What is your Favorite WWII Division, and Why?

[historyis]

Didn't they give the line to General Maxwell Taylor in the movie?

[Dragoon 45]

As far as American Infantry Divisions go, The 45th is hard to beat also. If you actually check the records, this division actually had more combat days than any other U.S. Division in World War II. I know 1st ID claims this also, but every source I can find says the 45th had more days in combat than the 1st. Also when you check some of Dupoy's analysis of the performance of U.S. Divisions in WW II, the 45th is right there at the top. But divisions like the 36st and 45th started out in the Italian campaign and then entered France by the way of Operation Dragoon. Being part of the 6th Army Group under Devers they did not get the publicity that 1st Army Group Divisions got. An excellent history of the 45th is "The Rock of Anzio". While the 3rd ID claims to have stopped the German counter attacks that almost destroyed the beachhead at Anzio, if you check the actual records, the 157, 179, and 180 Inf Regt's of the 45th actually stopped the Germans. Also the 45th was one of the few NG Divisions that was called up and served in Korea.

[Poopyhead]

The Russian 13th Guards Division fought bravely at Stalingrad with the 62nd Army. The 62nd was then renamed the 8th Guards Army and fought from the Volga all the way to Berlin. Russian formations were usually smaller than their western equivalent, i.e., an army had the combat power of a western corps, a corps equalled a division and a division equalled about a brigade. Also, most early Russian units fought until attrition rendered them ineffective, then the unit was disbanded and the veterans formed the cadre of an entirely new unit. Cadre that had distinguished themselves formed a "Guards" unit and rarely a "Shock" unit.

[robot]

What board shold i look on for some names for British divisions. As i am fighting in may with the germans ineed it for the British i am forming. They come into the war in may of 40 in europe. Thanks for any help you can offer.

[BruceAZ_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: robot

What board shold i look on for some names for British divisions. As i am fighting in may with the germans ineed it for the British i am forming. They come into the war in may of 40 in europe. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Gotta be Shire this or Guards that. The Brits always have cool names for their Regiments but they name their Divisions similar to ours. Some that come to mind are the 50th and 51st Infantry Divisions and the 1st and 7th Amoured Divisions. At this time period (early 1940) you might want to look for their Royal Marines before they rolled them into their Army commando units. Might be cool units! They were very elite for British standards but I don't think they really saw any real action as "Marines" - mostly as "Commandos." Maybe you should consider some of the Anzacs, Indians, or South African units?

Recon
Semper Fi

[KG Erwin]

ORIGINAL: robot

What board shold i look on for some names for British divisions. As i am fighting in may with the germans ineed it for the British i am forming. They come into the war in may of 40 in europe. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Robot, here's a link to a chart that should answer your question: http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/017 ... f/_bef.htm

Dr. Niehorster's site is a treasure trove of info for WWII Divisional Listings. You should add the main site to your favorites list. [:)]

[robot]

Thanx Gunny for info will go there today. The X SS Panzer vs Belgium is not going to be a long one. So thought id get the British ready for there debut.

[BlueLavender]

.... the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, "Go For Broke", composed of Japanese American soldiers, especially its 100th Battalion, the "Purple heart battalion".

And heare are the decorations earned by the 100th Infantry Battalion & 442nd Regimental Combat Team
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Major campaigns in Europe
7 Presidential Unit Citations: 5 of these were earned during a one-month period during the fighting for Bruyeres and the "Lost Battalion."
9,486 Purple Hearts
18,143 Individual decorations, including:
* 21 Congressional Medal of Honor
* 52 Distinguished Service Crosses
- 100th Battalion: 26
- 2nd Battalion: 16
- 3rd Battalion: 10

* 1 Distinguished Service Medal
* 560 Silver Stars
* 28 Oak Leaf Clusters for second award of the medal
* 22 Legion of Merit Medals
* 4,000 Bronze Stars
* 1,200 Oak Leaf Cluster to Bronze Stars for second award of the medal
* 15 Soldier's Medals
* 12 French Croix de Guerre
* 2 Palm to Croix de Guerre for second award of the medal
* 2 Italian Crosses for Military Merit [Croce Al Merito Di Guerra]
* 2 Italian Medals for Military Valor [Medaglia De Bronzo Al Valor Militare]
* 36 Army Commendations
* 87 Division Commendations,
* 2 Meritorious Service Plaques for the Medical Detachment and Service Company

And those are for units whose size was no larger than 5,000 men

BL

[pappasmurf]

Two days after the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive, the 4tb Armored entered the fight (18 December 1944), racing northwest into Belgium, covering 150 miles in 19 hours. The Division attacked the Germans at Bastogne, helping to relieve the besieged 101st Airborne.

The Divsion also had 3 medal of honor winners

The Germans called the 4th Armoured Divison
"American Elite 4th Armoured Division"

Patton declared them his best divsion.

The divsion is also in the running for possesing the greatest single American tank ace of all time. veteran accounts reports that lt. Col Creighton Abrams leadign from the front destroyed hundreds of german veihicles. There is no offical number so the honors go to Sgt Pool but Abrams is at least second.

Abrams and his Xo wer ealbelled in nazi propaganda as Rossevelts butchers and had a price on their head.

The Divison took part in the illf ated hammelburg raid on the express orders of Gen patton.

[Belisarius]

German divisions:

16th Infantry Division "Windhund"
7th Panzer Division
Großdeutschland 'Regiment'

British:

51st Highland Division, mostly because it had the Black Watch attached to it. Those guys know how to kick ass and take names.

[Matt2]

Mine is the US 2nd Division. It's the one I wear on the right sleeve of my uniform, but I have been a fan for a while. The first book that got me interested in history was "Company Commander" by Charles MacDonald of the 2nd Infantry Division. I have also tromped all over the Bulge battlefield where the Division was. The division was also prominent (and still is) in Korea. I suppose that I am biased though.

Matt

IYACYAS

[Beppo]

I like the Italian 65th "Granatieri di Savoia" division.

1) Did well in doomed East African campaign
2) Cool name
3) Nice mix of troops (Infantry, CCNN, Bersaglieri, Alpini, Cavalry, Engineer, etc)
4) I can buy the whole thing for less than 10,000 pts!!!!!

[Puukkoo]

Granatieri di Savoia

Cool name! And if you can buy it with 10,000 points it's also great. If you also created a scenario where that unit fights...

My favourite WWII Division is the Finnish PsD - the armoured division. Because it had:

(almost) All the tanks in army
Best infantry
And almost the best commander Ruben Lagus. 3rd Division commander A. Pajari was probably even better.

Best Regiment in Finnish army was 7th Infantry and it's commander A. Ehrnrooth was the best regimental commander.

[eburr155]

While my Scots blood says its the 51st (Highland) Division, I'm going with the US 4th Infantry Division.

The Ivy Division, for me, kind of sums up the workmanlike job the American soldier did in the war. Not much publicity, just storm the beach and fight across Europe.

Plus it's got the best and most intelligent moniker, Tropic Lightning excepted, of any US division. Why they changed it to something as bland as "Ironhorse" I'll never know.

[Terminus]

1st British Airborne Division, for the awesome fight they put up at Arnhem.

[eburr155]

On the other hand, I can't figure the Army's idea of continuity. From what I can gather, the 2nd Armored Division was renamed the 4th Infantry Division in 1995.

And instead being the composed of the 8th, 12th and 22nd Infantry with supporting units (nine rifle batllions and four artillery batallions), the 4th ID is now the 1/22, the 1 and 2/8, the 1/12 and the first batallions of the 66th, 67th, and 68th Armored Regiments, and the 3/66th AR. So that's four infantry and four tank batallions, all of which were renamed a decade ago. And a quarter of them are reserve components.

[Terminus]

Hey, the 3rd ID used to be the 24th ID. Don't worry about it...

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

Always had a fondness for the German 130th Panzer Division (Panzer Learning Division), because they often had neat stuff to test. Also, although destroyed by American air power in France they did retreat in good order.

Bye...

Michael Wood

[omegaall]

Though not a unit in our recognised sense, the many partisan units in Europe and Pacific theatres.
With out them many of the covert operations in Europe would not have worked, the Coast Watch and similar units in the Pacific would not have survived.
They were our manned and poorly equipped in comparison to the regular units.
In many cases not even recognised by their own countries after the war.
Not easily represented in SPWAW.

But make a good scenario