page_title: 36th Infantry Division (United States)
section_title: Combat operations
hierarchical_section_title: 36th Infantry Division (United States) / History / Combat operations
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy tank landing ship LST-1, landing U.S. Army troops on an Italian beach, via a causeway. This view may have been taken during the Salerno landings, circa September 1943.
context_page_description: The 36th Infantry Division, also known as the "Panther Division", "Lone Star Division", "The Texas Army", or the "T-patchers", is an infantry division of the United States Army and part of the Texas Army National Guard. It was organized during World War I from units of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guard. It was reactivated for service for World War II 25 November 1940, was sent to the European Theater of Operations in April 1943, and returned to the Texas Army National Guard in December 1945.
  A unit of the 36th Infantry, the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, was detached and sent to the Pacific just before the outbreak of war in late 1941. Captured by the Japanese and forced into slave labor, its fate was unknown for most of the rest of World War II, resulting in the name of The Lost Battalion.
  The 36th Infantry Division was reconstituted in a May 2004 reorganization of the 49th Armored Division.
  The division has been active in search and rescue efforts following natural disasters, as well as supporting the rebuilding of affected areas.
context_section_description: The 36th Division landed in French North Africa on 13 April 1943, and trained at Arzew and Rabat. However, the training was hampered by the need to supply guards for some 25,000 Axis prisoners of war (POWs) who had surrendered at the conclusion of the Tunisian Campaign in May. It was assigned to Major General Ernest J. Dawley's VI Corps, part of the Fifth Army, but attached to the Services of Supply, North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), for supply. The 36th Division was originally intended to take part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, but Lieutenant General George S. Patton the Seventh Army commander, preferred to use experienced troops instead and the 36th Division remained in North Africa. The Fifth Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, who knew the 36th Division well from his time as chief of staff to Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, commander of Army Ground Forces, and specifically chose the 36th Division, rather than the more experienced 34th Infantry Division, together with the British 46th and 56th Infantry Divisions, to spearhead the Allied assault landings at Salerno, Italy, which was given the codename of Operation Avalanche.
  The division first saw action, in the Italian Campaign, on 9 September 1943. It was the first U.S. combat unit to fight on the European continent when it landed by sea at Paestum and fought in the Battle of Salerno against intense German opposition. The Germans launched numerous fierce counterattacks on 12–14 September, but the 36th, which at one stage during the battle was holding a 35-mile sector of the front (six times more than a full-strength infantry division was able to hold), repulsed them with the aid of air support and naval gunfire, and, with the help of paratroopers of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, advanced slowly, securing the area from Agropoli to Altavilla. After sustaining over 4,000 casualties in its first major action, the division spent the next few weeks behind the lines, where it remained in the Fifth Army reserve, absorbing replacements and training for future combat operations. Despite the heavy losses, the 36th Division was considered to have fought well, and four men were awarded the Medal of Honor.
  The 36th Division returned to combat in mid-November, after six weeks of rest, now under Major General Geoffrey Keyes' II Corps command. It captured Mount Maggiore, Mount Lungo, and the village of San Pietro despite strong enemy positions and severe winter weather. This grueling campaign against the Bernhardt Line was marked by futile attempts to establish a secure bridgehead across the Gari River, erroneously identified as the Rapido on 1 January 1944, to 8 February. The division attacked across the Gari River on 20 January but was harshly repulsed by the 15th Panzergrenadier Division, and the 141st and 143rd Infantry Regiments were virtually destroyed and the attack was stopped on 22 January. In 48 hours the 36th Division had sustained 1,681 casualties, 143 of them killed, 663 wounded, and 875 missing, out of almost 6,000 men who took part. Many of the casualties consisted of newly arrived replacements who were poorly trained. German losses were minimal, with only 64 killed and a further 179 wounded. A company commander in the 143rd Infantry said, "I had 184 men. Forty-eight hours later, I had 17. If that's not mass murder, I don't know what is."
  Strong controversy flared among the officers of the division and Lieutenant General Clark, the Fifth Army commander, was severely criticized for having ordered a difficult frontal attack and was accused of having caused the disaster. After the war Congress, urged by veterans of the division, conducted an investigation into the causes and responsibility for the defeat on the Gari River. Clark was absolved of blame and he personally believed the attack to be necessary, in order to attract German reserves from Northern Italy to prevent their use at Anzio, where an amphibious assault, codenamed Operation Shingle, was being launched by Anglo-A
caption: A U.S. Navy Landing Ship, Tank (LST-1) landing American Army troops possibly from the 36th Division on an Italian beach, via a causeway
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