Index to the General Orders of the 92nd Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 262
Soldier’s Medals 12
Bronze Star Medals 1,368
Purple Heart Medals 633
Combat Infantryman Badge 3
Combat Medic Badge 228
Battle Losses 621
Total Awards 2,506
This book has 52 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-95-9
Library of Congress Control Number Pending
92nd Infantry Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
365th Infantry Regiment
370h Infantry Regiment
371st Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 92nd
Infantry Division
Artillery
597th Field Artillery Battalion
598th Field Artillery Battalion
599th Field Artillery Battalion
600th Field Artillery Battalion
92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
317th Engineer Combat Battalion
317th Medical Battalion
Headquarters, Special Troops
792nd Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
92nd Signal Company
92nd Quartermaster Company
Military Police Platoon
Unit attached during combat operations:
366th Infantry Regiment
442nd Infantry Regiment
473rd Infantry Regiment
WWII Campaigns
North Apennines
Po Valley
This is the sixty-third 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 92nd Infantry Division.* Please note that many decorations presented to members of the 92nd Infantry Division were 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 the work. This index does not attempt to list all of the 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 made no attempt to list the unit awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good Conduct Medals.
Some of the 92nd Infantry Division’s general orders issued do not contain the recipient’s unit assignment. These general orders list the recipient’s branch of service in lieu of their unit of assignment.
The African American veterans of the 92nd Infantry Division experienced a great injustice during World War II. During the later portion of the winter of 1944-45 the 366th Infantry Regiment was removed from the line and converted into two engineer general service regiments. Likewise the 365th and 371st Infantry Regiments were withdrawn and utilized as rear area security forces. The justification for this action was the supposed lackluster combat record of the African-American regiments. The “best colored troops” from all four Infantry regiments, 365th, 366th, 370th and 371st were reassigned to the 370th Infantry Regiment and served out the remainder of the war with the 92nd Infantry Division. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 473rd Infantry Regiment were attached to the 92nd Infantry Division to replace the infantry regiments that were reassigned.
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team had returned to Italy from serving with the VI Corps in Southern France. It was made up of Japanese-Americans and had already proven itself as one of the best Infantry Regiments in the US Army. The 473rd Infantry Regiment was made up of white soldiers from the 435th, 532nd and 900th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Auto-Weapons Battalions and HHC, 2nd Armored Group. These units were deemed no longer necessary for defense of the Italian Theater during the later stage of the war. This is a fair indication of the general view held by some senior leaders of the US Army at the time. The assumption that white units were more combat effective than “colored” units remained a stigma well into the Korean War. It is the author’s opinion that the true reason for the perceived “substandard’ performance was due to institutionalized segregation, racism and the general poor quality of white officers assigned to “colored” units. Time has proven that all Americans, regardless of their race, possess the capacity to meet and destroy the enemy on the battlefield if they are properly trained and led by competent officers.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,92DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “92DIV” (92nd Infantry Division). Information cited as (92DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 92nd Infantry 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.