Category: Soldiering
In September 1940, the 30th Infantry Division, composed of the National Guard troops of North & South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, was inducted into Federal service at Ft. Jackson, S.C. spending over one year in preliminary training.
In 1942 and 1943, the 30th received a major part of its advanced training at Camp Blanding, near Starke, Florida. After losing most of its trained Officers and Men to cadre new divisions throughout the country, the 30th received replacements from nearly every state in the country. Training continued during 1943 at Camp Blanding, Florida, Camp Forrest Tennessee and Camp Atterbury, Indiana, where final preparations were made to move overseas.
On 12 February 1944, the 30th Infantry Division sailed for Europe, and settled on the south coast of England to participate in further training for the coming invasion.
In June of 1944, after being fully trained and prepared, the 30th Infantry Division started crossing the English Channel to France on 6 June, D-Day, to replace some of the units of the 29th Infantry Division which suffered devastating losses in the initial attack. The remainder of the Division to Omaha Beach on 10 June and was almost immediately committed into combat against the experienced German Army.
During combat, the 30th Infantry Division was known as the “Workhorse of the Western Front” and was named “Roosevelt’s SS” by the German High Command because of the consistent vigor and terrific pressure the 30th Infantry Division brought to bear on Hitler’s ‘elite’ 1st SS Division.
1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The German 1st SS Division was the main force of resistance prior to the breakthrough at St. LO, and again at Mortain, where the 30th stopped the 1st SS, thereby allowing Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army to race across France, shortening the war by many months.
The German 1st SS Division was reorganized over the next few months, and again faced by the 30th in the “Battle of the Bulge” during the Ardennes-Alsace Offensive, near Malmedy, Belgium, in the winter of 1944-45. Again the 30th Infantry Division tore to shreds this ‘elite’ enemy division, which never returned to battle.
During its initial training, the 30th Infantry Division was commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry D. Russell, followed by Maj. Gen. William Simpson. MG Simpson later commanded the Ninth Army when the 30th was attached to this command. Maj. Gen. Leland S. Hobbs commanded the 30th during the rest of its training and throughout the war.
Immediately following the end of the war, the 30th Infantry Division spent the next two months in Occupation on the border of Czechoslovakia and Germany.
Shortly after the end of their Occupation duties, in early August 1945, the 30th Infantry Division returned to the United States on the Queen Mary and the USS General Black, and was soon deactivated at Ft. Jackson, S.C. on 25 November 1945.
Welsh policeman Ernest Rollings was one of millions of men who enlisted for active duty in #WorldWarIThirteen years after the guns fell silent, he was hailed as The Man Who Ended The War.
During the Battle of Amiens in 1918, Lieutenant Rollings led a daring armoured cars raid 10 miles behind enemy lines. He and his men killed many Germans before they reached a farmhouse in the village of Framerville that was being used as an enemy base.
Rollings burst in to find the occupants had just fled, leaving a pile of hastily-torn documents.Rollings, who gathered up the papers, received a bar to his Military Cross for his bravery during the raid.
After the war, he returned to his career in the police service. Then in 1931, the Sunday Express reported that the papers recovered in Framerville contained detailed plans of all the gun posts, troop placements and defensive points along the seemingly impregnable Hindenburg Line.
The paper revealed that this intelligence and the subsequent Allied offensive probably shortened the war by six months and saved 500,000 lives.
Until then, the incredible importance of the papers had been unknown to the public and to the man who recovered them.
Neath police sergeant Ernest Rollings was tracked down by reporters and hailed in newspaper headlines as The Man Who Ended The War. At last, the extraordinary effects of his gallantry had been revealed.
Lieutenant Ernest Rollings, MC and Bar
September 15, 1893 – February 3, 1966
Matthew B. Ridgway stepped into a freezing Korean command bunker in January 1951, looked at a wall map covered in retreat arrows, and made a decision that stunned every officer in the room. The United Nations forces were outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and collapsing, yet Ridgway calmly said the collapse would end tonight. Then he clipped a grenade to his chest harness and walked toward the front.When he took command of the Eighth Army, morale was broken and casualties were rising.
Officers whispered that the war was already lost.
Ridgway refused to accept it.
He visited wounded soldiers at field stations and asked what went wrong.
They told him leadership had vanished from the battlefield.
He promised to fix it.And he did it the only way he believed in: by showing up under fire.
Ridgeway traveled to front line foxholes where temperatures dropped below zero and Chinese forces attacked at night with overwhelming numbers.
He carried no illusions.He carried grenades, a Bible, and the belief that soldiers follow example, not slogans.
Men said the sound of his boots in the snow changed entire units.If Ridgway appeared at dawn, it meant the line would hold.
He reorganized divisions, replaced timid commanders, and restored the offensive mindset.
When the Chinese launched their Fourth Phase Offensive in early 1951, Ridgway countered with precision.
He ordered tactical withdrawals to stretch enemy supply lines, then struck with concentrated artillery and air power.
His decisions stabilized the front and forced Chinese forces back north, reversing weeks of panic.
President Harry Truman took notice.When General Douglas MacArthur openly challenged civilian authority, Truman relieved him and appointed Ridgway to command United Nations forces.Ridgway accepted without theatrics.
He viewed the job as duty, not spotlight.
Under his leadership, defensive collapse turned into a balanced stalemate that prevented a wider war and saved thousands of lives.
He refused pressure to escalate into China because he understood the cost.
He believed in victory, but never in reckless victory.
After Korea, Ridgway became Army Chief of Staff in 1953, where he argued against expanding conflicts without clear purpose.
He kept a framed note in his office.It read: “No soldier’s life is expendable. No mission justifies waste.”
Matthew B. Ridgway never chased headlines.He chased responsibility.
He took broken armies, broken plans, and broken morale and rebuilt them with presence, clarity, and courage.
Some generals win battles with strategy.
Ridgway won them by showing up where a commander was least expected and most needed.