Index to the General Order of the 97th Infantry Division, in WWII
Statistics:
Silver
Star Medals 100
Soldier’s Medal 1
Bronze Star Medals 398
Air Medals 15
Purple Heart Medals 497
Combat Infantryman Badge 2
Battle Losses 215
Total Awards 1,013
This book has 23 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-28-7
ISBN 1-932891-28-5
Library of Congress Control Number 2004-269005
97th Division's WWII Order of Battle
Headquarters Company
303rd Infantry Regiment
386th Infantry Regiment
387th Infantry Regiment
Headquarters Battery, 97th Division
Artillery
303rd Field Artillery Battalion
365th Field Artillery Battalion
389th Field Artillery Battalion
922nd Field Artillery Battalion
97th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
322nd Engineer Combat Battalion
322nd Medical Battalion
97th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
Headquarters, Special Troops
797th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
97th Quartermaster Company
97th Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Units attached during combat operations*:
782nd Tank Battalion
630th Tank Destroyer Battalion
820th Tank Destroyer Battalion
444th AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
542nd AAA Auto-Weapons Battalion
*the time period of each attachment varies
WWII Campaigns
Central Europe
This is the fourth 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 97th 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 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 general orders of the respective infantry regiments and are listed here if cited in the general orders of the 97th Division. Unit Awards, awards of specific Battle Stars, and Good conduct Medals are not listed.
General Orders dated before October 28th, 1945,. State the branch of service, but do not give complete unit assignments. It is assumed that most decoration recipients assigned to the 97t Division, unless they are listed n a branch of service tat was not organic this division. (Example: Tank Destroyer Battalion, etc.)
The 97th Division was on occupation duty in Japan until it was deactivated and, therefore, absorbed low point men from other units. I noticed a few recipients of the Purple Heart were with other units when they received that award. Although the general orders do not specify which units they were assigned to I recognized obvious ones, such as men wounded in Luxemburg or Okinawa. This was relatively easy since the 97t never served in those areas. It is possible, however, that I missed some who ere wounded in units serving in the same combat area as the 97th Division. I believe that al recipients of the Silver Star Medals and Bronze Star Medals were members of the 97th Division while it was actively engaged in combat.
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 97th Division.
How to read the sources: (GO#46,1945,97DIV) is broken down as “GO” (General Order), “#” (Number 46, 1945), “97DIV” (97th Division). Information cited as (97DIVAGOBD) is from the Adjutant General’s 1947 Battle Death Report for the 97th Infantry Division. Italicized entries are men who were either “Killed in Action” or “Died of Wounds.”
* The following general order is missing from the 97th Division’s file at the National Archives:
(GO#21,1945,97DIV)
Anyone with a copy of this general order 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.