29th Infantry Division — “Blue and Gray”

Nickname: Blue and Gray
Patch: A circular monad (Korean symbol of eternal life), split blue and gray to honor the division’s Union and Confederate lineage
Motto: “29th, Let’s Go!”
Song: “Hurrah! 29th, Let’s Go!” by WO Irving L. Smigel

History
Organized at Camp (now Fort) McClellan, Alabama in July 1917 from National Guard units of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and D.C.; fought in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in WWI. Reactivated March 9, 1942 at Fort Meade, Maryland, with amphibious training before shipping to the European Theater in September 1942.

Commanding Generals

• Maj. Gen. Milton A. Reckord (Feb. 1941–Jan. 1942)
• Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow (Feb. 1942–July 1943)
• Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt (July 1943–)

Component Units (as of Sept. 1943)
115th, 116th, and 175th Infantry Regiments; 110th, 111th, 224th, and 227th Field Artillery Battalions. Served under First and Ninth Armies.

Awards
Distinguished Unit Citations went to the 115th Infantry (D-Day, St. Laurent-sur-Mer), 116th Infantry (D-Day, Normandy coast) and its 1st Battalion (Vire, Aug. 7–8, 1944), the 1st Battalion of the 175th Infantry (St. Lô, June 17–18), and the 121st Engineer Combat Battalion (Normandy, D-Day).

Combat Highlights
The 29th landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day, took Isigny, and fought through the Normandy hedgerows to capture St. Lô (July 18) and Vire (Aug. 7). Alongside the 2nd and 8th Divisions, it helped take the fortress city of Brest, which fell September 18 with 13,000 German prisoners. That November the division crossed the Roer near Aachen, taking Siersdorf, Setterich, Düren-Birkesdorf, Bettendorf, and Jülich. In February 1945 it crossed the Rhine, took 48 objectives in five days, swept the Cologne plain, fought into Mönchengladbach, and helped mop up the Ruhr pocket and Klötze Forest.