Divisional History
A History of the 90th Division in World War II
6 June 1944
To
9 May 1945
Chapter 1
In The Beginning. . .
The 90th Infantry Division was born on the soil of Texas, drew its strength from the North and South and East and West, grew to lusty manhood on the beaches of France, and fed itself on victories plucked from the forests and wrenched from the rivers of Europe.
The new division was born quietly but proudly at Camp Barkeley, Texas, on March 25, 1942. Quietly, because no one knew that this was a unit whose destiny it was to smash the German defenses in Normandy, to break the enemy’s back in the Foret de Mont Castre, and later to break his heart on the banks of the Moselle. Quietly it was born because no one knew of the victories that lay before it, of Chambois and Oberwampach and the Sarr and Koenigsmacker, of the triumphant thrust across the soil of France, and the part the 90th was to play in the reduction of the impregnable fortress of Metz.
The newspapers said, “The 90th Infantry Division was re-activated under the command of Major General Henry Terrell, Jr.” But they had no way of knowing that its men would storm the bulwarks of the vaunted Siegfried Line, race to the shores of the Rhine, cross the Moselle once more, and crown its career with an epic march across the Hessen and Thuringian hills and thence into the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, cutting the German body in half.
The 90th Division was born proudly, too, rich in the tradition of past accomplishments. Its forbears in the previous war, although arriving late in France, did not arrive too late to play important and vital roles in the drive at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
So much for the future and so much for the past. In 1942 the 90th Infantry Division was merely young and eager, confidently watching its muscles grow. On its left sleeve it wore an olive drab patch with the red inscription. To inquisitive strangers the 90th patiently explained that in past days the letters stood for Texas and Oklahoma, for originally the division was made up almost exclusively of men of those two states. Later, however, the division drew its men from every corner of every state in the nation, and the T-O came to represent, by common consent, “Tough ‘Ombres.”
Reorganized on the triangular pattern, the Division consisted of the 357th, 358th and 359th Infantry Regiments, 315th Engineers, 315th Medical Battalion, 415th Quartermaster Battalion, 90th Signal Company and 90th Reconnaissance Troops. Division Artillery, commanded by Brigadier John E. Lewis, was composed of three 105mm howitzer battalions, the 343rd, 344th and 915th, plus one battalion of 155 howitzers, the 345th.
The early days consisted of basic training, thoroughly necessary and thoroughly detested by every soldier. Upon completion of “basic” the Division stood a four-day inspection conducted by top-ranking Mexican officers, led by General Francisco Urquizo. The Mexicans expressed enthusiastic admiration for the military appearance of the unit and said it was typical of the newly re-activated organizations in the American Army. Nothing yet to indicate that the 90th was other than “typical,” other than “representative,” that it would one day become a driving force, a powerful slashing spearhead on the European continent.
Early in 1943 the Division took part in maneuvers in Louisiana for approximately two months and then returned to Camp Barkeley for additional training in village fighting, attack on fortified areas, close combat, and other subjects required to face a well-trained enemy.
In September, 1943 came the “call of the desert,” and the 90th packed up its belongings in order to engage in desert maneuvers in Arizona and California. Sand, dust and heat, plus the 93rd Division were the opponents during the three-month period which ended in December. In December training was over. The school teachers and soda-jerks and bookkeepers and farmhands were civilians no longer, but soldiers. And as soldiers they awaited the summons to actions.
In that same month the orders came. The Division was going to a pre-staging area to prepare for overseas shipment. Excitement ran high, and rumors were as thick as mosquitoes in New Jersey, which, coincidentally, was the 90th’s destination, Fort Dix, New Jersey.
By January 8th 1944, the entire unit had detrained at Fort Dix. Replacements were received, from the 63rd Division principally, and the men of the 90th went home on furloughs to make their farewells, and last-minute readjustments and plans, and to promise faithfully that they would return properly bedecked with medals and with Hitler’s moustache tucked securely away for a souvenir. The talk of medals, no doubt, was made in jest, but the months wore on there were to be thousands of decorations for the men of the 90th, decorations earned on the field of combat for deeds of conspicuous valor.
On January 23rd, Brigadier General Jay W. McKelvie assumed command of the Division, and in March the unit moved to its staging area at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. There followed a brief period of final physical checkups, issue of clothing and supplies and last minute changes.
Everything was in readiness on March 22nd, and on that day the troops entrained for New York City. There, without delay, they boarded their ships, and on the 23rd, with no fanfare or ceremony, sailed out of New York Harbor . . . destination England and points east. Only the Lady on Bledsoe Island waved her hand in farewell. The 90th waved farewell in reply, and set its course for victory.
By April 9th the entire Division had arrived in England and was assigned to billets. The main body of troops was stationed generally north and east of the cities of Cardiff and Newport, Wales. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 359th Infantry Regiment, however, were attached to the 4th Infantry Division and were located in Devonshire. These two Battalions were known as Group A.
A period of intensive training followed, consisting of mine detection, village fighting, assault on fortified positions, hedgerow fighting, artillery firing problems, road marches, and obstacle courses. The rough edges were polished off, and “coordination” between units became more than a word, more than a goal, but an accomplished fact.
Through April and May there ran through the world the symptoms of “invasion fever.” D-Day might come at any hour, any day. The course of history hung on the ability of a group of Americans and British to seize a beach, hold it and expand it. In Germany, the Wehrmacht confidently awaited der Tag, knowing full well that they were more than a match for the untried, untested American Army. They pointed their guns at the sea and predicted a dark and desperate fate for whomever dared to storm the ramparts of Festung Europa.
In England, Allied armies waited tensely for the signal. Fully armed and trained, with plans completed and sealed, the doughs and the redlegs and the engineers and the medics, the tankers, the supply troops, the cooks and the wiremen, the airmen and the sailors, the Generals and the Privates, all were alert, all listened and waited. April dragged to its inevitable end, and May stretched out till it fused with June. And still no word.
The Germans declared it was all a gigantic hoax. There was to be no invasion, for our Generals had finally realized how impossible such an attempt would be, how foolhardy and suicidal to brave the armed might of Hitler’s Reich. But the troops in England were not taking their orders from Germany in June of ’44. Instead they waited impatiently.
Among those waiting were the men of the 90th, green, untried and unknown. On June 6th the signal came. Americans were swarming ashore on the beaches of Normandy.