By Matthew J. Seelinger
Constituted on 18 January 1943 in the Army of the United States, the 63d Infantry Division, given the special designation “Blood and Fire,” first saw action in Europe when elements of the division took part in the defense of Alsace against the Wehrmacht during Operation NORDWIND. While the 63d’s time in combat in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) was relatively brief—119 days—the 63d Division played an important part in bolstering the U.S. Seventh Army in its final push into Nazi Germany and the eventual Allied victory in May 1945. The 63d then served as a U.S. Army Reserve division beginning in the early years of the Cold War and into the 1960s.
The War Department activated the 63d Infantry Division on 15 June 1943 at Camp Blanding, Florida. Brigadier General (later Major General) Louis E. Hibbs, a 1916 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and veteran of World War I, was appointed the 63d’s commanding general. Many of the division’s officer cadre arrived from Fort Leavenworth fresh from a “cram” course at the Command and General Staff School. The 63d was comprised of the 253d, 254th, and 255th Infantry Regiments; 718th (155mm howitzers), 861st, (105mm howitzers), 862d (105mm howitzers), and 863d (105mm howitzers); 263d Engineer Combat Battalion; 63d Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized; 363d Medical Battalion; and various support elements. Additional units, such as tank, tank destroyer, antiaircraft artillery, and chemical mortar battalions were attached as required. The division’s special designation, “Blood and Fire,” and its shoulder sleeve insignia, designed by Major General Hibbs and approved by the Army on 27 March 1943, were inspired by a statement at the January 1943 Casablanca Conference by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill promising that “the enemy would bleed and burn in expiation for their crimes against humanity.”
After initial training under VII and VIII Corps at Camp Blanding, the 63d was transferred in August 1943 to Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, for more intensive unit training under IX and XXI Corps. After completing its Series “D” tests, an advanced element of the 63d, composed of the division’s three infantry regiments and a headquarters, was ordered to Camp Shanks, New York, in preparation for shipment overseas. Led by the division’s assistant division commander, Brigadier General Frederick M. Harris, the 63d’s advanced element, designated Task Force Harris, departed the New York Port of Embarkation (NYPE) on 25 November 1944 and arrived in Marseilles, France, on 8 December. Assigned to Seventh Army, Task Force Harris briefly trained at Hagenau, France, before being assigned to the east flank of Seventh Army’s drive to the Rhine River.
Two weeks after German offensive in the Ardennes, the Wehrmacht launched Operation NORDWIND against the Allied Sixth Army Group in Alsace on 31 December. In response to the new German offensive, the regiments of Task Force Harris were attached to other divisions of Seventh Army. The 253d went to the 44th Infantry Division, while the 255th was attached to the 100th Infantry Division. The 254th was attached to the 3d Infantry Division and took part in bitter fighting in the Battle of the Colmar Pocket from 23 January 1945 into early February. For its actions in the Colmar Pocket, the 254th Infantry was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (now known as a Presidential Unit Citation).
As the regiments of Task Force Harris battled the Germans in Alsace, the remaining units of the 63d Infantry departed the NYPE on 5 January 1945 and arrived at Marseilles on 14 January. On 1 February, the 63d was attached to XV Corps; the following day, Major General Hibbs established the division command post at Willerwald as Task Force Harris was discontinued with the return of the division’s three infantry regiments. For the first couple of weeks fighting as a whole division, the soldiers of the 63d conducted patrols and local raids against the enemy.
On 15 February, the 63d Division began its first major combat operations against the Germans. The riflemen of the 63d faced heavy resistance in reducing several pillboxes in the vicinity of Neidergailbach. On the following day, the division suffered significant casualties in taking the town of Hanweiler. On 17 February, the 63d crossed the Saar and Blies Rivers, crossed into Germany, and mopped up enemy resistance in Muhlen Woods. By the end of February, the 63d had repulsed numerous German counterattacks, seized five towns and several other objectives, and expanded the division sector.
In early March, the 63d engaged German troops in a fierce four-day battle around a quarry near Gudingen that saw possession of the quarry change hands several times. On 15 March, the 63d reached the Siegfried Line, or Westwall, and engaged in heavy fighting against Germans holed up in pillboxes and other fortifications. Over the next five days, the Blood and Fire Division reduced dozens of German pillboxes and drove off several enemy counterattacks. On 18-19 March, division artillery fired 16,275 rounds during the effort to penetrate the German defenses. On 20 March, the 63d breached the Siegfried Line and moved forward to take the towns of St. Ingbert and Hassel. At the same time, the 263d Engineer Combat Battalion cleared the way for passage of the 6th Armored Division. On the following day, the 63d rapidly charged forward, capturing Spiessen, Neunkirchen, and Erbach, taking 1,000 enemy prisoners, and freeing 2,000 prisoners of war and forced laborers.
After four days of rest and rehabilitation from 23 to 27 March, the GIs of the 63d picked up where they left off. On 28 March, the 63d crossed the Rhine River at Neuschloss and relieved the 44th Infantry Division. Two days later, the division captured Heidelberg and several smaller towns and continued to attack eastward. Advancing quickly with three infantry regiments abreast, the 63d crossed the Neckar and Jagst Rivers before running into heavy enemy resistance. After regrouping, the division pivoted to the southeast and captured Lampoldhausen. After frontal assaults failed to eliminate German positions in the Harthhausen Forest, the 63d enveloped the forest on 7 April and cleared it of the enemy. During this fighting, on 6 April, First Lieutenant James E. Robinson, Jr., a forward observer with the 861st Field Artillery Battalion attached to Company A, 253d Infantry, took over the decimated company after its commander and other officers and key enlisted personnel had been killed or wounded. He led the remaining GIs against enemy positions and single-handedly killed ten enemy soldiers defending from prepared positions with rifle and pistol fire. While advancing on the town of Kressbach, Robinson was struck in the throat by shrapnel and seriously wounded but refused medical evacuation until the town was secured. He then walked nearly two miles to reach an aid station before succumbing to his wound. For his actions on 6 April, Robinson was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.
On 8 April, the 255th Infantry forced a crossing of the Kocher River and established a bridgehead at Weissbach against stubborn enemy resistance. The rest of the division quickly followed. Staff Sergeant John R. Crews, a platoon sergeant with Company F, 253d Infantry, single-handedly eliminated two German machine-gun positions and took several enemy soldiers prisoner despite being seriously wounded. For his actions, Staff Sergeant Crews was awarded the Medal of Honor. The 63d then expanded the bridgehead, allowing the 10th Armored Division to attack southward out of it towards Heilbronn.
On 15 April, the most controversial episode in the 63d Division’s history occurred in the town of Jungolzhausen in Baden-Württemberg. Following bitter fighting that resulted in heavy casualties for the 254th Infantry Regiment, GIs from the regiment reportedly shot between thirteen and thirty Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht soldiers after they had surrendered. No charges were brought against any Americans in the weeks and months after 15 April, and a 1996 Army Criminal Investigation Command investigation could not identify the soldiers who may have perpetrated the crime.
By 19 April, German resistance had significantly decreased in the 63d Division’s sector. Advanced elements crossed the Rems River and quickly advanced on the Danube, where the Germans had demolished all the bridges. Beginning on 25 April and led by the 254th Infantry, the 63d crossed the Danube at Riedheim, captured the town of Leipheim, and then swept forward to secure bridges over the Wertach and Lech Rivers.
On 28 April, the 63d was withdrawn from the line and replaced by the 36th Infantry Division. The 63d was assigned to the Seventh Army Security Command and assigned to a large area from the Rhine River to Darmstadt and Würzburg, on a line from Stuttgart and Speyer, where it was to guard installations and maintain order. Almost immediately after being pulled from the line, elements of the division liberated seven sub-camps of the Kaufenberg camp complex, liberating approximately 900 prisoners in desperate need of medical care and discovering the bodies of hundreds more. In 2000, the U.S. Army Center of Military History and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum recognized the 63d Division as a liberating unit.
The men of the 63d were performing security duty when the war in Europe came to an end in Europe on 7 May. After serving with the occupation forces, the 63d began heading back to the United States in August; this was accelerated by the surrender of the Japanese on 14 August. On 21 August, elements of the 63d began sailing from Le Havre, France, for Boston. The rest of the division arrived on 26 September, and the entire division was inactivated at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts, the following day.
In 119 days of combat, the 63d Infantry Division lost 735 killed-in-action or died of wounds, 3,417 wounded, and 395 taken prisoner of missing, along with 3,472 non-battle casualties. In addition to two Medals of Honor, soldiers of the Blood and Fire Division were awarded thirteen Distinguished Service Crosses, 455 Silver Stars, 5,313 Bronze Stars, and a host of other U.S., British, and French medals. Infantry units of the 63d were awarded a total of seven Presidential Unit Citations. The 63d earned two campaign streamers for Rhineland and Central Europe, while the three infantry regiments that made up Task Force Harris were awarded an additional streamer for Ardennes-Alsace.
Several soldiers who served with the 63d Division during World War II would rise to fame within the Army and in the entertainment world. The division chief of staff, then-Colonel Earl G. Wheeler, rose to rank of general and served as both the Army’s Chief of Staff (1962-64) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1964-70). Frederick Kroesen served as a company-grade officer in the 254th Infantry Regiment and went on to command two different divisions as a major general before rising to four-star rank, where he served as Vice Chief of Staff and Commander, U.S. Army Europe, before retiring from the Army in 1983. Acclaimed singer Tony Bennett served as a private first class and rifleman in the 255th Infantry, while actor Wesley Addy, already an established Shakespearean stage actor before World War II, served as an officer in the 63d, leaving military service as a major in 1946 and continuing his acting career on the stage, as well as in television and films.
Nearly seven after its inactivation following World War II, the 63d Division was reactivated on 1 March 1952 with its headquarters in Los Angeles, California. It was reflagged from the 13th Armored Division and assigned to Sixth Army, Organized Reserve Corps (redesignated the U.S. Army Reserve on 9 July 1952). The division soon began its Annual Active Duty for Training at Hunter Liggett Military Reservation and Camp Roberts, both in California.
On 27 March 1959, the headquarters of the 63d Division was reassigned to Bell, California, and the division began its reorganization as a Pentomic division for possible combat on an atomic battlefield, with battle groups replacing infantry battalions. This reorganization was brief and, on 1 April 1963, the 63d was reorganized under the Reorganization Objective Army Division (ROAD), with a divisional structure that featured a headquarters element, three maneuver brigades, division artillery, and support units. However, like Pentomic, the 63d’s second reorganization since its reactivation in 1952 was short-lived. With the realignment of the Army’s reserve components as directed by Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, the 63d Infantry Division was inactivated, and it remains inactive to this day.
On 22 April 1968, the 63d Infantry Division’s shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) was authorized for the 63d U.S Army Reserve Command. However, this reserve unit would not share the lineage honors of the 63d Infantry Division. Additional reorganizations and unit redesignations, to include the 63d Regional Support Command, 63d Regional Readiness Command, and the current 63d Readiness Division have all worn the 63d Infantry Division’s SSI, but none would share the lineage and honors of the Blood and Fire Division that helped win victory over Nazi Germany.
