Fact Sheet of the 38th Infantry Division

TYPE OF DIVISION:   National Guard.  Troops from Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia..

NICKNAME:  Cyclone Division.  While the division was in training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, during World War I its tent city was leveled by a storm.  It promptly became known as the Cyclone Division.  After its action at Bataan during this war, the men of the 38th began to use the phrase “Avengers of Bataan” as a divisional nickname.

SHOULDER PATCH:    The patch is in the form of a shield divided vertically into a field of red and a field of blue.  In the center of the shield, in white, are the letters “C” and “Y” interlocked.

HISTORY:   The division was organized and trained at Camp Shelby MS and overseas between September and October 1918.  The division was overseas for six months, but during that period it was skeletonized and its personnel were sent to other units.  It never saw action as a division in World War I.  The last element of the 38th to return to this country from France was demobilized by June 1919.  The 149th Infantry Regiment was formally the 2nd Kentucky Infantry, which was commanded by Daniel Boone, frontiersman.  The 138th Field Artillery Battalion was the former colonial 1st Kentucky Infantry and at one time was commanded by George Rogers Clark, old Indian fighter.  The 152nd Infantry Regiment identifies itself with the 2nd Indiana Regiment which was organized in 1810 and saw service at Tippecanoe.

ACTIVATION DATE:   17 January 1941.

INACTIVATION DATE:  10 November 1945, Camp Anza California.

COMPONENT UNITS:   149th, 151st and 152nd  Inf Regts; 38th Cav Rcn Tp (Mecz); 113th Engr Combat Bn, 113th Med Bn.  Div Arty: 138th, 139th and 163rd FA Bns (105 How) and 150th FA Bn (155 How).  Sp Tps: 38th QM Co, 38th Sig Co, 738th Ord Co (LM), Hq Co, MP Plat and Band.

TRAINING UNDER ARMY GROUND FORCES:   The division was organized and trained at Camp Shelby MS and had its first maneuver exercises during the Third Army maneuvers which were held in Louisiana in September 1941.  On 9 March 1942, the 38th came under the control of the Army Ground Forces and was assigned to the IV Corps of the Third Army at Camp Shelby.  During 1942 the 151st Infantry regiment was sent to Ft Benning GA for extensive training and to act as school troops for a six month period, rejoining the division in September 1942 to take part in the Third Army’s Louisiana maneuvers.  In November 1942 the entire division was moved to Carrabelle FL to learn amphibious warfare under instructors back from the invasion of North Africa.  In March 1943, the 38th moved to Camp Livingston LA.  During its training period in this country the division furnished eight cadres, parts of 13 task forces and produced between 4000 and 5000 officer candidates.

DEPARTED U.S. FOR FOREIGN DUTY:  3 January 1944 for Hawaii.

OVERSEAS TRAINING:  Division received further training in Hawaii where it also did defense duty.

DATE ENTERED COMBAT:   DIVISION  29 January 1945 FIRST ELEMENTS Late December 1944

BATTLE CREDITS:  (Division)   New Guinea, Southern Philippines and Luzon.. 

RETURNED TO US:  30 October 1945.

SUCCESSIVE COMMANDING GENERALS:   Major General Robert H Tyndall from Jan to Apr 1941; Lt General (then Major General) Daniel I Sultan from Apr 1941 to Apr 1942; Major General L C Jones from Apr 1942 to Feb 1945; Major General William C Chase from Feb to Jul 1945; Major General Frederick A Irving from Aug 1945 to inactivation.

DISTINGUISHED UNIT CITATION:    Company E, 151st Infantry for 27 Mar – 4 Apr 1945 action in Philippine Islands..

CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER:  Pfc William H Thomas, Company B, 149th Infantry Regiment, for 22 Apr 1945 action in the Zomballes Mountains, Luzon P.I.

COMBAT HIGHLIGHTS:   Spearheading the drive which annihilated Japanese forces on Bataan, in the battle that liberated Luzon, is an achievement of which men of the 38th are justly proud.  The division first saw action in Leyte December 1944, when the 149th Infantry Regiment was sent into Leyte P. I., for a month of mopping-up campaigning.  It then moved on to Luzon, P. I., to make its now famous Subic Bay landing on Bataan Peninsula on 29 January 1945.  Division troops poured in for 16 days  of fierce action to smash through an intricate maze of Japanese fortifications at Zig-Zag Pass, key defense to the rapid reduction Bataan Peninsula.   While one division regimental combat team made an amphibious landing at Mariveles, on the tip of the Peninsula, another force struck swiftly down the east coast through Balanga, Pilar and across the neck of land to Bagac the March of Death route – - to gain control of the entire peninsula.  Some units of the 38th then landed at D plus 4, on Corregidor to assist in the defeat of the strong Jap garrison there. The division was then divided up into three regiment combat teams.  One force mopped up remnants of enemy troops on the Bataan Peninsula.  Another regimental combat team plus a provisional company organized from the 38th division artillery, struck north and west of Zig-Zag Pass against powerful Jap defense in the Zambales mountain ranges, while the third regimental combat team was charged with the reduction of enemy defenses on the remaining three islands – - Cabello, Fort Drum and Carabao – - guarding the entrance to Manila Bay.  Later sent to the Marakina watershed, the Cyclone boys worked in May 1945, to free Eastern Luzon from the Gaps and helped preserve Manila’s water supply.  This involved fighting in the Sierra Madre mountains northeast of Manila to oppose Jap forces drawn up behind the Shinbu  Line, an area defended by almost impassable terrain in addition to a well developed  and interlocking series of caves, pillboxes, tunnels and artillery emplacements.  Here division troops defeated the Japanese in a series of bitterly contested engagements culminating in the seizing of the Marakina River line and the capture of strategic Wawa Dam, an important source of water supply to Manila.  Division troops engaged in combat with the Japs in the bamboo thickets and mountainous terrain of the Marakina area up to and after V-J Day.  The division was alerted for home in late September; elements arrived during October with inactivation shortly thereafter.
 

  These Army Ground Forces Fact Sheets were prepared at the end of the war (1 March 1947) by The Information Section, Analysis Branch, Headquarters Army Ground Forces on each division.  They may be found in Record Group 407, Unit Records, for each division, under the file number 3 (Division #) - 0 at the National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Rd, College Park MD.