Index to the General Order of the 13th Airborne Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 80
Soldier’s Medal 1
Bronze Star Medals 439
Air Medals 5
Purple Heart Medals 28
Total Awards 553
This book has 14 Pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-12-6
ISBN 1-932891-12-9
Library of Congress Control Number 2005-4558047
13th Airborne Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
326th Glider Infantry Regiment
515th Parachute Infantry Regiment
517th Parachute Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 13th Airborne Division
Artillery
458th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
676th Glider Field Artillery Battalion
677th Glider Field Artillery Battalion
129th Airborne Engineer Combat Battalion
222nd Airborne Medical Company
153rd Airborne Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion
Headquarters, Special Troops
713th Airborne Ordnance Maintenance Company
409th Airborne Quartermaster Company
513th Airborne Signal Company
13th Parachute Maintenance Company
Military Police Platoon
WWII Campaigns
Central Europe
This is the fourteenth in a series of indexes of all the divisions, corps, armies and commands of the US Army in WWII. Others will be published as they are completed.
This work includes all decorations cited in the general orders of the 13th Airborne Division.* Please note that some decorations awarded to members of this division may have been cited in the general orders of other commands. Many awards of the Purple Heart Medal, for example, are missing as they were cited in the general orders of the hospitals which received the evacuated men. This index does not attempt to list all of the Bronze Star Medals retroactively awarded under Change 13 to Army Regulation 600-45, Department of the Army, 4 November 1947. Most awards of the CIB and CMB were made in general orders of the respective Infantry Regiments. This work does not list any specialty badges awarded as none were cited in the general orders of this division. Unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good Conduct Medals are not listed.
Although the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, and the 596th Airborne Engineer Company fought as a Regimental Combat Team in the invasion of Southern France and during the Battle of the Bulge, the 13th Airborne Division, as a united command, was never committed to combat. The units of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team were later absorbed into the 13th Airborne Division,; the vast majority of the decorations issued by the 13th Airborne Division were to members of that command. I have listed the members of the 517th Parachute Infantry and 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion separately, as they were not part of any division at the time that they earned their decorations.
The 596th Airborne Engineer Company was absorbed into the 129th Airborne Engineer Combat Battalion when the 517th PIR RCT was assigned to the 13th Airborne Division. Some general orders award decorations to members of the 129th Airborne Engineer Combat Battalion. I assume that these men actually served with the 596th Airborne Engineer Company at the time the decoration was earned, but lacking verification of this, I have listed them as members of the 129th Airborne Engineer Combat Battalion.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,13ABNDIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order) “#” (Number 46, 1945) “13ABNDIV” (13th Airborne Division). There is no Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 13th Airborne Division.
Most general orders do not give company assignments, but they may be mentioned in the citation itself. I have included these assignments when noted.
The 13th Airborne Division remained on active duty into 1946. There were some awards of the Purple Heart Medal, therefore, to current members of the 13th Airborne Division (at the time the general order was issued) who actually served in another unit in combat. In these instances, I have included the combat unit, followed by their unit with the 13th Airborne Division.
* The following general order is missing from the 13th Airborne Division’s file at the National Archives:
(GO#2,1945,13ABNDIV)
Anyone with a copy of this general order is encouraged to contact the author.
Every effort has been made to minimize errors and misspelled names. An error may be attributable to the source document, or may have occurred while transcribing the names/units. Some of the original documents are of very poor print quality, making them difficult to decipher.