The 36th Infantry Division ("Arrowhead") also known as the "Panther Division", the "Lone Star Division",36th Infantry Division History , history.army.mil, last updated 20 May 2011, accessed 23 January 2017 "The Texas Army", and the "T-patchers", is an infantry division of the U.S. Army and part of the Texas Army National Guard. The 36th Infantry Division was first organized during World War I (1914–1918) from units of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guards. After the war, the division was reformed as an all-Texas unit, and was called to service for World War II (1937–1945) on 25 November 1940, was deployed to the European Theater of Operations in April 1943, and returned to the Texas National Guard in December 1945.
In late 1941, a unit of the 36th Infantry, the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, was detached and deployed to the Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO) against the Japanese forces. In the course of the fighting, the Japanese Imperial Army captured some soldiers from the 2/131 FA and enslaved them to perform forced labor. Their fate as a unit was unknown for most of World War II, which resulted in the 2/131 FA Bn. being nicknamed the "Lost Battalion" of the PTO.
After World War II, the division was reactivated in 1946, and continued in service until 1968 when it was reorganized as a brigade. In 2004, the 36th Infantry Division was reconstituted as part of the inactivation of the 49th Armored Division.
History
World War I
The 36th Division was originally constituted by the Militia Bureau in early 1917 as the 15th Division, made up of troops from Texas and Oklahoma. In July 1917, three months after the American entry into World War I, the designation was changed to the 36th Division when the War Department directed the organization of the unit at Camp Bowie, Texas, near Fort Worth, (related only in name to the later World War II-era camp near Brownwood, Texas) under the command of Major General Edwin St. John Greble.
After conducting training for the next few months, the 36th was sent to the Western Front in July 1918 and conducted major operations in the Meuse–Argonne offensive. On 9–10 October, the unit participated in heavy combat near the village of St. Etienne. Following this victory, which included the capture of several hundred men and officers of the German Army, as well as artillery, the unit launched an assault near an area known as "Forest Farm." The eventual victory brought World War I to an end. In the relatively brief period of time the 36th Division spent in action during the war, the division suffered 2,584 casualties, 466 of them killed in action and an additional 2,118 wounded or missing.
Order of battle Source: Headquarters, 36th Division 71st Infantry Brigade 141st Infantry Regiment (2nd Texas Infantry, and 1st Texas Infantry less Machine Gun Company and Band) 142nd Infantry Regiment (7th Texas Infantry, and 1st Oklahoma Infantry less Machine Gun Company and Band) 132nd Machine Gun Battalion (Machine Gun Company, 1st Texas Infantry) 72nd Infantry Brigade 143rd Infantry Regiment (5th Texas Infantry, and 3rd Texas Infantry less Company D, Machine Gun Company, and Band) 144th Infantry Regiment (6th Texas Infantry less Company G, and 4th Texas Infantry less Machine Gun Company and Band) 133rd Machine Gun Battalion (Machine Gun Troop, 1st Texas Cavalry, Company D, 3rd Texas Infantry, and Company G, 6th Texas Infantry) 61st Field Artillery Brigade 131st Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (2nd Texas Field Artillery) 132nd Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (1st Texas Cavalry less Troops E and K, Machine Gun Troop, and Headquarters Troop) 133rd Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (1st Texas Field Artillery) 111th Trench Mortar Battery (Troop K and detachment of Troop E, 1st Texas Cavalry) 131st Machine Gun Battalion (Machine Gun Companies, 3rd and 4th Texas Infantry, and Machine Gun Company, 1st Oklahoma Infantry) 111th Engineer Regiment (1st Battalion, Texas Engineers, and 1st Battalion, Oklahoma Engineers) 111th Field Signal Battalion (1st Battalion, Texas Signal Corps) Headquarters Troop, 36th Division (Texas Division Headquarters Troop and Headquarters Troop, 1st Texas Cavalry) 111th Train Headquarters and Military Police (Texas Division Headquarters and Military Police) 111th Ammunition Train (1st Separate Squadron, Oklahoma Cavalry, and individual transfers) 111th Supply Train (Individual transfers) 111th Engineer Train (Transfers from 111th Engineer Regiment) 111th Sanitary Train (1st and 2nd Texas Ambulance Companies, 1st and 2nd Texas Field Hospitals, 1st Oklahoma Field Hospital) 141st-144th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals
Interwar period
The 36th Division headquarters arrived at the port of New York aboard the USS Patricia on 4 June 1919 after 11 months of overseas service and was demobilized on 18 June 1919 at Camp Bowie. In accordance with the National Defense Act of 1920, the division was allotted to the state of Texas and assigned to the VIII Corps in 1921. In the reorganization of the division, the 71st Infantry Brigade was assigned to western Texas and the 72nd Infantry Brigade to eastern Texas; the 141st Infantry was organized in southwest Texas, the 142nd Infantry in northwest Texas, the 143rd Infantry in southeast Texas, and the 144th Infantry in northeast Texas.
The designated mobilization training center for the "Texas Division" was Camp Hulen on Matagorda Bay near Palacios, Texas, where much of the division's training activities occurred between the wars. The division headquarters was reorganized and federally recognized on 2 May 1923 at Houston, Texas. The division headquarters was relocated on 20 September 1930 to Fort Worth, and on 22 September 1936 to San Antonio, Texas. The division, less the 61st Field Artillery Brigade, conducted its summer camp at Camp Mabry, in Austin, Texas, from 1922 to 1923, Fort Crockett, Texas, on Galveston Bay, in 1924, back to Camp Mabry in 1925, and at Camp Hulen from 1926 to 1939. The 61st Field Artillery Brigade conducted its training every other year at Camp Bullis, near San Antonio, so that its subordinate batteries could conduct live-fire training at the artillery ranges located there. For at least three years (1931–33) the division's subordinate units trained over 170 company-grade Organized Reserve officers of the 90th Division at Camp Hulen and Camp Bullis.
Like the 26th, 27th, 28th, 33rd, 37th, and 38th Divisions, the 36th Division was located all in one state, and therefore could maximize opportunities to train as a complete unit. From 1922 to 1935, the 36th Division gradually increased its level of proficiency as its units became more skilled. The training was conducted at individual level initially, and up to regimental level for the later camps. In 1936, the division and brigade staffs participated in the Third Army command post exercise (CPX) at Camp Bullis. The CPX was designed to prepare the staffs for the large-scale maneuvers to be held in 1938. The division participated in the Eighth Corps Area concentration of the Third Army maneuvers at Camp Bullis in August 1938. During that maneuver, the 36th Division operated as part of the provisional Blue Corps against the 2nd and 45th Divisions of the Brown Corps. In January 1940, the 36th Division's commanding general and his staff participated in the 2nd Division's maneuver near Christine, Texas. For the final phase of the exercise, the division commander and staff assumed control of the simulated combat actions of the 2nd Division. In August 1940, the "Texas Division" again participated in the Third Army maneuvers, this time near the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana as part of the provisional VIII Corps.
World War II WWII division organization Square division On 25 November 1940, the 36th Division, commanded by Major General Claude V. Birkhead, was inducted into federal service at home stations. On 14 December 1940, the division departed for its mobilization station Camp Bowie. At the time the division still retained its World War I square organization and consisted of the following units.
36th Division 36th Division Headquarters 71st Infantry Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company 141st Infantry Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Company 3× Infantry battalions each battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 3× Rifle companies, 1× Weapons Company Anti-Tank Company (M3 37mm Anti-Tank guns) Service Company 142nd Infantry Regiment same organization as 141st Infantry Regiment 72nd Infantry Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company 143rd Infantry Regiment same organization as 141st Infantry Regiment 144th Infantry Regiment same organization as 141st Infantry Regiment 61st Field Artillery Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Battery 131st Field Artillery Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery 2× Light Field Artillery battalions Headquarters and Headquarters Battery 3× Howitzer batteries (M1897 75mm field guns), replaced by M2 105mm towed howitzers in 1941) Service Battery 132nd Field Artillery Regiment same organization as 131st Field Artillery Regiment 133rd Field Artillery Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery 2× Medium Field Artillery battalions Headquarters and Headquarters Battery 3× Howitzer batteries (M1918 155mm towed howitzers, replaced by M1 155mm towed howitzers in 1941) Anti-Tank Battery (M1897 75mm anti-tank guns) Service Battery 111th Engineer Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters and Service Company 2× Engineer battalions each battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters, 3× Engineer companies 111th Medical Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters and Service Company Collecting Battalion battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters, 3× Collecting companies Ambulance Battalion battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters, 3× Ambulance companies Clearing Battalion battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters, 3× Clearing companies 111th Quartermaster Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Company 2× Truck battalions each battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters, 2× Truck companies Light Maintenance and Car Battalion battalion consists of: 1× Headquarters, 1× Light Maintenance Company, 1× Car Company Service Company Headquarters, Special Troops Headquarters Company, 36th Division 36th Signal Company 111th Ordnance Company 36th Military Police Company
Triangular division On 1 June 1941, the division moved to Brownwood in Texas, where it participated in the VIII Corps Brownwood Maneuvers until 13 June 1941. The division then moved to Mansfield in Louisiana, and took part in both the August and September 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers. The division, now commanded by Brigadier General Fred L. Walker, a Regular Army officer from Ohio and a distinguished veteran of World War I, then returned to Camp Bowie on 2 October 1941.
On 1 February 1942, as a part of an Army-wide reorganization of National Guard divisions, the 36th Division was reorganized as a triangular division. The division's two brigade headquarters were disbanded in favor of a structure containing three separate regimental commands reporting directly to the division headquarters, as well as four field artillery battalions under a division artillery headquarters, with the engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments also reduced to battalions. The 144th Infantry Regiment was detached for non-divisional service in the continental United States and moved to San Francisco, California, on 20 April 1942, and to Santa Rosa, California, on 7 May 1942 under the Western Defense Command. With the reorganization the division was renamed 36th Infantry Division. Afterwards the 36th Infantry Division was composed of the following units:
36th Infantry Division 36th Infantry Division Headquarters 36th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized) (M3 scout cars and then M8 Greyhound armored cars) 141st Infantry Regiment