37th Infantry Division cut edge

37th Infantry Division Patch. original, WW2.

The unit arrived in Fiji in June 1942 to fortify the archipelago in anticipation of a possible invasion and to continue its training there. In April 1943, she left for Guadalcanal where the fighting ended. Two battalions were attached to the Marines in New Georgia on July 5, 1943. The rest of the division landed there on the 22nd and supported the 43rd Infantry Division in the capture of Munda airfield. After clearing the island, she returned to Guadalcanal on September 9, 1943.

As part of the I Marine Amphibious Corps, she took part in the Bougainville campaign where she landed between November 8 and 19, 1943. She extended the western bridgehead and carried out various engineering operations (construction of bridges and roads) while launching numerous patrols. In March 1944, it held out against eight offensives from two Japanese divisions. On January 9, 1945, she landed in Luzon in the Gulf of Lingayen and participated in the reconquest of the island. At first, it progressed rapidly inland before encountering stronger resistance near Fort Stotsenburg and the Clark airstrip. On February 4, she entered the suburbs of Manila and, after crossing the Pasig, she faced strong opposition, managing at the cost of difficult street fighting to conquer the city on March 3 alongside Filipino troops.

Between March 5 and March 26, the division was garrisoned in Manila before heading for the hills to the northwest of the island, taking Baguio on April 26. In May, she was put to rest and returned to the front in June in the Cagayan Valley, in the face of declining Japanese resistance. From the end of hostilities on August 15, the unit managed prisoners of war before returning to the United States in November 1945.