The 104th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. Today it exists as the 104th Training Division (Leader Training), a component of the United States Army Reserve headquartered at Joint Base Lewis–McChord, Washington. It is one of three training divisions subordinate to the 108th Training Command. The division's 1st Brigade provides Cadet Summer Training (CST) to Reserve Officers' Training Corps units and support to Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps personnel (SROTC). The division's 2nd Brigade provides Basic Combat Training (BCT) to drill sergeants and also provides support to the United States Military Academy. The division is slated to be deactivated by October 2026.
Activated in 1921 and deployed during World War II, the division saw almost 200 days of fighting in northwestern Europe as it fought through France, Netherlands, Belgium, and western Germany, fighting back several fierce German counterattacks as it advanced through the theater throughout late 1944 and 1945. This was the only combat duty that the 104th Infantry Division has served during its history. At the end of the fighting on 7 May 1945 (V-E Day), this division was in central Germany opposite the troops of its allies from the Soviet Army.
After World War II, this division was reorganized primarily as a training division for Reserve forces. After several decades, the division then expanded its role to conducting entry-level training for soldiers of all branches of the Army in the northwestern United States. Its role and size have expanded over that time due to the consolidation of other training commands, and the division subsequently took charge of a number of brigades specializing in various entry-level training for soldiers of all types.
History Interwar period
The 104th Division was constituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Ninth Corps Area, and assigned to the XIX Corps. The division was allocated to the states of Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming as its home area, although the 2nd Battalion, 413th Infantry was organized at Reno, Nevada. The division headquarters was organized on 7 October 1921 at Fort Douglas, Utah, and relocated in May 1923 to Room 312 in the Commercial Building in Salt Lake City. The headquarters was moved on 30 September 1926 to the Vermont Building where it remained until activated for World War II. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the division staff published a newsletter titled “Frontier Division,” which was reflective of the unit's geographical area. The newsletter informed the division's members what the division's summer training quotas were, where the camps were to be held, and which units would be assigned to help conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps (CMTC).
For the few summers when the division headquarters was called to duty for training as a unit, the 104th Division usually trained with the staff of the 3rd Division's 6th Infantry Brigade at Fort Douglas. The subordinate infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the units of the 3rd Division at Fort Douglas and Fort Missoula, Montana, and some years with the 2nd Division's 4th Infantry Brigade at the Pole Mountain Military Reservation, Wyoming. Other units, however, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Ninth Corps Area with Regular Army units of the same branch. For example, the 329th Engineer Regiment usually trained with elements of the 3rd Division's 6th Engineer Regiment at Camp Lewis, Washington, and the 329th Medical Regiment trained at the post hospital at Fort Francis E. Warren, Wyoming. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility to conduct the CMTC held at Camp Lewis each year.
On a number of occasions, the division participated in Ninth Corps Area and Fourth Army command post exercises in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. These training events gave division staff officers’ opportunities to practice the roles they would be expected to perform in the event the division was mobilized. Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Ninth Corps Area, however, the 104th Division did not participate in the various Ninth Corps Area maneuvers and the major Fourth Army maneuvers of 1936 and 1940 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to the Regular and Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to full peace strength for the exercises. Additionally, some officers were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.
Order of battle, 1939
Headquarters (Salt Lake City, UT) Headquarters, Special Troops (Salt Lake City, UT) Headquarters Company (Salt Lake City, UT) 104th Military Police Company (Idaho Falls, ID) 104th Signal Company (Salt Lake City, UT) 329th Ordnance Company (Medium) (Great Falls, MT) 104th Tank Company (Light) (Casper, WY) 207th Infantry Brigade (Boise, ID) 413th Infantry Regiment (Salt Lake City, UT) 414th Infantry Regiment (Pocatello, ID) 208th Infantry Brigade (Billings, MT) 415th Infantry Regiment (Casper, WY) 416th Infantry Regiment (Billings, MT) 179th Field Artillery Brigade (Casper, WY) 385th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (Salt Lake City, UT) 386th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (Helena, MT) 387th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (Salt Lake City, UT) 329th Ammunition Train (Casper, WY) 329th Engineer Regiment (Salt Lake City, UT) 329th Medical Regiment (Salt Lake City, UT) 429th Quartermaster Regiment (Salt Lake City, UT)
World War II
Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split. The 104th Infantry Division was ordered into active military service on 15 September 1942 under the command of Major General Gilbert R. Cook, and was reorganized as the 104th Infantry Division at Camp Adair, Oregon.Wilson, p. 608.Almanac, p. 592. The division earned its nickname "Timberwolf Division" from its time in the northwest.
Order of battle
Headquarters, 104th Infantry Division 413th Infantry Regiment 414th Infantry Regiment 415th Infantry Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 104th Infantry Division Artillery 385th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 386th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 387th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm) 929th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 329th Engineer Combat Battalion 329th Medical Battalion 104th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized) Headquarters, Special Troops, 104th Infantry Division Headquarters Company, 104th Infantry Division 804th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company 104th Quartermaster Company 104th Signal Company Military Police Platoon Band 104th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment 750th Tank Battalion (attached 16 NOV 44-23 DEC 44, 6 FEB 45-22 MAY 45) 784th Tank Battalion (attached 31 DEC 44-3 FEB 45) 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached 29 OCT 44-7 MAR 45) 817th Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached 1 APR 45-9 JUN 45) 555th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion (attached 26 OCT 44-24 MAY 45)
The 104th was the first U.S. Army division to be trained to fight in nighttime conditions. After training at Camp Adair, the division participated in the Oregon Maneuver combat exercise in the fall of 1943."Major Dates" , 104th Infantry Division National Timberwolf Association, Wichita, Kansas, 9 September 2010.Brogan, Phil F., East of the Cascades (Third Edition), Binford & Mort, Portland, Oregon, 1965, pp. 272–275. On 15 October 1943, Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen Sr. took command of the division.Key Timberwolf Dates, http://www.104infdiv.org/key%20dates.htm He had previously commanded the 1st Infantry Division, "The Big Red One", in North Africa and Sicily and would command the 104th during most of its time in combat.Order of Battle, p. 411. On 7 December 1943, the division moved to, and began 13 weeks of desert training at Camp Hyder, Arizona. The division concluded training on 9 February 1944, and next moved to Camp Granite, California. One last move in March to Camp Carson, Colorado, aboard 24 trains was followed with a cross-county move to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, arriving on 20 August 1944.
Europe
The 104th Infantry Division sailed for the Western Front on 27 August 1944.Almanac, p. 570. It landed in France on 7 September 1944. The division was assigned to III Corps of the Ninth United States Army, part of the Twelfth United States Army Group.Order of Battle, p. 415. The division then organized and assembled at Manche, France before heading into combat.Order of Battle, p. 416.
Joining the Battle of the Scheldt, the division moved into defensive positions in the vicinity of Wuustwezel, Belgium on 23 October 1944. The Timberwolves were then assigned to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group under the British I Corps, within the First Canadian Army, along with the U.S. 7th Armored Division, in order to clear out the Scheldt Estuary and open the port of Antwerp. While the U.S. 7th Armored Division was assigned static duty holding the right flank of the gains made during the failed Market Garden operation, the 104th Infantry Division was to participate in the First Canadian Army's taking of the Scheldt. The Timberwolves travelled across France by train and debarked near the Belgian-Dutch border and waited for word to take part in a new allied offensive, Operation Pheasant, taking the place of the experienced British 49th Infantry Division on the left flank and the Polish 1st Armored Division on the right.