522nd Field Artillery Battalion

A Final Polish

After maneuvers the men came back to Shelby, scraped off the mud, and began again the endless task of cleaning up their equipment. The Combat Team was commended for proficiency by Major General Charles H. White, Commanding General of IX Corps, and Major General Charles L. Bolte, Commanding General of the 69th Division. The entire Combat Team now began the business of brushing up on its small-unit tactics, reviewing and correcting the weaknesses that had turned up during the last hectic weeks in the field. Twenty officers and 210 men left for George G. Meade, Maryland, for transhipment to Italy and the 100th Battalion. There was also a certain amount of combat firing and review work on marksmanship to be completed, as well as some...

Combined Units

The regimental commander, Colonel Pence, took his regiment into the field as a unit for the first time on December 13, holding exercises that ran until the day before Christmas. Training was getting into higher levels now. Battalion staffs learned to work with the regimental staff. Battalions attacked or took defensive positions side by side, coordinating their fires, helping each other out of tough spots, keeping contact in heavily wooded terrain. Tactics were going into high levels, but the privates in the rear rank, the guys who carried the rifles and brought up the ammunition, still wanted to know why. Why did the regimental commander do this? Why did we withdraw to this position instead of another one? The officers and the NCO’s did their...

From Civilian to Soldier

Basic training was hectic for these new soldiers, as it is for every new soldier. Heads buzzed with military courtesy and discipline, close order drill, manual of arms, and the nomenclature and functioning of all the weapons that make the present day infantryman a walking arsenal. Slowly they learned to hit the ground, to take advantage of every fold in the earth, and every bush for cover and concealment, to work as squads and sections. Muscles hardened, backs straighten, and civilians became men who lived war and thought war. Relations with civilians and other soldiers were not always easy. Most of the men on the post and the inhabitants of the nearby towns accepted the Nisei for what they were and for the job they...

Maneuvers

“D” Series maneuvers began on January 28, 1944, in the DeSoto National Forest, Mississippi. They were conducted by the 69th Infantry Division, Major General Charles L. Bolte commanding. The 442nd Infantry and the 232nd Engineers were attached to the Division for operations, working as a part of the Division for the first three problems and being the “red” or enemy force for the last three. The men probably learned more as a unit of the Division but they had a lot more fun being the enemy. Maneuvers being what they are, there were always a certain number of snafus. The umpires were the unhappiest people on the field no matter who won or lost the battle. There were not enough umpires to mark the simulated...

Operating as a Unit

Basic training was over; now began the even harder task of welding the Combat Team into a single fighting unit. The men knew their weapons; they knew how to take advantage of cover; they could find their way long distances on the blackest night; They had worked together as squads on small problems. It remained to make platoons out of squads, companies out of platoons, and battalions out of companies. During basic the GIs finished their training and came back to a hot shower, a hot meal, and a warm if not always comfortable bed. Unit training would wean them away from this, and enable them to live in the field for long periods, to endure cold, rain, inadequate blankets, to keep going even if...

The Cadre Prepare

On January 22, 1945, the War Department directed by a letter that a Japanese-American Combat Team should be activated on February 1, and should be composed of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and the 232nd Engineer Combat Company. In accordance with these orders the 442nd Combat Team was activated on February 1, 1943 by General Orders, Headquarters Third Army. Colonel Charles W. Pence took command, with Lieutenant Colonel Merritt B. Booth as executive officer. Lieutenant Colonel Keith K. Tatum commanded the 1st Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel James M. Hanley the 2nd Battalion and Lieutenant Colonel Sherwood Dixon the 3rd Battalion. Lieutenant Colonel Baya M. Harrison commanded the 522nd Field Artillery, and Captain Pershing Nakada commanded the 232nd Engineers. From the 1st to...

522nd Field Artillery Occupying Germany

Fire for Effect, the history of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion (written by the veterans) includes a brief description of their role in the Occupation of German, and several anecdotal contributions by individual veterans. The Occupation (pages 70-72) With the end of the war in the European Theater, the 522nd was detached from the 101st Airborne Division and attached to the 30th Field Artillery Group. On May 9, 1945 at 0815 hours, the Battalion moved out of Shaftlach and traveled 77 miles to the north by motor convoy over the autobahn past Munich to Steppach, a town on the outskirts of Augsburg, where the 522nd CP was established and occupied until May 17, 1945. Headquarters Battery then moved to Mertingen on May 17 where the...

Jan 1945 Action Reports

The Champagne Campaign in the French Maritime Alps, Part 2 A brief summary of the “Champagne Campaign” was included in the November 2017 E-newsletter.  The 100th/442nd was assigned to protect the right flank of the Sixth Army Group along the French-Italian border in the French Maritime Alps from November 1944 to March 1945.  Despite the use of the term “champagne” and the liberty granted many of the men to Nice, Paris and other French towns and cities, there was still war at hand and daily patrols and fighting took place. Excerpts from the Headquarters 442D Regimental Combat Team Monthly Historical Report for the month of January 1945 will serve to highlight some of what the men lived through during this “campaign”. New Year’s Day 1945,...

442nd Veterans Awarded Légion d’Honneur

522nd FA Bn Enters Combat in Germany

522nd FA Bn Liberates Dachau Prisoners

522nd FA Bn Liberates French POWs

VE Day – Victory in Europe