14th Armored Division (United States)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= U.S. 14th Armored Division


caption=Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States Army 14th Armored Division
dates= 1942-1945
country= United States
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branch= U.S. Army
type= Armored Division (Light)
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nickname="Liberators"
patron=
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battles=World War II
*Operation Nordwind
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battle_honours=US Armor
previous=13th Armored Division ("Inactive")
next=16th Armored Division ("Inactive")The 14th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army in World War II. It remains on the permanent rolls of the Regular Army as an inactive division, and is eligible for reactivation should the need ever arise. The division is officially nicknamed the LIBERATORS.

History

The 14th Armored Division was activated on 15 November 1942 in a ceremony at Camp Chaffee, Ark.

The 14th Armored Division landed at Marseille, France, 29 October 1944. Within 2 weeks some of its elements were in combat, maintaining defensive positions along the Franco-Italian frontier. The division was assigned to U.S. 6th Army Group on 1 November. On 10 November, the division was assigned to U.S. Seventh Army. On 12 November Combat Command Reserve was detached, and ordered to the Maritime Alps by 6th Army Group to relieve units in defensive positions there. On 15 November, Combat Command A moved north from the area of Marseilles to Epinal to take part in the VI Corps drive through the Vosges Mountains, and was followed by Combat Command B five days later. Hard fighting at Gertwiller, Benfeld, and Barr helped VI Corps crack the German defenses, and the division was on the Alsatian Plain early in December. On 17 December the division attacked across the Lauter River into Germany itself, and along with the other units of VI Corps fought its way into a heavily defended portion of the German Westwall. Due to the growing crisis in the Ardennes, General Eisenhower ordered Seventh Army to stop its attack and withdraw from the Westwall, where its units assumed positions south of the Lauter River. The order was poorly timed as elements of the 14th Armored Division had penetrated deep into the German defenses, and were poised to break out into the enemy's rear. On 25 December 1944 elements of the 14th as well as the 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and the 1st Battalion, 540th Combat Engineers were organized into are regimental size force known as Task Force Hudleson. The small Task Force was assigned defensive positions covering a 10 mile section of the Seventh Army line, in the Vosges Mountains in the area of Banstein, southeast of Bitche. Just before midnight on New Year's Eve, 1944 the German Army Group G launched Operation Nordwind, the last major German counter-offensive of the war. During the night and day of 1 January, TF Hudleson found itself engaged by elements of 5 enemy divisions, but managed to delay and slow the German advance until substantial reinforcements could arrive and stem the German advance. The major fighting between 1 January and 8 January occurred in the Vosges Mountains, and two combat commands of the division were in almost continuous action defending against the German attacks. With the failure of his attack in the Vosges, the enemy attempted to break through to Hagenau and threaten Strasbourg and the Saverne Gap by attacks at Hatten and Rittershoffen, two small villages located side by side on the Alsatian Plain. However, this, the strongest attack of Operation Nordwind, was halted by the 14th Armored in the fierce defensive Battle of Hatten-Rittershoffen which raged from 9 January to 21 January 1945. On 21 January, after the rest of Seventh Army had withdrawn to new defensive positions on the south bank of the Moder River, the 14th and its supporting units withdrew from Hatten and Rittershoffen and moved south to join the rest of the army.

Following the battle the division G-4 reported to the commanding officer that the division was still short 62 medium tanks despite having received over 60 replacement tanks during the month of January. Even more astounding was the 136th Ordnance Battalion's maintenance report for the month in which it listed approximately 150 medium tanks that had been knocked out in combat, repaired, and returned to the division's tank battalions. An example of this is seen on the operational reports of the 47th and 48th Tank Battalions. At the height of the fighting the 47th reported that it had a total of 17 operational medium tanks out of an authorized strength of 50, and all were committed to holding its portion of the line. The 48th Tank Battalion report for the same period included the comment that its medium tank companies were now of approximately squad strength. Lt. General Jacob L. Devers, commanding general, 6th Army Group later commented that the Battle of Hatten-Rittershoffen "was one of the greatest defensive battles of the war." The 14th Armored Division was nominated for four Presidential Unit Citations for its actions at Hatten-Rittershoffen. Of these, two were awarded. Col. Hans von Luck, who commanded the 21st Panzer Division at Hatten-Rittershoffen wrote in his memoirs "Panzer Commander," that the battle ".... was one of the hardest and most costly battles that had ever raged on the western front." These are strong, telling words from a professional German panzer officer who fought with Rommel's famed Afrika Korps in North Africa, served two tours of duty on the Eastern Front, and led the only armored counter-attack to be attempted against the Allied beachhead in Normandy. A veteran officer who served on the staff of Army Group G during the battle wrote after the war that the American defense of the town against overwhelming odds were "heroic." After rest, rehabilitation, and defensive missions during February and early March, the division returned to the offensive, 15 March 1945, drove across the Moder River, cracked through the Siegfried Line, and by the end of the month, had captured Germersheim on the Rhine. On Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, the 14th moved across the Rhine near Worms and protecting the long left flank of Seventh Army advance against moderate to heavy opposition through Lohr, Gemunden, Neustadt, and Hammelburg where, on 6 April, Combat Command B liberated Stalag XIIIC and the more famous Oflag XIII-B. Following the Battle of Nuremberg, the division raced to the Danube, crossed at Ingolstadt, and pushed on across the Isar River to Moosburg, where over 130,000 Allied prisoners were liberated from Stalag VII-A, the largest prisoner of war camp in Germany. The division rapidly moved eastward to the area of Mulhdorf an Inn where it established two strong bridgeheads across the Inn River before being ordered to halt by III Corps. The division fired its last rounds, 2 May 1945, and was processing prisoners of war, and patrolling its area when the war in Europe ended on 8 May,

"LIBERATORS" is the official nickname of the U.S. 14th Armored Division. The division became known by its nickname during the last days of WW-II when it liberated some 200,000 Allied prisoners of war from German prison camps. Among those liberated were approximately 20,000 American soldiers, sailors, and airmen, as well as an estimated 40,000 troops from the UK and Commonwealth. The division's nickname is officially recognized by the U.S. Army and the division is carried on the permanent rolls of the Army as the "LIBERATORS."

The 14th Armored Division was inactivated on 16 September 1945.

External links and Further Reading

* [http://www.army.mil/CMH-PG/lineage/SpcDes-123.htm US Army Special Designation Listing]
* [http://www.14tharmoreddivision.org Official Website of the 14th Armored Division]
*See: Clarke and Smith, From The Riviera To The Rhine and The Seventh Army Report of Operations in France and Germany, 1944-1945 for a definitive description of Operation Nordwind and the 14th Armored Division's actions.