Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

The 29 th Division
As part of a series of acts passed to improve national security,
the 29th Division was inducted into federal service on Feb. 3,
1941, as part of the mobilization of the National Guard for
one year of special training. With only 10 days of preparation
at their home armories in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania
and the District of Columbia, Maj. Gen. Milton A Reckord,
division commander, ordered them to convene on Feb. 13, at
Fort George G. Meade in Maryland where his newly established
headquarters were located.
As the units in the 29th arrived at Fort Meade, they found,
to their dismay, that while their Army home was new, it was
far from complete. The mud in the company streets was ankle
deep and the unpainted barracks, some without windows and
doors, stood naked in the winter wind. It was an inauspicious
beginning. The condition of the base harkened back to its first
National Emergency in 1917, when a partially complete Camp
Meade welcomed the 79th Division.
An additional ten thousand men arrived during March and
April. Training progressed quickly, at a surprisingly rapid pace
under adverse conditions. Due to shortages, training was often
accomplished with dummy equipment. In a scrap yard near
Reese Road and Route 175, soldiers of the division’s 110th
Field Artillery, cut sheets of metal from derelict Mark VIII
tanks, axles from wrecked trucks, along with angle iron and
stove pipes to make artillery to use for training.
Spring passed quickly and the men soon found that Fort
Meade could be as scorching hot and dusty in the summer as
it was cold and muddy in the winter. Through the unbearable
summer heat, the training at Fort Meade continued until Sept.
13th, when the 29 th left by convoy for Camp A. P. Hill, Virginia.
The movement to Camp A. P. Hill was their final preparation for
the First Army maneuvers in North Carolina. Upon completion
of the Camp A. P. Hill movement and preparations, the division
continued on to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, reaching the post
on Sept. 27 and going into bivouac on the military range there.
The Carolina Maneuvers, would be almost six weeks of
"warfare" between the "Blue Army" and the "Red Army". The
division acquitted itself well. The Carolina Maneuvers was
the first time that many of these soldiers had a chance to be
part of a “Big Picture” since most units trained at company
or battalion level, and seldom at division level. The Carolina
Maneuvers introduced movements of tens of thousands of
troops at Corps and Division level, as well as the use of large
armor and anti-tank formations and integrating aircraft and
airborne forces into the mix.
After nearly six weeks, in early December, the maneuvers
were terminated. The 29th Division was declared the “Winner”
over their maneuver adversary (the 28th Division, Pennsylvania
National Guard). With the wargames ended most of the
WORLD WAR II YEARS
By James Speraw
soldiers in the Maryland Guard were returning to Fort Meade
and looked forward to long planned holiday leaves. At the time,
there were rumors floating about that the president might give
them an early out as a Christmas present. Days later, their hopes
were dashed when word came of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii. They weren’t going home, America was now
at war. Initially elements of the Division were ordered back to
Washington, D.C., to secure the city.
The Division's first wartime assignment was the security of
vital areas and coastal defenses under the Headquarters of the
Chesapeake Bay Frontier Defense Command at Fort Monroe,
Virginia. Later, in February 1942, the 29th was designated the
mobile reserve for the New York–Philadelphia coastal sector
and its units were scattered from Pittsburgh and Harrisburg
in Pennsylvania, south to Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia to
guard railroad bridges, power plants and other sensitive sites
from sabotage.
On Mar. 12, 1942, the division reorganized under the new
"triangular" structure and officially changed its designation to
the 29th Infantry Division. The reorganization streamlined the
division base and transferred out of the division, Virginia's
176th Infantry, the regiment used for garrison duty in
Washington and later as school troops at the Infantry School
at Fort Benning, Georgia. The division also lost the 176 th
Field Artillery Regiment, as well as several smaller units. The
remaining artillery regiments were reconstituted as battalions,
and new troop formations trained to replace elements that had
been transferred, such as the 121 st Engineers.
The month after this reorganization, in the middle of April
1942, the 29 th Division would leave Fort Meade for Camp A.
P. Hill to make room for the newly assigned 76th Division.
Training under the new formation took place during the year at
A. P. Hill, Virginia, Camp Blanding, Florida, and in the Carolina
Maneuver Area. In late September and early October, the newly
formed division departed from New York for the war zone on
the liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
***
(Left) Members of the 191st Tank Battalion gather around
Ernie Pyle (center) the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
noted for his coverage of the war. Pyle is the namesake of a
main road on Fort Meade.
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