Index of the General Orders of the 43^rd Infantry Division, in WWII

Statistics:

Silver Star Medals 731
Soldier’s Medals 40
Bronze Star Medals 2,813
Air Medals 27
Purple Heart Medals 4,801
Army Commendation Medals 47
Letters of Commendations 4
Combat Infantryman Badges 12
Battle Losses 1,525

Total Awards 8,475

This book has 145 pages

ISBN 978-1-932891-87-0

Library of Congress Control Number
Pending

43^rd Division's WWII Order of Battle

Headquarters Company

103^rd Infantry Regiment
169^th Infantry Regiment
172^nd Infantry Regiment

Headquarters Battery, 43^rd Division Artillery
103^rd Field Artillery Battalion
152^nd Field Artillery Battalion
169^th Field Artillery Battalion
192^nd Field Artillery Battalion

43^rd Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
118^th Engineer Combat Battalion
118^th Medical Battalion
43^rd Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
743^rd Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
43^rd Quartermaster Company
43^rd Signal Company
Military Police Platoon

WWII Campaigns
Guadalcanal
Northern Solomons
New Guinea
Luzon

This is the sixtieth 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 43^rd Infantry Division.* Please note that many decorations presented to members of the 43^rd 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 this work. This index does not attempt to list 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 not attempted to list unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, or Good Conduct Medals. 

Most of the 43^rd Infantry Division’s general orders do not contain the recipient’s unit assignment information. The recipient’s branch of service is listed in its place. Some of these general orders had the numerical designation of each recipient penciled into the margin; when this information was present, it was included in this work. Please note that some members of tank destroyer battalions were actually members of the field artillery branch; likewise, members of tank battalions are commonly assigned to the infantry or cavalry branch. The branch of service is only a lead in determining what unit an individual served in.  

Some of the general orders issued during 1943 and 1944, contain the medal numbers awarded to living recipients. When the medal number was included in the general order, it also appears in this work after the decoration abbreviation and prefixed by the “#” sign. A few of the medal numbers awarded were rescinded in later general orders when the specific medals could not be presented to the recipients, due to the recipients being hospitalized, wounded or captured. To eliminate confusion, the rescinded medal numbers are not included in this work. 

The number of individual Oak Leaf Clusters awarded to each recipient was not annotated in the general order. Therefore, to determine the total number awarded to each individual, I added each time they were cited for an Oak Leaf Cluster to a particular decoration. This is not a perfect system, as it does not account for Oak Leaf Clusters awarded by other commands to a specific service member. So there is a possibility that the number of Oak Leaf Clusters stated in this work may be less then the actual number awarded. I find the likelihood of this very small, but I must point out the possibility. 

            Prior to the creation of the Bronze Star Medal, commanders issued Letters of Commendation for deeds of service that did not meet the criteria for an existing decoration. Some Letters of Commendation were announced in general orders but had no corresponding awards. After the creation of the Bronze Star Medal some of the Letters of Commendation were revoked and Bronze Star Medals issued in their place. It is my understanding that those Letters of Commendation for combat service, issued prior to the creation of the Bronze Star Medal, that were not revoked could qualify for a Bronze Star Medal under Change 13 to Army Regulation 600-45, Department of the Army, 4 November 1947. If the action was not combat related, the citation would qualify for the Army Commendation Ribbon, as a Major General issued the citation. Prior to the creation of the Bronze Star Medal, I have listed each recipient of a Letter of Commendation as receiving an Army Commendation Ribbon since there is no concrete answer as to what decoration they would be entitled to under later changes to the regulation. 

The 43^rd Infantry Division published a number of Letters of Commendation in its General Orders for service prior to December 7, 1941. These Letters of Commendation should not warrant an Army Commendation Ribbon / Medal if the regulation governing its award is followed to the letter. I have, therefore, listed them as Letter of Commendations rather than Army Commendation Ribbons. I have included them as the individuals cited deserve the recognition for the action that earned them a Letter of Commendation. 

During 1943 the the 43^rd Division issued three series of general orders. In addition to the standard series there were also series under the titles of Headquarters, 43^rd Division Forward and Headquarters, Occupation Forces APO 43. These general orders are also indexed here as well. What is unusual is the fact that many of the decorations cited in these general orders are duplicated by others; many, however, are not duplicated.

This index also includes the names from the Adjutant General’s Battle Death Report of the 43^rd  Infantry Division. This lists the names of men from the 43^rd Infantry Division who gave their lives in combat.

*The following general orders were missing from the files at the National Archives: 

* General Order #752 of the 1945 Series is missing Page 2

* Any and all general orders numbered beyond General Order #813 of the 1945 Series dated 9/30/1945 are missing as well, if they ever even existed. 

            How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,43DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “43Div” (43^rd Infantry Division).  Information cited as (43DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 43^rd 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. Corrections with supporting documentation can be sent to D-Day Militaria.

Contact

Home

Order