This is the third 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 3rd Army. * Please note that many decorations to members of the 3rd Army may have been cited in 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. Unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good Conduct Medals are not listed.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,3Army) is broken down as “GO” General Order “#” Number 46, 1945 “3Army” 3rd Army.
Some general orders issued during the war do not give complete unit assignments. They may be missing the numerical designation of the regiment or the separate battalion the decoration recipient was assigned to. This was for security reasons and, generally speaking, only awards cited around the break out of Normandy and during the Battle of the Bulge have the units expunged. I assume that the 3rd Army Headquarters was considered very secure during other periods.
* The following general orders are missing from the 3rd Army’s file at the National Archives:
(GO#10,1944,3Army) (GO#11,1944,3Army) (GO#12,1944,3Army) (GO#13,1944,3Army) (GO#14,1944,3Army) (GO#15,1944,3Army) (GO#16,1944,3Army) (GO#20,1944,3Army) (GO#21,1944,3Army) (GO#22,1944,3Army) (GO#25,1944,3Army) (GO#27,1944,3Army) (GO#32,1944,3Army) (GO#35,1944,3Army) (GO#39,1944,3Army) (GO#41,1944,3Army) (GO#48,1944,3Army) (GO#69,1944,3Army) (GO#78,1944,3Army) (GO#87,1944,3Army) (GO#16,1945,3Army) (GO#35,1945,3Army) (GO#36,1945,3Army) (GO#68,1945,3Army) (GO#75,1945,3Army) (GO#91,1945,3Army) (GO#95,1945,3Army) (GO#97,1945,3Army) (GO#110,1945,3Army) (GO#114,1945,3Army) (GO#132,1945,3Army) (GO#154,1945,3Army) (GO#170,1945,3Army) (GO#177,1945,3Army) (GO#183,1945,3Army) (GO#184,1945,3Army) (GO#192,1945,3Army) (GO#197,1945,3Army) (GO#203,1945,3Army) (GO#211,1945,3Army) (GO#212,1945,3Army) (GO#213,1945,3Army) (GO#220,1945,3Army) (GO#225,1945,3Army) (GO#233,1945,3Army) (GO#235,1945,3Army) (GO#238,1945,3Army) (GO#249,1945,3Army) (GO#256,1945,3Army) (GO#259,1945,3Army) (GO#260,1945,3Army) (GO#264,1945,3Army) (GO#269,1945,3Army) (GO#276,1945,3Army) (GO#281,1945,3Army) (GO#282,1945,3Army) (GO#284,1945,3Army) (GO#289,1945,3Army) (GO#291,1945,3Army) (GO#292,1945,3Army) (GO#295,1945,3Army)
I found an extract from GO#35, 1945, 3rd Army awarding a Bronze Star Medal. It is likely other decorations are cited in GO#35, 1945, 3rd Army.
The following were noted to have “Received Limited Distribution” on the next general order issued. I doubt if any of these contain general orders only decorations as there are other general orders in the 3rd Army file with the same notation and none of them contain decorations.
(GO#78,1944,3Army) (GO#16,1945,3Army)
(GO#36,1945,3Army) (GO#68,1945,3Army)
(GO#91,1945,3Army) (GO#110,1945,3Army)
(GO#114,1945,3Army) (GO#132,1945,3Army)
(GO#154,1945,3Army) (GO#170,1945,3Army)
(GO#177,1945,3Army) (GO#183,1945,3Army)
(GO#184,1945,3Army) (GO#192,1945,3Army)
(GO#197,1945,3Army) (GO#203,1945,3Army) (GO#211,1945,3Army) (GO#212,1945,3Army)
(GO#213,1945,3Army) (GO#220,1945,3Army)
(GO#225,1945,3Army) (GO#233,1945,3Army)
(GO#235,1945,3Army) (GO#238,1945,3Army)
(GO#249,1945,3Army) (GO#256,1945,3Army) (GO#259,1945,3Army) (GO#260,1945,3Army)
(GO#264,1945,3Army) (GO#269,1945,3Army)
(GO#289,1945,3Army) (GO#291,1945,3Army)
(GO#292,1945,3Army)
If we assume that the general orders noted that has (Received Limited Distribution” contain no decorations, and that there are no general orders issued after (GO#299,1945,3rd Army), then there are 29 unaccounted for general orders. Of these, most were issued prior to the 3rd Army landing in France. It is unlikely that many of these early general orders contain any decoration. I assume, therefore, that this index contains at least 90% of all awards issued by the 3rd Army during WWII. But, as with many assumptions, future investigations may prove this to be incorrect.
I have included all pre-combat awards cited in general orders of the 3rd Army. The National Archive files for the general orders of the 3rd Army end with General Order 299, 1945, which is dated October 16, 1945. I currently do not know if the Army was deactivated around that date, or if the War Department withdrew the authority for field commands to approve awards, or if there were general orders beyond number 300 issued during 1945. There is a file of general orders for 1946, the majority of which appear to be missing. Of those available, only (GO#207,1946,3rd Army) contains decoration information citing enlisted men for the Army Commendation Ribbon.
The following
are the general orders present in the file dated 1946. All others are
missing. (GO#207,1946,3Army), the last in the files is dated May 12th,
1946.
(GO#24,1946,3Army) (GO#39,1946,3Army)
(GO#40,1946,3Army) (GO#41,1946,3Army)
(GO#43,1946,3Army) (GO#55,1946,3Army)
(GO#63,1946,3Army) (GO#75,1946,3Army)
(GO#77,1946,3Army) (GO#79,1946,3Army)
(GO#97,1946,3Army) (GO#102,1946,3Army)
(GO#104,1946,3Army) (GO#116,1946,3Army)
(GO#117,1946,3Army) (GO#171,1946,3Army)
(GO#181,1946,3Army) (GO#199,1946,3Army)
(GO#202,1946,3Army) (GO#204,1946,3Army)
(GO#207,1946,3Army)
Anyone with copies of any of the missing general orders 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.
Distinguished Service Cross 566
Silver Star Medals 152
Soldier’s Medals 82
Bronze Star Medals 2,373
Air Medals 329
Purple Heart Medals 76
Total Awards 3,578
This book has 74 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-05-8
ISBN 1-932891-05-6
Library of Congress Control Number 2004-268416
3rd Army's WWII Order of Battle
The composition of armies during combat operations varies, almost on a daily basis. Making it difficult to construct their orders of battle other than during a short specific period of time
WWII Campaigns
Normandy
Northern France
Rhineland
Ardennes-Alsace
Central Europe