Wwii Us 100th Division Officer Painted Helmet

100th Division Helmet with Applied Lieutenant Colonel insignia to the front. This swivel bale front seam helmet bears the insignia of the 100th that is hand painted and in excellent condition. The liner also has hand painted Lieutenant Colonel insignia toits front. The liner was produced by Westinghouse and shows considerable wear to the leather sweatband., That being said, it shows a lot of character. Before Organized Reserve infantry divisions were ordered into active military service, they were reorganized on paper as "triangular" divisions under the 1940 tables of organization. The headquarters companies of the two infantry brigades were consolidated into the division's cavalry reconnaissance troop, and one infantry regiment was removed by inactivation. The field artillery brigade headquarters and headquarters battery became the headquarters and headquarters battery of the division artillery. Its three field artillery regiments were reorganized into four battalions; one battalion was taken from each of the two 75 mm gun regiments to form two 105 mm howitzer battalions, the brigade's ammunition train was reorganized as the third 105 mm howitzer battalion, and the 155 mm howitzer battalion was formed from the 155 mm howitzer regiment. The engineer, medical, and quartermaster regiments were reorganized into battalions. In 1942, divisional quartermaster battalions were split into ordnance light maintenance companies and quartermaster companies, and the division's headquarters and military police company, which had previously been a combined unit, was split. On 15 August 1942, the War Department designated Major General Withers A. Burress as division commander, Colonel Maurice L. Miller as assistant division commander, and Colonel Theodore A. Buechler as division artillery commander. Miller and Buechler were later promoted to brigadier general. The officer cadre (regimental, battalion, and company commanders) was designated by the end of August, and was dispatched to training schools to prepare them for their new assignments. In October 1942, they reported to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and were joined by about 400 "filler" officers principally obtained from officer candidate schools. In mid-October, the non-commissioned officer cadre, provided principally by the 76th Infantry Division arrived at Fort Jackson. The 100th Infantry Division was officially ordered into active military service on 15 November 1942. Over 13,000 enlisted fillers, consisting of men from all across the United States, "salesmen from New York; farmers from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama; mechanics from New Jersey; clerks from the New England states; mill workers from Pennsylvania and Delaware," arrived in short order thereafter. Basic training began on 28 December 1942. From late 1943 to early 1944, the division trained in the mountains of Tennessee and was subsequently sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for further training. While at Fort Bragg, Technical Sergeant Walter L. Bull earned the first Expert Infantryman's Badge. Between January 1943 and August 1944, the division sent 14,636 enlisted men and 1,400 officers as cadres or fillers for other units or to overseas replacement depots. The latter transfers were to obey two War Department directives issued in January and February 1944. The first was that the greatest possible proportion of men sent overseas as replacements have at least six months of training. The latter was to prohibit 18 year olds and men with children conceived prior to Pearl Harbor who had less than six months of training from being sent overseas as replacements unless men could be found from other sources. In June 1944, the age rule became even stricter, with no men under 19 shipped as replacements in infantry or armor under any circumstances, and no men under 18 years and 6 months assigned to infantry or armor replacement training centers. Between April 1944 ("when the initial age rules began to have a substantial effect") and September 1944 (when the age policy came to an end), the 100th Infantry Division lost 125 infantry noncommissioned officers and 3,859 privates. In exchange, the division received men from replacement training centers (particularly starting in the summer, when demand for replacements in all theaters became so high that the centers, rather than units, again became the primary source of overseas replacements), the pared-down Army Specialized Training Program, aviation cadets returned to the ground forces, men from disbanded units in other branches of the Army (principally anti aircraft and tank destroyer), and men who had volunteered for the infantry from other branches of the Army. The division sailed to Europe on 6 October of that year. The division arrived at Marseille, France, on 20 October. It was made part of VI Corps of the Seventh United States Army, Sixth United States Army Group. European Theater: As soon as the division was prepared for combat, it began moving into the Meurt