29th Infantry Division (United States)

The 29th Infantry Division (29th ID), also known as the "Blue and Gray Division", is an infantry division of the United States Army based in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It is currently a formation of the U.S. Army National Guard and contains units from Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.

Formed in 1917, the division deployed to France as a part of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. Called up for service again in World War II, the division's 116th Regiment, attached to the First Infantry Division, was in the first wave of troops ashore during Operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, France. It supported a special Ranger unit tasked with clearing strong points at Omaha Beach. The rest of the 29th ID came ashore later, then advanced to Saint-Lô (SFOR10) and Kosovo (KFOR) as command elements, and units of the division continue to deploy to locations such as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and to the War in Afghanistan as a part of the Global War on Terrorism's Operation Enduring Freedom, and also to the Iraq War, as a part of its Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. In recent years, the Division has continued answering the call supporting Operation Spartan Shield in forward deployed locations.

In 2016, two separate elements of the 29th deployed overseas. In July more than 80 soldiers deployed in support of anti-ISIL operations (dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve by the U.S. government). In October, more than 450 29th soldiers deployed in support of Operation Spartan Shield.

History

The 29th Division was first constituted on paper on 18 July 1917, three months after the American entry into World War I, in the U.S. Army National Guard. Troops came from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. As the division was composed of men from states that had units that fought for both the North and South during the American Civil War, it was nicknamed the "Blue and Gray" division, after the blue uniforms of the Union and the gray uniforms of the Confederate armies. The division was organized as a unit on 25 August 1917 at Camp McClellan, Alabama. In January 1918, the Delaware units were relieved from assignment to the division.

World War I

The division, commanded by Major General Charles Gould Morton, departed for the Western Front in June 1918 to join the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). The division's advance detachment reached Brest, France on 8 June. In late September, the 29th received orders to join the U.S. First Army's Meuse-Argonne Offensive as part of the French XVII Corps. During its 21 days in combat, the 29th Division advanced seven kilometers, captured 2,148 prisoners, and knocked out over 250 machine guns or artillery pieces. Thirty percent of the division became casualties—170 officers and 5,691 enlisted men were killed or wounded. Shortly thereafter the Armistice with Germany was signed on 11 November 1918, ending hostilities between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers. The division returned to the United States in May 1919. It demobilized on 30 May at Camp Dix, New Jersey,

Order of battle, 1917–1918

* Headquarters, 29th Division
* 57th Infantry Brigade
** 113th Infantry Regiment (former 4th New Jersey Infantry less Headquarters Company, Machine Gun Company, Company L, and part of Supply Company, 1st New Jersey Infantry less Company K, and 2nd New Jersey Infantry less band, Machine Gun Company, and Companies G and L)
** 114th Infantry Regiment (former 3rd New Jersey Infantry less band, Machine Gun Company, and Companies I and L, and 5th New Jersey Infantry less Company F)
** 111th Machine Gun Battalion (former Machine Gun Company, 4th New Jersey Infantry, and Machine Gun Company and Company L, 2nd New Jersey Infantry)
* 58th Infantry Brigade
** 115th Infantry Regiment (former 1st Maryland Infantry less Company H, 5th Maryland Infantry less Headquarters, Supply, and Machine Gun Companies, and 4th Maryland Infantry less band, Machine Gun Company, and Companies A, B, D, E, F, H, and I)
** 116th Infantry Regiment (former 2nd Virginia Infantry, 1st Virginia Infantry less band) and Machine Gun Company, and 4th Virginia Infantry less Headquarters Company, Machine Gun Company, and Companies D, I, and M)
** 112th Machine Gun Battalion (former Company H, 1st Maryland Infantry, Machine Gun Company, 4th Maryland Infantry, and Machine Gun Company and Company D, 4th Virginia Infantry)
* 54th Field Artillery Brigade
** 110th Field Artillery Regiment ( 75 mm) (former Headquarters and Supply Companies, 5th Maryland Infantry, Batteries A, B and C, Maryland Field Artillery, Batteries A and B, D.C. Field Artillery, 1st Squadron, D.C. Cavalry, and detachment from Company A, Virginia Signal Corps)
** 111th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (former 1st Virginia Field Artillery, Headquarters Company and Companies I and M, 4th Virginia Infantry, and detachment from Company A, Virginia Signal Corps)
** 112th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (former 1st New Jersey Field Artillery less Battery F, Troops B and D, 1st New Jersey Cavalry, and detachment from Company A, Virginia Signal Corps)
** 104th Trench Mortar Battery (former Battery F, New Jersey Field Artillery)
* 110th Machine Gun Battalion (former Machine Gun Company, 5th Maryland Infantry, Machine Gun Company, 4th New Jersey Infantry, and Machine Gun Company, 1st Virginia Infantry)
* 104th Engineer Regiment (former 1st Battalion. New Jersey Engineers, Company K, 1st New Jersey Infantry, Company G, 2nd New Jersey Infantry, Companies I and L, 3rd New Jersey Infantry, Co. L, 4th New Jersey Infantry, and Co. F, 5th New Jersey Infantry)
* 104th Field Signal Battalion (former Companies A and C, New Jersey Signal Corps, and Company B, D.C. Signal Corps)
* Headquarters Troop, 29th Division (detachment from 1st Squadron, New Jersey Cavalry)
* 104th Train Headquarters and Military Police (former Troops A and C, 1st Squadron New Jersey Cavalry, and Troop A, Maryland Cavalry)
** 104th Ammunition Train (former 1st Squadron, Virginia Cavalry, and individual transfers)
** 104th Supply Train (individual transfers)
** 104th Engineer Train (individual transfers)
** 104th Sanitary Train
*** 113th, 114th, 115th, and 116th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals (former 1st Maryland Ambulance Company, 1st Virginia Ambulance Company, 1st New Jersey Field Hospital, 1st Maryland Field Hospital, and 1st Virginia Field Hospital)

Interwar period

The 29th was reconstituted in the National Guard in 1921, assigned to the III Corps, and allotted to the states of Maryland and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. New Jersey units that had been part of the 29th Division in World War I were assigned to the new 44th Division, that encompassed troops from New Jersey and New York. When 155 mm howitzers were returned to infantry divisions beginning in 1929, a formerly non-divisional unit from Pennsylvania was assigned to the division. The division trained as a unit during the 1935 First Army maneuvers at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, and during the 1939 First Army maneuvers at Manassas, Virginia.

Order of battle, 1939

* Headquarters, 29th Division (Washington, D.C.)
* Headquarters, Special Troops, 29th Division (Washington, D.C.)
** Headquarters Company, 29th Division (Washington, D.C.)
** 29th Military Police Company (Washington, D.C.)
** 29th Signal Company (Norfolk, Virginia)
** 104th Ordnance Company (Medium) (Washington, D.C.)
** 29th Tank Company (Light) (Danville, Virginia)
* 58th Infantry Brigade (Baltimore, Maryland)
** 1st Infantry Regiment (MD) (Frederick, Maryland)
** 5th Infantry Regiment (MD) (Baltimore, Maryland)
* 91st Infantry Brigade (Richmond, Virginia)
** 1st Infantry Regiment (VA) (Richmond, Virginia)
** 116th Infantry Regiment (Lynchburg, Virginia)
* 54th Field Artillery Brigade (Norfolk, Virginia)
** ''104th Ammunition Train (Virginia National Guard)''
** 110th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (Pikesville, Maryland)
** 111th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (Hampton, Virginia)
** 176th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
* 121st Engineer Regiment (Washington, D.C.)
* 104th Medical Regiment (Baltimore, Maryland)
* 104th Quartermaster Regiment (Baltimore, Maryland)

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

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, the U.S. Army began buildup and reorganization of its fighting forces. The division was called into active service on 3 February 1941. Elements of the division were then sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for training. The 57th and 58th Infantry Brigades were inactivated as part of an army-wide removal of brigades from divisions. Instead, the core units of the division were its three infantry regiments, along with supporting units. On 12 March 1942, over three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent American entrance into World War II, with this reorganization complete the division was redesignated as the 29th Infantry Division and began preparing for overseas deployment to Europe.

Order of battle, 1943–1945

* Headquarters, 29th Infantry Division
* 115th Infantry Regiment
* 116th Infantry Regiment
* 175th Infantry Regiment
* Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 29th Infantry Division Artillery
** 110th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
** 111th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
** 224th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
** 227th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
* 121st Engineer Combat Battalion
* 104th Medical Battalion
* 29th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
* Headquarters, Special Troops, 29th Infantry Division
** Headquarters Company, 29th Infantry Division
** 729th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
** 29th Quartermaster Company
** 29th Signal Company
** Military Police Platoon
** Band
* 29th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

The 29th Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Leonard Gerow, was sent to England on 5 October 1942 on . It was based throughout England and Scotland, where it immediately began training for an invasion of northern Europe across the English Channel. In May 1943 the division moved to the Devon–Cornwall peninsula and started conducting simulated attacks against fortified positions. At this time the division was assigned to V Corps of the U.S. First Army. In July the divisional commander, Major General Gerow, was promoted to command V Corps and Major General Charles Hunter Gerhardt assumed command of the division, remaining in this post for the rest of the war.

Operation Overlord

D-Day of Operation Neptune, the cross-channel invasion of Normandy, finally came on 6 June 1944. Neptune was the assault phase of the larger Operation Overlord, codename for the Allied campaign to liberate France from the Germans. The 29th Infantry Division sent the 116th Infantry to support the western flank of the veteran 1st Infantry Division's 16th Infantry at Omaha Beach. Omaha was known to be the most difficult of the five landing beaches, due to its rough terrain and bluffs overlooking the beach, which had been well fortified by its German defenders of the 352nd Infantry Division. The 116th Infantry was assigned four sectors of the beach; Easy Green, Dog Red, Dog White, and Dog Green. Soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division boarded a large number of attack transports for the D-Day invasion, among them landing craft, landing ship, tank, and landing ship, infantry ships and other vessels such as the , , and USS ''Buncombe County''.

As the ships were traveling to the beach, the heavy seas, combined with the chaos of the fighting caused most of the landing force to be thrown off-course and most of the 116th Infantry missed its landing spots. Most of the regiment's tank support, launched from too far off-shore, foundered and sank in the channel. The soldiers of the 116th Infantry were the first to hit the beach at 0630, coming under heavy fire from German fortifications. Company A, from the Virginia National Guard in Bedford was annihilated by overwhelming fire as it landed on the 116th's westernmost section of the beach, along with half of Company A, B, and C of the 2nd Ranger Battalion and the 5th Rangers Battalion which was landing to the west of the 116th. The catastrophic losses suffered by this small Virginia community led to it being selected for the site of the National D-Day Memorial. The 1st Infantry Division's forces ran into similar fortifications on the eastern half of the beach, suffering massive casualties coming ashore. By 0830, the landings were called off for lack of space on the beach, as the Americans on Omaha Beach were unable to overcome German fortifications guarding the beach exits. Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commanding the American First Army, considered evacuating the survivors and landing the rest of the divisions elsewhere. However, by noon, elements of the American forces had been able to organize and advance off the beach, and the landings resumed. By nightfall, the division headquarters landed on the beach with about 60 percent of the division's total strength, and began organizing the push inland. On 7 June, a second wave of 20,000 reinforcements from both the 1st and 29th Divisions was sent ashore. By the end of D-Day, 2,400 men from the two divisions had become casualties on Omaha Beach. Added to casualties at other beaches and air-drops made the total casualties for the Normandy landings 6,500 Americans and 3,000 British and Canadians, lighter numbers than expected.

The entire division had landed in Normandy by 7 June. By 9 June, Omaha Beach was secure and the division occupied Isigny. On 14 July, the division was reassigned to XIX Corps, part of the First Army, itself part of the 12th Army Group.

Breakout

The division cut across the Elle River and advanced slowly toward Saint-Lô

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