Camp Howze Museum

Title

Report After Action: The Story of the 103rd Infantry Division

Description

Screenshots from the book, "Report After Action: The Story of the 103rd Infantry Division," by Ralph Mueller and Jerry Turk.

Source

Mueller, Ralph and Jerry Turk. Report After Action: The Story of the 103rd Infantry Division. U.S. Army.

Subject

103rd Division

Cactus Division

Historical Memory

Ralph Mueller

Jerry Turk

WWII Literature

extracted text

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REPORT AFTER ACTION
THE STORY OF THE 103D INFANTRY DIVISION

BY RALPH MUELILER AND JERRY TURK

ARTIST: BILL BARKER

H EA D QU A R TE R S,

1 0 3D I N FAN TR Y D IVISION,

U. S. A RM Y

mCe upom a /me

D
in

usty tar paper barradks of Camp Claiborne in the Louisiana swampland. Picture-pretty Inns
rudk

a high grecn valley of the Austrian Alps.

They were the start and hnish ot the win

1ing trail of triumph which took the 103d Infantry Division across halt the world to share

the total

crushin

en

the

in

of Nazi

DiVIS10n

Germanv.

snce

activation

remember hitting Claiborne in a mild December ot 1942

he rookiCs piled out under their barracks bags, still green enough to be awed by the post band tooting
heside the main gatc.

They caught their first glimpse of LaCombs, steak and beer emporium to the

ght of thc cntrance, and Boomtown, popular den of iniquity farther down the highway to the lett.

Trainload by trainload the gates swallowed them-from Michigan and lowa, Illinois and Wisconsin,
Minnesota and the Dakotas-and thc Army set out to make soldiers ot them.
These filler replacements, more than 13,00o, came down from induction centers in the Fourth,
Sixth and Seventh Service Commands. A few were switched in from the Eighth and Ninth.
The 103d had had a skeleton existence for 21 years as an organized reserve division before it

officially was activated on Nov. 15, 1942. Its key personnel had begun gathering at Camp Claiborne
early in October of that year to get things ready for the troops.

First on hand was tough, hefty Brigadier General Charles C. Haftner Jr., the commanding general who

led the 1ozd through its training period and through the Vosges campaign in France. A prominent Chi
in civilian life, he came to the Cactus trom the 33d Infantry Division,
where he had been assigned after being inducted into Federal Service with the Illinois National Guard.
and long on military courtesy, General Haftner made his soldiers toe
on

cago businessman and sportsman

military discipline
Strong
the mark. You could always tell a Cactus soldier, they
was GI,
said. His buttons were bu:toned, his clothing

and he saluted like it said in the book. And General
Hafner saw his " down to the last button" training

methods pay off when a finely trained and disciplined
steamed in to the bitter Vosges Mountain
fighting. The Gls knew what they were doing.
The Division's two other generals at activation

103d

were Brigadier General John T. Pierce of Laramie,

Wyo.,

Assistant Division Commander,

and

Briga-

Wicks of Kennebunk-

dier General Roger Manning
Commander. You'd run
porr, Me., Division Artillery
into General Pierce anywhere in the Division area,
around here and there to see how the training

moving

ia..

iara.

was going.

And General Wicks.

You didn't go to his oftice to find him.

almost always in tatigucs, working hard to make a Division

FH
Was

Artillery that clicked.

Chief of Staff in those carly days Was a compact energetic little man

bristling as his close-cropped hair. You could tell how things were
going with
of Yakima, Wash., by the jut of his eternal cigar. He is since retired.
Others on the initial Division staff were Lt. Col. Gordon Singles,
dale, G-2, Lt. Col. Maynard H. Carter, G-3, and Lt. Col. Joseph J.

the
men
manner
Col
Col. Lewis Was

hose

C.

P. Yeuell, present

commander of the 41 Ith Intantry,
commanders, no longer with the Division, were Col.

was

and Col.regimCarlisle
entalA

V. Allan, 41oth.
cadre of

key officers
210

were

joined

at

ofticers and 1,446 enlisted

Claiborne early
men

from the

in October

8sth Division

by

the balance
of

balance

the

Division

E
MARI

Typical
The influx of fillers

to

the camp

Howze barracks

began

scene,

inmate's-eye

vieuw

Dec.. 4. Camp Grant,
IIl., sent 4,060 men;
Fort Custe.
1,307; Fort Dodge, lowa, I,036; Fort
Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 526; Fort Bragg.
Snelling, Minn., 990
N. C., 6o0; Fort
Ga., 537; Fort Jackson, S. C., 218, and
Oglethorpe, Ga., 6o0; Fort Mc
various posts in the
Pherson,
and Ninth Service
Eighth
The grind of basic
started on Jan. 4, 1943, a
training
Commands,
92.
had the northern recruits
I3-week assault by raw bitter

Mich., 3,845;

Fort

on

Leavenworth, Kan.,

weather whih
longing for the
Louisiana natives said it was the werst comBortable sub-zero temperatures of their home
than, it seemed it ran into the coldest or the winter in 20 years. Wherever the Division movedregions.
after
hottest weather the natives
No one ever
could remember.
forgets basic training. Drilling, KP,
guard, fatigue detail, manual of arms,
nomenclature and disassembly of the
KP,
weapon, fatigue detail, squad
fatigue detail, orientation movies, KP, marches,
movements, KP, sex lectures,
physical training " done in the
Unit training followed, and the
following manner...
treadmill
daily
was varied with
infiltration course and the close combat
the combat in
villages course, the
course. Remember the
in the kraut
sinister appearance of the
village ? The infiltration course is remembered
for the dust or the mudGerman signs
up with your face. And the close
you plowed
combat course turned out chiefly
to be the nearest
except for the nine-mile march of
to an endurance run
thing
painful memory.
There were
relaxations, too, in Claiborne. There was
the one
you wished

service club with the soda
near to. There
were the
theaters, including the open air, where if founta
chow you could
you rusnc
get in line for the second
show. There was the bus
get a seat once in a while and
station
order a whole quart of milk
And any
to drink all
story on the 103d Division at
by you
Claiborne
with
should have at least one
on the
on
sub-headings
dhapter
three-block
line
for
Alexa
the
and the bar where
the ornate Bentley Hotel and
they padked 'em six deep, the bus,
its
Mirro
f of
Rendezvous, the Sport Bar and the
stores where
military
you could buy
could hide away to
from a Good Conduct Medal to a long s5 u
anything
pep up your
leather o
appearance on
you could get

like hell through
where you could

evening

furlough.
2

a5

Bark
Gar
Davidson G-4. son B,
Cover
already in his job. The
Col. Donovan
Charles N. Stevens. 409th,
G- C

The

out with

who.

Major General An:hony C. McAulife
Brigadier General Roger M. Wides

Brigadier General John T. Pierce

Colone! Guy S. Meloy Jr

..

Chowline. See the happy faces

1iet

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