91st Inf Division

Genuine WWII shoulder sleeve insignia of the 91st Infantry Division.

In September 1918, the division saw its first action in the St. Mihiel Offensive. After St. Mihiel, the division was sent to the Meuse-Argonne sector. Almost every other US division deployed to the Meuse-Argonne had significant combat experience. The 91st did not have much experience and yet it performed particularly well in this campaign, successfully participating in the destruction of the German First Guards Division, breaking through all three German defense lines. Despite the fact that this offensive was the division's first entry into a major battle, it captured more artillery, machine guns and prisoners and advanced a greater distance under fire than many other divisions that had much more combat experience. In the Flanders Campaign, the 91st attacked in the morning fog of October 31. And from that moment until the very moment of the capitulation, on November 11, at 11:00, the division relentlessly pushed back the enemy in panic. The 91st Infantry also fought in the Lorraine and Ypres-Lys campaigns. Total losses of the 91st Division in the First World War: 6,108 soldiers and officers – 1,134 killed and 4,974 wounded. After the Armistice, elements of the 166th Artillery Brigade moved to Germany and occupied the village of Wittlich until February 1919. The survivors of the division returned home in April 1919. During the Second World War, it was engaged in the Italian campaign from January 1944 to May 1945.