US Army Divisions That Fought in the PTO

[Admiral DadMan]

The US Army divisions that fought in the PTO. The number in the square is the division number.

Note - "A" is the Americal division. 1c is the 1st Cav.

I don't know why it also says "This map diagrams the routes of all the divisions that fought in the European Theater".

https://www.armydivs.com/pacific-theater

[Jorge_Stanbury]

Which was the one that fought the most? Americal? 1st Cav?

so I am asking about pure fighting operation, not garrison duty

[crsutton]

Americal. 1st Cav. did not see it's initial combat until 2/44.

[btd64]

Nice....GP

[JeffroK]

Maybe 41 or 32 Divs?

[Lokasenna]

Nice chart.

[Dili]

Yeah nice site.

[m10bob]

My Uncle Jim was with the 43rd and went swimming at Guadalcanal when the Calvin Coolidge sunk after hitting a "friendly" mine..
He fought on the 'Canal and later went to to 32nd in New Guinea.

He despised the Americal because they had a full time press corps to give them all the credit (army wise), and he said that on the 'Canal every unit had a Gyrene attached for maybe a month to get the dogfaces acquainted with the area.
He hated the press for also not reporting the fighting was only half finished when the Marines were rotated off that island, having been decimated by combat and malaria.

Many folks do not know the army fought more combat in the Pacific than did the USMC, and I once made the mistake of stating the fact that the USMC were the finest assault troops the world has ever seen.

[JeffroK]

Can you imagine hoe we felt!!

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: JeffroK

Can you imagine hoe we felt!!

I have an extensive library in my home, and every volume dealing with the subject (that I have read),gives credit to the Australians for being the best jungle fighters of that war.

[JeffroK]

I bet none of those books were written by Macarthur or his group.

Read the CMH precis on 32d Division, fought the japanese back over the Kokoda track!!!!

The Australian Army was poorly served by the SWPAC Command, our Government sold us down the river by allowing Macarthur so much control.

[JeffroK]

An interesting article, I dont agree with all of it but its worth a read.

http://rethinkinghistory.blogspot.com.a ... roops.html

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: JeffroK

I bet none of those books were written by Macarthur or his group.

Read the CMH precis on 32d Division, fought the japanese back over the Kokoda track!!!!

The Australian Army was poorly served by the SWPAC Command, our Government sold us down the river by allowing Macarthur so much control.

I am sympathetic to the quandary facing Australian Prime Minister Curtin. Australia's four AIF divisions were fighting in Africa (three) or had surrendered in Singapore and the DEI (one) . . . and the Japanese were bearing down on Australia.

Australia only had a population of 7 million at the time. A comparable situation for the US would be if the entire Army mobilized in WWII was overseas, including 20 divisions in Mexico that were suddenly surrounded and captured in a surprise invasion by Axis forces that were driving north towards the Rio Grande . . . and all we had to defend ourselves was militia.

Curtin's situation was compounded by the 'Europe First' strategy of London and Washington, and the exclusion of Australia from senior Allied war councils. With the benefit of hindsight we know that the Japanese had no serious plan to attack Australia, and that the Japanese army determined that they lacked the troops and logistics to conquer the country.*

But for Curtin and his contemporaries, the threat of invasion was very real. They felt abandoned by the British: Singapore fell, there was no British fleet to contest the Japanese advance, and Curtin had to fight a nasty 'telegram war' with Churchill to get his own AIF divisions home. Curtin found Roosevelt's reassurances to be lukewarm, at best.

For the Australian government, the arrival of MacArthur was providential. Here was a senior US military figure with a strong political following whose voice would be heard in the USA and who could be relied on trumpet the need to get more US military forces committed to Australia. It is no wonder that Curtin allied the Australian government with him. He had to weigh the loss of sovereignty of Australian forces versus the risk of being abandoned by the Allies and invaded by the Japanese.

Here's an interesting read discussing the changing nature of the Curtin-MacArthur relationship during the war:
http://john.curtin.edu.au/macarthur/assessment1.html

* fortunately, the Japanese Army had never played AE. [;)]

[jdsrae]

Fingers crossed the image appears

[jdsrae]

I'd seen the US Army image in the top post before and found it really helpful to understand which Divisions moved where and when.
Here's one I've just whipped up for the Australian Divisions.

The 2nd AIF Divisions arriving back from Nth Africa/Middle East generally fought with one of their Bdes detached until they rotated out of NG for reorg into the Jungle TOE and training in the Atherton Tablelands (near Cairns).
Defence of Australia and New Guinea in the early years of the war was based on task forces cobbled together with whatever was on hand, including Militia Bdes like the 3rd Bde (to NT Force Darwin); 30th Bde (Port Moresby-Kokoda) and 7th Bde (Milne Force).
To play "historical" in game it would be appropriate to leave the AIF Divs as Bde counters for a few years after arriving and deploy them around North Queensland, Darwin and New Guinea as the situation requires.
The image shows the general shift of Militia units north to NG, and the III Corps concentration vic Perth.
Other short lived Divisions shown here but not represented in game are 10th (Newcastle covering force), 12th (NT Force, Corps HQ in game) and the Cavalry/Motorised/Armoured Divisions represented in game as unit sized counters.

1st Australian Division never left garrison duties vic Sydney and struggled to come up to decent strength before being disbanded. In game I usually fill out the 1st Div with reinforcements as the priority of the Militia Divs but in reality it was bottom of the priority list which probably went more like 5,3,2,4,1.
The Australian economy couldn't afford to keep this many active divisions on active service overseas, but it's reasonable to think they could have been filled if an invasion did actually occur.

My wife just muttered something about valentines day...

[jdsrae]

with Australian and USMC Divs overlaid

[LargeSlowTarget]

ORIGINAL: jdsrae
My wife just muttered something about valentines day...

Never quite understood why this POS is being honored with a special day...

[Jorge_Stanbury]

Yes, a "St Panther Day" would be more appropriate

[ericv]

Here is an excellent overview of all divisions that fought in the Pacific

Its ETO counterpart can be found here

[sstevens06]

ORIGINAL: ericv

Here is an excellent overview of all divisions that fought in the Pacific

Its ETO counterpart can be found here

Looks promising, thank you for sharing.