The units of the 70th Infantry Division Special Troops
were activated 15 July 1943 at Camp Adair, Oregon. They trained
there for their combat missions for the next 12 months. During that
period, the division was tasked to provide replacements for U.S.
Army losses in Europe and the Far East. This required new
replacements and retraining of some of the Special Troops units. In
late July 1944 the division entrained for transfer to Fort Leonard
Wood, MO, and resumed training there. The last of the replacements
arrived in early October 1944. After the three infantry regiments
embarked for Europe during the first week of December, an advance
party from the Special Troops units sailed for Europe on 13 December
1944, landing in Marseilles on 23 December, and moved to the Task
Force Herren operational area in Northeastern France.
The main body of Special Troops sailed for Europe on 8 January 1945,
disembarked at Marseilles 18 January 1945 and moved by road and rail
to Northeastern France; they joined the division elements already in
place and on 17 February 1945, began combat operations as a
division.
70th Quartermaster Company
Responsible for establishment of supply points for all classes of
supply. Quartermaster feeds, clothes and supplies a division with
thousands of items ranging from bullets to blankets, raincoats to
rations, mines to mimeographs. The 70th Quartermaster Company
performed its job so well that it was awarded the Meritorious Unit
Service Plaque and its members were entitled to wear a gold
embroidered wreath on their left sleeve, just above the cuff.
Supplies were picked up at railheads in France, Belgium, and Germany
and hauled to breakdown points where shipments were subdivided for
individual units.
