US 28th Infantry Division

The 28th Infantry Division ("Keystone") is a unit of the Army National Guard and is the oldest division-sized unit in the Department of Defense. Some of the units of the division can trace their lineage to Benjamin Franklin's battalion, The Pennsylvania Associators (1747–1777). The division was officially established in 1879 and was later redesignated as the 28th Division in 1917, after the entry of America into the First World War. It is today part of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Maryland Army National Guard, Ohio Army National Guard, and New Jersey Army National Guard.

It was originally nicknamed the "Keystone Division," as it was formed from units of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard; Pennsylvania being known as the "Keystone State." During World War II, it was given the nickname the "Bloody Bucket" division by German forces due to the shape and color of its red keystone insignia. Today the 28th Infantry Division goes by the name given to it by General Pershing during World War I: "Iron Division." The 28th is the first Army National Guard division to field the Stryker infantry fighting vehicle, as part of the Army's reorganization in the first decade of the 2000s.

The 28th is also one of the most decorated infantry divisions in the United States Army.

Creation

On 12 March 1879, Governor Henry Hoyt signed General Order Number One appointing Maj. Gen. John F. Hartranft as the first Division commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was the first state to structure its National Guard units at such a high tactical level in peacetime. From 11 to 18 August 1894, Camp Samuel W. Crawford was the "Division Encampment at Gettysburg".

The division was mustered into federal service for the Spanish–American War in 1898. Pennsylvania was initially levied 10,800 men, in ten infantry regiments and four artillery batteries. The entire division was mustered into federal service between 6 May and 22 July, and while 8,900 men had assembled at Mount Gretna for the muster parade on 28 April 1898, there was no difficulty in raising 12,000 men for service in two and a half months. However, only the 4th, 10th, and 16th Regiments, three artillery batteries, and three cavalry troops were deployed, to Puerto Rico. The 10th Regiment was then sent to the Philippines, being ordered home on 30 June 1899.

The division was called up to respond to labor disturbances in 1877 and 1900.

In 1914 the division was designated the 7th Division as part of a broad reorganization of the National Guard. On 29 June 1916 the 7th Division was mustered into federal service at Mount Gretna and deployed to El Paso, Texas, to serve along the Mexican border as the Regular Punitive Expedition entered Mexico. Major General Charles M. Clement commanded, directing the First Brigade comprising the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Regiments, the Second Brigade the 10th, 16th, and 18th Regiments, and the Third Brigade the 4th, 6th, and 8th Regiments.28th Infantry (Keystone) Division: Mechanized: 125 Years of Service, Turner Publishing, 26. There was also a regiment of cavalry and one of artillery, plus two companies of signals troops and medical units. The camp outside El Paso gained the title 'Camp Stewart' after the Adjutant General, Thomas J. Stewart. On 19 September, one brigade was sent home. On 14 November, the 1st Artillery left for home; the 18th Infantry left for Pennsylvania on 18 December; and the remainder of the division between 2–19 January 1917. It appears that most of the division was mustered out of federal service 23 February 1917 at Philadelphia.

The remnant left on the border included the 8th and 13th Regiments, the newly formed 3rd Artillery and Company C of the Engineers. They were released from active service in March 1917. However, the callup process for World War I was underway as these units left the border. The 13th Regiment began its return home from Texas on 21 March 1917, but en route, were told that their mustering-out orders had been rescinded.

World War I

Federalization

The division moved to Camp Hancock, Georgia, in April 1917, and was there when the entire division was federalized on 5 August 1917. From May to 11 October 1917, the division was reorganized into the two-brigade, four regiment scheme, and thus became the 28th Division.

Order of battle

* Headquarters, 28th Division
* 55th Infantry Brigade
** 109th Infantry Regiment
** 110th Infantry Regiment
** 108th Machine Gun Battalion
* 56th Infantry Brigade
** 111th Infantry Regiment
** 112th Infantry Regiment
** 109th Machine Gun Battalion
* 53rd Field Artillery Brigade
** 107th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
** 108th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
** 109th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
** 103rd Trench Mortar Battery
* 107th Machine Gun Battalion
* 103rd Engineer Regiment
* 103rd Field Signal Battalion
* Headquarters Troop, 28th Division
* 103rd Train Headquarters and Military Police
** 103rd Ammunition Train
** 103rd Supply Train
** 103rd Sanitary Train
*** 109th, 110th, 111th, and 112th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals

The Turner Publishing account says that:

The situation for the division at Camp Hancock was dismal. The men arrived there in summer uniforms, which were not replaced by winter ones until the winter was well along. Adequate blankets were not available until January. Training equipment was woeful. There was but one bayonet for each three men; machine guns made of wood; and there was but one 37-mm gun for the whole division.

By May 1918 the division had arrived in Europe, and began training with the British. On 14 July, ahead of an expected German offensive, the division was moving forward, with most of it committed to the second line of defense south of the Marne River and east of Château-Thierry. As the division took up defensive positions, the Germans commenced their attack, which became the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, with a fierce artillery bombardment. When the German assault collided with the main force of the 28th, the fighting became bitter hand-to-hand combat. The 28th repelled the German forces and decisively defeated their enemy. However, four isolated companies of the 109th and 110th Infantry stationed on the first defensive line suffered heavy losses. After the battle, General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, visited the battlefield and declared that the 28th soldiers were "Men of Iron" and named the 28th ID as his "Iron Division." The 28th developed a red keystone-shaped shoulder patch, officially adopted on 27 October 1918.

During World War I, the division was involved in the Meuse-Argonne, Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne including the Battle of Fismes and Fismette, Oise-Aisne, and Ypres-Lys (FA) operations. During the war, it took a total of 14,139 casualties (2,165 killed and 11,974 wounded). Two individuals received the Medal of Honor: Sergeant James I. Mestrovitch, Company C, 111th Infantry; and Major Joseph H. Thompson, Headquarters, 110th Infantry. Edwin Martin wrote about the history of the division during World War I can be found in his book ''The Twenty-Eighth Division: Pennsylvania's Guard in the World War''.

Interwar period

The division was demobilized on 17 May 1919 at Camp Dix, New Jersey. The 28th Division was reorganized and federally recognized 22 December 1921 in the Pennsylvania National Guard at Philadelphia. The location of the Headquarters was changed 12 March 1933 to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

An honor battalion of Pennsylvania National Guardsmen of the "Iron Division" dedicated the Pennsylvania World War Memorial in Varennes-en-Argonne, France, in 1928.

World War II

Federalization

The division, commanded by Major General Edward Martin, was called into federal service on 17 February 1941 during World War II (although the United States was neutral at this point) at Camp Livingston, Louisiana. In February 1942, the division, now commanded by Major General James Ord, was reorganized; the brigade headquarters were disbanded, and the 111th Infantry Regiment was detached from the 28th and reorganized as a separate regimental combat team, initially used to guard important Eastern Seaboard industrial facilities under the Eastern Defense Command.

Order of battle

* Headquarters, 28th Infantry Division
* 109th Infantry Regiment
* 110th Infantry Regiment
* 112th Infantry Regiment
* Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 28th Infantry Division Artillery
** 107th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
** 108th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
** 109th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
** 229th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
* 103rd Engineer Combat Battalion
* 103rd Medical Battalion
* 28th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
* Headquarters, Special Troops. 28th Infantry Division
** Headquarters Company, 28th Infantry Division
** 728th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
** 28th Quartermaster Company
** 28th Signal Company
** Military Police Platoon
** Band
* 28th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

The division trained in the Carolinas, Virginia, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, under the command of Major General Omar Nelson Bradley.

Overseas

The division, now under Major General Lloyd Brown, left the United States and went overseas on 8 October 1943, arriving in South Wales soon afterwards, where it began training for the invasion of Northern France. On 22 July 1944, the division landed in Normandy, seven weeks after the initial D-Day landings and was almost immediately involved in Operation Cobra.

The 28th Infantry Division pushed east towards the French capital of Paris through the Bocage, its roads littered with abandoned tanks and bloated, stinking corpses of men and animals. In little more than a month after landing at the Normandy beachhead, as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, the men of the 28th entered Paris and were given the honor of marching down the Champs-Elysées on 29 August 1944 in the hastily arranged Liberation of Paris.

After enjoying a brief respite, absorbing replacements of men and equipment, the division, now commanded by Brigadier General Norman Cota, formerly the Assistant Division Commander (ADC) of the 29th Infantry Division, headed to the German defensive Westwall.

A small night patrol of the 109th Infantry began the division's protracted struggle on the Siegfried Line on the dragon's teeth infested Westwall. The patrol crossed the Our River by bridge from Weiswampach, Luxembourg into Sevenig (Our), Germany, making it the first of the Allied armies to reach German soil. The 28th suffered extremely heavy casualties that autumn in the costly and ill-conceived Battle of Hürtgen Forest (19 September to 16 December 1944); the divisional history conceded "the division accomplished little" in the battle. The campaign was the longest continuous battle the U.S. Army fought in World War II. Finally, a tenuous line along the Or and Sauer Rivers was held at the end of November, only to be abruptly broken by two panzer divisions, three infantry divisions and one parachute division (including the 352nd Infantry Division and the 5th Parachute Division) in an infantry-tank attack on the "Ridge Road" just west of the Our River on 16 December.

The Ardennes Offensive was launched along the entire divisional front by the 5th Panzer Army led by General der Panzertruppe Hasso von Manteuffel. The 28th, which had sustained heavy casualties in the First Army drive to the Roer, fought doggedly in place using all available personnel and threw off the enemy timetable before withdrawing to Neufchâteau on 22 December for reorganization, as its units had been badly mauled.

At the end of November 1944 a German "pocket" of resistance formed in the French Alsace region centered in the city of Colmar. The Colmar Pocket consisted of a strength of eight German divisions and a brigade of Panzer tanks. Combined forces of French and American armies were initially unsuccessful in closing this pocket.

General Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front, called the Colmar Pocket "a sore" on the 6th Army Group's front. The 6th Army Group was commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob Devers. The French First Army commander, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, and Devers met on 11 January 1945 and agreed it was long since time to drive the Germans back out of France. Two days later, de Lattre and Devers made a request to Eisenhower for reinforcements so their armies could make an offensive on the Colmar Pocket. Eisenhower's aide, Major General Walter Bedell Smith, subsequently told Devers that the 10th Armored Division and the 28th were being placed under his command. Smith also warned Devers that, after three months of intense fighting on the Siegfried Line as well as fighting off the initial thrust of the offensive, the 28th—put back into action in a defensive position along the Meuse River from Givet to Verdun on 2 January 1945—was "capable of only limited offensive action."

Battle plans were soon made and, on 19 January, the 28th went into action on the northwestern section of the pocket in the Kaysersberg Valley supporting the beleaguered 3rd Infantry Division, which had been holding there since late November 1944. Despite the bitterly cold conditions, the Allies prevailed. German intelligence knew nothing about the 10th and 28th presence in their sector until they attacked. The 28th advanced westward and pressed steadily toward the city of Colmar. In less than 10 days they reduced the pocket by half and the German Führer, Adolf Hitler, who almost always refused to retreat, gave the order in the early morning of 29 January for a partial retreat of his troops in the northern sector of the pocket. By 2 February, the 28th had cleared Colmar's surrounding areas and the French 5th Armored Division led the way into the town. On 9 February, the final organized German troops in Alsace were pushed back across the Rhine.

The 109th Infantry Regiment received the French Croix de guerre from Charles de Gaulle.

The division was on the front line for 196 days of combat. Francis J. Clark was awarded the Medal of Honor; and 29 Distinguished Service Crosses ; 1 DSM; 435 Silver Stars; 27 Legion of Merit; SM - 21; Bronze Star Medal 2,312; AM - 100 were awarded. The division returned to the United States on 2 August 1945 and was inactivated there on 13 December 1945.

Casualties

*Total battle casualties: 16,762Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch
Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953)
*Killed in action: 2,316
*Wounded in action: 9,609
*Missing in action: 884
*Prisoner of war: 3,953

Assignments in ETO

* 22 October 1943: V Corps, First Army.
* 14 April 1944: XX Corps, Third Army
* 24 April 1944: Third Army, but attached to First Army
* 26 July 1944: XIX Corps
* 30 July 1944: XIX Corps, First Army
* 1 August 1944: XIX Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group
* 28 August 1944: V Corps
* 19 November 1944: VIII Corps
* 20 December 1944: VIII Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group.
* 5 January 1945: VIII Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to Oise Section, Communications Zone, for supply.
* 6 January 1945: VIII Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group.
* 8 January 1945: Third Army, 12th Army Group.
* 9 January 1945: Fifteenth Army, 12th Army Group.
* 16 January 1945: Fifteenth Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to Seventh Army, 6th Army Group.
* 20 January 1945: French II Corps.
* 28 January 1945: XXI Corps.
* 14 February 1945: Fifteenth Army, 12th Army Group, but attached to Seventh Army, 6th Army Group.
* 19 February 1945: 12th Army Group.
* 21 February 1945: V Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group.
* 16 March 1945: VIII Corps, Third Army, 12th Army Group.
* 22 March 1945: V Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group.
* 28 March 1945: III Corps.
* 7 April 1945: First Army, 12th Army Group.
* 10 April 1945: Fifteenth Army, 12th Army Group.
* 13 April 1945: XXII Corps.
* 26 April 1945: XXIII Corps.

Medal of Honor

Technical Sergeant Francis J. Clark, U.S. Army, Company K, 109th Infantry Regiment received the Medal of Honor for gallantry during the Siegfried Line Campaign on 12 September 1944.

Desertion

Edward Donald Slovik (18 February 1920 – 31 January 1945) was a private in the 109th Infantry Regiment during World War II and the only American soldier to be executed for cowardice since the American Civil War. Although over 21,000 soldiers were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II, including 49 death sentences, Slovik's was the only death sentence carried out.

Post World War II service

After being inactivated as part of the Army on 13 December 1945 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the 28th Infantry Division was reorganized on 20 November 1946 and returned to the Pennsylvania Army National Guard at Harrisburg.

The 28th was ordered into active federal service 5 September 1950 at Harrisburg following the outbreak of the Korean War. The division re-opened the mothballed Camp Atterbury, Indiana and remained there from 13 September 1950 to 23 November 1951. It was sent to Germany to augment NATO forces there. During the Korean War, the 28th was mobilized and deployed to Europe as a part of the NATO command defending Western Europe from the threat of Soviet attack and remained on federal service until 22 May 1954.

On 1 June 1959, the division was reorganized under the Pentomic structures. It consisted from that point of 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, 103rd Armor, 28th Signal Battalion, 28th Aviation Battalion, 1 BG-109 Inf, 1 BG-110 Inf, 1 BG-111 Inf, 2 BG-111 Inf, 1 BG-112 Inf, 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery Regiment (1-107 FA), 1-108 FA (Honest John), 1-109 FA, 2-109 FA, 1-166 FA, 1-229 FA, other combat and combat support units, and combat service support units, for a strength of 10,408, according to Divisional Strength reports of 5 June 1959.

The division was not mobilized during the Vietnam War, although in 1965 it was selected as one of three divisions in the Army Selective Reserve Force

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