Memoirs of WWII –97th Infantry Division It has been the experience of all veterans that time brings a blurring of detail, that memories are less exact after events, and that first hand recordings in print on the spot serve best to put down in black and white what happened. ~ Unknown writer. REFLECTIONS ON THE 97TH INFANTRY DIVISION On his 90th Birthday Brigadier General Sherman V Hasbrouck As Told to J.W. Redding 18th June 1988 PREFACE The 97th Infantry Division was originally organized in September, 1918, and saw action in France during WWI. It was demobilized 20 November of the same year and reconstituted as an organized reserve unit. The Division was reactivated 25 February 1943 at Camp Swift, Texas, under the command of Maj Gen Louis A Craig. Brig Gen Julien Barnes was the Division Artillery Commander. The 303d Inf Regt and the 303d FA Bn were the only units with the reactivated division that can boast of battle streamers from World War I. The Division went through basic and unit training at Camp Swift. It took their physical fitness test there. The artillery battalions took their AGF firing test at Camp Bowie, Texas. During the latter part of October, 1943, the Division departed Camp Swift for the Louisiana Maneuver area, spending the next 3 months in the field on division exercises. Following the Louisiana Maneuver period, the Division was transferred to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri where it continued with unit training. While at Ft Leonard Wood, Gen Craig was assigned to the command of the 23d Corps which he relinquished to take command of a combat division in Europe. Gen Barnes was transferred to another unit. They were replaced by Gen Milton B Halsey and Gen S V Hasbrouck respectively. Late June, early July, the Division was transferred to Camp San Luis Obispo, California, for amphibious training. Late that fall, the Division prepared for assignment to the Pacific Ocean Area where it was to participate in the invasion of the Philippines at Leyte. Instead, it was assigned to the European Theater in February, 1945 to reconstitute the theater reserve which had been committed in the Battle of the Bulge. It is essentially here we pick up Gen Hasbrouck’s “Reflections” During this brief combat history, the 97th captured 48,796 prisoners and occupied more than 2000 square miles. Among cities captured by the division were Dusseldorf, one of the great industrial centers in the Ruhr-Rhine Valley; Solingen, one of the world’s largest cutlery centers; Siegburg, home of the Glockner Machine Works; (Correction: Troisdorf Kloeckner-Mannstedt Works) Leverkusen, location of the I.G. Farben Industry, one of the world’s largest chemical works; Cheb (Eger), the first major Czechoslovakian city liberated by American Forces. Although what follows includes accounts of fighting, it is not a military report. The “After Action Reports” were filed some 40 years ago. Rather it is the reminiscences, reflections and perhaps a bit of philosophy of a professional, career officer – including contacts and conversations with civilians and soldiers of both armies – on his participation in the final stages of the defeat of Hitler’s Third Reich. He has called it “A worm’s eye view of war.” In addition to the General’s remarks, credits are given to The Army Almanac, First Edition, 1950, The Story of the 97th Infantry Division prepared by Special Services Section of the 97th Division and the S-3 Journal of the 303d FA Bn. J.W. Redding Col FA Ret 18 June 1988 REFLECTIONS ON THE 97TH INFANTRY DIVISION Brigadier General Sherman V Hasbrouck As Told to J.W. Redding I suspect that no division ever entered combat better trained than the 97th. In addition to the conventional training, we had had amphibious training on the West Coast; climbing down rope ladders with full packs into bobbing landing craft, landing on a “hostile shore”, etc. The Division Commander and his Assistant were seasoned Infantry Officers as were the Infantry Regimental Commanders. As for the Artillery Commander, when I graduated from West Point I was assigned to the Infantry School, served with two Infantry Regiments and, as an Aide to the CG, on the staff of the 3d Brigade, I was assigned to the Field Artillery. I had served with two artillery regiments, on the staff of the First FA Brigade, and served two tours as a gunnery instructor at the Artillery School. If I was not competent by that time, it was too late. Words cannot express my delight on assignments to this find Division. I had served the first two years of the War in the G-1 Division of WDGS where, daily, I was assigning my contemporaries, and the young artillery officers I had trained, to combat while I sat in Washington, frustrated. At last, I was going to see some combat myself. I joined the 97th Infantry Division from the 23d Corps where I was deputy Artillery Commander and Test Officer. We had a half-dozen test teams on the road. I don’t remember how many artillery battalions were scattered over the South West but every day I visited one of the battalions undergoing the AGF Tests. With this experience, I might claim to be a bit of an authority on the test results. I can state unequivocally that the 97th Div Arty was the best. I can say this without being self-serving since I had no part in its training. When I took command, the Artillery had had its training and taken its test. When I received my orders, the 97th was packing up at Ft Leonard Wood to move to the West coast. I could join them either place. As there didn’t seem to be any point in my packing up twice, I went on out to San Luis Obispo to join the Division. They were unpacking when I arrived. The Division Artillery personnel were great. My Executive Officer was then Colonel Benny Heiser (now General Heiser), a sound and experienced artilleryman. My S-3, or Operations Officer, was Lt Col Ted Sawyer. He was a young and devoted officer. These were the only two Regular Army officers on my staff. The rest were all Reserve officers and a credit to the ROTC System. Sawyer’s assistant was Maj Taylor, a Texas A&M graduate – an excellent staff officer. The communications people were outstanding. My memory is that the basic load of telephone wire for the Div Arty HQ was 17 miles. However, the Division Commander insisted on wire communications and he had it. Sometimes we had out as much as 100 miles of wire – some of it German wire, wire fences – anything that would conduct electricity. (Sometimes we had a bit of trouble with our own people shooting out insulators.) All of the artillery battalion commanders were good. They were all different. Lt Col Benny Fenton, CO of the 922d FA Bn, was a hail-fellow-well-met. He had been an All American Football star at the University of Florida as I recall. Lt Col Gene Graham, CO of the 365th FA Bn. Was from Oklahoma. He was very aggressive, a fighter, always up front, needed a bit of restraint. One time when I visited him I said, “Gene, what in the Hell are you doing ahead of the Infantry lines?” His reply was “What the Hell are you doing here. Get back to your Headquarters before you get yourself killed. I’ll do all of the fighting around here.” As you can see, I had a real discipline in my command. Lt Col Lawrence Keily was the CO of the 389th FA Bn, the medium battalion. He was studious, devoted but a bit tense. He needed a pat on the back now and then. Lt Col J.W. Redding, CO of the 303, FA Bn was independent. His men came first. He got things done “with orders, without orders and sometimes in spite of orders.” He operated by direction – in other words, “this is what I want done, you figure out how to do it.” I didn’t worry about him. He didn’t need any help from any one. As I have said, these were all university and ROTC graduates and a tribute to the system. With staff and unit commanders such as these, I would be free to visit the infantry units while the artillery preparations were in progress to observe first hand their accuracy and effectiveness. Since I spoke German I would be able to interrogate some of the first prisoners to get from them how they felt about our fires. I might mention at this time, that as a part of our procedure to inform our infantry when the preparations were completed, we adopted a policy of including white phosphorus in the last volley of artillery preparation. That was the signal to “Jump Off.” I always maintained there was no reason why artillerymen should not keep themselves cleaned up. I wanted the field artillery to be the best looking outfit in the Division. One or two men could always get away from their guns to take a little nap or shave and clean themselves up a little bit. With the infantry, that was more of a problem. They were right up on the front all the time. I told everyone “I’m going to set the example for the artillery and anybody in this command that doesn’t look better than I is going to be in trouble.” As I mentioned earlier, the Division was well trained and the artillery had completed all of its tests when I joined it.