95th Training Division


The 95th Infantry Division, created in 1918 as an infantry division of the United States Army, exists today as the 95th Training Division, a United States Army Reserve component headquartered at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. One of three training divisions of the 108th Training Command, it provides Initial Entry Training to new Army Reserve recruits.
The 95th was activated too late to deploy for World War I, but remained in the Army's reserve until World War II, when it was sent to Europe. The division, which earned the nickname "Iron Men of Metz" for liberating and defending the town, became known for repelling fierce German counterattacks.
In April 1945, the 95th Infantry Division "Victory" division uncovered a German prison and civilian labor camp in the town of Werl. On 7 April, the unit reported discovering a camp housing some 4,500 undernourished French officers and 800 enlisted men. The 95th provided the prisoners with emergency rations from the division's own supplies.
After World War II, the division spent another brief period in reserve before being activated as one of the Army's training divisions. Over the next fifty years the division would see numerous changes to its structure as its training roles changed and subordinate units shifted in and out of its command. It activated many regimental and brigade commands to fulfill various training roles.
The 95th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the United States Army Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995.

History

World War I

The 95th Division was first constituted on 4 September 1918 in the National Army. The division, minus the 377th and 378th Infantry Regiments of the 189th Infantry Brigade and the 170th Field Artillery Brigade, were organized at Camp Sherman, Ohio, in September. The 377th and 378th Infantry Regiments were intended to be organized in France from the 1st and 2nd Pioneer Infantry Regiments, while the 170th Field Artillery Brigade was organized in September at Camp Zachary Taylor and Camp Knox, Kentucky. By the end of October, the division had about 6,400 men, and by the end of November after the Armistice with Germany, 7,600. Training did not progress beyond the elementary phases, and the division was ordered to be demobilized on 30 November, with demobilization being completed on 22 December. The division was commanded by:
  • Colonel Julien Edmund Victor Gaujot, 23–25 September 1918
  • Colonel Edward Croft, 25 September 1918 – 24 October 1918
  • Brigadier General Mathew C. Smith, 24 October 1918 – 22 December 1918

    Interwar period

As ordered by the National Defense Act of 1920, the 95th Division was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Eighth Corps Area, and assigned to the XVIII Corps. The division was further allotted to the state of Oklahoma as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 31 August 1921 at the Oklahoma State Capitol building in Oklahoma City. It was moved on 3 May 1922 to the Tradesmen's National Bank Building in that city, and moved once again in August 1924 to 203-1⁄2 West Grand Avenue. The headquarters remained there until activated for World War II. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the chief of staff published a newsletter titled "The Observation Post." 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 be assigned to help conduct the Citizens' Military Training Camps.
The designated mobilization and training station for the division was Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where much of the 95th Division's training activities occurred in the interwar years. The subordinate infantry regiments of the division held their summer training with the 3rd Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 1925–27; 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 1927–33; and the 3rd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, 1933–39 at Fort Sill. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Eighth Corps Area. For example, the division's artillery trained at Fort Sill with the 1st Field Artillery; the 320th Engineer Regiment trained at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Fort Logan, Colorado, with the 2nd Engineer Regiment; the 320th Medical Regiment trained at Fort Sam Houston with the 2nd Medical Regiment; and the 320th Observation Squadron trained at Brooks Field, Texas. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the CMTC training held at Fort Sill each year.
The division participated in several Eighth Corps Area and Third Army command post exercises with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units, enabling division staff officers to practice the roles they would perform if the division were mobilized. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Eighth Corps Area, the 95th Division did not participate in the various Eighth Corps Area maneuvers and the Third Army maneuvers of 1938, 1940, and 1941 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. Some officers were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel. But for each maneuver, the division maximized the number of participants. For example, for the 1938 maneuver at Camp Bullis, Texas, the 95th Division provided 173 officers to the 2nd Division and 68 to the National Guard's 45th Division. Similar numbers participated in the two succeeding exercises.

World War II

On 15 July 1942, the division was ordered into active military service and reorganized at Camp Swift, Texas. Major General Harry L. Twaddle was assigned to command, and he remained in this position until the division was demobilized at the end of the war. The 189th and 190th Infantry Brigades were disbanded as part of an army-wide elimination of brigades. Instead, the division was based around three infantry regiments, the 377th Infantry Regiment, the 378th Infantry Regiment, and the 379th Infantry Regiment. The 380th Infantry Regiment remained in an inactive status, and was disbanded on 11 November 1944. Over the next two years, the division trained extensively throughout the United States, including at Camp Coxcomb in California.

Order of battle

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.
  • Headquarters, 95th Infantry Division
  • 377th Infantry Regiment
  • 378th Infantry Regiment
  • 379th Infantry Regiment
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 95th Infantry Division Artillery
  • * 358th Field Artillery Battalion
  • * 359th Field Artillery Battalion
  • * 360th Field Artillery Battalion
  • * 920th Field Artillery Battalion
  • 320th Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 320th Medical Battalion
  • 95th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized
  • Headquarters, Special Troops, 95th Infantry Division
  • * Headquarters Company, 95th Infantry Division
  • * 795th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
  • * 95th Quartermaster Company
  • * 95th Signal Company
  • * Military Police Platoon
  • * Band
  • 95th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

    Europe

Assigned to XIII Corps of the Ninth United States Army, Twelfth United States Army Group, the 95th Infantry Division sailed for England on 10 August 1944 and arrived seven days later. After more training, it moved on 15 September to France, where it was reassigned to III Corps. The division bivouacked near Norroy-le-Sec, from 1 to 14 October, then was assigned to XX Corps of the Third United States Army. On 19 October, the division was sent into combat in the Moselle bridgehead sector east of Moselle and South of Metz. It patrolled the Seille near Cheminot, captured the forts surrounding Metz, and repulsed enemy attempts to cross the river. During the defense of this town from repeated German attacks, the division received its nickname: "The Iron Men of Metz." On 1 November, elements went over to the offensive, reducing an enemy pocket east of Maizières-lès-Metz. On 8 November, these units crossed the Moselle River and advanced to Bertrange. Against heavy resistance, the 95th captured the forts surrounding Metz and captured the city by 22 November.
The division pushed toward the Saar on 25 November and entered Germany on the 28th. The 95th seized a Saar River bridge on 3 December and engaged in bitter house-to-house fighting for Saarlautern. Suburbs of the city fell and, although the enemy resisted fiercely, the Saar bridgehead was firmly established by 19 December. While some units went to an assembly area, others held the area against strong German attacks. On 2 February 1945, the division began moving to the Maastricht area in the Netherlands, and by 14 February, elements were in the line near Meerselo in relief of British units. During this time the division returned to the Ninth Army under XIX Corps, though saw temporary assignments to several other corps through the spring.
On 23 February, the division was relieved, and the 95th assembled near Jülich, Germany, on 1 March. It forced the enemy into a pocket near the Hitler Bridge at Uerdingen and cleared the pocket on 5 March, while elements advanced to the Rhine. From 12 March, the 95th established defenses in the vicinity of Neuss. Assembling east of the Rhine at Beckum on 3 April, it launched an attack across the Lippe River the next day and captured Hamm and Kamen on the 6th. After clearing the enemy pocket north of the Ruhr and the Möhne Rivers, the division took Werl and Unna on 9/10 April, Dortmund on 13 April and maintained positions on the north bank of the Ruhr. It held this position until the end of the war.