The 52nd Infantry Regiment ("Ready Rifles") is an infantry regiment of the United States Army.
The charges on the canton of the regiment's coat of arms represent the 11th Infantry from which this regiment was formed in 1917. Its first combat service was in World War I in the Gerardmer Sector in Alsace, a short distance west of Colmar. The bend from the arms of Alsace has been charged with the 6th Division shoulder sleeve insignia to show that the regiment was with that division in France.
The coat of arms was originally approved for the 52d Infantry Regiment on 29 June 1921. It was redesignated for the 52d Armored Infantry Regiment on 29 September 1942. The insignia was redesignated for the 52d Armored Infantry Battalion on 6 January 1944. It was redesignated for the 52d Infantry Regiment on 31 October 1958.
History The regiment was first activated 16 June 1917, at Chickamauga, Georgia. The unit first saw combat in Meuse-Argonne, in Northern France, and in Alsace, France, during World War I.
World War I After the 52nd Infantry Regiment's activation in 1917, the regiment was assigned to the Sixth Infantry Division. The Sixth Division was organized in November 1917 as a square division consisting of the 51st, 52nd, 53rd, and the 54th Infantry Regiments, the 16th, 17th and 18th Machine-Gun Battalions and the 3rd, 11th and 78th Field Artillery Regiments. The units of the division gathered in New York and left for France in July 1918. After marching and training all over western France, the Sixth was assigned on 31 August to the Vosges sector. There, a chain of lofty wooded peaks had stalemated both the French and German armies. Their mission was the defense of a 21-mile front. The division engaged in active patrols in no man's land and behind the German lines. In addition, infantry platoon strongpoints defended against German raiding parties which launched their attacks using liquid fire and grenades.
The division developed its reputation for hiking and nickname of "The Sightseeing Sixth" when, prior to the Argonne offensive, it engaged in extensive fake marches, often under enemy artillery and air bombardment, to deceive the Germans into thinking a major attack was to take place in the Vosges sector. After another short period of training, consisting primarily of forced marches, the division hiked itself into the closing campaign of the war, the Meuse-Argonne offensive. In corps reserve, the 6th was used in place of an unavailable cavalry division to try to maintain contact with the rapidly retreating Germans. During its three months at the front, the 6th Division lost 227 men killed in action or died of wounds. It maintained an active defense in one important sector and played a major role in the tactical plan in another.
After the armistice, the six-pointed red star was adopted as the division insignia on 19 November 1918. The star subsequently became a part of the 52nd Infantry's crest, to mark the regiment's first combat with the 6th Division. 29 February 2004
Interwar period
The 52nd Infantry Regiment arrived at the port of New York on 12 June 1919 on the troopship USS Leviathan and was transferred on 19 June 1919 to Camp Grant, Illinois. It was inactivated on 1 September 1921 and allotted to the Sixth Corps Area for mobilization responsibility; the 54th Infantry Regiment was previously designated as "Active Associate," from which the personnel would come to reactivate the regiment in the event of war. The personnel of the 52nd Infantry were concurrently transferred to the 54th Infantry. The 54th Infantry was relieved as Active Associate on 17 July 1922 and the 6th Infantry Regiment was designated as Active Associate. With the abandonment of the Active Associate concept, the 52nd Infantry was organized 9 April 1926 with Organized Reserve personnel as a "Regular Army Inactive" (RAI) unit with headquarters at Urbana, Illinois, with the 6th Infantry being relieved as Active Associate on 28 February 1927. The regiment was relieved from the 6th Division on 15 August 1927 and assigned to the 9th Division.
The 52nd Infantry, less the 3rd Battalion, was affiliated with the University of Illinois Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program and organized on 15 April 1929 as an RAI unit with Regular Army personnel assigned to the ROTC detachment and Reserve officers commissioned from the program. Concurrently, the 3rd Battalion was affiliated with Northwestern University ROTC at Evanston, Illinois. The regiment was attached to the 86th Division for administrative purposes on 3 November 1930. It was relocated 26 February 1932 to Champaign, Illinois. It was relieved from the 9th Division on 1 October 1933 and reassigned to the 6th Division. The regiment was relieved from the 6th Division on 12 October 1939. It typically conducted inactive training period meetings at the 202nd Coast Artillery armory or at the Army and Navy Club in Chicago. Also conducted semiannual contact camps with the 12th Infantry Regiment at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in the 1930s. Conducted summer training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and Fort Sheridan. As an alternate form of summer training, it also conducted infantry Citizens Military Training Camps some years at Jefferson Barracks, Fort Sheridan, and Camp Custer, Michigan. The designated mobilization training station for the regiment was Jefferson Barracks.
World War II
The 52nd Infantry Regiment was reactivated as the 52nd Armored Infantry Regiment on 15 July 1942 as an element of the 9th Armored Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. They would deploy with the 9th Armored Division to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Germany after a two-month train up in England. The company served in Europe with the 9th Armored Division from 31 July 1944 to 6 May 1945, including a weeklong attachment to the 8th Infantry Division from 23 October 1944 to 30 October 1944.Unithistories.com, , accessed 30 May 2005
The 9th Armored Division was one of several real US Army divisions that participated in Operation Fortitude, the deception operation mounted by the US-British to deceive the Germans about the real landing site for Operation Neptune, the amphibious invasion of Northern France. The 9th was assigned to a camp on the British coastline opposite of the German defenses in Pas-de-Calais, ostensibly as part of the "First US Army Group" (FUSAG) under General Patton. While its members undertook training for the real invasion of the Normandy coast, the divisional headquarters was used to convey phony radio messages with the fake FUSAG HQ to make the Germans believe that an invasion of Pas-de-Calais by a massive army was the real intent of the Allies. The ruse was so successful that the German high command was completely fooled and concentrated their reserves away from the Normandy coast. In honor of their participation in this deception, the 9th was officially nicknamed the "Phantom Division." The 9th Armored Division landed in Normandy late in September 1944, and first went into line, 23 October, on patrol duty in a quiet sector along the Luxembourg-German frontier. When the Germans launched their winter offensive, the 9th, with no real combat experience, suddenly found itself engaged in heavy fighting. The division saw its severest action at St. Vith, Echternach, and Bastogne, its units fighting in widely separated areas.
Its stand at Bastogne held off the Germans long enough to enable the 101st Airborne to dig in for a defense of the city. After a rest period in January 1945, the division made preparations for a drive across the Rur river. The offensive was launched, 28 February, and the 9th smashed across the Rur to Rheinbach, sending patrols into Remagen. The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen was found intact and was seized by elements of the 9th Armored minutes before demolition charges were set to explode on 7 March 1945. The division exploited the bridgehead, moving south and east across the river Lahn toward Limburg an der Lahn, where thousands of Allied prisoners were liberated. The 52d Armored Infantry Battalion held back an advancing Nazi armor and infantry force while the 101st Airborne set up defenses in Bastogne, resulting in successful retention of the city. Soldiers of C Company, 52d Armored Infantry Battalion rescued four American tanks caught in a Nazi complex attack.
Following operations at the Remagen bridgehead, the division drove on to Frankfurt and then turned to assist in the closing of the Ruhr Pocket. In April it continued east, encircled Leipzig and secured a line along the Mulde river. The division was shifting south to Czechoslovakia when the war in Europe ended. 3 October 2003
Vietnam During the Vietnam War, the 52nd Infantry participated in multiple counter offenses, earning one Presidential Unit Citation and three Meritorious Unit Commendations for operations in Saigon and other areas of Vietnam. ArrivalDateBaseCampForwardLocationMajorCommandNotes1st Battalion, 52nd InfantryArrived in Vietnam in October 1967 on board the USS Gordon Troop Carrier at DaNang.February 1968Chu LaiChu Lai198th Light Infantry BrigadeLight Infantry RoleNovember 1968Tam KyTam KyDecember 1968Chu LaiChu LaiFebruary 1969Chu LaiChu Lai23rd Infantry Division (United States)Light Infantry RoleDecember 1969Dong LeApril 1970Long PhuAugust 1970Trung CanhSeptember 1970My SonNovember 1970Tri BinhDecember 1970Chu LaiAugust 1971The Loi11th Infantry BrigadeLight Infantry RoleBattalion DEROS at end of October 1971Company C, 52nd Infantry RegimentArrived in Vietnam on 1 December 1966SaigonSaigon716th Military Police BattalionUnit had Rifle Security role supporting the Military Police Company C, 52nd Infantry RegimentDEROS 15 August 1972 Company D, 52nd Infantry RegimentArrived in Vietnam on 26 November 196626 November 1966Long BinhLong Binh95th Military Police BattalionUnit had rifle security role supporting the military police Company D, 52nd Infantry RegimentDEROS 22 November 1969 Company D, 52nd Infantry RegimentReturned to Vietnam on 30 June 197126 November 1966Qui NhonQui NhonUS Army Support Command, Qui NhonUnit staffed the Security Facilities of Qui Nhon Depot the Port of Qui Nhon, and the Qui Nhon Army Airfield. Company D, 52nd Infantry RegimentDEROS 26 November 1972 Company E, 52nd Infantry RegimentActivated in Vietnam on 20 December 196720 December 1967An KheRoving1st Cavalry DivisionUnit operated as a separate long range reconnaissance patrol company. Company E, 52nd Infantry RegimentInactivated in Vietnam on 1 February 1969 Company F, 52nd Infantry RegimentActivated in Vietnam on 20 December 196720 December 1967VariousVarious1st Infantry Division.Unit operated as a separate long range reconnaissance patrol company. Company F, 52nd Infantry RegimentInactivated in Vietnam on 1 February 1969
C Company, 52nd Infantry in Vietnam
C Company, 52nd Infantry served in Vietnam from 1 December 1966 to 15 August 1972. In 1971, the company had an authorized strength of 137 infantrymen. Three years earlier in 1968, C Company, 52nd Infantry had an authorized strength of 151 infantrymen. The company was a rifle security company assigned to bolster the infantry capabilities of the 716th Military Police Battalion (89th Military Police Group, 18th Military Police Brigade), which was responsible for providing security to the US facilities in the Saigon area. The status of forces agreement between the US and the South Vietnamese government prohibited stationing US combat forces in Saigon. As a result, the only forces within Saigon, C Company, 52nd Infantry, with the 716th Military Police Battalion, the 527th Military Police Company, and the 90th Military Police Detachment, were equipped only with hand-held light arms.