Index to the General Orders of the 70th Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 195
Soldier’s Medals 10
Bronze Star Medals 1,159
Air Medals 19
Purple Heart Medals 862
Battle Losses 844
Total Awards 2,245
This book has 47 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-20-1
ISBN 1-932891-20-X
Library of Congress Control Number 2004-266461
70th Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
274th Infantry Regiment
275th Infantry Regiment
276th Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 70th Division
Artillery
725th Field Artillery Battalion
882nd Field Artillery Battalion
883rd Field Artillery Battalion
884th Field Artillery Battalion
70th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
270th Engineer Combat Battalion
370th Medical Battalion
70th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
770th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
70th Quartermaster Company
570th Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Units attached during combat operations*:
740th Tank Battalion
749th Tank Battalion
772nd Tank Battalion
648th Tank Destroyer Battalion
433rd AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
*the time period of each attachment varies
WWII Campaigns
Rhineland
Central Europe
This is the fifteenth 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 70th 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 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. No awards of specialty badges were cited in the general orders of the 70th Division. Unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good conduct Medals are not listed.
Most general orders do give company assignments, but a few do not. In other instances, the letter of the company was illegible in the original document. There is one recipient whose citation gives just a branch of service in lieu of his unit.
Prior to the entire 70th Division being committed to combat, there was a combat task force named “Task Fore Herron” made up of elements of the 70th Division. Named after the division’s Assistant Commander, Task Force Herron did issue general orders, which are included in this work. The source code for a Task Force Herron general order looks like this: (GO#3,1945,TFHerren).
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 70th Infantry division..
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,70DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “70DIV” (70th Division). Information cited as (70DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 70th Infantry Division. Italicized entries 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.