The 35th Division was organized 25 August 1917, at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma, as a unit of the National Guard, with troops from Missouri and Kansas.[1][2] It was inactivated in 1919, but the division headquarters was reconstituted in 1935 and it served with a brief interruption until it was inactivated again in 1963. The division was reactivated and the headquarters and headquarters company federally recognized on 25 August 1984, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.[3]
Shoulder sleeve insignia
The division's shoulder patch, a Santa Fe cross in a circle, was conceived as a marking for division vehicles and baggage in 1918, and was first promulgated by 35th Division General Orders Number 25, issued on 27 March 1918. It was officially approved for the 35th Division on 29 October 1918 by the adjutant general of the American Expeditionary Force. The marking was later stenciled onto signs identifying the whereabouts of division units, soldiers' helmets, and finally was made into a shoulder sleeve insignia when that usage was authorized.
The cross hair was a symbol used to mark the Santa Fe Trail, an area where the unit trained, and was designated as an identifying device for the unit by Headquarters, 35th Division General Orders 25, dated March 27, 1918. The organization is referred to as the Santa Fe Division.[4]
Twenty-four distinct combinations of quadrant and border colors were devised for all of the 35th Division's units. Each major unit of the 35th Division (the division headquarters and headquarters troop and the 128th Machine Gun Battalion, the 110th Field Signal Battalion, 110th Ammunition, 110th Sanitary, and 110th Supply Trains, the 110th Engineer Regiment and Train, the 69th Infantry Brigade, the 70th Infantry Brigade, and the 60th Field Artillery Brigade) was respectively identified by one of six border colors: blue, green, white, yellow, black, or red. The component units each had their own combination of quadrant colors, consisting of one or two of the aforementioned. Patches varied widely in exact design and material.
Approved 35th Division insignia colors, General Order No. 25, 27 March 1918
Unit
Quadrant colors
Border color
Headquarters, 35th Division
4/4 blue
Blue
69th Infantry Brigade
4/4 yellow
Yellow
137th Infantry Regiment
3/4 yellow, 1/4 blue
Yellow
138th Infantry Regiment
2/4 yellow, 2/4 blue
Yellow
129th Machine Gun Battalion
2/4 red, 2/4 yellow
Yellow
70th Infantry Brigade
4/4 black
Black
139th Infantry Regiment
3/4 black, 1/4 yellow
Black
140th Infantry Regiment
2/4 black, 2/4 yellow
Black
130th Machine Gun Battalion
2/4 black, 2/4 yellow
Black
60th Field Artillery Brigade
4/4 red
Red
128th Field Artillery Regiment
3/4 red, 1/4 blue
Red
129th Field Artillery Regiment
3/4 red, 1/4 yellow
Red
130th Field Artillery Regiment
3/4 red, 1/4 white
Red
110th Trench Mortar Battery
3/4 red, 1/4 green
Red
128th Machine Gun Battalion
3/4 blue, 1/4 green
Blue
110th Engineer Regiment
4/4 white
White
110th Field Signal Battalion
4/4 green
Green
Headquarters Troop, 35th Division
3/4 blue, 1/4 yellow
Blue
110th Train Headquarters and Military Police
4/4 maroon
Green
110th Ammunition Train
3/4 maroon, 1/4 white
Green
110th Supply Train
3/4 maroon, 1/4 yellow
Green
110th Engineer Train
3/4 white, 1/4 red
White
110th Sanitary Train
3/4 maroon, 1/4 green
Green
Postwar, the wide variety of color combinations was done away with, and the insignia to be worn by all division personnel was simplified to consist of a white Santa Fe cross on a blue background with an olive drab border, although colored insignia continued in limited use in certain cases until the 1930s.
Within a blue circle 2 inches in diameter, 1/2-inch in width quadrated at 45 degrees to the lines of disk, a blue quadrated disk 1 1/8 inches in diameter, the inner ends of the quadrants rounded by arcs of 1/8-inch radius, all white lines 1/8-inch in width.[5]
Brigadier General Thomas B. Dugan (27 December 1918 to inactivation)
Actions during World War I
Group of officers of the 129th Machine Gun Battalion, 35th Division, at Vagney, Vosges, France, August 10, 1918.
The 35th Division was originally constituted by the Militia Bureau in early 1917 as the 14th Division, made up of troops from Kansas and Missouri. On 18 July 1917, the War Department directed the organization of the unit, now redesignated the 35th Division, and on 5 August, the National Guard was drafted into federal service. Concentration of divisional troops at Camp Doniphan, near Fort Sill, Oklahoma, began in late August, and training began on 8 September. During October, about 3,000 draftees from Camp Funston, Kansas, most of whom were from Kansas and Missouri, joined the division, and in spring 1918, more men came from Camp Funston, Camp Travis, Texas, and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On 2 April 1917, the division moved from Camp Mills, New York, and Camp Merritt, New Jersey, to the Brooklyn, Hoboken, New York, and Philadelphia Ports of Embarkation, where it received approximately 2,000 replacements to bring it to full strength. Elements of the division sailed for England and France from 16 April to 8 June 1918, with the elements that landed in England (Southampton and Liverpool) moving shortly to Le Havre, France.[6]
The 35th served first, a brigade at a time, in the Vosges mountains between 30 June and 13 August. The whole division served in the Gérardmer sector, Alsace, 14 August to 1 September. Having undergone a number of command changes at multiple echelons and arms of service on short notice, the division was committed during the opening stages of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, 21 to 30 September. Despite making good progress on its first day, the division's operations became more and more disorganized as communications and command difficulties combined with increasingly heavy losses fighting across no man's land towards entrenched German fighting positions. The division was shortly withdrawn from the front for fear of complete collapse and replaced with the 1st Division. American historian Robert Hugh Ferrell wrote about the 35th Division's experience in the Meuse-Argonne in his 2004 book Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division. The division next served in the Sommedieue sector, 15 October to 6 November. During its combat service, the 35th Division spent ninety-two days in quiet sectors and five in active, advanced twelve and one-half kilometers against resistance, captured 781 prisoners, and lost 1,067 men killed and 6,216 wounded.[7] The 35th Division had, as an officer, CaptainHarry S. Truman, future 33rdPresident of the United States, who commanded Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery Regiment.[8]
World War I order of battle
Units of the 35th Division during World War I included:[9][10][11]
110th Supply Train (Supply Train, Missouri National Guard)
110th Engineer Train (Engineer Train, Kansas National Guard)
110th Sanitary Train
137th-140th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals (1st and 2nd Kansas Field Hospitals, 1st and 2nd Missouri Field Hospitals, 1st and 2nd Kansas Ambulance Companies, and 1st and 2nd Missouri Ambulance Companies)
Interwar period
Pursuant to the 1920 amendments to the National Defense Act of 1916, the 35th Division was reconstituted in the National Guard in 1921, allotted to the states of Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska of the Seventh Corps Area, and assigned to the VII Corps. In the postwar reorganization of the Army's infantry divisions, they only had two regiments of horse-drawn 75 mm guns, with truck-drawn 155 mm howitzers initially assigned as corps and army artillery because of the belief that they were too tactically immobile. As early as 1922, the Nebraska National Guard found it impossible to organize the VII Corps' 127th Field Artillery Regiment because of a lack of funding and armory space. When suitable modifications were made to the 155 mm howitzer as part of the Army's motorization of field artillery in the early 1930s to allow for high-speed truck traction, 155 mm howitzer regiments were returned to divisions; the 142nd Field Artillery Regiment, a partially-organized General Headquarters Reserve (GHQR) 75 mm gun unit from Arkansas, was converted to 155 mm howitzers and assigned to the 35th Division on 13 July 1931 in lieu of the 127th Field Artillery.
In the 1920s and 1930s, constituent units of the division performed routine training within their respective states as well as various activities policing labor troubles and effecting disaster relief. Arkansas units trained at Camp Pike (later renamed Camp Joseph T. Robinson), Arkansas, Fort Riley, Kansas, near Junction City, or at Fort Sill; Kansas units trained at Fort Riley; Missouri units at Camp Clark, near Nevada, Missouri; Nebraska units at Camp Ashland, near Ashland, Nebraska. Because of continued disputes between the states allotted for the division, the 35th Division commander and his staff were not organized and federally recognized until 1932-1933. Beginning in the summer of 1933, the division staff assembled at Fort Riley for consolidated staff training and did so for the next two years. In the fall of 1935, the staff participated in the Fourth Army command post exercise at Fort Lewis, Washington, and went to camp at Ashland, Nebraska, the following summer. Due to limited funding, all the units of the 35th Division did not gather together in one place for training until the Seventh Corps Area concentration of the Fourth Army maneuvers at Fort Riley, in 1937. In 1938, 180 Organized Reserve officers of the 89th and 102nd Divisions were also provided with training by the division. The division also concentrated at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, during the Fourth Army maneuvers in 1940.[12]
Peacetime activities
Special Troops, 35th Division
35th Signal Company for communications duty in conjunction with a coal miners' strike in Columbus, Kansas, 17 June-6 August 1935[13]
Five companies for riot control duty during a workers' strike at a Nebraska City meat packing plant, January–February 1922
Portion of one company for tornado relief duty at Hastings, Nebraska, 9–12 May 1930
Two companies for riot control duty during a water rights dispute along the north fork of the Platte River in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, 28 August-3 September 1935
Entire regiment, less band, for martial law in conjunction with a streetcar workers' strike in Omaha, 15–21 June 1935
2nd Battalion for road patrols and bridge blocks during a prison breakout in Lansing, Kansas, 19–20 January 1934
Regimental headquarters and 3rd Battalion for riot control duty during a copper miners' disturbance in Baxter Springs, Kansas, 8–27 June 1934, and during a coal miners' strike in Columbus, Kansas, 17 June-6 August 1935
Riot control duty at railroad workers' strikes in Moberly, Macon, and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 13 July-23 November 1922, and during a workers' strike in New Madrid, Missouri, May 1923
Flood relief duty along the Mississippi River at Charleston, Sikeston, and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 16 April-12 May 1927 and January 1937, and along the St. Francis River, June 1928, and every spring from 1932 to 1933 and 1935–1938
With the conversion of National Guard cavalry divisions to other types of units in 1940, Kansas' 114th Cavalry Regiment was converted and redesignated as the 127th Field Artillery Regiment and assigned to the 35th Division, and the 142nd Field Artillery Regiment was relieved from the division on 1 October 1940.
World War II
Federalization
The 35th Division was ordered into federal service on 23 December 1940 at home stations. The division's units were ordered to report to Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, and had arrived by the end of January, 1941. The incomplete ranks of the 35th were swelled by thousands of draftees, a large portion of whom were from Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, through a War Department arrangement to fill the balance of National Guard units ordered into federal service with men from their home states or corps areas insofar as was possible. After completing the War Department-mandated divisional training program, the 35th Division maneuvered against other units in Arkansas and Louisiana in the fall of 1941. In August 1941, the division was redesignated the 35th Infantry Division. After the Pearl Harbor attack came its first assignment, the defense of the Southern California Sector of the Western Defense Command.
Reorganization
On 3 February 1942, the War Department ordered that the 35th Division be "triangularized" at the earliest practicable date. The 138th Infantry Regiment departed, assigned to GHQ. The division's infantry and field artillery brigade headquarters were eliminated, and the engineer, field artillery, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized as battalions. The reorganization was completed on 1 March 1942. On 27 January 1943, the 140th Infantry Regiment was relieved from the division, and was replaced by the 320th Infantry Regiment.
Further training
The division departed California for Camp Rucker, Alabama, arriving on 1 April 1943. After participating in the Second Army Tennessee Maneuvers from 22 November 1943 to 17 January 1944 and receiving mountain warfare training at the West Virginia Maneuver Area from 21 February to 28 March 1944, the 35th Infantry Division was declared ready for overseas service. Further movement to Camp Butner, North Carolina, and Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, saw the division through to England, where it arrived on 25 May 1944.
Major General Paul W. Baade (January 1943 to inactivation)
Actions during World War II
Men of 1st Battalion, 137th Regiment, 35th Division move towards Unterbruch. 6 February 1945.Battle of the Bulge-Memorial in Boulaide: À la mémoire des vaillants soldats de la 35e division d'infanterie U.S. 1944–1945.
The 35th Infantry Division arrived in England on 25 May 1944 and received further training. It landed on Omaha Beach, Normandy 5–7 July 1944 and entered combat on 11 July, fighting in the Normandy hedgerows north of St. Lo. The division turned away twelve German counterattacks at Emelie before entering St. Lo on 18 July. After mopping up in the St. Lo area, it took part in the offensive action southwest of St. Lo, pushing the Germans across the Vire River on 2 August, and breaking out of the Cotentin Peninsula. While en route to an assembly area, the division was "flagged off the road," to secure the Mortain-Avranches corridor and to rescue the 30th Division's "Lost Battalion" August 7–13, 1944.
Then racing across France through Orleans and Sens, the division attacked across the Moselle on 13 September, captured Nancy on 15 September, secured Chambrey on 1 October, and drove on to the German border, taking Sarreguemines and crossing the Saar on 8 December. After crossing the Blies River on 12 December, the division moved to Metz for rest and rehabilitation on 19 December. The 35th moved to Arlon, Belgium December 25–26, and took part in the fighting to relieve Bastogne, throwing off the attacks of four German divisions, taking Villers-laBonne-Eau on 10 January, after a 13-day fight and Lutrebois in a 5-day engagement. On 18 January 1945, the division returned to Metz to resume its interrupted rest.[8]
In late January, the division was defending the Foret de Domaniale area. Moving to the Netherlands to hold a defensive line along the Roer on 22 February, the division attacked across the Roer on 23 February, pierced the Siegfried Line, reached the Rhine at Wesel on 10 March, and crossed 25–26 March. It smashed across the Herne Canal and reached the Ruhr River early in April, when it was ordered to move to the Elbe April 12. Making the 295-mile dash in two days, the 35th mopped up in the vicinity of Colbitz and Angern, until 26 April 1945 when it moved to Hanover for occupational and mopping-up duty, continuing occupation beyond VE-day. The division left Southampton, England, on 5 September, and arrived in New York City on 10 September 1945.[8]
134th Infantry Regiment, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against the enemy during the period 28 December 1944 through 16 January 1945 (War Department General Orders No. 62, 1947)
1st Battalion, 134th Infantry Regiment, for extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty against the enemy in the vicinity of Saint-Lô, Normandy, France, from 15 to 19 July 1944 (War Department General Orders No. 66, 1945)
Company C, 134th Infantry Regiment, for extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty against the enemy in the vicinity of Habkirchen, Germany, from 12 to 21 December 1944 (War Department General Orders No. 68, 1945)
2nd (machine gun) Platoon, Company D, 134th Infantry Regiment, for extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy in the vicinity of Habkirchen, Germany, from 12 to 21 December 1944 (War Department General Orders No. 66, 1945)
Company F, 137th Infantry Regiment, for outstanding performance of duty in action against the enemy at Sarreguemines, France, on 10 December 1944 (War Department General Orders No. 11, 1946)
3rd Battalion, 137th Infantry Regiment, for outstanding performance of duty in action against the enemy in France, 18–21 November 1944 (War Department General Orders No. 20, 1946)
1st Battalion, 320th Infantry Regiment, for extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty in action against the enemy in the vicinity of Mortain, France, from 10 to 13 August 1944 (War Department General Orders No. 55, 1945)
On 7 December 1945, the division was inactivated at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky. During the next year and into 1947, the division was reestablished as a Kansas and Missouri National Guard division. In 1954 the division consisted of the 137th (Kansas), 138th (Missouri), and 140th Infantry Regiments (Missouri); 127th, 128th, 129th, and 154th Field Artillery Battalions; the 135th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion; the 135th Tank Battalion; and signals, engineer, reconnaissance, military police, other combat support units, plus combat service support units.[29][30][31] After the Pentomic reorganization, the division's five battle groups were the 1-137 Infantry; 2-137 Infantry; 1-138 Infantry; 2-138 Infantry; and 1-140 Infantry.[32] In 1963, the division was inactivated, along with the 34th, 43rd, and 51st Infantry Divisions.
In early 1983, the Army began the process of reestablishing the division as a mechanized infantry formation to be made up of Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Nebraska National Guard units. The division headquarters was established 30 September 1983, at Fort Leavenworth.[33] The division was formally reactivated as the 35th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on 25 August 1984 around a nucleus of the 67th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) from Nebraska, the 69th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) from Kansas, and the 149th Armored Brigade from Kentucky.[34] It continues in service today.
In 1984–85, the 69th Infantry Brigade was reported to consist of the following units:
Isby and Kamps also wrote at the same time that the 110th Engineer Battalion, in Missouri, might be assigned as the divisional engineers (p383); however, this did not occur. Actually, the divisional engineer battalion, the 206th Engineer Battalion, was organized in the Kentucky Army National Guard on 1 November 1985.[36]
The divisional aviation brigade headquarters was organized in the Kentucky Army National Guard on 15 September 1986.[37] On 1 October 1987 the division's aviation units were reorganized, and the 135th Aviation was established. Two battalions of the 135th joined the division's aviation component.
35th Infantry Division Band (Kansas Army National Guard)
135th Engineer Brigade (Missouri Army National Guard)
206th Engineer Battalion (Missouri Army National Guard)
135th Engineer Company (Illinois Army National Guard)
Bosnia
35th ID Liaison Officer, Mostar, Bosnia, April 5, 2003
The 35th Infantry Division Headquarters commanded Task Force Eagle's Multi-National Division North in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of SFOR-13 (Stabilization Force 13) with the NATO peacekeeping mandate under the Dayton Peace Accords. The headquarters were located at Eagle Base in the town of Tuzla. Brigadier General James Mason was the commander. He later went on to command the division. The division headquarters received the Army Superior Unit Award for its service in Bosnia. Division liaison officers served in the towns of Mostar, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Zenica and Doboj. Several officers went on to other roles, including: Timothy J. Kadavy who served as Commander of 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry, 35th Infantry Division in Bosnia. Lieutenant General Kadavy is now the Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau. Victor J. Braden served as the Commander, 1st Battalion, 108th Aviation, 35th Infantry Division in Tuzla, Bosnia. Major General Braden was a recent Commander of the 35th Infantry Division. [1]. Elliott Levenson was the Liaison Officer to the Italian Command at Multinational Brigade, South-East in Mostar, Bosnia. He earned the Bronze Star in Iraq with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in 2008. [2].
A detachment of the 35th Infantry Division was the headquarters element for Task Force Falcon of Multi-National Task Force East (MNTF-E) for the NATO Kosovo Force 9 (KFOR 9) mission. The 35th provided command and control from 7 November 2007 until 7 July 2008, when they were succeeded by the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Missouri Army National Guard.[citation needed]
Global War on Terror
The 35th Infantry Division has deployed as a Division Headquarters to the CENTCOM area during Operation Spartan Shield & Operation Inherent Resolve where they took over main command as Task Force Spartan. The division first deployed in July of 2017 and relinquished command to the 28th Infantry Division March of 2018
The second time the Division deployed as a Main HQ was March 2022 to November 2022, where they relinquished command again to the 28th Infantry Division.
Current organization
35th Infantry Division organization since August 2023
As of 2023, the 35th Infantry Division consists of a special troops battalion, three infantry brigade combat teams, a division artillery, a combat aviation brigade, a maneuver enhancement brigade, and division sustainment brigade.[40] The 35th Infantry Division is in the process of adding several new units and undergoing reorganization as a "light division" as the U.S. Army shifts from the brigade combat team to the division as the major unit of action as part of its force structure modification plan for the early 21st century.
169th Division Sustainment Support Battalion (Kansas Army National Guard)
110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (110th MEB) (Missouri Army National Guard) (intended final organization; will be reflagged as the 110th Protection Brigade in 2026)
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 110th MEB
Air Defense Artillery Battalion (will activate in 2026)
126th Chemical Battalion (Nebraska Army National Guard)
Staff Sergeant Junior J. Spurrier, Medal of Honor, WWII, Achain, France, 13 November 1944, Distinguished Service Cross, WWII, Lay St. Christopher, France, 16 September 1944, 134th Infantry Regiment
Master Sergeant Robert Pirosh, screenwriter, served during WWII
In popular culture
The 35th Infantry Division is featured in the 1970 film Kelly's Heroes. The blue and white division patch is worn throughout the movie and LTC Booker tells the General “elements of the 35th” when asked who has advanced.
^Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War, American Expeditionary Forces: Divisions, Volume 2. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army. 1988. p. 213.
^Composition of National Guard Divisions and Disposition of Former National Guard Units. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1918. pp. 7–13.
^"35th ID (M) Command Update Briefing"(PDF). Dept. of the Army, Headquarters, 35th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Kansas National Guard. 12 December 1996. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
Clark, Brig. Gen. Harvey C. (1920). Report of the Adjutant General of Missouri: January 1, 1917 December 31, 1920. Jefferson City, Mo.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Faubus, Orval Eugene (1993) [1st pub. River Road Press:1971]. In This Faraway Land: A Personal Journal of Infantry Combat in World War II (Revised ed.). Little Rock, Ark.: Pioneer Press. ISBN0-0960225-3-1. LCCN93-85871.
Huston, James A. (2003) [Orig. pub. Courier Press:1950]. Biography of a Battalion: The Life and Times of an Infantry Battalion in Europe in World War II (1st ed.). Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books. ISBN0-8117-2694-0.
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