The 313th Military Intelligence Battalion was an active duty Airborne Military Intelligence Battalion of the United States Army.

Unit history

Background Before World War II, the United States Intelligence Community was fragmented and ad hoc, comprising numerous government and military entities who were reluctant to share information with each other.Elphick, James. US intelligence before World War II was basically nonexistent. 6 May 2016. Retrieved from We Are the Mighty on 12 August 2020. President Roosevelt directed the Joint Board to form the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) in mid-1941The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency. 15 March 2007. Retrieved from Central Intelligence Agency on 12 August 2020 and the attack on Pearl Harbor later that year prompted the War Department to expand the Army's existing entities into the Military Intelligence Service, the Counterintelligence Corps, and the Signal Security Agency.Benson, Robert L. A History of U.S. Communications Intelligence during World War II: Policy and Administration. Fort Meade, MD. National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History. 1997. The Joint board also formed Office of Strategic Services from elements of the COI as America entered World War II.

During the first decades of the Cold War, Army intelligence departments maintained compartmentalization by discipline for security purposes. Their missions and assignments were classified, organizations utilized deception, while personnel operated in and out of cover to protect their missions first and themselves second. Seemingly divergent organizations like the Army Security Agency, the Army Intelligence Agency, and numerous intelligence production units would eventually merge forming the Intelligence and Security Command. During the decades leading up to the formation of the modern Military Intelligence Corps, these agencies and their personnel were laying the groundwork for what would become "The Army's Most Decorated MI Battalion."

World War II

215th Signal Depot Company The lineage of the 313th Military Intelligence Battalion is traced to the 215th Signal Depot Company, which was activated on 25 September 1942 at Camp Livingston, Louisiana.Lineage and Honors Information for the 313th Military Intelligence Battalion. 29 September 1999. Retrieved from US Army Center of Military History on 11 August 2020. The 215th, composed of approximately 190 personnel, arrived in Liverpool, England in October 1943 and moved en masse by train to Taunton, Somerset. From there, the unit detached to perform various support activities, mostly repairing, maintaining, and issuing communications equipment to field units marshaled there.Bissey, Roland L., et al. History of the 215th Signal Depot Company. 1943-1945. Retrieved from Ibiblio Digital Archive on 13 August 2020.

In April 1944, the 215th was attached to First Army and moved to Hindon, Wiltshire in southern England anticipating the invasion of mainland Europe. The unit planned and made laborious efforts to prepare for amphibious operations before sending three detachments to the southwestern English port towns of Paignton, Pencalenick, and Swanage in mid-May.

Normandy

These detachments participated in the Normandy landingsThe Normandy Invasion: The Assault Force. Retrieved from US Army Center of Military History on 12 August 2020. with the advance element landing on Utah Beach at 1030 hours on 6 June. 215th personnel were under sporadic fire from German artillery, aircraft, and even occasional sniper's bullet well into that first night as front-line units moved inland. One detachment, which landed at approximately 2200 hours, even captured two German prisoners.

While awaiting deliveries of communications equipment to perform their assigned mission, detachments assisted other units in establishing communications networks along the beach. Another detachment of the 215th salvaged a radar set from a sunken landing craft; drying, repairing, then reissuing it as an operational set. These radars were instrumental with ensuring air defense units were ready for enemy aircraft approaching the beach, protecting follow-on forces as they continued landing.Thompson, George R. and Harris, Dixie R. The Signal Corps: The Outcome (Mid-1943 through 1945). Washington, DC. US Army Center of Military History. 1991.

The third detachment landed on D+1, helping to establish a depot near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont on the road to Cherbourg Naval Base from the Normandy beaches in support of VII Corps units. Because of the proximity to Sainte-Mère-Église and Carentan, the American airborne forces' objectives, paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were supported from this depot, replenishing their communications equipment which was lost or battle-damaged during their combat parachute assault into Normandy.

On D+2 one detachment established a signal supply depot in vicinity of Colleville issuing equipment "without formal requisitions in view of the tactical situation" before moving with an estimated 5,000 tons of equipment on D+6 to establish a depot near Mosles. Here, the depot was engaged nightly at approximately 2300 hours by a lone German aircraft dubbed "Bed Check Charlie" who dropped flares and the occasional bomb with no damage to personnel, equipment, or supplies reported. On 6 August this depot moved to Torigni-sur-Vire where it remained until consolidating in Belgium in late-September.

Northern France

The headquarters section and remainder of the 215th arrived in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer on 15 June, assisting in the consolidation of depots near Bricqueville while her detachments augmented various units as allied forces seized Cherbourg. Some detachments relocated in order to support elements maneuvering to take Caen which was liberated in early-August. This opened the way for Patton's Third Army to advance in just two weeks from Avranches to Argentan, aided by Ultra intelligence which apprised him of German counterattacks, indicating where to concentrate his forces.Axelrod, Alan. Patton: A Biography. London. Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. The 215th moved along with 5,000 tons of equipment and supplies to Saint-Samson-de-Bonfossé in early August to support Patton's thrust.

As the allies raced through France toward Germany, the disparate 215th elements maneuvered behind the advance, occupying numerous depots throughout France eventually reaching Belgium, securing a warehouse in Verviers where the 215th consolidated for the first time since D-Day on 30 September. Equipment was stockpiled in anticipation of impending military operations and while front lines stabilized, friendly units refitted by sending their equipment to the 215th for repair or replacement. The work load was so great that the 215th was augmented by an additional signal repair company and three ordnance heavy automotive maintenance companies.

Battle of the Bulge

After the onset of winter in late-1944, the 215th continued maintenance activities in support of front-line units. As inclement weather slowed the Allied tempo, the Germans initiated a counter-attack on 16 December which would later become known as the Battle of the Bulge. The 215th at Verviers was approximately from the Germans on the Siegfried Line and were unaffected by the initial German artillery bombardment, the first phase of their counter-attack. In the early hours of 17 December, German paratroopers parachuted into the Allies' rear area intending to seize the crossroads at Jalhay, just from Verviers. Mis-drops of the paratroopers (some as far as off-target) confused the Allies into believing the Germans conducted a division-level airborne operation,Goldstein, Donald M. Nuts!: The Battle of the Bulge: The Story and Photographs. Potomac Books. 1994 and the 215th was told that 500 Nazi paratroopers had seized the road between Eupen and Malmedy, within of their location. In response, the company activated and drilled their base defense plan as several alerts were implemented over the coming days.

As the Germans approached Verviers, they shelled supply routes around the town. The commander of First Army ordered the evacuation of the depot to preserve its stocks and capability. Over 5,000 tons of equipment was loaded onto 400 rail cars and evacuated a reported southwest to Charleroi. By 21 December the unit had resumed their mission, repairing equipment damaged by the German offensive while also installing communications equipment onto nearly 300 M4 Sherman tanks; a task made even more difficult by inadequate facilities, the biting winds, and the cold steel of the tanks. These tanks were largely responsible for repelling the German attack.

Central Europe

Following the Battle of the Bulge, the 215th again detached from Verviers to support the Allies crossing the Rhine, integrating into numerous depots through Belgium then onward into Germany. The headquarters eventually occupied a depot near Jena in central Germany by 1 May before the war in Europe came to a close. The unit returned stateside and was inactivated in November 1945 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. The 215th commander encapsulated the spirit of his unit by reporting: "Satisfaction enough, however, for both officers and enlisted men, is in knowing that a piece of Signal equipment repaired by them will not fail the man with the rifle."

82nd Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

The provisional Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) attached personnel to the 82nd Airborne DivisionCounter Intelligence Corps History and Mission in World War II. The Counter Intelligence Corps School. Fort Holabird, MD. who accompanied the division into combat on all major operations from Sicily to Germany; conducting interrogations of captured enemy personnel and performing counterintelligence activities in occupied areas. Human Intelligence attachments included what would later become the 82nd CIC Detachment, four Interrogator Prisoner of War teams, and a Military Intelligence Interpreter team.82d Airborne Division in Italy and Sicily. Retrieved from the Defense Technical Information Center on 13 August 2020.

Before dawn on D-Day, the CIC personnel attached to the American airborne forces parachuted or landed by glider into Normandy. The initial D-Day mission of CIC troops was to locate, seize, and control all important communications centers and take charge of civilian traffic. Some CIC detachments contacted resistance groups to facilitate their mission, but no specific mention of the 82nd doing so was found. Additionally, of the eight agents who parachuted in with the 101st Airborne, three were killed in action and two were wounded and captured,The Evolution of American Military Intelligence. US Army Intelligence Center and School. Fort Huachuca, AZ. May 1973. showing the inherent perils the airborne faced that day; though there were no reports of significant casualties amongst the CIC personnel accompanying the 82nd.

On 12 July 1944, a month after landing on Normandy, the 82nd Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment was formally constituted by the United States Army, after having already accompanied the 82nd into combat for the better part of a year. Constitute in this context merely means to place the designation of the new unit on the official rolls of the Army,Wilson, John B. Armies, Corps, Divisions, and Separate Brigades. Washington, DC. US Army Center of Military History. 1999. and the unit was formally activated the next month in England on 20 August 1944, no doubt while the unit prepared for the impending airborne assault into Holland.

Records are spotty regarding the 82nd CIC Detachment, likely due to the sensitive nature of their work, but based on their official military honors, they went on to participate in Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and the final push into Germany across the Ruhr River then finishing in Ludwigslust after crossing the Elbe.

3191st Signal Service Company