95th Infantry Division

 

Nicknames: Victory and OK Division. .. Shoulder Patch: Oval-shaped blue patch with red numeral 9 and white Roman numeral V, for 95th, the V also for Victory. . History: Organized: Sept., 1918, Camp Sherman, Ohio. Training: Activated: July, 1942, Camp Swift, Texas. Other stations: Port Sam Houston, Texas; Camp Polk, Louisiana; Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, and Boston, Massachusetts Maneuvers: Louisiana, June, 1943, California-Arizona, areas and West Virginia area. Overseas: July, 1944 (ETO). Commanding General: Maj. Gen. H. L. Twaddle, Assigned April 25, 1942, to date of inactivation. . Component Units: (As of July, 1944): 377th, 378th and 379th Infantry Regiments; 358th, 359th, 360th (M) and 920th (L) FA Battalions. Higher Commands: (Combat) Third Army and Ninth Army. . Awards: Distinguished Unit Citation to 378th Infantry Regiment for action November 10-14, France. Division commended by Under-Secretary of War Patterson for taking Saarlautern Bridge Intact. Unit called “bravest of the brave” by NY Herald Tribune. . Combat Highlights: The 95th Division helped capture Metz, captured Boulais, led the Third Army into the Saar, and attacked at Saarlautern, thickest portion of the Siegfried Line. Called into line Oct. 20, 1944, the Victory Division started its offensive action with the Third Army early in November, aiming at Metz. The Moselle river lay between the division and its objective. The 1st Battalion, 377th, forced a crossing November 8, without help of artillery or armor and against a vastly more numerous foe. Fortress Metz fell by mid-November. The division quickly covered the remaining portion of France, captured Boulais, important communications center, and by December, was fighting on German soil. After the Metz operation, the 95th troops were called the “Iron Men of Metz.” The division cleared Saarlautern and put out a task force under Col. Robert I. Bacon, CO of the 379th, to seize intact the only remaining bridge over the Saar, a night operation, December 3. When von Rundstedt’s drive began in mid-December, and General Patton raced with his other divisions to the Bastogne area, the 95th remained behind with the 94th to hold the Third Army front. In January, 1945, the division was ordered to Belgium. For a brief time, the 95th fought alongside of British troops in Holland at the Scheldt Estuary below Nijmegen, then joined the 9th to take Rhinehausen. In March, the division was sent to an area on the Erft Canal. Toward the close of the war, the division fought north of Leipzig.

 

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