41-я пехотная дивизия Национальной гвардии Орегона: История и боевой путь

the Oregon National Guard unit

The 41st Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army National Guard composed primarily of units from the Pacific Northwest. The division saw active service in World War I and World War II, receiving the nickname “Jungleers” during the latter. Organized in 1917 after the American entry into World War I, the division was selected as a replacement division after being deployed to France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces. Its infantry units were used to provide individual replacements and the division functioned as a replacement depot. The 41st Division was reorganized in the National Guard during the interwar period, consisting of units from Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Sent to Australia after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the 41st became one of the first Army units to engage in offensive ground combat operations during World War II when elements of the division were committed to the New Guinea campaign in the last months of 1942. The division suffered its heaviest casualties in the 1944 Battle of Biak at the conclusion of the campaign. In the final months of the war, the division took a major role in the liberation of the Southern Philippines, including the Palawan, Zamboanga, Eastern Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago operations. The division ended its active service in the occupation of Japan. Postwar, the 41st Infantry Division was re established in the National Guard, split between Oregon and Washington. The 41st Infantry Brigade was formed from mainly Oregon elements of the division in 1965 and in 1968 the division was eliminated during reductions of the National Guard. Its former units were used to form two separate brigades, the 41st Infantry Brigade in Oregon, and the 81st Infantry Brigade in Washington.

The 41st was ordered to be organized by the War Department on 18 July 1917, about three months after the American entry into World War I, from National Guard units from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington state, and Wyoming. Additional units from Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the District of Columbia were later added to complete the division. It trained at Camp Greene, North Carolina. It consisted of the 81st Infantry Brigade (161st and 162nd Infantry Regiments) and the 82nd Infantry Brigade (163rd and 164th Infantry Regiments). On 26 November 1917 the 41st Division embarked for Europe as part of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), commanded by General John J. Pershing. Men of the 41st were aboard the SS Tuscania when it was torpedoed by a German U boat and sunk off the coast of Northern Ireland.

The 41st Division headquarters arrived at the port of Hoboken, New Jersey, aboard the USS Leviathan on 12 February 1919, and was demobilized on 22 February at Camp Dix, New Jersey. The division was allotted to the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, and assigned to the IX Corps. The division headquarters was organized and federally recognized on 3 January 1930 at Portland, Oregon, with Major General George A. White appointed as commander; he would eventually lead the division into World War II. The designated mobilization training center for the “Sunset” Division was Camp Murray, Washington. The division staff, composed of personnel from all five states, came together to conduct joint training for several summers before World War II, usually at Fort Lewis or Camp Murray. However, for the 1938 camp, the staff assembled for training at Fort William Henry Harrison, Helena, Montana. The division staff also participated in the Fourth Army command post exercise at Fort Lewis in 1935 and 1936, and at the Presidio of San Francisco in 1939. From 1922 to 1939, the division’s subordinate units generally held separate summer camps at locations within their respective states: Oregon units at the state military reservation at Camp Clatsop; Washington units at Camp Murray, Montana units at Fort William Henry Harrison, and Idaho units at Boise Barracks. For the 1937 camp, the division participated in the Ninth Corps Area phase of the Fourth Army maneuvers at Centralia Fort Lewis held in August. The 41st paired with the 3rd Division, and a "Blue Army" drawn from the 41st Division attempted a combat crossing of the Nisqually River, which was defended by a "Red Army" under the command of Brigadier General (later US Army Chief of Staff) George Marshall, then the commander of the 3rd Division's 5th Infantry Brigade at Vancouver Barracks. The 41st Division's mission was accomplished by a night crossing of the river.

The 41st Division's annual summer camp at Fort Lewis in June and July 1940 was extended from two weeks to three, and the entire division was not accommodated in the new barracks until April 1941. The division had arrived in Australia with a reputation as "the top ranking National Guard division and one of the three top divisions in the whole Army", Each infantry battalion in turn was sent down to Toorbul, Queensland for training in amphibious warfare by the Australian Army. It arrived at Port Moresby on 27 December. The first elements, which included the 1st Battalion and regimental headquarters, flew over the Owen Stanley Range to Popondetta and Dobodura on 30 December, where they came under the command of Australian Lieutenant General Edmund Herring's Advanced New Guinea Force. The 163rd Regimental Combat Team was attached to Major General George Alan Vasey's 7th Australian Division and Doe assumed command of the positions on the Sanananda track from Brigadier Ivan Dougherty on 3 January 1943. The attack went ahead on the afternoon of 8 January 1943 but both attacking companies of the 1st Battalion, 163rd Infantry encountered heavy fire and were thrown back. First Lieutenant Harold R. Fisk became the first officer of the division to be killed in action. His body could not be immediately recovered. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. The roadblock position he had attacked from was named Fisk in his honor. They had completely misread the situation. On 14 January, a patrol from the 163rd Infantry captured a very sick Japanese soldier. Taken to 7th Division headquarters for interrogation, the man revealed that the Japanese commander, Lieutenant Colonel Tsukamoto Hatsuo, had ordered all able bodied men to evacuate Perimeter P, leaving the sick and wounded to hold it to the last.

The 162nd Infantry, commanded by Colonel A. R. MacKechnie, ended its long period of waiting and got its baptism of fire in early 1943. The fight, which resulted in the fall of Salamaua and Lae, lasted for 76 days after the initial landing. The Presidential unit citation awarded the 1st Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, reads "for outstanding performance of duty against the enemy near Salamaua, New Guinea. On 29 and 30 June 1943, this battalion landed at Nassau Bay in one of the first amphibious operations by American forces in the Southwest Pacific Area, on a beach held by the enemy, and during a severe storm which destroyed 90 percent of the landing craft able to reach the beach. Moving inland through deep swamps, crossing swift rivers, cutting its way through dense jungle, over steep ridges, carrying by hand all weapons, ammunition, and food, assisted by only a limited number of natives, this battalion was in contact with the enemy for 76 consecutive days without rest or relief. All operations after the initial landing were far inland. Living conditions were most severe because of constant rain, mud, absence of any shelter, tenacious enemy, and mountainous terrain. The supply of rations, ammunition and equipment was meager. For five weeks all personnel lived on rations dropped by airplane, for days at a time on half rations. Malaria and battle casualties greatly depleted their ranks, but at no time was there a let up in morale or in determination to destroy the enemy. Each officer and enlisted man was called upon to give his utmost of courage and stamina. The battalion killed 584 Japanese during this period, while suffering casualties of 11 officers and 176 enlisted men. Cutting the Japanese supply line near Mubo, exerting constant pressure on his flank, the valiant and sustained efforts of this battalion were in large part instrumental in breaking enemy resistance and forcing his withdrawal from Salamaua on 12 September 1943. General Orders 91." Killed in action: 743 The War Department published a postwar policy statement on October 13, 1945 which called for the rebuilding of the Regular Army, National Guard of the United States, and the Organized Reserve Corps. This ultimately led to the decision to reconstitute 27 divisions within the National Guard, to include the 41st. Of these 27, ten of them would be divided among multiple states. Preliminary plans for the post war reorganization of the 41st was to maintain its triangle task organization from the Second World War and proposed it split between Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. However, after Oregon’s desire to reorganize two of its infantry regiments of the Division, modifications to the plan were made between Idaho and Oregon, with concurrence of Chief, National Guard Bureau, so that the final distribution of the 41st Division was split between Oregon and Washington. This division of the 41st between the two states required an agreement between the them as to the assignment of the Division Commander and Division headquarters. Eventually, the Adjutants General of Oregon and Washington agreed to a rotation of certain staff personnel coinciding with the rotation of the Division Commander, with each state maintaining a partial Division headquarters element in Portland and Seattle, respectively. Initially, it was agreed that the first Division Commander would go to Oregon, but only on the condition that the first command be given to Brigadier General Thomas E. Rilea, formerly the Assistant Division Commander, with the new Assistant Division Commander to Washington. Then every four years afterwards, the seats would rotate states. However, if General Rilea was not able to qualify for federal recognition as Division Commander, then the position would at once revert to the Washington and the Assistant Division Commander to Oregon. On August 2, 1946, it was announced that General Rilea had been disqualified for military service due to medical reasons and the first Division Commander of the 41st since post war reorganization would go to Washington. The Division saw yet another reorganization in March 1963 when it adopted the Reorganization Objective Army Division (ROAD) concept returning the Division back to a triangular task organization, but this transformation was short lived. Assessing a lack of necessity, the Secretary of Defense McNamara reduced the number of National Guard combat divisions from 15 to 8, in 1967, however the total number of separate brigades went up to 18 from 7. As a result of McNamara’s decision, the Division was divided into two infantry brigades, the 41st Infantry Brigade in Oregon, and the 81st Infantry Brigade in Washington, the later reactivating the Division’s original Washington brigade under its World War I task organization. The 41st Infantry Division deactivated in 1968. The 41st Infantry Division holds annual reunions for its World War II veterans. In 2008 the reunion was held in Washington, D. C. The veterans had the opportunity to visit Arlington National Cemetery and hold a special wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Many of the veterans also visited the World War II memorial for the first time. Several were accompanied by family (including spouses, children, grandchildren, and in a couple of cases, great grandchildren). The Jungeleer is the publication of the 41st Infantry and is available to all former members of this division.

Major General George A. White (3 January 1930)
Brigadier General Carlos A. Pennington (23 November 1941)
Major General Horace H. Fuller (2 December 1941)
Major General Jens A. Doe (18 June 1944)
Major General Ralph S. Phelps April 1963 September 1968 (last commanding Major General). General Phelps was also the commanding officer of the first Army Ski Patrol established in 1941 at Camp Murray which later became the 10th Mountain Division. He joined the 41st in 1938 as a private.