Index to the General Orders of the 86th Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 124
Soldier’s Medals 5
Bronze Star Medals 839
Air Medals 19
Purple Heart Medals 438
Combat Medic Badge 85
Battle Losses 144
Total Awards 1,654
This book has 34 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-26-3
ISBN 1-932891-26-9
Library of Congress Control Number 2003-536725
86th Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
341st Infantry Regiment
342nd Infantry Regiment
343rd Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 86th Division
Artillery
331st Field Artillery Battalion
332nd Field Artillery Battalion
404th Field Artillery Battalion
911th Field Artillery Battalion
86th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
311th Engineer Combat Battalion
311th Medical Battalion
86th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
786th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
86th Quartermaster Company
86th Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Units attached during combat operations*:
787th Tank Battalion
648th Tank Destroyer Battalion
807th Tank Destroyer Battalion
446th AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
839th AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
*the time period of each attachment varies
WWII Campaigns
Central Europe
This is the first 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 86th 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 are missing, for example, 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 special orders of the respective infantry regiments and are listed here if cited in the general orders of the 86th Infantry Division. Unit Awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good conduct Medals are not listed
General orders dated before June 1945 do not give complete unit assignments; they are missing the numerical designation of the regiment or separate battalion of the decoration recipient. It is assumed, therefore, that all decoration recipients were assigned to the 86th Division, unless they are listed in a branch of service that was not organic to this division. (Example: Tank Destroyer Battalion, etc.)
There are many decorations to those I believe are members of the 86th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop. As the 16th Armored Division detached its 23rd Calvary Squadron to the 86th Infantry Division, I carefully checked each decoration to insure that the recipient was a member of the Calvary Reconnaissance Troop, not a Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron..
The 86th Division absorbed the low point men of the 38th Division, so you will notice some awards to men who saw combat in the 38th Division cited in 86th Division general orders.
This index includes the names of all men who gave their lives in combat listed in the Adjutant General’s Battle Death Report of the 86th Division. I was surprised to find that the 343rd Infantry Regiment was omitted from this report.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,86DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “86DIV” (86th Division). Information cited as (86DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 86th Infantry Division. Italicized entries are men who were either “Killed in Action” or “Died of Wounds.”
* The following general orders are missing from the 86th Division’s file at the National Archives:
(GO#25,1944,86DIV) (GO#26,1944,86DIV) (GO#27,1944,86DIV) (GO#28,1944,86DIV) (GO#38,1945,86DIV) (GO#19,1945,86DIV) (GO#21,1945,86DIV) (GO#38,1945,86DIV) (GO#42,1945,86DIV) (GO#45,1945,86DIV)
Anyone with copies of any of these general orders is encouraged to contact the author.
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.