Fact Sheet of the 5th Armored Division

TYPE OF DIVISION:   .Army of the United States

NICKNAME:  “V“ for Victory and for Fifth.

SHOULDER PATCH:    Triangular design divided into three areas: red (representing Field Artillery), blue (representing Infantry), and yellow (representing Cavalry).  Superimposed on three areas in black, are the track of a tank and a cannon.  A bolt of lightning, in red, is superimposed on these.  The Division‘s number appears in the upper portion of the triangle.

ACTIVATION DATE:   10 October 1941

INACTIVATION DATE:  11 October 1945 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.

COMPONENT UNITS:   Hq Co; Reserve Command; Combat Command A; Combat Command B; 10, 34, 81 Tanks Bns; 15, 46 and 47 Armored Infantry Bns; 22 Armd Engineer Bn; 85 Cav Rcn Sq (Mecz); 145 Armd Signal Co.; Division Artillery: 47, 71 and 95 Armored Field Artillery Bns; Division Trains: 75 Armored Medical Bn, 127 Ordnance Maintenance Bn, MP Plat and Band.

TRAINING:   Upon activation the Division was assigned to Fort Knox, KY, for training under the Armored Force.  In March 1942, it transferred to Camp Crooke, CA, and from 24 August to 18 October 1942, the unit took part in maneuvers in the Desert training Center Area.  In March 1943 and from 26 April to 20 June 1943, the Division maneuvered in Tennessee under the Second Army, and in July it transferred to Pine Camp, NY.

DEPARTED U.S. FOR FOREIGN DUTY:  11 February 1944 from New York Port of Embarkation.

OVERSEAS TRAINING:  The Division went into training at Camps Chiseldon, Ogbourne-St George and Tidworth-Perham Downes in Wiltshire, England.  In April it operated hundreds of camps, servicing First Army troops as they embarked for the invasion of France.

DATE ENTERED COMBAT:   DIVISION  2 August 1944.

COMBAT DAYS (DIV):   .161.

BATTLE CREDITS:  (Division)    Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe. 

RETURNED TO US:  8 October 1945 at Boston.

SUCCESSIVE COMMANDING GENERALS:   MG Jack W Heard, Oct 1941 to Feb 1943; MG Lunsford E Oliver, from March 1943 til Jun 1945; BG Merrill Ross from Jun to Sep 1945; MG Holmes E Dager from Sep 1945 to inactivation.

DISTINGUISHED UNIT CITATION:    Co B, 47th Armd Inf Bn for 4-5 Sep 44 action in France; Co C, 47th Armd Inf Bn for 4-5 Sep 44 action in France; Tp A, 85th  Cav Rcn Sq for 15-22 Dec 44 action in Germany; Combat Command “R“ for 29 Nov – 8 Dec 44 action in Hurtgen Forest, Germany.

FOREIGN AWARDS:  Reserve Command of 5th Armd Div awarded French Croix de Guerre for 14-20 Sep 44 action at Wallendorf and Our River per French Decision #246, dated 15 July 1946...

COMBAT HIGHLIGHTS:   The Division plunged into combat in Aug 1944, Le Mans being the objective. The unit swept between Coutances and St Lo, across the Selune River thus starting the organization’s 300 mile exploitation behind the German Seventh Army.  Le Mans fell and the 5th pursued the enemy, wrecking their armor and inflicting heavy casualties all the way to the Seine River.  The Euro-Seine Campaign toward the end of August was the culmination of the successful plunge to the south bank of the Seine.  The 5th won Corps commendation for this action.    Start of September saw the 5th ready to begin a 130-mile push from Paris north to Belgium.  The Division cut through Compiegne Forest, crossed the Olse and Aisne Rivers, and then the Somme.  New orders sent the unit racing another 100 miles to the Meuse River, advancing southeast below the Belgium border.  Speeding onward the 5th figures in the freeing of Luxembourg.  On 11 September the Our River was crossed in the vicinity of Stalzembourg,; Germany had been entered.  In Nov, the 5th Armd Div , along with the 90th Inf Div, participated in the original crossing of the Moselle River.  The 5th’s troopers will rate the Dec battling in the Hurtgen Forest and on the approaches to the Roer River as the most bitter they experienced.  Retarded by the terrain, weather and thousands of mines, the tankers and Infantrymen fought a slow, hacking foot-by-foot engagement.  They lived in mud, rain and ice and were constantly exposed to tremendous artillery concentration.  This was the month of savage warfare that broke the German spirit; never again did the Nazis fight with the ferocity shown at Hurtgen. Fighting hard in Dec during the “Bulge” period the 5th greeted 1945 by continuing to advance and by crushing enemy armor in XV Corps objectives.  At Coblenz the unit smashed and then mopped up all enemy resistance.  By Spring 1945 Div had rolled to the Wesser River and in May, driving north of Brunswick, it reached the Elbe, fanning out in the vicinity of Tangermuonde, 50 miles northeast of Magdeburg.  In crossing the Elbe the 5th was the nearest US unit to Berlin just prior to V-E Day.  Assigned to SHEAF after V-E Day the Division sailed for home on 2 Oct and was inactivated shortly after arrival in the US.

  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.