The 78th Training Division (Operations) ("Lightning") is a unit of the United States Army which served in World War I and World War II as the 78th Infantry Division, and currently trains and evaluates units of the United States Army Reserve for deployment.
World War I The 78th Division of the United States Army was constituted on 5 August 1917. The division was originally allocated to New York and northern Pennsylvania in the National Army recruiting plan. The division consisted of four infantry regiments: the 309th, 310th, 311th and 312th; and three artillery regiments: the 307th, 308th and 309th.
On 23 August 1917 Major-General Chase W. Kennedy took command at Camp Dix, New Jersey. During the last week in August organizing the division began from a cadre of officers and men of the Regular Army, and from Organized Reserve Corps and National Army officers of the First Officers Training Camp at Madison Barracks. From September 5-10, the initial draft of 2,000 selective service men arrived at Camp Dix. During September 17,200 additional men arrive; systematic training begins. On October 31, the division numbered about 16,000. By November 19-24, the last drafts of 1917 furnished the camp with 5,000 additional personnel. By November 30, transfers had reduced it to less than half the authorized strength. By March 31, 1918, the division was only 10,000 strong, due to large transfers which exceed fresh drafts and other arrivals. During April and May 1918 transfers, and drafts from New England, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, completed the division. After several more months of training, the division was transported to France in May and June 1918.
Immediately after arrival in France, in the first half of June 1918, the division (less artillery) detrained at Marquise and moves to the Lumbres Training Area where it was affiliated with the British 34th Division. From June 8-August 21, the 78th Division was under the administrative control of the II Corps. In France, during the summer and fall of 1918, it was the "point of the wedge" of the final offensive which knocked out Germany. The 78th was in three major campaigns during World War I – Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel, and Lorraine. Two soldiers of the division won the Medal of Honor. The division was inactivated in June 1919 and demobilized on 9 July 1919 at Camp Dix, New Jersey.
Major Operations: Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel. Roll of Honor: Killed in Action: 1,169 Wounded in Action: 5,975 Total: 7,144 Commanders: Maj. Gen. Kennedy; Brig. Gen. John S. Mallory (28 November 1917); Brig. Gen. James T. Dean (28 December 1917); Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott (2 January 1918); Brig. Gen. James T. Dean (16 March 1918); Maj. Gen. James H. McRae (20 April 1918).
Order of battle
Headquarters, 78th Division 155th Infantry Brigade 309th Infantry Regiment 310th Infantry Regiment 308th Machine Gun Battalion 156th Infantry Brigade 311th Infantry Regiment 312th Infantry Regiment 309th Machine Gun Battalion 153rd Field Artillery Brigade 307th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 308th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 309th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) 303rd Trench Mortar Battery 307th Machine Gun Battalion 303rd Engineer Regiment 303rd Field Signal Battalion Headquarters Troop, 78th Division 303rd Train Headquarters and Military Police 303rd Ammunition Train 303rd Supply Train 303rd Engineer Train 309th-312th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals 303rd Sanitary Train
Interwar period
The division was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, allotted to the Second Corps Area, and assigned to the XII Corps with the state of New Jersey as its home area. The division headquarters was organized on 1 July 1921 at 39 Whitehall Street in Manhattan, but relocated on 26 March 1924 to the Globe Indemnity Building, Washington Place, Newark, New Jersey. The headquarters was relocated on 25 July 1936 to the Federal Building, 1180 Raymond Boulevard in Newark and remained there until activated for World War II. Like the 77th Division, the initial formation of the “Lightning Division” was speeded up by the enrollment of many officers who were World War I veterans of the division. To maintain communications with the officers of the division, the division staff published a newsletter, the “78th Division Gazette.” The newsletter informed the division’s members of such things as when and where the inactive training sessions were to be held, what the division’s summer training quotas were, where the camps were to be held, and which units would be assigned to help conduct the Citizens Military Training Camps (CMTC). The designated mobilization and training station for the division was Camp Dix, the location where much of the 78th’s training activities occurred in the interwar years. The division headquarters often conducted its summer training there, and on a number of occasions, participated in CPXs at Camp Dix as well. The 78th Division headquarters also occasionally trained with the staffs of the 1st Division or the 1st Infantry Brigade at Camp Dix. In 1924, the division officers with assistance from Colonel Edward A. Shuttleworth, the division chief of staff, established Camp Silzer at Sea Girt, New Jersey, for the purposes of providing a training area for the division. Camp Silzer was used some summers by the division staff for command post exercises and frequently for “contact camps” by subordinate units. For the 1937 camp at Camp Dix, the division staff and subordinate units planned and conducted an unusual division night attack exercise in coordination with the 303rd Chemical Regiment and the 40th Engineer Battalion (Camouflage). As of 1937, the division was commanded by Brigadier General Perry L. Miles.
The subordinate infantry regiments of the division held their summer training primarily with the units of the 1st Infantry Brigade. Other units, such as the special troops, artillery, engineers, aviation, medical, and quartermaster, usually trained at various posts in the Second and Third Corps Areas also with other units of the 1st Division. For example, the division’s artillery units trained with the 7th Field Artillery at Pine Camp, New York; the 303rd Engineer Regiment usually trained with the 1st Engineer Regiment at Fort DuPont, Delaware; the 303rd Medical Regiment trained with the 1st Medical Regiment at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and the 303rd Observation Squadron trained with the 5th Observation Squadron at Mitchel Field, New York. In addition to the unit training camps, the infantry regiments of the division rotated responsibility for conducting the infantry CMTC held at Camp Dix each year. On a number of occasions, the division participated in Second Corps Area or First Army command post exercises in conjunction with other Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units. These training events gave division staff officers’ opportunities to practice the roles they would be expected to perform in the event the division was mobilized. Unlike the Regular Army and National Guard units in the First Corps Area, the 78th Division did not participate in the Second Corps Area maneuvers and the First Army maneuvers of 1935, 1939, and 1940 as an organized unit due to lack of enlisted personnel and equipment. Instead, the officers and a few enlisted reservists were assigned to Regular Army and National Guard units to fill vacant slots and bring the units up to war strength for the exercises. Additionally, some were assigned duties as umpires or as support personnel.
Order of battle, 1939
Headquarters (Newark, NJ) Headquarters, Special Troops (Newark, NJ) Headquarters Company (Newark, NJ) 78th Military Police Company (Newark, NJ) 78th Signal Company (Newark, NJ) 303rd Ordnance Company (Medium) (Newark, NJ) 78th Tank Company (Light) (Newark, NJ) 155th Infantry Brigade (Englewood, NJ) 309th Infantry Regiment (Camden, NJ) 310th Infantry Regiment (Englewood, NJ) 156th Infantry Brigade (Newark, NJ) 311th Infantry Regiment (Elizabeth, NJ) 312th Infantry Regiment (Newark, NJ) 153rd Field Artillery Brigade (Englewood, NJ) 307th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (Trenton, NJ) 308th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (Hoboken, NJ) 309th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (Brooklyn, NY) 303rd Ammunition Train (Trenton, NJ) 303rd Engineer Regiment (Paterson, NJ) 303rd Medical Regiment (Newark, NJ) 403rd Quartermaster Regiment (Newark, NJ)
World War II
Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split.
The 78th Infantry Division was reorganized effective 20 February 1942, and was ordered into active military service on 15 August 1942 and reorganized at Camp Butner, North Carolina, and concurrently redesignated as Headquarters, 78th Infantry Division. It was designated as a replacement pool division on 1 October 1942, and remained in this assignment until 1 March 1943, when the 78th Division was restored to field duty, and to its training regimen. 78th Division moved to the Carolina Maneuver Area on 15 November 1943 to test its training, and then returned to Camp Butner on 7 December 1943. The personnel then went on Christmas leave, and deployed to the Tennessee Maneuver Area on 25 January 1944, where they participated in the 5th Second Army Tennessee Maneuvers. They then moved to Camp Pickett, Virginia, where they filled their TO&E, (table of organization and equipment), then deployed to the staging area at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, on 4 October 1944.
After two years as a training division, the 78th embarked for the European Theatre from the New York POE on 14 October 1944, whereupon they sailed for England. They arrived on 26 October 1944, and after further training crossed to France on 22 November 1944.
After landing in France, the division moved to Tongeren, Belgium, on 27 November 1944, and to Roetgen, Germany, on 7 December 1944, to prepare for combat. The 311th Infantry Regiment was attached to the US 8th Infantry Division in the Hurtgen Forest, 10 December. The 309th and 310th Infantry Regiments relieved elements of the 1st Division in the line in the vicinity of Entenpfuhl, 1–12 December. On the 13th these regiments smashed into Simmerath, Witzerath, and Bickerath and were fighting for Kesternich when Gerd von Rundstedt launched his counteroffensive in the Monschau area, on 18 December.