85th Support Command


The 85th Infantry Division also known as the "Custer Division," was an infantry division of the United States Army in World War I and World War II. It currently exists as the 85th Support Command in the United States Army Reserve.

History

World War I

The 85th Division was constituted by the War Department in August 1917 and directed to be formed at Camp Custer, Michigan, with Major General Joseph T. Dickman assuming command on 25 August. The officer cadre was provided from the Regular Army, Officers' Reserve Corps, and National Army officer graduates of the First Officers Training Camps. The enlisted personnel were initially draftees, mostly from Michigan but also some from Wisconsin. The division was nicknamed the "Custer Division" after its training camp, which itself was named for General George Armstrong Custer, who had commanded the "Michigan Brigade" of cavalry during the American Civil War. Training began in September, but in October, 2,000 men were transferred from the division. In November, a draft of 10,800 men arrived at Camp Custer and the division attained a strength of 20,000. However, between January and July 1918, over 50,000 men arrived at Camp Custer, but more than 30,000 left, many passing through the division. By 30 April 1918, the 85th Division had declined to a strength of less than 12,000, but in May, 7,600 men joined the division from Camp Custer's depot brigade. In June, fresh drafts, including 2,500 from Camp Grant, Illinois, and 1,500 from Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, drawn largely from Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, completed the division. The 85th Division sailed for England in July and August 1918, before moving to France.The Division was composed of the following units:
From England, the 339th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, 310th Engineers, and 337th Ambulance and Field Hospital Companies sailed to Arkhangelsk, in the former Russian Empire, as part of the Polar Bear Expedition to fight alongside the White Army against the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. When the remainder of the division arrived in France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces, it was reduced to cadre strength and designated the 4th Depot Division, being used to receive, equip, train, and forward casualty replacements and personnel returned from hospitals to frontline combat units. Men who passed through the division served in other divisions at the battles of St. Mihiel, Marbache, and in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Western Front. After the war, the division remained on occupation duty in Germany and by April 1919, the last elements of the division returned to the United States.

Interwar period

The 85th Division headquarters arrived at the port of Hoboken, New Jersey, aboard the troopship RMS Aquitania on 29 March 1919 after 6 months of overseas service and was demobilized on 18 April at Camp Custer. Pursuant to the National Defense Act of 1920, the 85th Division was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Sixth Corps Area, and assigned to the XVI Corps. The division was further allotted to Michigan as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 10 September 1921 in Room 304 of the Old Customhouse Building in Detroit, relocated on 27 July 1922 to the Marquette Building, and moved again on 6 July 1923 to the New Telegraph Building. It was moved twice more before 1941; once to the Book Building at Washington and Grand River Avenues in 1926, and finally to the Federal Building in 1935, and remained there until activated for World War II. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the division staff published a newsletter named “The 85th Division Bulletin.” The newsletter informed the division’s members of such things as when and where the inactive training sessions were to be held, what the division’s summer training quotas were, where the camps were to be held, and which units would help conduct the Citizens' Military Training Camps.
The designated mobilization and training station for the division was Camp Custer, also where much of the division's peacetime training occurred in the interwar years. The division headquarters was called to active duty for training there as a unit on a number of occasions, the first time being in April 1926. Oddly, the division headquarters was ordered to active auty for a second time that same summer. The headquarters attended summer training as a unit, other than for corps area and army-level command post exercises, only twice more before World War II: once in the summer of 1928 and again in 1937. The headquarters and staff usually trained with the staff of the 12th Infantry Brigade, 6th Division, either at Camp Custer or at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. The infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the 2nd Infantry Regiment at Camp Custer beginning in June 1923, but also sometimes conducted joint summer training with the infantry regiments of the Michigan and Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Division at the latter's respective training camps. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster trained at various posts in the Sixth and Seventh Corps Areas. For example, the division’s artillery trained with the 1st Battalion, 14th Field Artillery at Camp Custer; the special troops trained with the 32nd Division special troops at Camp Grayling, Michigan, or Camp Sparta, Wisconsin; the 310th Medical Regiment trained at Fort Snelling, Minnesota; and the 310th Observation Squadron trained with the 15th Observation Squadron at Chanute Field, Illinois. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the CMTC held at Camp Custer each year.
On a number of occasions, the division participated in Sixth Corps Area or Second Army CPXs in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Sixth Corps Area, the 85th Division did not participate in the various corps area maneuvers and the Second Army maneuvers of 1935, 1939, and 1940 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to war strength for the exercises. Additionally, some were assigned duties as umpires or support personnel.

World War II

Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.
On 15 May 1942, five months after the United States entered World War II, the 85th Infantry Division was ordered to active duty at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, under the command of Major General Wade H. Haislip, a veteran of World War I. The division was organized around a cadre of officers and men from the 2nd Infantry Division, and training began in June 1942 at Camp Shelby. In April 1943, it participated in large-scale army training in the Louisiana Maneuvers near Leesville, Louisiana. In August, the division was moved to Camp Coxcomb, California for desert warfare training. In October, the division was transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for final preparations before shipment overseas. Major General John B. Coulter succeeded Haislip as the 85th's commander and retained this position throughout the war. The Assistant Division Commander throughout the war was Brigadier General Lee S. Gerow, the younger brother of General Leonard T. Gerow.
  • Headquarters, 85th Infantry Division
  • 337th Infantry Regiment
  • 338th Infantry Regiment
  • 339th Infantry Regiment
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 85th Infantry Division Artillery
  • * 328th Field Artillery Battalion
  • * 329th Field Artillery Battalion
  • * 403rd Field Artillery Battalion
  • * 910th Field Artillery Battalion
  • 310th Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 310th Medical Battalion
  • 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 85th Infantry Division
  • * Headquarters Company, 85th Infantry Division
  • * 785th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
  • * 85th Quartermaster Company
  • * 85th Signal Company
  • * Military Police Platoon
  • * Band
  • 85th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment
The 85th Infantry Division left the United States on 24 December 1943 and arrived in Casablanca, French Morocco on 2 January 1944. It received amphibious training at Port aux Poules near Arzew and Oran, Algeria, 1 February to 23 March, then embarked for Naples, Italy, arriving on 27 March. The 339th Regimental Combat Team was the first division element to depart Port-Aux-Poules for movement to the Italian Campaign. Arriving in Italy on 14 March, the 339th RCT was attached to the 88th Infantry Division and became the first regiment of the 85th to see combat during World War II on the Minturno-Castelforte front north of Naples, 28 March. The 85th and 88th Infantry Divisions were the first two United States Army divisions composed nearly entirely of draftees to see combat during World War II. The 85th Division, under II Corps of the U.S. Fifth Army under Mark W. Clark, was committed to action as a unit, 10 April 1944, north of the Garigliano River, facing the Gustav Line, and held defensive positions for a month.
On 11 May, it launched its attack, taking Solacciano, Castellonorato, and Formia. Itri fell, 19 May, and the 85th continued to mop up the Gaeta Peninsula. Terracina was taken and the road to the Anzio beachhead was opened. The division pursued the enemy to the hills near Sezze until pinched out by friendly forces from Anzio. The Gustav Line had been smashed and the 85th started for a rest area on 29 May, but was ordered to the Lariano sector which the division cleared by the 31st. Driving on Rome, the 85th pushed through Monte Compatri and Frascati, entered the Italian capital of Rome on 5 June 1944, and advanced to Viterbo before being relieved on 10 June.
After rehabilitation and training, the 85th took over the defense of the Arno River line from 15 to 26 August. The division attacked the mountain defenses of the Gothic Line on 13 September, and broke through, taking Firenzuola on the 21st. The 85th advanced slowly through mud and rain against heavy resistance taking La Martina and gaining the Idice River Valley road on 2 October, and reaching Mount Mezzano on the 24th overlooking the Po River Valley. From 27 October to 22 November 1944, defense areas near Pizzano were held. On the 23d, the division was relieved for rest and rehabilitation.
The 85th Division relieved the British 1st Infantry Division on 6 January 1945, and limited its activities to cautious patrols until 13 March. After a brief training period, the 85th, now under the command of Major General Willis D. Crittenberger's IV Corps, during the final offensive in Italy, thrust southwest of Bologna on 14 April, pushing through Lucca and Pistoia into the Po Valley as enemy resistance collapsed. The Panaro River was crossed on the 23rd and the Po the next day. The division mopped up fleeing Germans until their mass surrender on 2 May 1945, in the Belluno-Agordo area. The end of World War II in Europe came six days later. Four soldiers of the Division were awarded the Medal of Honor.