35th Infantry Division

The 35th Infantry Division (formerly known as the 35th Division) is a formation of the Army National Guard, with its headquarters located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The division is primarily composed of Army National Guard units from Missouri and Kansas, though it also includes subordinate units from other states.

The 35th Division was ordered into federal service on 23 December 1940 at home stations. The division's units were ordered to report to Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, and had arrived by the end of January, 1941. The incomplete ranks of the 35th were swelled by thousands of draftees, a large portion of whom were from Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, through a War Department arrangement to fill the balance of National Guard units ordered into federal service with men from their home states or corps areas insofar as was possible. After completing the War Department-mandated divisional training program, the 35th Division maneuvered against other units in Arkansas and Louisiana in the fall of 1941. In August 1941, the division was redesignated the 35th Infantry Division. After the Pearl Harbor attack came its first assignment, the defense of the Southern California Sector of the Western Defense Command.

The 35th Infantry Division arrived in England on 25 May 1944 and received further training. It landed on Omaha Beach, Normandy 5–7 July 1944 and entered combat on 11 July, fighting in the Normandy hedgerows north of St. Lo. The division turned away twelve German counterattacks at Emelie before entering St. Lo on 18 July. After mopping up in the St. Lo area, it took part in the offensive action southwest of St. Lo, pushing the Germans across the Vire River on 2 August, and breaking out of the Cotentin Peninsula. While en route to an assembly area, the division was "flagged off the road," to secure the Mortain-Avranches corridor and to rescue the 30th Division's "Lost Battalion" August 7–13, 1944.

Then racing across France through Orleans and Sens, the division attacked across the Moselle on 13 September, captured Nancy on 15 September, secured Chambrey on 1 October, and drove on to the German border, taking Sarreguemines and crossing the Saar on 8 December. After crossing the Blies River on 12 December, the division moved to Metz for rest and rehabilitation on 19 December. The 35th moved to Arlon, Belgium December 25–26, and took part in the fighting to relieve Bastogne, throwing off the attacks of four German divisions, taking Villers-la Bonne-Eau on 10 January, after a 13-day fight and Lutrebois in a 5-day engagement. On 18 January 1945, the division returned to Metz to resume its interrupted rest.

In late January, the division was defending the Foret de Domaniale area. Moving to the Netherlands to hold a defensive line along the Roer on 22 February, the division attacked across the Roer on 23 February, pierced the Siegfried Line, reached the Rhine at Wesel on 10 March, and crossed 25–26 March. It smashed across the Herne Canal and reached the Ruhr River early in April, when it was ordered to move to the Elbe April 12. Making the 295-mile dash in two days, the 35th mopped up in the vicinity of Colbitz and Angern, until 26 April 1945 when it moved to Hanover for occupational and mopping-up duty, continuing occupation beyond VE-day. The division left Southampton, England, on 5 September, and arrived in New York City on 10 September 1945.