95th Infantry Division (United States)

Today it exists as the 95th Training Division, a component of the United States Army Reserve headquartered at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

On April 7, the unit reported discovering a camp housing some 4,500 undernourished French officers and 800 enlisted men.

The division then began conducting one station unit training, a responsibility it continues to this day.

The 377th and 378th Infantry Regiments were intended to be organized in France from the 1st and 2nd Pioneer Infantry Regiments, while the 170th Field Artillery Brigade was organized in September at Camp Zachary Taylor and Camp Knox, Kentucky.

To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the chief of staff published a newsletter titled "The Observation Post."

Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, trained at various posts in the Eighth Corps Area.

Unlike the Regular and Guard units in the Eighth Corps Area, the 95th Division did not participate in the various Eighth Corps Area maneuvers and the Third Army maneuvers of 1938, 1940, and 1941 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment.

[5] On 15 July 1942, the division was ordered into active military service and reorganized at Camp Swift, Texas.

[6] Major General Harry L. Twaddle was assigned to command, and he remained in this position until the division was demobilized at the end of the war.

Over the next two years, the division trained extensively in locations throughout the United States, including Camp Coxcomb in California.

[11] The division was sent into combat on 19 October in the Moselle bridgehead sector east of Moselle and South of Metz and patrolled the Seille near Cheminot, capturing the forts surrounding Metz and repulsing enemy attempts to cross the river.

[12] It was during the defense of this town from repeated German attacks that the division received its nickname, "The Iron Men of Metz.

"[1] On 1 November, elements went over to the offensive, reducing an enemy pocket east of Maizières-lès-Metz.

The 95th seized a Saar River bridge on 3 December and engaged in bitter house-to-house fighting for Saarlautern.

[12] Suburbs of the city fell and, although the enemy resisted fiercely, the Saar bridgehead was firmly established by 19 December.

Assembling east of the Rhine at Beckum on 3 April, it launched an attack across the Lippe River the next day and captured Hamm and Kamen on the 6th.

The division was awarded one Presidential Unit Citation and four campaign streamers during its time in combat.

The 95th Divisional Artillery became the 95th Regiment (Common Specialist Training) with headquarters at Shreveport, Louisiana.

[9] The 3rd Brigade was headquartered in Stillwater, Oklahoma, a move made in September 1975, and consisted of only 291st Regiment elements.

The 4th Brigade was headquartered in Bossier City, Louisiana, a suburb of Shreveport, and includes the 95th Regiment and one element of the 379th.

[9] On 1 January 1979 the division's four brigades was reorganized specifically for one station unit training.

[9] The division experienced tremendous expansion in October 1984 with the addition of the 4073d US Army Reception Station, in Lafayette, Louisiana, with a strength of 809 personnel.

In 1996, the division received three additional brigades as part of an Army consolidation of training commands.

On 29 August 1942, a revised shoulder sleeve insignia, consisting of an interlocked red "9" and white "V" on a blue oval background was approved for the 95th Infantry Division; the "9" and "V" refer to the unit's numerical designation, while the "V" also alludes to victory.

[15] The device commemorates the crossing of the Moselle River and the breakthrough at Metz, symbolized by the blue wavy band and the black fortress.

The blue wavy band further alludes to the Distinctive Unit Citation the division received for this action in World War II.

Silvio Pedri who was sent on a mission to cross the Moselle river near Metz, France and was captured as a POW.

American soldiers of the 378th Infantry Regiment enter Metz, 1944.
US Army recruits in Basic Combat Training .