Index to the General Order of the 42nd Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 433
Soldier’s Medals 33
Bronze Star Medals 4,849
Air Medals 61
Purple Heart Medals 1,711
Combat Infantryman Badge 1
Army Commendation Ribbons 367
Battle Losses 651
Total Awards 7,455
This book has 161 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-53-9
ISBN 1-932891-53-6
Library of Congress Control Number 2004-557732
42nd Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
222nd Infantry Regiment
232nd Infantry Regiment
242nd Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 42nd Division
Artillery
232nd Field Artillery Battalion
392nd Field Artillery Battalion
402nd Field Artillery Battalion
542nd Field Artillery Battalion
42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
142nd Engineer Combat Battalion
122nd Medical Battalion
42nd Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
742nd Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
42nd Quartermaster Company
42nd Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Units attached during combat operations*:
191st Tank Battalion
749th Tank Battalion
510th Tank Destroyer Battalion
645th Tank Destroyer Battalion
692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
431st AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
*the time period of each attachment varies
WWII Campaigns
Rhineland
Central Europe
This is the thirty-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 42nd Infantry Division.* Please note that many decorations presented to members of the 42nd Infantry 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 and, 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.
This index also includes the names from the Adjutant General’s Battle Death Report of the 42nd Infantry Division. This lists all the men from the 42nd Infantry Division who gave their lives in combat.
The 42nd Infantry Division published a number of general orders that awarded posthumous Purple Hearts Medals. This is somewhat unusual, as the War Department was responsible for awarding Purple Heart Medals to the next of kin. Rarely other units awarded a limited number of posthumous Purple Heart Medals to men who were wounded prior to being killed in action but not awarded the Purple Heart Medal for their first wounded prior to being killed in action. However it would appear that the majority of the posthumous Purple Heart Medals awarded by the 42nd Infantry Division were for mortal wounds. Each case needs to be investigated further.
*The following general order was missing from the files at the National Archives:
|
(GO#80,1946,42DIV) |
** Page number 2 of (GO#75,1946,42DIV) is missing as well.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,42DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “42DIV” (42nd Infantry Division). Information cited as (42DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 42nd Division. Entries that are in italics are men who gave their lives in combat.
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.