Did the americal division 164th regiment company g see a lot of fighting in World War 2?

Answer 1

Company G was a rifle company in the Second Battalion of the 164th Infantry. Rifle companies were also sometimes called "letter companies", or "line companies". These were the foot soldiers of the Army, the guys with rifles in their hands, who had to defend positions, or go forward and seek out the enemy. This was, by far, THE most dangerous job to have in all the American military in WWII. By a very large margin, most of the Americans killed in the war were members of a rifle company. At any one time there were not that many of them. At the start of the war the Table of Organization and Equipment called for 225 men in a rifle company, but by the end of the war this had been trimmed to 187. An entire Infantry Division had over 14,000 men, but in its organization there were only a total of 27 rifle companies, so only around 5100 of that 14,000 were in rifle companies, and this was the backbone of US battlefield strength. The US had only 65 infantry divisions, worldwide. So, there were 16 million Americans in uniform, but at any one time, fighting a world war around the globe, no more than about three hundred thousand were actual frontline foot soldiers. They generally had to be replaced frequently, as men were killed or disabled by wounds, illness, or injury, or cracked up from battle fatigue. Postwar analysis showed that after a cumulative eight months of combat, most men were about finished. It was a very, very hard life.

Legend has it that the Americal DIvision was the only US division without a number. This is not true, it was the 23rd Infantry Division. "Americal" is derived from its formation on the island of New Caledonia.

The 164th Infantry Regiment of the Americal Division went into action on Guadalcanal on October 13, 1942 as the first United States Army unit to conduct an offensive operation against the enemy in any theater. The Division continued fighting on Guadalcanal until enemy resistance ended, and they were relieved February 9, 1943. They spent the rest of 1943 defending the Fiji Islands and doing extensive training. Most of 1944 was spent on Bouganville, where the Americal relieved a Marine division in January. No attempt was made to take and hold all of Bouganville, which is a large island in the Solomons, as is Guadalcanal. Only a large enough perimeter was taken to build an airfield. There were still plenty of Japanese troops on the island, so active defense, patrolling, several offensive operations, conintuous combat was involved. The Americal left Bouganville on November 30, 1944. On January 8, 1945, the Division began moving into the Philippines, and fought there until late June, and was in training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. None of these operations was especially glamourous or grabbed a lot of headlines. Just constant, enervating, wearing low to medium intensity action for many months. Jungle warfare has hazards all its own, from the hostile environment, of insects, germs, infections, mud, mold, reptiles, constant dampness, stifling heat and humidity. The Division earned a Presidential Unit Citation (Navy) for its service on Guadalcanal, and a Distinguished Unit Citation as well. During WWII these unit citations were awarded where the entire unit performed to such a standard that had it been an individual, that soldier would have been entitled to the award of the Distinguished Service Cross, which is second only to the Medal of Honor.