Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

Units That Make Us Proud
WORLD WAR II YEARS
129
Units that called Fort Meade home during WWII fought
in all areas of the war. Families on the home front soon
became familiar with the far off places. England, Iceland,
North Africa, Anzio, Solarno, Rome, Omaha and Utah
beaches, St. Lo, Paris, Munich, Nuremburg, the Rhine
River, and the list goes on. The following are but a small
selection of the many units that came through Fort
Meade.
70 th Tank Battalion (Light)
Before war was declared, there were a series of National
Emergency Acts that came into play, and these had a major
effect on Fort Meade. In 1940, the War Department had
a surge of construction, in anticipation of new troops
being brought into the ranks. Units were moved and split
and new units came into being. Two Fort Meade units
went away. This was due to the 66 th Infantry (Light Tank)
and the 67 th Infantry (Medium Tank) being redesignated
the 66 th Armor and 67 th Armor respectively with the
creation of the Armored Force branch and being sent to
Fort Benning, Georgia.
To fill the void elements of the 67 th Infantry became
the 70 th Tank Battalion. The unit was formed up and
trained here at Fort Meade. One company would first
go to Iceland, while the others went on to be one of
the invasion units of Operation Torch, and would fight
elements of the Vichy French, as well as the Germans
and Italians. From there to Sicily and then on mainland
Europe, landing on Utah Beach in support of the Fourth
Division. They would participate in other major battles to
include the Huertgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
VE day would find them in Austria.
191st Tank Battalion
When the 29th Division, comprised of National Guard
troops from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and the
District of Columbia were mobilized for the National
Emergency for one year of training, they were sent to Fort
Meade. The 29th Tank Company of the Virginia National
Guard was also activated, however, they had been split
off from the 29th Division. They departed Virginia
to assemble as part of the 191st Tank Battalion. The
By James Speraw
battalion was organized out of four National Guard tank
companies from New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and
Connecticut and assembled at Fort Meade, Maryland, in
February 1941 under Maj. Littleton A. Roberts. The 191st
would pick up additional manpower from the exiting 66th
Armor as well as other units. The 191st would see 536
days in combat, the most of any Virginia Guard unit in the
war. They went from
North Africa to the
Anzio Beachhead, and
on to Rome, where
they experienced
heavy casualties. After
Italy, they would
participate in the
invasion of Southern
France, and fought
north to the Vosges
Mountains. Then
through Lorraine and
Alsace to the Rhine
and beyond. At the
end of the war, they were in the Munich-Nurnberg area.
However, most notable in their drive across Germany, in
1945 they helped to liberate the Dachau Concentration
Camp.
176th Infantry
The 176 th Infantry (formerly the 1st Virginia) and the
176th Artillery were transferred from the 29 th Division
when the Army went from having a square division to a
triangular division. The 176th Infantry would become the
garrison troops of Washington, D.C., The 176th Infantry
would see no combat during the war. When their stint
as garrison troops for Washington D.C. was over they
were transferred to Fort Benning where they became
the teaching regiment of the Infantry School and were
redesignated as the 29th Infantry Regiment.
603 rd Engineers (Camouflage)
During WWII, the Army recognized that proper
camouflage could be a force multiplier. Planning initially