- a record the division believes still stands -- then attacked the town of San Stefano Quisquina.

Outside Palermo the Army commander drew a line where foot troops were to stop; entry was to be made by armored forces. Gen. Truscott received permission to "patrol" the town, however, and 3rd Bn., 7th, entered the city to be met next morning by tankers from the 2nd Armd. Div

He called himself "The Old Goat" but there was nothing old about the way Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard loaded his 2nd Bn., 30th, into Higgins boats and Ducks to make two landing behind enemy lines as the 3rd pushed up the Sicilian coast toward Messina. For these two invasions, the battalion won the Presidential Unit Citation.

Again, at Messina, Marne-men were first into the city. Again it was the 7th, climaxing a drive against stubborn German rear guards that resulted in the bloodiest fighting of the entire campaign.

Thirty days after the fall of Messina (Sept. 17, 1943), the 3rd headed for Italy and crossed the recently won Salerno beachhead. Three days later, elements of the 30th met German troops south of Acerno. Forgotten was the Truscott Trot in the rugged mountains, the biting rain, and against the powerful, stubborn German army.

The division made an audacious crossing of the Volturno River Oct. 13. The river valley was perfectly flat, fringed with mountains affording the enemy excellent observation, cross fire and strong artillery support. Without stopping to take a breather, the 3rd plunged into the icy waters, crossed the river. Casualties were high. The situation was tense once during an enemy tank counter-attack, but the division crunched ahead to the mountains to upset the German timetable.

It was in the mountain approaches to Cassino that the division met its toughest opposition and displayed its greatest offensive prowess. Heavily reinforced, the Germans sat on Monte Rotundo, Monte Lungo and Monte la Difensa, ringing Mignano on the north, determined to hold at all costs.

Every foot of the way was heavily mined. Jeeps were replaced by pack mules. Men died who might have lived if they could have been transported over the long and tortuous trails to aid stations. Co. K, 7th, once had 23 casualties from AP mines while climbing a hill to relieve another company. Mules were forever straying off the paths, exploding mines and wounding badly needed men.

As winter approached, the 3rd captured Monte Rotundo, the south nose of Lungo and all of steep, barren La Difensa, except one summit guarded by a 200-foot cliff.

It was on Monte Rotundo that Capt. Maurice L. "Footsie" Britt, Lone Oak, Ark., former Detroit Lions' football star, CO Co. L, 30th, became a legendary figure through his exploits. Despite painful grenade wounds, he inspired his company of 40 to stand off three separate counter-attacks, throwing "at least 30 grenades," firing his carbine, a Tommygun, anything he could shoot to beat off the enemy. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Previously, Capt. Arlo Olson, Baton Rouge, La., 15th, drove his men through a vastly superior force in 13 rugged days. Killed by a mortar fragment at San Felice, he also was awarded the CMH. This type of grim fighting had its results. The first approaches to Cassino were forced, a toe hold gained for succeeding troops.

The 3rd came out of the line Nov. 17, 1943, rested until the end of December in the knee-deep mud near San Felice. Practice river crossings on the Volturno indicated that Marne-men would force the issue at the Rapido which flowed through Cassino.

ANZIO AND THE RACE TO ROME BEGINS

BUT with the new year, a switch in plans sent the 3rd to the Naples staging area to prepare for a landing 30 miles south of Rome, an operation that was to roll back the enemy on the southern Italian front. The 3rd and a brigade of the British 1st Div. landed Jan. 22 near the little resort towns of Nettuno and Anzio. Winston Churchill once spoke of "tears, sweat and toil." Anzio was paid for in guts -- American and British guts. More than 6000 men died during the next few months to protect 100 square miles of beachhead. In that hallowed niche reserved for names like Bataan and Guadalcanal, Anzio will live forever. Anzio always will be a vivid memory to the men who fought there... and survived.

Three regiments landed abreast, each speared by an assault battalion. By mid-afternoon next day, they were 10 miles inland. The enemy's reaction was swift. Instead of withdrawing, he raced fresh troops from the Rome vicinity and northern Italy and hurled them into battle. When a 45th Inf. Div. combat team landed on the beachhead D plus 6, an equivalent of three divisions loomed in front of Cisterna on Highway 7 as the 3rd regrouped for its first assault.

The brick-wall defense stopped the attack which began Jan 29 and ended early Jan. 31. When the 7th's 1st Bn. finally was relieved, less than 200 men were left; 2nd Bn. had 400; 3rd Bn., 600. Closest to Cisterna were 1st Bn., 30th, and 2nd Bn., 15th, which had to swing to the defense only 1500 yards from the objective.

Anzio was barely 14 miles wide and 10 miles from sea to front at its deepest penetration. The enemy squatted around the beachhead's perimeter and in the Colli Laziali Hills with perfect observation of every square inch of beachhead.

Sally, the Berlin broadcaster, knew what type of rations men ate. Among songs she dedicated was, "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." Among her remarks was, "As long as there is blue and white paint, there'll always be a 3rd Division," The blue and white paint outlasted Sally.

When VI Corps ordered defensive emplacements dug along the Mussolini Canal -- the beachhead line -- weary, battered Marne-men doggedly refused to let the Krauts push them back. The Mussolini Canal plan was discarded. That line, won during the first Cisterna assault, was to be held. Men like T/5 Eric Gibson and Pfc Lloyd Hawks would have approved the decision, the former if he hadn't been killed when he left his field kitchen to lead a squad of recruits into their first battle; the latter, if he hadn't been near death in a Naples hospital after saving the lives of two buddies although he had been wounded in the head, suffered a shattered arm and leg. Both men won the Medal of Honor.

The first defensive battle occurred Feb. 16 when Hitler tried to remove the thorn in the side of Italy. Main weight of the attack was pressed against the 45th Div. and British 1st Div. near Aprilia. When the line receded but didn't disintegrate, Col. Lionel C. McGarr's 30th Inf. and the 1st Armd. Div. counterattacked across the flat Pontine marshes to steady and re-establish the beachhead line.

Maj. Gen. (then Brig. Gen.) John W. O'Daniel assumed command Feb. 17 when Gen. Truscott went to VI Corps. Men well remember his classic retort to Field Marshal Sir Harold R.L.G. Alexander's question in the War Room. "I believe it is true that your division did not give an inch. Is that right?" asked the Commander of Allied Armies in Italy. "Not a God-damn inch!" replied "Iron Mike."

For a while, the fight simmered down, then flared again Feb. 29. Field Marshal Kesselring flung three divisions and elements of a fourth against the 3rd. Wave upon wave of enemy infantry stormed positions. Supported by seven tanks, a regiment struck a company Of the 7th, only to be whipped back in retreat. Next morning, two tanks from Ponte Rotto barreled through Co. L, headed for the battalion CP. Co. K stemmed, their advance. It was the same all along the line.

Fourteen tanks grinding from Cisterna toward Isola Bella, held by the 15th, were slapped down by TDs or turned tread and fled. Because reserves were thin, front line doughs had to hold. Second Bn., 30th, made the main attack, wiping out an enemy penetration of 1000 yards at Carano; the 5th restored its positions between Carano and Ponte Rotto. Krauts stacked their dead, covered them with a bulldozer.

The push of Yank forces on the southern front of the Italian boot was the signal to break out of the beachhead. The date was May 23, an indelible mark in the minds of Marne-men. The 3rd bore the brunt of the attack. Cisterna, key to the enemy's defense, its approaches sewed with mines and anti-tank ditches, latticed with trenches and emplacements, had to be taken.

Late May 21, all three regiments shifted into place, spent a restless day under the scant cover of the Mussolini Canal and adjacent ditches. H-hour was 0630, May 23. The plan demanded the 30th encircle Cisterna from the left, the 15th to by-pass it to the right; the 7th to crash it head-on.

On the 23rd, the division suffered 995 battle casualties, believed to be the highest ever sustained by a single division in one day's fighting. Marne-men kept slugging it out. By nightfall, most companies had lost key personnel; less experienced carried on. Heroes were legion, four won the Medal of Honor for the first two day's fighting. Pvt. Henry "Kraut-an-Hour" Schauer killed 17 Germans in 17 hours with his BAR; Pvt. Johnny Dutko wiped out two machine guns, then charged and silenced an 88; Pvt. James Mills, first scout, led his platoon in his initial combat; Pvt. Patrick Kessler charged an enemy gun after 20 of his buddies were killed or wounded, knocked out a strongpoint, picked off two snipers to help his company advance.

The 7th plowed into Cisterna. By noon of the 25th, the city belonged to the 3rd Div. while the 30th raced ahead to Cori. Pushing on to Artena, "Blue and White Devils" ripped into the crack Hermann Goering Division, crushing it in a battle that matched Cisterna for ferocity, Next, Highway 6 was crossed, cutting the enemy's escape route from the south; Valmontone, taken. The race to Rome began. Preceding the capture of Valmontone was an incident that is an epic in the pages of the 3rd's history.

Pvt. Elden J. Johnson and Pvt. Herbert Christian were in a patrol from the 15th ordered to scout enemy positions. No sooner did the patrol run into an ambush than the leader was killed, a 20mm slug tore off Christian's left leg, machine gun bullets ripped into Johnson's stomach. Born men went down. In the blackness of night lit only by the vivid scars of red and green tracers and German flares, both men struggled to their feet to charge the enemy while 11 uninjured doughs withdrew. They were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously.

First Lt. Frank Greenlee, Nashville, Tenn., led his platoon of the 3rd Recon Troop into Rome at 0800 June 4 in a photo finish with the 88th Recon Troop. By nightfall, the first capital of a Nazi nation had fallen. To the 3rd fell the honor of garrisoning the city. New uniforms were issued to troops who became garrison for the first time in 14 months.

June 6 was D-Day in Normandy, but for Marne-men, who experienced four D-Days, it was just another invasion. The Rome interlude was brief. The time had come to stab at "the soft underbelly of Europe." To gird itself for the assault on southern France, the 3rd, along with the 36th and 45th Divs., returned to the familiar staging grounds at Naples.

BLUE AND WHITE DEVILS PIERCE "UNDERBELLY OF EUROPE"

UG. 15, 0800: VI Corps poured more men on the Riviera beaches than splashed on the Normandy shores at H-hour. Military experts labeled it a perfect amphibious operation. It couldn't have been otherwise. For the 36th, it was the second; for the 45th, the third; for the 3rd, the fourth D-Day. So expert was the landing that within the first 24 hours, "Blue and White Devils" rounded up 1000 PWs and began dashing parallel to the coast toward Toulon an Marseille. Sealing off the two ports later captured by the French for landing of additional troops, the 3rd now whipped north along the Rhone River valley. Nazis withdrew towards the Belfort Gap but they weren't fast enough.

Lt. Col. Clayton Thobro's 2nd Bn., 7th, by-passed Montelimar, which fell to the 15th, and was scrambling along the ridges east of the Rhone when the men's attention was gripped by a scene below them. Within easy 60 mm, mortar range, Germans were fleeing northward in more than 1000 vehicles, jammed bumper to bumper, 1000 horse-drawn carts, on foot. The frantic retreat had been caused by Task Force Butler's action in partially blocking their escape route to the north. Pounded relentlessly by the 3rd's Div Arty and the Air Force, the 18-kilometer stretch of highway soon was littered with the smoking hulks of wrecked vehicles, dead men and animals. Nine hundred Krauts were captured.

The German 159th Inf. Div. was rushed into Besancon to man the seven Vauban forts surrounding the city. Its orders: hold for 10 days to protect the retreat. As they approached, Marne-men were deployed for action. The 15th snagged a bridge across the Doubs; 7th Regt. and 3rd Bn., 30th, crossed to Besancon's north side; 1st Bn., 30th, closed in from the south

Those 10 days were whittled down to three. By the time the last bit of resistance was crushed in Besancon the 15th was lashing out towards Vesoul. It took only one day for Vesoul to fall, but its capture wasn't easy for 1st Lt. John Tominac, Lincoln, Nebr., Co. I, 15th. When his platoon ran into bitter opposition, Lt. Tominac mounted a blazing Sherman rumbling driverless down the road and poured .50 caliber slugs into the enemy. Wounded in the shoulder, he led his platoon's remaining squad in an assault on the town. Lt. Tominac was awarded the Medal of Honor.

In 30 days, the division covered 400 miles, its units stretched more than half that distance. Tracks fell off tanks, trucks begged for repairs, men plowed ahead, hot on the enemy's heels. The division had reached an area on D plus 10 that was scheduled to be taken on D plus 40.

Associated Press Correspondent Kenneth Dixon once quoted an officer to the effect that winter campaigns were the acid tests of a division. The Marne Division reached the Vosges Mountains for its second winter in. combat. It rained, it snowed. Vehicles slid slowly over icy, mountain roads. Tree bursts made enemy mortars doubly effective. Progress was agonizingly slow.

A sneak crossing of the Mortagne River was followed by a drive that put Marne-men, who had scaled the rugged Italian heights, on high ground overlooking St. Die before Germans were aware of the breakthrough. Unopposed, 3rd Bn., 30th, made an 8000 yard dash to strike a position deep in the enemy rear. First and 2nd Bns. followed, sustained innumerable counter-attacks in savage mountain fighting.

The battles for Les Rouges Eaux and Les Hautes Jacques came next, the latter wrenched from a highly efficient mountain outfit hurried from Austria to stem the drive down the valley to St. Die. The four-day stalemate finally was broken by Co. E, 2nd Bn., 7th in an action which earned the company the Presidential Citation.

The 15th, meanwhile, swung north onto the Meurthe River plain. When white flags appeared in La Salle, 1st Lt. Charlie Adams led Co. L. onto the plain to accept the surrender. Krauts unleashed withering fire but a TOT artillery shoot crashed into LaSalle, enabling Co. L to walk in. Other cunning devices employed by the enemy were treated similarly until all territory west of the Meurthe was free.

With another river crossing in prospect, with no bridges intact, 15th patrols probed the river line nightly until two companies of the 10th Engrs. succeeded in erecting pontoon bridges under the Krauts' noses late Nov. 20. When one crew lost its boat, a staff sergeant grabbed the heavy anchor chain, leaped into the river, waded to the opposite shore.

Two regiments, the 30th and 7th, crossed the ponton foot bridges without tipping off the enemy, then jumped off in the attack next morning. Seven days later, they reached the Rhine, first troops to reach the river banks.

A night assault through bunkers and trenches at Saales and Saulxures broke the enemy's back. Civilians later said Germans had prepared to stay in Saales all winter. A sensational one-day dash to Mutzig by 3rd Bn., 15th, set the stage for the final drive to Strasbourg. Policing and garrison duties in Strasbourg were comparatively pleasant for Marne-men, but this mission was short-lived, lasting only three weeks. Yank Magazine chose T/Sgt. Joe Hodgins, Detroit, 7th, as its "Man of the Year" and ran his picture on the cover of its Jan. 1 issue. Highlight during this period was the 7th's scrap in "The Battle of the Apartments," a tense room-to-room struggle for an enemy-held bridgehead in Strasbourg.

In mid-December, the Wehrmacht launched its last, desperate counter-attack. While von Rundstedt broke through the Ardennes, the enemy increased his pressure north from the Colmar Pocket toward Strasbourg. Third Division was transferred to the First French Army, relieving the hard-pressed US 36th Division, inheriting a sector 20 miles wide on the perimeter of the Colmar Pocket. It was Anzio in reverse.

Snowshoes, skis, white snow suits, Goum mule teams, everything suitable for winter warfare, made its debut. Some sectors were so thinly held, a foot patrol required three hours to go from one platoon to another. Towards the close of January, the 3rd was selected to spearhead the attack to nip off German troops in the Colmar Pocket. The Ardennes flare-up rated so much news space that the Colmar front was termed "the forgotten war." When the fury of the battle subsided, however, and the 3rd's part of the action revealed, it was called "the best bit of maneuvering on the Western Front."

Kick-off was Jan. 22, anniversary of the landing at Anzio. The play was a double feint, and went something like this: first, 30th and 7th spanned the Fecht, then Ill River and struck east toward the Rhine-Rhone Canal. When the enemy shifted to meet this thrust, 7th and 15th swung south across the Colmar Canal. A lightning jab at Colmar, resulting in the capture of Horbourg, led the Germans to believe a subsequent drive on the city was imminent. But Marne-men turned southeast toward Neuf-Brisach and Colmar was spiked by the 28th Division and French armor.

The operation was more difficult than words convey. Two battalions of the 30th had crossed the Ill River and the first tank was lumbering across the Maison Rouge bridge when the span collapsed. Lacking tank support, temporarily out of communication with their artillery, doughs of the two battalions suddenly were struck by waves of enemy tank-infantry forces. Lashing out with a fury born of desperation, the men inched back to protect the dwindling bridgehead while some companies held until overrun by Nazi armor. The clothes of men who waded and swam the flooded rivers turned to ice. Despite the disastrous turn of events, the bridgehead held, and the 15th Regt. snapped out of reserve to attack through the battered 30th.

During this action 2nd Lt. Audie L. Murphy, Farmersville, Tex., 20-year old CO, Co. I, 15th Regt. leaped aboard a burning TD, and manning its 50 caliber machine gun, turned back an assault of 250 Krauts and three tanks. Reorganizing his company, he audaciously chased the enemy. For this action, Lt. Murphy added the Medal of Honor to his decorations that included the Bronze Star, Silver Star and Distinguished Service Cross. When he later was awarded the Legion of Merit, he became the most decorated soldier in the Army, topping Capt. Britt, who lacks the Legion of Merit.

The 3rd wound up the Colmar Pocket campaign by capturing Neuf-Brisach, site of the Germans' main bridges across the Rhine from the Pocket after all three regiments had sealed the escape routes leading to the Rhine bridges east of the city. A former fortress, Neuf-Brisach was surrounded by a moat and wall. Finding the moat empty, a patrol from 1st Bn., 30th, raced through a tunnel located in the wall, emerged in the town's center, captured its garrison with ease.