World War II
90th Division, 3rd U.S. Army - World War II
"Tough Ombres"
The history of the U.S. Army 90th Division had it's birth during World War I in Texas. Largely comprised of draftees from Texas and Oklahoma the division patch consists of a mongramatic red "T" and "O" on a square olive drab background background. The reputation earned in WWI France soon lost the reference of home st Texasates and the "Alamo division" to one of battle earned recognition; "Tough Ombres".
The division was deactivated shortly after World War I and recommissioned to active service at Camp Barkeley, Texas, on March 25th, 1942. Quietly because no one knew that this was a unit whose destiny it was to smash the German defenses in Normandy, to break the enemy's back in the Foret de Mont Castre, and later to break his heart on the banks of Moselle. Quietly it was born because no one knew of the victories that lay before it, of Chambois and Oberwampach and the Saar and Koenigsmacker, of the Triumphany thrust across the soil of France, and the part of the 90th was to play in the reduction of the imgregnable fortress of the Metz.
Subject material revelent to immediate family history is easy to research and a pleasure to write. My Grandfather, Robert G. Wilt served as a infrantry PFC during much of the 90th campaign in France and Belgium. He was a rifleman with Company G, 357th Regiment who saw heavy combat action from his arrival in Normandy shortly after the Normandy "D Day" invasion in the hedgerow lowlands through the drive inland to the Battle of the Falaise Gap.
With his regiment he participated in continuous combat through France into Luxenbourg, he was severely wounded and relieved from combat during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge.
"Tough Ombres"
The history of the U.S. Army 90th Division had it's birth during World War I in Texas. Largely comprised of draftees from Texas and Oklahoma the division patch consists of a mongramatic red "T" and "O" on a square olive drab background background. The reputation earned in WWI France soon lost the reference of home st Texasates and the "Alamo division" to one of battle earned recognition; "Tough Ombres".
The division was deactivated shortly after World War I and recommissioned to active service at Camp Barkeley, Texas, on March 25th, 1942. Quietly because no one knew that this was a unit whose destiny it was to smash the German defenses in Normandy, to break the enemy's back in the Foret de Mont Castre, and later to break his heart on the banks of Moselle. Quietly it was born because no one knew of the victories that lay before it, of Chambois and Oberwampach and the Saar and Koenigsmacker, of the Triumphany thrust across the soil of France, and the part of the 90th was to play in the reduction of the imgregnable fortress of the Metz.
Subject material revelent to immediate family history is easy to research and a pleasure to write. My Grandfather, Robert G. Wilt served as a infrantry PFC during much of the 90th campaign in France and Belgium. He was a rifleman with Company G, 357th Regiment who saw heavy combat action from his arrival in Normandy shortly after the Normandy "D Day" invasion in the hedgerow lowlands through the drive inland to the Battle of the Falaise Gap.
With his regiment he participated in continuous combat through France into Luxenbourg, he was severely wounded and relieved from combat during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge.