5th Infantry Division - Red Diamond

Activated 16 Oct 1939 •  Entered Combat 16 Nov 1944 Normandy  •  Days of Combat 270  •  Casualties 12,818

Division Chronicle

The 5th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach, 9 July 1944 and 4 days later took up defensive positions in the vicinity of Caumont. Launching a successful attack at Vidouville 26 July, the Division drove on southeast of St. Lo, attacked and captured Angers, 9-10 August, pushed across the Seine at Fontainebleau, 23 August, and across the Marne to seize Reims, 30 August, and positions east of Verdun. The Division then prepared for the assault on Metz. In midSeptember a bridgehead was established and secured across the Moselle, south of Metz, in the face of very heavy opposition. First attempts to take the fortress failed, 16 September-16 October 1944, and the Division withdrew, returning to the assault on 9. November. Metz was reduced after a heavy, 10-day battle. The Division crossed the German border, 4 December, captured Lauterbach on the 5th, and elements reached the west bank of the Saar, 6 December, before the Division moved to assembly areas. On the 16th of December the Germans launched their winter offensive, and on the 18th the 5th was thrown in against the southern flank of the Bulge, helping to reduce it by the end of January 1945. In February and March, the Division drove across and northeast of the Sauer, cracked through the Siegfried Line, reached and crossed the Rhine, 22 March, and continued on to Frankfurt-am-Main, clearing and policing the town and its environs, 27-29 March. In April the Division took part in clearing the Ruhr Pocket and then drove across the Czechoslovak border, 1 May, reaching Volary and Vimpeck as the war in Europe ended.

Organization 1944

2nd Infantry Regiment

10th Infantry Regiment

11th Infantry Regiment

Headquarters and Hdqts Battery

19th Field Artillery Battalion

21st Field Artillery Battalion

50th Field Artillery Battalion

46th Field Artillery Battalion

5th Reconnaissance Troop

735th Tank Battalion (attached)

737th Tank Battalion (attached)

774th Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached)

803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached)

818th Tank Destroyer Battalion (attached)

Headquarters and Hdqts Company 

7th Engineer Battalion

5th Medical Battalion

5th Counter Intelligence Corps

Headquarters, Special Troops

Military Police Platoon

5th Quartermaster Company

5th Signal Company

705th Ordnance Co.