24TH INFANTRY DIVISION, I
CORPS, US
ARMY
"THE VICTORY DIVISION"
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WW2
Insignia of the 24th Infantry Division
UNITS OF THE 24TH INFANTRY DIVISION
The 24th Division under the command of Major General Durward S. Wilson was based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and suffered minor casualties. Major General Frederick A. Irving took over as the commanding General of the 24th Infantry Division in August 1942. The 24th Division left by ship the USA on 8 August 1943. They arrived in Sydney where they stayed for about ten days before the unit shipped out by train the 1,000 mile trip to Rockhampton. They arrived at Camp Caves near Rockhampton on 8 September 1943. The 24th Infantry Division was assigned to I Corps on 8 August 1943.
On Friday 26 November 1943 General Douglas MacArthur accompanied by General Lumsden and Colonel Palmer of the Royal Army, and his aide, Lieutenant Colonel Morhouse, departed Archerfield Airfield at 0730 hours and proceeded by air to Rockhampton where he was met by General Eichelberger and staff and inspected the Rehabilitation Center, for the 24th Infantry Division and the 41st Infantry Division, and returned to Brisbane at 1830 hours.
Photo:- US Army
101st Station Hospital Rockhampton
Lt. Col. Garfield, G. Duncan, MC explaining the malaria suppressive
therapy
charts to General Douglas MacArthur at the 101st Station Hospital, Rockhampton
on 26 November 1943.
Left to right:- Colonel Duncan; two officers in doorway
unidentified; Lt Col. Wallace A. Dunton, Sixth US Army
Training Center; Lt. Col. C.H. Morehouse, Aide-de-Camp to General MacArthur; Lt. Gen Herbert Lumsden,
British Army
Liaison Officer; Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger, Commanding
General, I Corps; Col. Frank LaRue, Commanding
Officer, Sixth US Army Training Center; and General Douglas MacArthur at far right.
The 24th Division left Rockhampton on 31 January 1944 and moved to Goodenough Island by about 14 February 1944. They were involved in combat operations at Tanahmerah Bay, New Guinea, Leyte, Philippine Islands. They spent time at Mindoro, Mindanao, and Japan. The 24th was assigned to the Sixth Army on 14 June 1944 and then to the X Corps on 26 September 1944.
Major General Roscoe B. Woodruff took over as the Commanding General in November 1944. The 24th was assigned to the Eighth Army on 26 December 1944 and then to X Corps on 15 August 1945. Brigadier General Kenneth F. Cramer took command of the 24th Infantry Division in November 1945.
The Band of the 24th Division Artillery started out as the Band, 145th Field Artillery on 1 July 1940. It was inducted into Federal Service on 3 March 1941 at Salt Lake City. It was reorganized and redesignated on 1 July 1942 as Band, 24th Division Artillery. It was disbanded in Australia on 1 December 1943.
Peter Landis's father, Staff Sergeant Le Roy Francis Landis (Serial No. 13007461), 63rd Field Artillery was a US serviceman in Battery F, 13th Field Artillery, which was attached to the 24th Infantry Division. He arrived in Gladstone on 24 August 1943 from Pearl Harbour, Honolulu and moved straight to Camp Caves. It appears they spent most of the time training till they were involved in a landing at Humbolt Bay, Hollandia, New Guinea on 24 April 1944. Somewhere in Peter's father met his future wife at a dance at Milman, about 10 - 15 kilometres north of the Caves. They were married on 11 July 1945 and Peter's father was discharged in November 1945. Peter now lives about 12 kilometres from where his father was actually camped. Peter's father had no problems being discharged in Australia after the war. Peter remembers, there was a very large contingent of ex US servicemen who had married local girls in the Rockhampton area who had stayed behind. Peter remembers as a child going to a number of functions with the families of the ex servicemen. There was a newspaper article about one of these functions back in the mid fifties.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Peter Landis for his assistance with this web page.
REFERENCES
HyperWar: US 24th Infantry Division
Can anyone help me with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
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This page first produced 4 July 2004
This page last updated 19 January 2020