057 91st Infantry Division

Nickname: Powder River. Shoulder Patch; Green fir tree. Slogan: “Always ready.” The division has a warwhoop, coming from a World War I incident. When asked where they were from, a detachment yelled, “Powder River! Let ‘er Buck!” Song: “The Doughboy,” by Mrs. Olga L. Livesay, wife of the present division commander. History Activated: October 1917, Fort Lewis, Washington Actions: Meuse-Argonne. Training: Reactivated: Aug. 15, 1942, Camp White, Oregon, moving to Camp Adair a year later. Maneuvers: Bend, Oregon, IV Corps. Overseas: April, 1944 (Mediterranean TO). Commanding Generals: Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt, August, 1942, to July, 1943; Maj. Gen. William G. Livesay, July, 1943, to present. Component Units: (As of April, 1944), 361st 362nd and 363rd Infantry Regiments; 346th, 347th, 348th (M) and 916th (L) FA Battalions. Higher Command: Fifth Army. Combat Highlights: The Powder River Division fought out the war on the rugged, cold battlefields of Italy. The breaking of the Gothic line was its proudest achievement, capture of Livergnano the costliest in blood. First unit of the 91st to enter combat was the 361st Regiment, committed south of Rome June 3, 1944. The 91st went in as a unit July 12, capturing Tericola, Bagni and Capannoli shortly after their advance began the winning through to the Arno river, July 18. The same day, the 363rd Regiment operating as a task force, took Leghorn. The task force, five days later, captured Marina de Isa and the section of Pisa which lies below Arno. The Gothic line was assaulted in mid-September. A formidable system of defense in depth, the Gothic line was a seemingly endless area of barbed wire, pillboxes and strong points manned by the cream of the Nazi forces in Italy. After taking 815 prisoners, the division pursued the fleeing Germans to Loiano there to run into a rocky escarpment rising to 1800 feet flanked on either side by commanding hills. The bloody Livergnano action followed. Livergnano taken October 13, the 91st dragged through a winter of siege in bitter weather, going into the offensive again by the last of February with Fifth Army elements into the Po Valley. In the final smash of the Nazi defense, the division swept toward the Adriatic in support of the British Eighth Army’s coast drive and was mopping up Treviso when fighting ceased. At war’s end the 91st marched into the Trieste area.