Index to the General Orders of the 66th Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver Star Medals 37
Soldier’s Medals 63
Bronze Star Medals 547
Air Medals 84
Purple Heart Medals 1,557
Combat Infantryman Badges 4
Battle Losses 804
Total Awards 2,292
This book has 47 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-18-8
ISBN 1-932891-18-80
Library of Congress Control Number 2003-6283740
66th Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
262nd Infantry Regiment
263rd Infantry Regiment
264th Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 66th Division
Artillery
721st Field Artillery Battalion
870th Field Artillery Battalion
871st Field Artillery Battalion
872nd Field Artillery Battalion
66th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
266th Engineer Combat Battalion
366th Medical Battalion
66th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
766th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
66th Quartermaster Company
566th Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Units attached during combat operations*:
422nd Infantry Regiment
423rd Infantry Regiment
19th French Regiment d'Infanterie
21st French Regiment d'Infanterie
32nd French Regiment d'Infanterie
41st French Regiment d'Infanterie
63rd French Regiment d'Infanterie
65th French Regiment d'Infanterie
67th French Regiment d'Infanterie
71st French Regiment d'Infanterie
93rd French Regiment d'Infanterie
118th French Regiment d'Infanterie
125th French Regiment d'Infanterie
125th French AA Group Forces Terrestres Anti-Aeriennas
*the time period of each attachment varies
WWII Campaigns
Northern France
This is the twelfth 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 66th Infantry Division.* Please note that some decorations 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 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. This work does list the awards of those specialty badges cited in the general orders of the 66th Infantry Division. Unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good Conduct Medals are not listed.
General orders for decorations other than Purple Heart awards, numbered before 98, list the branch of service for officers, but do not give their unit assignments. With the number of attached units assigned to the 66th Division during its time in combat, I do not feel it is safe to assume that officers of branches of service other than Infantry, Military Police, Ordnance, Signal Corps and the General Staff are part of the 66th Division. Therefore, officers whose branch of service is listed as Field Artillery, Cavalry, Medical and related medical fields are listed only by their branch of service.
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 66th Infantry Division.
How to read the sources: (GO#82,1945,66DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 82, 1945), “66DIV” (66th Division). Information cited as (66DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 66th Infantry Division. Italicized entries are men who were either “Killed in Action” or “Died of Wounds.”.
* Note that the last general order in the 1945 series present in the file at the National Archives is dated 20 October 1945. The division was in transit to the Port of Embarkation shortly after that date. Although it is possible, I believe it unlikely that any other general orders were issued in 1945 before the division was deactivated on 8 November 1945.
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.