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This list of United States Army divisions is divided into three eras: 1911–1917, 1917–1941, and 1941–present. These eras represent the major evolutions of army division structure (there have been several minor changes during these times). The 1911–1917 era lists divisions raised during the Army's first attempts at modernizing the division, prior to the authorization of permanent divisions, and the 1917–1941 era lists the first permanent divisions, prior to advent of specialized (armored, airborne, etc.) divisions. The 1941–present era lists all of the divisions organized, raised, or authorized since then.
As much as possible, divisions are only listed in the eras in which they were first created. Some divisions, such as the 1st Cavalry Division, are listed in multiple eras, as their organizations were drastically changed from one era to the next. Many divisions overlap the years listed in the era categories, mainly due to the slow pace in which they were deactivated, inactivated, or otherwise disbanded.
Several divisions have existed under multiple designations, such as the 10th Mountain Division (10th Light Division (Alpine), 10th Infantry Division). Additionally, several divisions with the same numerical designations were completely separate and unrelated divisions (there have been two 5th Divisions, for instance).
Divisions in the United States Army have existed since the American Revolution, but during the 18th and 19th centuries, these were temporary organizations. [1] The concept of the permanent United States Army division was formulated and put to the test following the turn of the 20th century. In 1916, the permanent division would finally be authorized by Congress, resulting in a dramatic change in the Army's force structure. For the first time, the division was the base element of the United States Army and remained as such until the Global War on Terrorism, when the Army switched its emphasis to brigades and brigade combat teams.
Since the authorizations of permanent divisions, the United States Army has raised 128 separate divisions with unique lineages.
George Washington organized the first divisions of the United States Army on 22 July 1775 in Boston, Massachusetts. Arriving to take command of the Siege of Boston, he split the forces there into three divisions, each composed of two brigades of six to seven regiments. These divisions were led by major generals but with no assigned staff. They were primarily administrative but eventually evolved into semi-permanent tactical organizations. [2] [3]
During the Civil War, when the first large true field armies in United States history were formed, divisions were the Union Army's basic administrative and organizational unit. [4] [5] They were also the smallest "self-sufficient" units, each composed of two to six brigades. These were typically three brigades for infantry divisions and two brigades for cavalry divisions. [6] A division was typically commanded by a major general, but because Congress refused to promote officers past that grade (with the exception of promoting Ulysses S. Grant to lieutenant general in 1864) major generals were also put in charge of field armies and corps, allowing some divisions to be commanded by brigadier generals. Divisions were numbered sequentially within their corps, but were often referred to by the commander's name in official reports. [5]
When the Army of the Potomac was first formed after the disastrous First Battle of Bull Run, the division was initially the largest unit. It consisted of three infantry brigades, a cavalry regiment, and four artillery batteries. However the cavalry and artillery were eventually spun off to their own units. When army corps were formally created in March 1862, half of the divisional artillery units were used to form an artillery reserve of three brigades for the army. After the Peninsula campaign the cavalry were removed from divisional control to form their own brigades under army control, until February 1863 when they were formed into a dedicated Cavalry Corps of three divisions, each with two brigades and assigned horse artillery. Following Chancellorsville all artillery batteries were removed from divisional control to form brigades under corps control. [4] [7] [8] The evolution of divisions within the Army of the Potomac served as a model by which the other field armies in the Union organized themselves. [9]
In the beginning the division commander was allowed only an assistant adjutant general and three aides-de-camp as their staff. [4] Administrative needs eventually led to the addition of a quartermaster, a commissary of subsistence, an ordnance officer, and a surgeon, all with the rank of major. However, there were no enlisted personnel specifically assigned to support duties, instead requiring either line soldiers be detailed to carry them out or civilian workers employed. The former removed the combat effectiveness of the units they were taken from, while the latter were more difficult to find and replace and tended to be less reliable and obedient. [10]
Before 1941, only cavalry divisions were specifically designated; infantry divisions were simply designated by "Division". Following the advent of the armored division, infantry divisions became officially designated by "Infantry Division" (with the 25th Infantry Division being the first constituted by the adjutant general as such). All of the 1917–1941 (non-cavalry) divisions, with the exceptions of the 10th through 20th and 101st Divisions, would be redesignated as Infantry Divisions at some point in the 1941–present era.
Other than the aforementioned Armored, Cavalry, and Infantry, the only official Army division designations are Air Assault (one test division), Airborne, Light (three test divisions in World War II), Motorized (briefly authorized from 1942 to 1943), and Mountain. For lineage purposes, the 101st Airborne Division maintains its designation as an airborne division, though it is currently organized as an air assault division.
Divisions listed with an additional identifier in parentheses ("alpine" or "test", for example) existed only with that identifier. Divisions that have held multiple additional identifiers, such as the 1st Cavalry ("airmobile", "heavy") and the 9th Infantry ("light", "motorized"), are left unidentified, regardless of their current additional identifier.
An unspecified division today refers to a United States Army Reserve training division.
The National Defense Act of 1916 provided that the "Army of the United States" would consist of the Regular Army, the Volunteer Army, the Officers' Reserve Corps, the Enlisted Reserve Corps, the National Guard in the service of the United States, and such other land forces as were or might be authorized by Congress. The president was to determine both the number and type of National Guard units that each state would maintain. Both the Regular Army and the National Guard were to be organized, insofar as practicable, into permanent brigades and divisions.
In 1940, the National Guard voluntarily withdrew their allotment of the 21st through 24th Cavalry Divisions, partially in response to the Army's decision that the National Guard did not need four Cavalry Divisions and the Army's unwillingness to allot the National Guard armored divisions. The 61st through 66th Cavalry Divisions were inactivated in 1942.
Various elements of the 4th through 9th Divisions remained on active duty until those divisions' full activation prior to World War II.
The 76th through 91st and 94th through 104th Divisions existed primarily as officer billets with enlisted cadre; they were not completely reactivated until America's entry into World War II.
The infantry brigades, field artillery brigades, and several other of the subordinate units of the Panama Canal, Hawaiian, and Philippine Divisions were numbered accordingly with what should have been the 10th, 11th, and 12th Divisions.
Divisions in bold are currently active.*
The 105th and 107th Infantry Divisions were intended to be negro divisions of the Army of the United States; however, due to a shortage of available manpower, their activations were canceled in 1942.
In an attempt to maintain its divisions, the Army Reserve transformed several of its combat divisions into training divisions; these divisions were still designated as infantry divisions until authorized as "divisions (training)" by the adjutant general in 1959.
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At the time of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, and the Philippines, the United States Army was composed of 37 divisions, including the Philippine Division. Initially, necessary mobilization was estimated to be as high as 350 divisions, but the Army ultimately settled on a 100-division plan. [11]
This relatively low number (compared to the high estimates) was partially due to the army's policy of assigning many combat units, particularly artillery and tank destroyer units, directly to corps and higher-level commands. These non-divisional units numbered approximately 1.5 million soldiers, enough personnel to man roughly 100 more divisions. The strategic philosophy was that such units could be assigned to divisions on an as-needed basis, and would allow divisions to remain as mobile and flexible as possible. By the end of 1943, U.S. Army strength stood at more than 70 divisions.
Allied gains in 1942 and 1943 resulted in a further contraction of U.S. mobilization, and the last wartime division, the 65th Infantry Division, was activated on 16 August 1943. In all, 91 divisions served in the U.S. Army in World War II. When the decision was made to halt the increase in divisions, 12 more divisions were still on the rolls, but would not be organized, though several of these would be organized following the war. They were the 15th Airborne Division, the 18th, 21st and 22nd Armored Divisions, the 19th Armored Division, which was in fact activated following the war, the 61st, 62nd, 67th, 68th, 72nd, 73rd, and 74th Infantry Divisions, and the 105th and 107th Infantry Divisions, which were intended to be formations composed of Black soldiers.
Unique among the 14 unorganized divisions, the 15th Airborne Division was not only a victim of the decision to set the size of the Army at 89 divisions (the 2nd Cavalry Division had been deactivated during the war and the Philippine Division was destroyed as a result of the Japanese victory in the Philippines), but also because it had become evident that the Army Air Forces lacked enough transport aircraft to support a sixth airborne division. The 13th Airborne Division never saw combat for this very reason.
The 105th and 107th Infantry Divisions were to join the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions as Negro divisions. A shortage of manpower resulted in the activation of the 105th and 107th being canceled in 1942.
A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps.
The 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) is a combined arms division of the United States Army based at Fort Stewart, Georgia. It is a subordinate unit of the XVIII Airborne Corps under U.S. Army Forces Command. Its current organization includes a division headquarters and headquarters battalion, two armored brigade combat teams, one aviation brigade, a division artillery, a sustainment brigade and a combat sustainment support battalion along with a maneuver enhancement brigade. The division has a distinguished history, having seen active service in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Global War on Terror. The Medal of Honor has been awarded to 61 members of the 3rd Infantry Division, making the division the most honored in the Army.
III Corps is a corps of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Cavazos, Texas. It is a major formation of the United States Army Forces Command.
The 9th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army during World War II. In honor of their World War II service, the 9th was officially nicknamed the "Phantom Division."
The 35th Infantry Division, formerly known as the 35th Division, is an infantry formation of the United States Army National Guard headquartered at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The 9th Infantry Division is an inactive infantry division of the United States Army. It was formed as the 9th Division during World War I, but never deployed overseas. In later years it was an important unit of the U.S. Army during World War II and the Vietnam War. It was also activated as a peacetime readiness unit from 1947 to 1962 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and Fort Carson, Colorado, and from 1972 to 1991 as an active-duty infantry division at Fort Lewis, Washington. The division was inactivated in December 1991.
The 199th Infantry Brigade (Light) is a unit of the United States Army which served in the Army Reserve from 1921 to 1940, in the active army from 1966 to 1970 (serving in the Vietnam War), briefly in 1991–1992 at Fort Lewis, and from 2007 as an active army training formation at Fort Moore.
The U.S. 60th Infantry Regiment is a regimental unit in the United States Army. Its 2nd and 3rd Battalion conduct Basic Combat Training.
A tank corps was a type of Soviet armoured formation used during World War II.
The Army Ground Forces were one of the three autonomous components of the Army of the United States during World War II, the others being the Army Air Forces and Army Service Forces. Throughout their existence, Army Ground Forces were the largest training organization ever established in the United States. Its strength of 780,000 troops on 1 May 1942 grew to a peak of 2,200,000 by 1 July 1943. Thereafter its strength declined as units departed for overseas theaters.
Shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) are cloth emblems worn on the shoulders of US Army uniforms to identify the primary headquarters to which a soldier is assigned. The SSI of some army divisions have become known in popular culture.
The 68th Armor Regiment is an armored regiment of the United States Army. It was first activated in 1933 in the Regular Army as the 68th Infantry Regiment.
The 15th Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry regiment of the United States Army. It was one of the Expansion Units originally established for the Spanish–American War, but has been a general workhorse unit ever since.
Horses in World War II were used by the belligerent nations, for transportation of troops, artillery, materiel, messages, and, to a lesser extent, in mobile cavalry troops. The role of horses for each nation depended on its military doctrines, strategy, and state of economy. It was most pronounced in the German and Soviet Armies. Over the course of the war, Germany and the Soviet Union together employed more than six million horses.
The 76th Field Artillery Regiment is a field artillery regiment of the United States Army. First formed as a cavalry regiment in 1916, the regiment was converted to field artillery in 1917, and served in Europe during World War I with the 3rd Division and as a separate battalion during World War II, as well as in peacetime at Fort Knox, KY, and Fort Devens, MA. Since 1959, the regiment has been a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System and the U.S. Army Regimental System, with regimental elements serving with the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany and Operation Iraqi Freedom, with the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, and in the Army Reserve. No regimental elements are currently active.
The 102nd Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry regiment of the United States Army first established in 1921. It has seen service in the Second World War, including in Normandy and at the Battle of the Bulge, in Iraq 2008-2009, in Jordan and Somalia in 2019, plus many exercises and Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Maria relief. Its tradition of service is carried on today by the 1st Squadron 102nd Cavalry Regiment.
The 112th Field Artillery Regiment is a Field Artillery Branch regiment of the New Jersey Army National Guard first formed in April 1917. In December 1941, it was the last field artillery regiment in the U.S. Army to convert from horse-drawn to truck-drawn howitzers.
The 116th Field Artillery is a regiment of the Florida Army National Guard. Currently there are two battalions; 2-116th FA is fires battalion for the 53rd Brigade Combat Team, and 3-116th (HIMARS) is part of the 164th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, both of the Florida Army National Guard.
The 310th Armored Cavalry Regiment was a California-based reconnaissance unit of the United States Army Organized Reserve Corps, which briefly existed after World War II. It was constituted in 1948, partially organized from existing units in 1949, and inactivated in 1950.
The 172nd Cavalry Regiment is an armored cavalry regiment of the Vermont Army National Guard, with one battalion currently active. First organized in 1861, the regiment has seen combat in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the War on Terror. Originally an infantry regiment, elements of the unit were consolidated with an antiaircraft unit in 1959 and converted into an armored regiment. In 1964, the remainder of the 172nd Infantry was consolidated with the 172nd Armor, as an armored regiment. In 2007, elements became an armored cavalry regiment. In 1982, a new infantry unit designated the 172nd Infantry Regiment was organized in the Vermont Army National Guard, but it is not lineally related to the previous 172nd Infantry/Cavalry, sharing the numerical designation only for historical purposes.