Recently, tensions between Texas and the US federal authorities have intensified, and the Texas side has transferred a large number of M1 main battle tanks and armored vehicles of the National Guard to the border areas to confront federal fighters, creating a tense atmosphere in which a civil war is about to break out.
The protagonist of this article is the 36th Infantry Division, the only main division of Texas, which was well-known in World War II and not only participated in the bloody Battle of Cassino Mountain, but also had a direct connection with the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai".
How much military power does Texas really have?
Taken as a whole, the three main forces in Texas are: the Texas Army National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard, and the Texas Defense Force, all of which pledge allegiance to the state government and are not directly subordinate to U.S. federal authorities. Among them, the Army and Air National Guard, which are equipped and trained in the same way as the regular army, belong to the main reserve forces of the country, and can be mobilized by the president to participate in local wars and overseas deployments. However, all three units are under the command of the governor of Texas and are directly managed by an adjutant appointed by the governor.
The Texas Army National Guard has approximately 19,000 troops and includes the 36th Infantry Division, the 176th Combat Engineer Brigade, the 136th Infantry Regiment, and several training, recruitment, medical and other facilities, as well as the 1st Airborne Battalion of the 143rd Infantry Regiment, which is the only airborne battalion in the U.S. National Guard.
The main force of the Texas Air National Guard is three air wings, all of which have only one main squadron, namely the 136th Air Transport Wing (a C-130 transport aircraft squadron), the 147th Reconnaissance Wing (an MQ-1B UAV squadron), the 149th Fighter Wing (an F-16C/D training squadron, and also manages an intelligence training squadron, an information warfare squadron, a security forces squadron, a meteorological squadron), and the state also has a 254th Combat Communications Brigade, which also has only one main squadron.
The Texas Defense Force, unlike the National Guard, does not belong to the US Army and Air Force system and is closer to the concept of a "state militia". The Texas Defense Force has six militia regiments, two air wings, a medical brigade and a maritime regiment, all of which are air support units, and the medical brigade and maritime regiment are mainly responsible for rescue and support work.
Judging from the above information, the main forces that Texas can mobilize in border operations are the 36th Infantry Division and other units and six militia regiments, of which the 36th Infantry Division is the core combat force of the state. Most of the large number of tanks, armored vehicles and "Humvee" military vehicles sent by Texas this time may belong to the 36th Division.
The only main division in Texas: the 36th Infantry Division
The 36th Infantry Division, codenamed "Arrow", also known as the "Texas Division", as the only main division in Texas, has a large establishment of six brigade-level combat teams, which is also characteristic of the National Guard as a reserve force and training unit. The six brigades of the 36th Infantry Division include four infantry brigade combat teams, one heavy brigade combat team, and one combat aviation brigade.
This kind of brigade combat team is actually a mixed unit of several brigades or regimental subordinate battalions. Each of the four infantry brigade combat teams has two infantry battalions, an artillery battalion, a special forces battalion, a cavalry regiment squadron, and a support battalion. A heavy brigade combat team is equivalent to a downsized armored brigade, with the exception of an infantry battalion that was replaced by an armored battalion, and the other battalions are similar to infantry brigade combat teams. The combat aviation brigade of the 36th Division has five aviation battalions, which are equipped with attack helicopters, transport helicopters, and reconnaissance helicopters.
Overall, the 36th Infantry Division of Texas, although it belongs to the "shelf force" in the rear, with an estimated strength of less than 10,000 troops, has the backbone structure of a regular infantry division. Once Texas is officially mobilized, with a large number of tanks and other weapons and equipment stored in the state's 117 armories, the 36th Division can be quickly upgraded to a fully equipped mechanized infantry division or even an armored division, with an estimated strength of more than 20,000 troops and 200 to 300 tanks.
In addition, the 36th Division is also a veteran unit with its own history, which once had a certain reputation during World War II.
Bloody battle against Kasiano and capture Rundstedt
The U.S. 36th Infantry Division, originally the 15th Infantry Division, was formed by the National Guard of Texas and Oklahoma during World War I, and the 15th Division was renamed the 36th Division in July 1917. In July 1918, the 36th Infantry Division was sent to the European theater and took part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. During World War I, the division suffered 466 casualties and 2,118 wounded, and was disbanded in 1919.
In November 1940, in the face of World War II, the United States reorganized the 36th Infantry Division in Texas. After a series of training and exercises, the division boarded a ship in New York on April 2, 1943, and went to North Africa to fight. At that time, the division had three infantry regiments, namely the 141st, 142nd and 143rd Regiments, which were typical "triangular divisions", in addition to four 105-mm field artillery battalions. After 1944, the division also reinforced two tank battalions, two tank destroyer battalions and one anti-aircraft artillery battalion.
In the European theater, the 36th Infantry Division was engaged in North Africa, Italy and France. In January 1944, the division took part in the tragic Battle of Cassino. In order to break the "Gustav Line" of the German army in the central part of the Italian peninsula, the Allies invested more than 200,000 troops from the United States, Britain, France, New Zealand, and India, and launched four large-scale offensives on Mount Cassinot, paying a heavy price and four months to barely occupy this key point.
The 36th Infantry Division, as part of the U.S. Second Army, participated in the first Allied offensive on Mount Cassino. On the evening of 20 January, the 36th Division (one regiment owed) as the vanguard of the Second Army, taking advantage of the darkness to force its way across the Lapido River 8 km downstream from Cassino and attack the central part of the Gustav Line, with British and French troops on the left and right flanks, respectively.
However, the US military's plan to cross the river was very hasty, and not only did it not clear the mines and other obstacles in time, but also the Lapido River was in the season of high water, which caused serious difficulties for the US troops to cross the river. As a result, in the darkness of night, only one battalion of the 143rd Regiment and two companies of the 141st Regiment successfully crossed the river, and tanks and other heavy equipment could not cross the river. As a result, the scattered river-crossing units were subjected to a fierce counterattack by the German 15th Panzergrenadier Division in the absence of support, and suffered extremely heavy losses, and the American 143rd Regiment was driven back to the opposite bank.
At this time, the commander of the US Second Army, Major General Jeffrey Keyes, gave a death order to the commander of the 36th Division, Major General Fred Walker, to relaunch the offensive at all costs. The two regiments of the 36th Division could only launch another strong attack without tank support, and again suffered a heavy defeat.
By the night of January 22, the two main regiments of the 36th Division had lost their combat effectiveness, with 2,100 casualties and missing in just 48 hours, and the front-line attacking forces were almost completely wiped out. Of these, only 40 men from the two battalions of the 141st Regiment who crossed the river escaped. It is said that the 100th Battalion, which was composed of Japanese-American troops, was temporarily attached to the 36th Division in this battle and participated in the battle of crossing the river, and suffered very heavy losses, with only 14 of the 187 men left in one company.
Subsequently, the 142nd Regiment of the 36th Division, attached to the 34th Division of the United States, and the 100th Battalion, together with the Japanese Americans, participated in the assault on the Monastery of Mount Cassino, which also suffered heavy losses. The U.S. Army suffered 2,200 casualties on Mount Cassino, causing the 34th Division to also lose its offensive capability. Eventually, the U.S. Second Army completely withdrew from the front line of the Battle of Cassino, and the battle position was replaced by the New Zealand Corps of the British Eighth Army.
Despite its poor performance at Cassino, the U.S. 36th Division, after a brief break, took part in the Battle of Anzio on 22 May and broke through German lines to Rome on 5 June. On August 15, 1944, the 36th Division, as part of the 6th TJI Army of the United States, participated in an amphibious landing in southern France. Subsequently, the 36th Division was transferred to France and then Germany.
At the final stage of the assault on Germany, the 36th Infantry Division also captured a "big fish". On May 1, 1945, the division captured German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt in Kitzbühel, Austria, and finally left a glorious mark in the history of the war.
On December 15, 1945, the 36th Infantry Division returned to the continental United States and returned to the Texas National Guard. In February 1947, the 36th Infantry Division was reorganized into the 49th Panzer Division, which at the beginning of the 21st century was the only fully functional reserve armored division in the United States. In 2004, the 49th Panzer Division was reorganized into the 36th Infantry Division.
"Lost Battalion" and the Bridge over the River Kwai
As the history of the 36th Infantry Division, there is an additional episode - the "Lost Battalion", which is associated with the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai".
When the 36th Infantry Division was re-established in Texas in November 1940, it initially consisted of three field artillery regiments, and was later reorganized into four artillery battalions under the new structure. The original 2nd Battalion of the 131st Field Artillery Regiment was sent to Southeast Asia in November 1941 as a redundant unit as a reinforcement for the U.S. forces in the Philippines. On December 11, 1941, the battalion and other U.S. troops arrived in Brisbane, becoming the first U.S. troops to land in Australia.
Subsequently, on January 11, 1942, the 2nd Battalion of the 131st Field Artillery Regiment was deployed to the Dutch Indonesian island of Jawa and stationed near the Singosari airfield to cover the B-17 and B-24 bombers of the 19th Bomber Group of the U.S. Army.
On 14 February, Japanese troops landed on the island of Java, and the battalion resisted in conjunction with Dutch and Australian troops. But this U.S. artillery battalion had poor armament, with only four three-inch guns and one five-inch gun, as well as 12.7 mm machine guns removed from bombers. On March 11, the Dutch authorities on the island of Java surrendered to the Japanese, and 534 of the 558 members of the U.S. artillery battalion became Japanese prisoners, in addition to the war dead.
Since the U.S. government had no information about the fate of the battalion after the surrender of the Dutch authorities, this artillery battalion was called the "lost battalion" in the history of U.S. warfare. The Japanese captured 902 American servicemen on the island of Java, and with the exception of the 2nd Battalion of the 131st Field Artillery Regiment, the rest of the servicemen were from the sunken cruiser "Houston".
Of the 902 American troops captured, 668 were sent to Burma and Thailand to work as laborers on the Burma-Siam "Death Railway," the most important junction on which the famous Bridge over the River Kwai was. In order to build the railway through the primeval forest, the Japanese enslaved 300,000 Asian laborers and 60,000 Allied prisoners, and more than 100,000 laborers died, including more than 12,000 Allied prisoners.
Among the Allied prisoners killed were 133 American soldiers, 63 of whom were from the 131st Field Artillery Regiment and 67 from the cruiser USS Houston. (Author: Tao Mujian)