Index to the General Order of the 65th Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 107
Legion of Merits 7|
Soldier’s Medals 6
Bronze Star Medals 1,150
Air Medals 139
Purple Heart Medals 809
Combat Medic Badges 112
Battle Losses 260
Total Awards 2,321
This book has 43 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-17-1
ISBN 1-932891-17-X
Library of Congress Control Number 2003-276164
65th Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
259th Infantry Regiment
260th Infantry Regiment
261st Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 65th Division
Artillery
720th Field Artillery Battalion
867th Field Artillery Battalion
868th Field Artillery Battalion
869th Field Artillery Battalion
65th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
265th Engineer Combat Battalion
365th Medical Battalion
65th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
765th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
65th Quartermaster Company
565th Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Units attached during combat operations*:
707th Tank Battalion
748th Tank Battalion
749th Tank Battalion
691st Tank Destroyer Battalion
808th Tank Destroyer Battalion
546th AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
*the time period of each attachment varies
WWII Campaigns
Rhineland
Central Europe
This is the second 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 65th Infantry 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 o 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 list the awards of those specialty badges cited in the general orders of the 65th Infantry Division. Unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, ad Good Conduct Medals are not listed.
General orders dated before mid-April 1945 do not give complete unit assignments. These general orders are missing the numerical designation of the regiment or separate battalion of the decoration recipient.. It is assumed that all decoration recipients were assigned to the 65th Infantry Division, unless they are listed in a branch of service that was not organic to this division. (Example: Tank Destroyer Battalion, etc.). Unlike the general orders of the 86th Division, the 65th Division’s general orders do not state company assignments.
This index also includes the names of all men who gave their lives in combat listed in the Adjutant General’s Battle Death Report of the 65th Infantry Division.
How to read the sources: (GO#82,1945,65DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 82, 1945), “65DIV” (65th Division). Information cited as (65DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 65th Infantry Division. Italicized entries are men who were either “Killed in Action” or “Died of Wounds.”
General Orders #24 and #25 award Legion of Merit and Bronze Star Medals, respectively, to members of the Soviet Army. General Order #34 revoked these awards, although it is highly unlikely that the Soviet recipients ever returned them. Let me also mention that I believe General Order #24 listed the men’s names incorrectly (given name, surname, and middle name). I have recorded the names both as they appear and, also, as I feel they should be written.
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.