Index to the General Orders of the 17^th Airborne Division, in WWII

Statistics:

Silver Star Medals 232
Soldier’s Medals 8
Bronze Star Medals 880
Air Medals 9
Purple Heart Medals 1,864
Certificate of Merit 113
Combat Infantryman Badge 1
Combat Medic’s Badges 29
Battle Losses 1,564

Total Awards 3,136

This book has 67 pages

ISBN 978-1-932891-14-0

ISBN 1-932891-14-5

Library of Congress Control Number 2004-559023

17^th Airborne Division's WWII Order of Battle

Headquarters Company

193^rd Glider Infantry Regiment
194^th Glider Infantry Regiment
507^th Parachute Infantry Regiment
513^th Parachute Infantry Regiment

Headquarters Battery, 17^th Airborne Division Artillery
464^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
466^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
680^th Glider Field Artillery Battalion
681^st Glider Field Artillery Battalion

139^th Airborne Engineer Combat Battalion
224^th Airborne Medical Company
155^th Airborne Anti-Aircraft Battalion
517^th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
717^th Airborne Ordnance Maintenance Company
411^th Airborne Quartermaster Company
517^th Airborne Signal Company
17^th Parachute Maintenance Company
Military Police Platoon

Units attached during combat operations*:

761^st Tank Battalion
811^th Tank Destroyer Battalion
*the time period of each attachment varies

WWII Campaigns
Rhineland
Ardennes-Alsace
Central Europe

This is the twenty-eighth in a series of indexes of all the divisions, corps, armies and commands of the US Army during WWII. Others will be published as they are completed.

 This work includes all decorations cited in the general orders of the 17^th Airborne Division. Please note that many decorations presented to members of the 17^th Airborne Division may have been cited in general orders of other commands. Most awards of the Purple Heart Medal were cited in the general orders of the hospitals that the men were evacuated to, therefore are not included in the work. This index does not attempt to list all of the awards of the Bronze Star Medal that were 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. I have made no attempt to list the unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good Conduct Medals.

 You will note that this index contain many awards of the Certificate of Merit, this award is not to be confused with the original Certificate of Merit issued from 1847-1918. The Certificate of Merit seems to be a junior award to the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service. In most instances you will find it being awarded to non-divisional combat support, combat service support units or members of armored divisions.  I have read documentation on this award in files located at the National Archives. Unfortunately, I did not copy them. I do not know if this decoration was limited to the European Theater of Operations or if it was used throughout the US Army. The decoration consists of a certificate as the name implies these certificates vary from command to command. I have seen several in my years and all were different, some are signed by battalion or regimental commanders. I feel that depending on the citation that accompanies these Certificates of Merit that they may warrant the Bronze Star Medal under the change to AR 600-45 cited above; or Army Commendation Ribbon / Medal as in this instance they were awarded by a Major General. Each certificate needs to be examined to determine which decoration it warrants if it warrants one at all.

 This index also includes the names from the Adjutant General’s Battle Death Report of the 17^th Airborne Division. This lists all the men from the 17^th Airborne Division and the 507^th Parachute Infantry who gave their lives in combat.

The general orders of the 17^th Airborne Division do not give unit assignments, and only officers are listed by their branch of service. It is assumed that most decoration recipients were assigned to the 17^th Airborne Division, unless they are listed in a branch of service that was not organic to this division. (Example: Tank Destroyer Battalion, etc.) It is hard to determine from the general orders if the decoration recipient was part of the 17^th Airborne Division or was a member of a unit, prior to it being assigned to the 17^th Airborne Division.  Please note that some decorations recipients may have been assigned to Headquarters, 17^th Airborne Division or Headquarters, 17^th Airborne Division Artillery but are listed in a smaller organization, as I have no way of knowing which men were in headquarters units and which were in line units.

The 507^th Parachute Infantry was attached to the 17^th Airborne Division in August of 1944. Prior to that time it was attached to the 82^nd Airborne Division in the Normandy Campaign. Officially the 507^th Parachute Infantry was not assigned to the 17^th Airborne Division until March of 1945. The 464^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion was not assigned to the 17^th Airborne Division until June of 1945. From a strictly technical point of view these units were not actually organic parts of the division until very late in the European Campaign. I have overlooked this fact, in this work, and listed members of the above units as members of the 17^th Airborne Division. The reason for this is the fact that most general orders do not give the numerical designation of the units making it very difficult for me to identify which decoration recipients where assigned to the 17^th Division and which were attached to it. This combined with the fact that the 507^th Parachute Infantry and the 464^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion’s relationships to the 17^th Airborne Division changed over the period covered in this work compounds the problem.

 Due to the fact that the 507^th Parachute Infantry was attached to the 82^nd Airborne Division during the Normandy Campaign a number of decorations to members of the 507^th Parachute Infantry are found in the general orders of the 82^nd Airborne Division. Please also consult Index to the General Orders of the 82^nd Airborne Division when researching a member of the 507^th Parachute Infantry. As mentioned above the 464^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion was assigned to the 17^th Airborne Division, after VE-Day. Prior to that date this unit was not assigned to any division, as such many of their decorations for service prior to their assignment may be found in the general orders of other commands.

How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,17AbnDiv) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “17AbnDiv” (17^th Airborne Division).  Information cited as (17ABDivAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 17^th Airborne Division. Entries that are in italics are men who were either Killed in Action or Died of Wounds.

                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.

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