Special Units of World War II

From the code breakers of the Cipher Bureau to the garrisons of Westerplatte, Wizna and Hel, the units that fought the first campaign of the war.

PolandThe Polish Cipher BureauA small, secret office of the Polish General Staff broke the German armed forces’ Enigma machine in December 1932, read its traffic for most of the next seven years, and five weeks before the war gave its methods and machines to Britain and France.

PolandThe Westerplatte GarrisonThe guard of a Polish ammunition depot inside the Free City of Danzig, allowed by treaty 88 men and no fortifications, held a sandy peninsula for seven days against a battleship, marines, police, SS, artillery and dive bombers.

PolandThe Defenders of the Polish Post Office, DanzigPostal clerks, telegraphists and reservists, led by an engineer officer sent by Polish military intelligence, held the Polish Post Office in Danzig for most of 1 September 1939.

PolandThe 18th Pomeranian UhlansA cavalry regiment from Grudziądz charged and scattered a German infantry battalion near Krojanty on the evening of 1 September 1939.

PolandThe Volhynian Cavalry BrigadeFighting on foot, with antitank guns and an armored train beside them, a cavalry brigade from eastern Poland held the 4th Panzer Division at Mokra through the first day of the war.

PolandThe Black Brigade: 10th Motorized Cavalry BrigadePoland’s first fully motorized formation fought from the first morning in the Beskid hills, gave ground by bounds for more than two weeks without breaking, and crossed into Hungary to fight again.

PolandThe Pursuit BrigadeThe Polish commander in chief’s fighter reserve met the first German raids on Warsaw on 1 September 1939 and fought over the capital for six days with fighters designed in the early 1930s.

PolandThe Bomber BrigadeThe Polish commander in chief’s bomber reserve flew its modern Łoś and older Karaś bombers low over the German armored columns from 2 September 1939, at a cost its crews understood.

PolandThe Kościuszko Squadron: 111th Escadrille and No. 303A squadron named by American volunteers in 1919 defended Warsaw in September 1939 under their stars-and-stripes badge, and its survivors carried the same badge into the Battle of Britain.

PolandThe Wizna GarrisonA few hundred reservists and border troops under Capt. Władysław Raginis held a line of concrete bunkers above the Narew crossing at Wizna against the leading units of Heinz Guderian’s panzer corps for three days in September 1939.

PolandThe Defenders of Warsaw, 1939Abandoned by the government and the high command, an improvised garrison of soldiers, workers’ volunteers and firemen, led by two generals and a mayor, stopped a panzer division in the streets of Warsaw and held the city for three weeks.

PolandThe Gdynia ScythemenGdynia workers the army could not arm with rifles took up war scythes and pikes in September 1939, as Kościuszko’s peasants had in 1794.

PolandThe Hel Fortified RegionThe navy’s fortress at the tip of a narrow sandspit, planned to hold for about two weeks, held for 32 days and was among the last places in Poland to stop fighting.

PolandThe Crew of ORP OrzełInterned in a neutral port and stripped of their charts, the crew of Poland’s newest submarine broke out under fire, crossed the Baltic and the Danish straits with charts drawn from memory and reached Scotland.

PolandThe Border Protection Corps (KOP)Raised in 1924 to guard Poland’s eastern frontier, the Border Protection Corps sent many of its best battalions west against Germany in 1939.

American volunteers over Burma and China, and the men who fought back at Pearl Harbor and Wake Island.

United StatesThe American Volunteer Group: The Flying TigersAmerican pilots and ground crews on civilian contracts flew Curtiss P-40 fighters for China from 20 December 1941, defending Kunming and Rangoon and the road between them, until the group was disbanded on 4 July 1942.

United StatesDoris Miller and the Crew of USS West VirginiaMess Attendant Second Class Doris Miller carried wounded men, among them his mortally wounded captain, and fired a machine gun he had never been trained on as his battleship settled at her berth on 7 December 1941.

United StatesThe 47th Pursuit Squadron at HaleiwaWhile the main airfields burned on 7 December 1941, Lts. George Welch and Kenneth Taylor drove to a small north-shore strip where the squadron’s fighters were armed, and took off into the attack.

United StatesVMF-211 and the Civilians of Wake IslandMarine Fighting Squadron 211 reached Wake with twelve new Wildcats four days before the war and, with the island’s Marine gunners and civilian contractors, helped turn back the first Japanese landing on 11 December 1941.

The Americans’ first great test against the Germans, at Sidi Bou Zid, Kasserine Pass, Thala and El Guettar, with the British and the airmen above them.

United StatesThe 1st Armored Division, “Old Ironsides,” in TunisiaThe first American armored division to fight the Germans went to war in pieces, lost two tank battalions at Sidi Bou Zid, held the Tébessa road at Djebel el Hamra and ended the Tunisian campaign by taking the surrender of the 10th and 15th Panzer Divisions.

United StatesThe 1st Ranger Battalion: Darby’s RangersThe Army’s first Ranger battalion, raised in Northern Ireland on the British commando model, opened the Oran landings at Arzew, raided the Italian post at Sened Station by night and led the 1st Infantry Division over the hills to El Guettar.

United StatesThe 168th Infantry, Iowa National GuardSmall-town Iowans of the 34th “Red Bull” Division were posted on isolated hills west of Faïd Pass, ordered to hold while two panzer divisions went around them, and ordered out too late.

United StatesThe 19th Engineer Combat RegimentA II Corps regiment trained to build roads laid the mines across the Kasserine Pass and held its southwestern half against the Afrika Korps on 19 and 20 February 1943.

United StatesThe 1st Infantry Division, “the Big Red One,” in TunisiaBroken up across the Tunisian front all winter, its regiments fought in the Kasserine Pass, at Sbiba and at Djebel el Hamra.

United StatesThe 9th Infantry Division ArtilleryOrdered east from near Tlemcen on 17 February 1943, the division’s guns drove the length of Algeria in about four days, went into position in the dark behind a broken British line at Thala and helped persuade Rommel on 22 February that the road north was closed.

United StatesThe 601st Tank Destroyer BattalionWith stopgap half-tracks carrying old 75 mm field guns, the battalion fought the 10th Panzer Division in the open east of El Guettar on 23 March 1943, lost two-thirds of its guns, was credited with 37 tanks and won a Presidential Unit Citation.

United StatesXII Air Support CommandThe Twelfth Air Force’s close-support command flew fighters and light bombers for II Corps from Thelepte, Youks-les-Bains and Tébessa through the winter of 1942–43, gave up its best field to the German advance, and came back on 22 and 23 February to…

United StatesThe 99th Fighter Squadron: The Tuskegee Airmen in CombatThe first Black American flying unit sent overseas reached Casablanca on 24 April 1943, flew its first combat missions from Cap Bon against Pantelleria in June, and began the combat record of the Tuskegee Airmen.

United StatesThe 57th Fighter GroupAn American P-40 group that flew off a carrier to Africa in 1942, fought beside the British Eighth Army from El Alamein to Tunisia, and on 18 April 1943 broke up a great formation of German transports over the Gulf of Tunis.

United StatesThe 48th Surgical HospitalThe Army hospital nearest the front when Rommel struck in February 1943 ran 200-bed units at Thala and Fériana, moved them out of the path of the offensive while still caring for the wounded, and in March worked under German bombs at Gafsa behind El Guettar.

BritainThe 26th Armoured Brigade and Gore ForceA British armoured brigade with tanks weaker than the enemy’s sent a small battle group into the Kasserine Pass to fight beside the Americans, then gave ground ridge by ridge south of Thala until the 10th Panzer Division was stopped short of the town.

The Axis record

The recordSchwere Panzer-Abteilung 501The German 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion was one of the first two battalions equipped with the Tiger I heavy tank.

The recordKampfgruppe DAKKampfgruppe DAK was the German-Italian assault group Rommel built around the headquarters of the Afrika Korps for his February 1943 offensive.

The recordThe 10th Panzer Division in TunisiaThe German 10th Panzer Division fought through the whole Tunisian campaign: at Tebourba in December 1942, at Sidi Bou Zid, in the Kasserine Pass and at Thala in February 1943, and at El Guettar in March.

The recordCentauro and the 5th BersaglieriThe 131st Armored Division “Centauro” was a Royal Italian Army armored division with outclassed tanks.

The recordThe Luftwaffe in TunisiaThe German air units in Tunisia, under Field Marshal Albert Kesselring’s Luftflotte 2, held local air superiority over the front through the winter of 1942–43.

The recordThe Jews of Tunisia and the SS EinsatzkommandoFor the roughly 90,000 Jews of Tunisia, the six months of German occupation that the Kasserine battles were fought to end brought the Holocaust to Africa.

The Kursk salient: Soviet armies and engineers, partisans, Free French pilots, and the American Lend-Lease that kept them moving.

United StatesLend-Lease to the Soviet Union at KurskNo American unit fought at Kursk, but American equipment did: M3 tanks in the first Soviet line, A-20 bombers over the salient, and the trucks, wire, rails and food that carried the Red Army west in August 1943.

Soviet UnionThe Soviet Combat Engineers at KurskSappers sited the trenches and strongpoints of the deepest field fortification of the war, laid most of some 943,000 mines, and during the battle laid new fields in the path of the German armor, often within sight of it.

Soviet UnionThe Partisans of the Bryansk Forests and the Rail WarBrigades in the forests behind the Orel bulge watched the German build-up for Citadel and attacked the railways that fed it.

Soviet UnionThe Soviet 13th Army at PonyriGiven the narrowest sector and the heaviest reinforcement on the Central Front, Lt. Gen. Nikolai Pukhov’s 13th Army took the main blow of Model’s Ninth Army along the Orel–Kursk railway from 5 to 11 July 1943 and held its second belt.

Soviet UnionThe Soviet 1st Tank ArmyMikhail Katukov’s tank army was the Voronezh Front’s armored reserve on the southern face of the Kursk salient.

Soviet UnionThe 5th Guards Tank Army at ProkhorovkaPavel Rotmistrov’s tank army marched three nights to reach the southern face of the Kursk salient and on 12 July 1943 attacked the II SS Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka.

Soviet UnionThe Il-2 Shturmovik Regiments at KurskThe assault regiments flew the hardest missions of the battle, low over the battlefield through German flak.

Free FranceGroupe de Chasse Normandie (Normandie-Niemen)Free French fighter pilots in Soviet Yaks, Groupe de Chasse 3 “Normandie” flew over the Orel bulge from 12 July 1943 and lost six men in four days, among them its commander.

Soviet UnionThe Red Army Medical Service at KurskFrom the company sanitary instructor in the trench, often a woman and often a teenager, to the hospital bases in the rear, the Red Army’s medical service received more than 600,000 wounded and sick in the seven weeks of the Kursk battle, about 12,000 a day.

The Axis record

The recordThe II SS Panzer CorpsThe strongest German corps on the southern face of the Kursk salient was built from three divisions of Heinrich Himmler’s SS.

The recordSchwere Panzerjäger-Regiment 656The regiment of the new 65-tonne Ferdinand tank destroyers attacked along the Orel–Kursk railway toward Ponyri on 5 July 1943.

The recordPanzer-Regiment 39 and the PanthersThe first two battalions of Panther tanks went into battle at Kursk under a new regimental headquarters attached to the Großdeutschland Division.

The recordThe Cannon StukasA handful of Ju 87 dive bombers fitted with a 3.7 cm cannon under each wing flew their first antitank missions over the southern face of the Kursk salient on 5 July 1943.

The recordSonderkommando 1005Sonderkommando 1005 was not a fighting unit. Its task was to make the victims of the Einsatzgruppen disappear.

Operation Husky, 10 July to 17 August 1943: paratroopers and glider pilots in the night, three American infantry divisions, British raiders and commandos, the Canadians in the hills, and the German divisions that fought them to Messina.

United StatesThe 505th Parachute Infantry in SicilyGavin’s scattered night jump held Piano Lupo and Biazzo Ridge.

United StatesThe Big Red One in SicilyHeld Gela against the Hermann Göring Division, then fought six days at Troina.

United StatesTruscott’s 3rd Infantry Division in SicilyLicata to Palermo at the “Truscott trot,” mules, Brolo, and first into Messina.

United StatesThe 45th “Thunderbirds” in SicilyFirst combat at Scoglitti; Bloody Ridge; the Biscari killings and trials.

BritainThe Glider Pilot Regiment and Operation LadbrokeGliders in the sea and one Horsa at the Ponte Grande.

BritainThe Special Raiding Squadron in SicilyPaddy Mayne’s cliff assault at Capo Murro di Porco and Augusta.

BritainNo. 3 Commando and the Malati BridgeSeized and saved the Malati Bridge.

CanadaThe 1st Canadian Infantry Division in SicilyAssoro, Leonforte, Agira: 240 km and 562 dead.

The Axis record

The recordThe Hermann Göring Division in SicilyThe Gela counterattack and the Castiglione di Sicilia reprisal.

The recordThe 1st Fallschirmjäger Division in SicilyPrimosole and the Catania plain.

Operation Avalanche, 9 September to 1 October 1943: Texans at Paestum, Rangers and Commandos on the mountain flank, the London Division in the north, the gunners who stopped the German thrust at the Sele–Calore, the paratroopers who dropped into the beachhead — and the German units that nearly broke it.

United StatesThe 36th “Texas” Infantry Division at SalernoA National Guard division’s first battle: Paestum, Altavilla, Hill 424 and four Medals of Honor.

United StatesThe 504th Parachute Infantry at SalernoThirteen hundred men jumped into the beachhead on a few hours’ notice, then held Altavilla’s hills.

United StatesThe 509th Parachute Infantry at AvellinoDropped far behind German lines to cut the roads to the beachhead.

United StatesThe guns of the Sele–Calore: the 158th and 189th Field Artillery3,650 rounds in about four hours stopped the German thrust of 13 September.

BritainNo. 2 and No. 41 (Royal Marine) Commando at SalernoVietri, the Pimple and Pigoletti: nearly half of 738 men became casualties.

BritainThe 56th (London) Division at SalernoBattipaglia, Montecorvino airfield and the Tobacco Factory.

The Axis record

The recordThe 16th Panzer Division at SalernoThe only German division on the gulf on D-Day, and the killing of General Gonzaga.

The recordKG 100 and the Fritz X at SalernoThe guided bombs that sank Roma and hit Savannah, Uganda and Warspite.

A U-boat captured at sea, paratroopers in Normandy, a platoon and a tank battalion in the Bulge, and the code talkers of Iwo Jima.

United StatesTask Group 22.3 and the Capture of U-505An escort carrier and five destroyer escorts under Capt. Daniel V. Gallery forced U-505 to the surface off French West Africa on 4 June 1944, put a boarding party into the sinking boat, kept her afloat and towed her to Bermuda in secret.

United StatesThe Navajo Code Talkers at Iwo JimaNavajo Marines carried orders, reports and calls for fire over the radio in a code built on their own language.

United StatesThe I&R Platoon, 394th Infantry, at LanzerathA platoon meant to watch and report held a wooded rise above Lanzerath through the first day of the Battle of the Bulge, 16 December 1944, and was overrun only at dusk.

United StatesThe 761st Tank Battalion, the “Black Panthers”The first African American tank battalion committed to combat fought across Lorraine in November 1944 and through the snow around Tillet in January 1945, in an Army that kept it segregated.

United StatesThe Filthy Thirteen, 506th Parachute InfantryNot convicts and not a movie: a demolition section of the 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, that jumped into Normandy on D-Day with a mission against the bridges of the Douve.