page_title: 31st Infantry Division (United States)
section_title: Overseas deployment and demobilization
hierarchical_section_title: 31st Infantry Division (United States) / World War I / Overseas deployment and demobilization
caption_attribution_description: USS Orizaba (ID # 1536) Leaving her New York City slip and going down the North River, bound for France in 1918. Note her pattern camouflage scheme. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
context_page_description: The 31st Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army National Guard, active almost continuously from 1917 to 1968. Composed of men from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi at various points in its existence, the division saw service in both World War I and World War II, and was mobilized during the Korean War, although it was not sent overseas in the latter.
  Organized in 1917 during World War I from the national guardsmen of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, the division deployed to France in September 1918, arriving weeks before the Armistice of 11 November that ended the war. In France, it was reduced to a cadre and most of its troops used to provide replacements for units already in France. It returned to the United States in December and was demobilized in January 1919.
  The 31st was reorganized in 1923 with national guardsmen from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It was mobilized in 1940 during World War II, and spent several years training in the United States. In 1944 it was sent to the South-West Pacific Area, fighting in the New Guinea campaign and in the Battle of Mindanao.
context_section_description: The division began its overseas movement in September, relocating via Camp Mills to the Brooklyn, Hoboken, and New York Ports of Embarkation. The 106th Engineers and Train were the first to depart from New York on 16 September, arriving in Scotland on 29 September. On the latter date, the Advance Detachment of the division sailed from Hoboken, arriving at Brest on 7 October. The division headquarters (aboard the USS Orizaba), most of the infantry, the 106th Field Signal Battalion, and the 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police sailed between 30 September and 11 October. They landed at Brest between 13 and 21 October, except for the 117th and 118th Machine Gun Battalions and the 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police, which arrived in England on 17 October. The 56th Field Artillery Brigade sailed with the remaining infantry and trains between 14 and 28 October, and landed at Brest between 25 October and 9 November, except for the 124th Infantry, which landed in England on 24 October. The troops in England spent a brief period in rest camps, then moved to Brest through Cherbourg and Le Havre.
  For duty with the Services of Supply, the 106th Engineers, without Train, relocated from Le Havre to Brest on 4 October. Once in France, the 31st was planned to become the seventh depot division, a cadre formation responsible for processing replacements. Due to a personnel shortage caused by heavy casualties suffered in the Meuse–Argonne Offensive, the 31st Division was ordered skeletonized on 17 October, and two days later the division headquarters, both infantry brigades, the 116th Machine Gun Battalion, 106th Supply Train, and 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police moved to Le Mans, with some units relocating through the Loches area, while the remaining units were detached from the division when they arrived at Brest. The division was ordered reduced to a record cadre on 29 October, although the 56th Field Artillery Brigade was detached to Camp Coëtquidan for training. The 106th Trench Mortar Battery of the brigade relocated to Vitrey on 4 November, preceded by the 106th Field Signal Battalion, which left for the Signal Corps Replacement Depot at Cour-Cheverny on 30 October.
  The division headquarters, the 61st and 62nd Brigades, the 116th Battalion, and 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police were skeletonized early in November. Most of its personnel were transferred to the 2nd Depot Division as replacements, except for a record cadre numbering 10 officers and 102 men. The 106th Sanitary Train, which had remained at Brest, relocated to Camp de Souge on 25 November, and thence to the American Embarkation Center at Le Mans in December, where it was skeletonized. On 27 November, the record cadre and 56th Field Artillery Brigade (without the 106th Trench Mortar Battery) moved to Brest, from which they sailed aboard the USS Manchuria between 9 and 10 December. After arriving at Camp Merritt on 20 December, they moved to Camp Gordon on 1 January 1919, where the record cadre and 56th Brigade demobilized on 14 January.
  Elements of the division remained in France for several months longer, however. The 106th Supply Train relocated to Camp de Souge on 29 November. The 106th Trench Mortar Battery and part of the 106th Sanitary Train sailed on 2 and 15 January, respectively. The 106th Field Signal Battalion departed Bordeaux on 18 April, and the last units of the division overseas, the 106th Engineers and 106th Supply Train, returned to the United States on 5 July.
caption: The USS Orizaba departing from New York in 1918
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