63rd Infantry Division (United States)

63rd Infantry Division

63rd Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia
Active 1943–45
1952–63
1968–present
Country  United States
Branch  United States Army
Type Infantry
Size Division
Garrison/HQ Moffett Field, California
Nickname(s) "Blood and Fire" (special designation)[1]
Motto Pride – Honor – Service
Engagements

World War II

Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia
Distinguishing flag, 1943–68
Distinguishing flag, 1968–2009

The 63d Infantry Division ("Blood and Fire"[1]) was an infantry division of the United States Army that fought in Europe during World War II. After the war it was inactivated, but later reactivated as a command in the United States Army Reserve.[2]

The 63d Regional Support Command is responsible for the base and administrative support of all United States Army Reserve units throughout the seven-state region of southwestern United States including California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. Although the 63d Regional Readiness Command located in Los Alamitos, CA was not authorized to carry the lineage of the 63d Infantry Division, the creation of the new 63d Regional Support Command in Moffett Field, CA authorizes it to inherit the lineage and the bi-color red and blue background 63d Infantry Division flag as an exception to policy.[3] The unit was deactivated on 6 December 2009 and replaced by the 79th Sustainment Support Command,[4] and was reactivated as a regional support command.[5]

World War II

Awards

Commanders

Gathering strength

The 63d Infantry Division was activated on 15 June 1943, at Camp Blanding, Florida. Shortly thereafter, the division removed to Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi to prepare for deployment to Europe. On three occasions during the next seventeen months, the division trained up recruits only to have them cross-leveled to other divisions heading for theater. The first elements of the division, anxious to get in the fight, finally arrived in Europe in December 1944 and were joined by the rest of the division in January 1945.

Order of Battle

The division consisted of the following units:

  • 253d Infantry Regiment
  • 254th Infantry Regiment
  • 255th Infantry Regiment
  • HHB Division Artillery
    • 718th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm)
    • 861st Field Artillery Battalion (105mm)
    • 862d Field Artillery Battalion (105mm)
    • 863d Field Artillery Battalion (105mm)
  • 63d Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
  • 263d Engineer Combat Battalion
  • 363d Medical Battalion
  • 63d Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment
  • HQ Special Troops
  • Hqs Co, 63d Infantry Division
  • Military Police Platoon
  • 763d Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
  • 63d Quartermaster Company
  • 563d Signal Company
  • 70th Tank Battalion (attached 12–18 March 1945)
  • 740th Tank Battalion (attached 17–28 March 1945)
  • 753d Tank Battalion (attached 31 March-28 May 1945)
  • 692d Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached 30–31 May 1945)
  • 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached 16–21 March 1945)
  • 822d Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached 21 March-28 May 1945)
  • 436th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion (attached 11 February-1 May 1945)[6]

Attached and detached units listed here:

In action

Three regiments of the 63d Division arrived in Marseille, France, 8 December 1944, trained at Hagenau and, under the designation Task Force Harris, protected the east flank of the Seventh Army along the Rhine River. The task force fought defensively from 22 to 30 December 1944. On 30 December 44, while the 253d Inf Regt was attached to the 44th Inf Div and the 255th Inf Regt was attached to the 100th Inf Div, the 254th Inf Regt was moved to the Colmar area of France where it was attached to the 3d Inf Div which was at the time a part of the First French Army. The infantry regiments remained with their attachments until early February 1945. The rest of the division arrived at Marseilles, 14 January 1945, and moved to Willerwald on 2 February, where it was joined by the advance elements on 6 February. On 7 February, the 63rd conducted local raids and patrols, then pushed forward, crossing the Saar River on 17 February, and mopping up the enemy in Muhlen Woods. After bitter fighting at Güdingen early in March, the division smashed at the Siegfried Line on 15th at Saarbrücken, Germany, taking Ormesheim and finally breaching the line at Sankt Ingbert and Hassel on 20 March. Hard still fighting lay ahead, but the Siegfried Line was Germany's last attempt to defend its prewar boundaries along the western front. Before resting on 23 March, the 63d took Spiesen-Elversberg, Neunkirchen and Erbach. From then until the end of the war, the 63d Division carved a path of "blood and fire" from Sarreguemines through Germany. On 28 March, the division crossed the Rhine at Lampertheim, moved to Viernheim and captured Heidelberg on 30 March. Continuing the advance, the 63rd crossed the Neckar River near Mosbach and the Jagst River The 253rd Infantry Regiment, received the majority of the German resistance during this time at the Battle of Buchhof and Stein am Kocher.[7] Heavy resistance slowed the attack on Adelsheim, Möckmühl, and Bad Wimpfen.

The division switched to the southeast, capturing Lampoldshausen and clearing the Harthäuser Woods on 7 April. A bridgehead was secured over the Kocher River near Weißbach on 8 April, and Schwäbisch Hall fell on 17 April. Advance elements crossed the Rems River and rushed to the Danube. The Danube was crossed on 25 April, and Leipheim fell before the division was withdrawn from the line on 28 April, and assigned security duty from the Rhine to Darmstadt and Würzburg on a line to Stuttgart and Speyer. The 63d began leaving for home on 21 August 1945, and was deactivated on 27 September 1945.

From mid-February 1945 until the end of the war, the 63rd Infantry Division made a path of Blood and Fire rom Sarreguemines through the Siegfried Line to Worms, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Gunzburg and ending in Landsberg Germany at the end of April 1945 when the division was pulled from the line for a much needed rest.[8]

Army Reserve

The 63d Infantry Division was reactivated in February 1952 as a unit reflagged from the 13th Armored Division, and assigned to the Army Reserve, with headquarters in Los Angeles, California.[9] The division was again inactivated in December 1965, and the colors were transferred to the 63d Reinforcement Training Unit.

On 1 January 1968, the 63d Army Reserve Command (ARCOM) was activated and, as an exception to policy, allowed to wear the shoulder sleeve insignia and distinctive unit insignia of the 63d Infantry Division.[10] The 63d ARCOM did not, however, perpetuate the lineage and honors of the 63d Infantry Division, as Department of the Army policy does not authorize TDA units, such as ARCOMs, to inherit the lineage and honors of TO&E units, such as divisions.

Based at Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center, the command encompassed Army Reserve units in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. From 1990 through 1991, over 2,500 Army Reserve soldiers from the 63d ARCOM served on active duty in support of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Twenty-two of the command's units were mobilized, with fourteen of them deploying to the Persian Gulf.

In April 1995, the 63d ARCOM was redesignated as the 63d Regional Support Command (later revised to Regional Readiness Command), and its geographic boundaries were realigned to coincide with those of Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IX. The 63d maintained command and control of 14,000 soldiers and 140 units in the states of California, Arizona and Nevada, and assumed additional responsibility to support the major functional reserve commands within its area. The 63d RRC supported both foreign and domestic active Army missions, including participation in NATO operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. Since 2001, thousands of soldiers from the 63d RRC have served in Afghanistan and.Iraq.

In September 2008, the 63d and 90th Regional Readiness Commands combined into the 63d which was redesignated the 63d Regional Support Command again, with its new headquarters at Moffett Field, California. As a key component of the Army Reserve's transition to an operational force, the newly formed 63d RSC has foregone command and control of units in favor if a greatly expanded area of responsibility. The 63d RSC provides base support and administrative support to over 40,000 Army Reserve soldiers in the southwest United States.

Insignia

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Special Unit Designations". United States Army Center of Military History. 21 April 2010. Archived from the original on 9 June 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  2. ↑ The designation "63d Infantry Division" is used to describe the infantry unit. The designation "63d Regional Support Command" and similar names is used to describe the reserve unit. The description omits the "r" from the number designation in accordance with US Army unit designation custom.
  3. ↑ United States Army Center of Military History Memorandum for Record dated 15 January 2009
  4. ↑ Wagner, John (23 June 2010). "63rd RRC folds flag in ceremony". US Army. Retrieved 26 February 2013. The 63rd RRC is the last of 10 such commands around the nation folding their flags. The 63d lineage is being passed to the 63d Regional Support Command at Moffett Field, Calif. And a new headquarters, the Army Reserve Sustainment Support Command, has started up here at Los Alamitos. The process is part of an ongoing transformation of the Army Reserve to better fit its mission in deployments overseas.
  5. ↑ "63RD RSC". Army Reserve. United States Army. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  6. ↑ World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939-1946 by Shelby Stanton.
  7. ↑ The Battle of Buchhof and Stein am Kocher: The story of Second Battalion 253rd Infantry Regiment. 2014 Timothy A. Malone
  8. ↑ http://www.63rdinfdiv.com/divisionhistorypage1.html
  9. ↑ McKenny, Janice E. (1997). "Appendix A: Divisions Reflagged". Reflagging in the Army. United States Army Center of Military History. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
  10. ↑ http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Heraldry/ArmyDUISSICOA/ArmyHeraldryUnit.aspx?u=4199

Sources

External links

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