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“Take a look at the record, buddy.”
That’s the answer a soldier of any other division gets when he challenges the claim of 3d Infantry Division Doughboys that their outfit—“The Fighting Third”—is the best in the Army.
The 3d has a superlative record, not only in this war but in World War I, when it earned the nickname “Rock of the Marne” because of its impregnable stand against the Germans’ last great counteroffensive. Its participation in three major battles in 1918 is symbolized by the three diagonal stripes of its shoulder patch.
The “Fighting Third” is the only American division which fought the Nazis on every front in this war—North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. It has had more casualties—nearly 35,000—than any other division, and it holds the record for high combat citations, no fewer than 32 of its officers and men having won the Medal of Honor.
The 3d’s first D-day came on November 8, 1942, when it spearheaded the landing near Casablanca and, in three days of sharp fighting, took a good slice of French Morocco and was in position to storm Casablanca when the French surrendered. In the final stages of the Tunisian campaign the Division was moved across Algeria by truck and was about to go back into action when the Afrika Korps was knocked out for good.
After two months of training, the 3d went ashore on D-day of the Sicilian campaign. The Division’s capture of Palermo was sensational. The Doughboys moved so swiftly that when American tanks and armored cars raced in to take the city, they found it already occupied by the footsloggers. And when the last enemy stronghold on Sicily—Messina—fell to the Allies, it too was taken by the 3d.
At Salerno, the Fighting Third took over the beachhead and pushed the Germans northward and broke through the defenses of Acerno, enabling the British to enter Naples. The Division punched ahead and participated in the bloody crossing of the Volturno.
When the Anzio campaign was launched the Sd again drew “the short straw.” Its Doughs splashed ashore in the first wave at Anzio, and for the next four months held on to its toehold in the face of the most furious counterattacks of the war. It was here that the 3d established the record for the most casualties suffered in any one day by an American division.
In the big May push the 3d figured prominently in the liberation of Rome. With only a few days of rest the men started training for their next operation—the invasion of southern France.
Led by Major General John Wilson (“Iron Mike”) O’Daniel, the 3d took more than 1,000 prisoners in its first twenty-four hours on French soil, and began a race that carried to Avignon and the Rhone River, then toward the Allied armies which had broken out of Normandy.
The fortress city of Besançon fell in two days, but during October the Division advanced slowly and bloodily in front of the Vosges Line. In November the breaching of the line was completed, and the Doughs moved into Strasbourg.
For its superb fighting on the northern perimeter of the Colmar bridgehead, when it battled through snow, storms, enemy-infested marshes and woods, and over flat plains crisscrossed by unfordable streams, the entire Division was cited by the President. Then, as a major unit of the Seventh Army, the 3d Division drove across the Rhine and deep into Germany. The 3d played a major role in the fight for Nürnberg, and were the first American troops in Augsburg, Munich, and Berchtesgaden.
On V-E Day the “Fighting Third” was at Salzburg, and was using as a messhall the dining room of Schloss Klessheim, where Hitler once housed his more important guests.
From Fighting Divisions, Kahn & McLemore, Infantry Journal Press, 1945-1946.
Southern France
Rhineland
Central Europe
7th Infantry
15th Infantry
30th Infantry
3d Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)
10th Engineer Combat Battalion
3d Medical Battalion
3d Division Artillery
10th Field Artillery Battalion (105mm Howitzer)
39th Field Artillery Battalion (105mm Howitzer)
41st Field Artillery Battalion (105mm Howitzer)
9th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm Howitzer)
Special Troops
703d Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
3d Quartermaster Company
3d Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Headquarters Company
Band
15 Aug 44 Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel
13 Dec 44 Brig. Gen. Robert N. Young (Acting)
7 Jan 45 Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel
15 Aug 44 to 29 Aug 44 Brig. Gen. Whitfield P. Shepard
30 Aug 44 to 8 Oct 44 VACANT
9 Oct 44 Brig. Gen. Robert N. Young
13 Dec 44 Col. Lionel C. McGarr (Acting)
8 Jan 45 Brig. Gen. Robert N. Young
15 Aug 44 Brig. Gen. William T. Sexton
15 Aug 44 Col. Charles E. Johnson
11 Mar 45 Lt. Col. Grover Wilson
4 May 45 Col. Charles E. Johnson
15 Aug 44 Lt. Col. Basil F. Basila
16 Oct 44 Capt. Daniel L. Wickersham (Acting)
26 Jan 45 Lt. Col. Basil F. Basila
16 Feb 45 Maj. Daniel L. Wickersham
15 Aug 44 Lt. Col. Grover Wilson
15 Aug 44 Lt. Col. Albert O. Connor
27 Oct 44 Lt. Col. William B. Rosson
15 Aug 44 Lt. Col. Dick A. King
16 Feb 45 Maj. Robert C. Shaw (Acting)
14 Apr 45 Lt. Col. Dick A. King
15 Aug 44 Maj. Donald E. Long
16 Dec 44 Lt. Col. Donald E. Long
15 Aug 44 Capt. Stephen J. Rogers
17 Sep 44 Maj. Stephen J. Rogers
1 Apr 45 Lt. Col. Stephen J. Rogers
15 Aug 44 Col. Wiley H. O'Mohundro
23 Aug 44 Col. Ben Harrell
5 Dec 44 Lt. Col. John A. Heintges
8 Mar 45 Col. John A. Heintges
15 Aug 44 Col. Richard G. Thomas
1 Oct 44 Lt. Col. Hallett D. Edson
8 Mar 45 Col. Hallett D. Edson
15 Aug 44 Col. Lionel G. McGarr
13 Dec 44 Lt. Col. Richard H. Nedderson
8 Jan 45 Col. Lionel C. McGarr
441st AAA AW Bn (SP) 13 Jul 44-29 Jun 45
1 plat, Battery A, 353d AAA SL Bn 4-9 Feb 45
Battery B (-2d Plat), 353d AAA SL Bn 27 Feb-15 Mar 45
2d Plat, Battery B, 353d AAA SL Bn 15 Mar-22 Apr 45
756th Tk Bn 13 Jul 44-1 Jul 45
CCB (14th Armd Div) 8-10 Apr 45
47th Tk Bn (14th Armd Div) 8-10 Apr 45
19th Armd Inf Bn (14th Armd Div) 8-10 Apr 45
499th Armd FA Bn (14th Armd Div) 8-10 Apr 45
Tr B, 94th Cav Rcn Sq (14th Armd Div) 8-10 Apr 45
Co B, 125th Armd Engr Bn (14th Armd Div) 8-10 Apr 45
Co B, 636th TD Bn (SP) 8-10 Apr 45
Tr C, 117th Cav Rcn Sq 18 Jul-17 Aug 44
117th Cav Rcn Sq 22-29 Sep 44
106th Cav Gp 25-27 Mar 45
101st Cav Rcn Sq 28 Apr 45
106th Cav Gp 3-4 May 45
3d Cml Mort Bn 11 Jul-2 Sep 44
3d Cml Mort Bn (- Cos A&B) 3 Sep-6 Oct 44
Co B, 3d Cml Mort Bn 9 Sep-14 Nov 44
Co A, 3d Cml Mort Bn 13 Sep-5 Dec 44
Co D, 3d Cml Mort Bn 19 Oct-14 Nov 44
99th Cml Mort Bn 21 Dec 44-30 Jan 45
168th Cml SG Co 31 Jan-12 Feb 45
Co A, 87th Cml Bn 14-31 Mar 45
168th Cml SG Co 31 Mar-21 Apr 45
Co B, 2d Cml Mort Bn 2-21 Apr 45
99th Cml Mort Bn 26-29 Apr 45
168th Cml SG Co 26 Apr-6 May 45
2d Cml Mort Bn 30 Apr-5 May 45
36th Engr Regt 25 Jun 44-15 Jun 44
290th Engr C Bn 14-20 Jan 45
2831st Engr C Bn 15-19 Apr 45
36th FA Bn (155 Gun) 11 Jul-19 Aug 44
69th Armd FA Bn 11 Jul-8 Nov 44
634th FA Bn (155 How) 14 Jul-19 Aug 44
1 det, 2d FA Obsn Bn 23 Jul-30 Aug 44
36th FA Bn (155 Gun) 30 Aug-3 Sep 44
634th FA Bn (155 How) 30 Aug-3 Sep 44
Hq & Hq Btry, 6th FA Gp 30 Aug-3 Sep 44
977th FA Bn (- Btry C) (155 Gun) 8-10 Sep 44
93r Armd FA Bn 18-28 Nov 44
Hq & Hq Btry, 17th FA Gp 15-31 Dec 44
977th FA Bn (155 Gun) 21-31 Dec 44
141st FA Bn (155 How) 21 Dec 44-9 Feb 45
999th FA Bn (8" How) 31 Dec 44-19 Jan 45
6th Armd Div Arty 14-18 Mar 45
693d FA Bn (105 How) 14 Mar-20 Apr 45
208th FA Bn (155 Gun) 14 Mar-20 Apr 45
208th FA Gp 17-18 Mar 45
250th FA Bn (105 How) 19 Mar-12 Apr 45
44th Div Arty 24-27 Mar 45
969th FA Bn (155 How) 26-29 Apr 45
693d FA Bn (105 How) 29 Apr-7 May 45
283d FA Bn (105 How) 2-6 May 45
141st Inf (36th Div) 7-8 Sep 44
Co E, 398th Inf (100th Div) 17-18 Nov 44
254th Inf (63d Div) 28 Dec 44-9 Feb 45
1st Bn Fr Prcht Regt 10-20 Jan 45
601st TD Bn (SP) 13 Jul 44-1 Jul 44
1st Naval Beach Bn 15 Jul-15 Aug 44
1 det Boat Gds 15 Jul-15 Aug 44
5 Naval Shore Fire Control Parties 18 Jul-20 Aug 44
3rd ID Insignia Patch
