Fact Sheet of the 76th Infantry Division

TYPE OF DIVISION:   Organized Reserve

NICKNAME:  Onaway Division (“Onaway” is the alert cry of the Chippewa Indians, in whose hunting grounds the 76th trained while at Camp Mc Coy, Wisc.).  Division was formerly called the Liberty Bell Division because the last two digits of the historic year 1776 are the numerical designation of the division.

SONG: “Onaway,” words by Brig Gen Henry C Evans, last Commanding General of the 76th in WWII.  

SHOULDER PATCH:    The division insignia is an escutcheon which has a red field and a blue chief, separated by an olive drab line; a three pronged white device is superimposed on the blue chief.  The white device was a medieval English heraldic symbol meaning “first son.”  In World War I the 76th was the first division of the National Army to be drawn from civilian ranks through the draft, hence the insignia and the description, “the first sons of the nation.”  The combined colors of the field, the device, and the chief are the national colors.

ACTIVATION  DATE:  15 June 1942.

INACTIVATION DATE:  31 August 1945 in ETO.

COMPONENT UNITS:   304, 385, and 417 Inf Regts; 76 Cav Rcn Tp (Mecz); 301 Engr Combat Bn, 301 Med Bn.  Div Arty: 302, 355 and 901st FA Bns (105 How) and 364 FA Bn (155 How).  Sp Tps: 76 QM Co, 76 Sig Co, 776 Ord Co (LM), Hq Co, MP Plat and Band.

TRAINING UNDER ARMY GROUND FORCES:   The division was activated for this war at Ft Meade MD.  In Jul 1943 it moved to AP Hill Military Reservation, VA and in Oct 1943 was transferred to Camp McCoy, passing to control of the Second Army. While at Camp McCoy the division trained hard for winter warfare.  Officers and men were issued special winter equipment, instructed in the use of skis and snowshoes, and in the operation of “weasels,” small-tracked general-purpose vehicles.  Between June and October 1942, the 76th furnished a number of replacements for units which subsequently participated in the invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Italy.  Some of the men who trained with the division left in April 1944 and went overseas as replacements to units which took part in the Normandy invasion.

DEPARTED U.S. FOR FOREIGN DUTY:  10 December 1944.

OVERSEAS TRAINING:  Division trained extensively in England prior to moving to the continent.

DATE ENTERED COMBAT:   Division 19 January 1945.

COMBAT DAYS (DIV):   95.

RETURNED TO U.S.:   Disbanded in ETO.

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

SUCCESSIVE COMMANDING GENERALS:   Major General Emil F. Reinhardt from June to December 1942; Major General William R. Schmidt from December 1942 to July 1945; Brigadier General Henry C. Evans from August 19455 to inactivation (31 Aug 1945).

DISTINGUISHED UNIT CITATION:   Co C, 301 Engr C. Bn for 7-12 Feb 1945 action at Sauer River Cross; Co C, 301 Med Bn for 7-12 Feb 45 action at Sauer River Cross.

CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS:  Pvt William D. McGee, Company K, 304th Infantry regiment, for 18 March 1945 action near Mulheim, Germany; Pfc Herman C. Wallace, Company B, 301st Engineer Combat Bn, for 27 February 1945 action at Prumzurley, Germany.

HISTORY:  The 76th was activated in August 1917 at Camp (now Fort) Devens, Massachusetts, and was the first of the “draft” divisions formed during World War I.  Its personnel was largely drawn from the New England States but included men from New York.  It went overseas in Aug 1918.  Some of its units saw action in France, but the organization never did go into combat as a complete division.  The division was reorganized in August 1918 into a Depot Division and trained approximately 20,000 officers and men as replacements for other divisions.  The 76th returned to this country by May 1919 and was demobilized.

COMBAT HIGHLIGHTS:  Advance of more than 400 miles against hostile resistance in 110  days of combat, capture of more than 33,000 prisoners and the crossing of 20 rivers mark the battle record of the 76th Inf Div.  The “Onaways” went into action early in Feb 1945 along the Sauer River near the Luxembourg-Germany border and prepared for an assault upon Nazi defenses which were part of the Siegfried Line.  Men of the 417th Inf Regt stormed across the Sauer River at Echternach, Luxembourg, on 6 Feb 1945, along with units of other divisions that were making the assault.  By the second day after the river crossing enemy pill-boxes and strong points began falling rapidly.  The 76th then went on to attack north of the Sauer and west of the Prum Rivers, battering through line after line of west wall forts.  Irrel fell and in less than two weeks of fighting the “Onaways” held secure positions on the high ground between the Sauer and Prum Rivers, knocking out more than 110  pillboxes and fortified positions in the process.  The division next outflanked the Welschbillig-Eisenach line, and again hit the Siegfried Line, smashing it down its length to open  a pathway to the Moselle River at Trier.  The Prum and Nims Rivers had been crossed and a large pocket of Nazi resistance liquidated.  Early in March the division went across the Kyll River, making the crossing near Preist.  It quickly took the strategic towns of Speicher and Orenhoffen.  The bridgehead across the Kyll was rapidly expanded and the 76th pushed forward  to the northwest bank of the Moselle River between Schweich and Reil.  On 16 March the division was at its job of river crossing again, this time spanning the Moselle at two places to secure a d protect bridging operations undertaken by the XII Corps at Mulheim.  On 27 March the division began its crossing of the Rhine at Boppard and St Goar.  Early in April the 76th was committed to a new offensive initiated  when a drive was started across the Fulda River.  The “Onaways” drove on fast to the Werra River where they were teamed up with the 6th Armored Division to form the spearhead of the Third Army’s plunge across Germany toward Czechoslovakia.   The Werra River was crossed and the 76th blitzed its way during April across the German provinces of Thirungia and Saxony to within 50 miles of the Czech border, halting at the Mulde River as well as the Schopau River.  The division was holding in this area when the war in Europe ended, and the division was subsequently inactivated overseas. 

Source:  These fact sheets are from The Information Section, Analysis Branch, Hq Army Ground Forces, Washington 25 DC, 1 Mar 1947, as  found in the records of the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 407, Archives II, College Park MD.  Not all of the Division’s Fact sheets have survived and they are being presented here in random order as new ones are found.