134th Infantry Regiment "All Hell Can't Stop Us"

Reorganization of the 35th Division - February 1942

This document from the Nebraska State Archive describes the reorganization of the 35th Division in February 1942. The 130th and 154th Field Artillery Battalions, 110th Engineer Battalion, and the 140th Infantry Regiment eventually received other assignments that took them away from the 35th Division and resulted in the 216th and 219th Field Artillery Battalions, 60th Engineer Battalion, and 320th Infantry Regiment taking their places, respectively.

The 735th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company was descended from Company E, 110th Quartermaster Regiment, Nebraska National Guard; the quartermaster battalions of infantry divisions were broken up in the fall of 1942 after maintenance of "wheeled and motored vehicles" was transferred from the Quartermaster Corps to the Ordnance Department, resulting in one quartermaster company and one ordnance light maintenance company per division.

There is an error, however: the 119th Motor Repair Section was originally established at Holdrege, not Fremont, in 1923, and was transferred from Holdrege to Fremont in 1929 on account of there being waning interest in the unit in Holdrege, and Fremont accepting it on the assertion they would be able to enlist skilled mechanics to staff it.

When responsibility for vehicle maintenance was transferred from the Quartermaster Corps to the Ordnance Department in August 1942, the Quartermaster Battalions of infantry divisions were split; the truck company ("Company A" of the one-company battalion) became the division Quartermaster Company, while the oversized maintenance platoon (98 men) in the battalion headquarters company became the division Ordnance Light Maintenance Company.

The 320th Infantry Regiment was assigned to the 35th Infantry Division on 26 January 1943, replacing the 140th Infantry Regiment which was assigned to GHQ the next day. The 154th Field Artillery Battalion was relieved from the 35th Infantry Division on 12 January 1943 (replaced by the 219th Field Artillery Battalion) and the 130th Field Artillery Battalion was relieved on 27 January 1943 (replaced by the 216th Field Artillery Battalion). The 110th Engineer Battalion was relieved from the 35th Infantry Division on 27 January 1943 (replaced by the 60th Engineer Battalion).

In the fall of 1943, a Headquarters, Special Troops was restored to the infantry division.

War Department Letter AG 320.2 [1-31-42] MR-M-C, February 3, 1942 - Reorganization of 35th Infantry Division: Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE

General Orders No. 20, Headquarters 35th Infantry Division, March 4, 1942 - Announcement of Reorganization of 35th Infantry Division: Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, KS

The lineage of the 735th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company comes from the Army Lineage Series, Armor-Cavalry, Part II: Army National Guard, by Mary Lee Stubbs, Stanley Russell Connor, and Janice E. McKenney (1972)

Thanks to Nicholas Tuma from the Nebraska National Guard Museum for this information.