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Insignia of the 26th Infantry Division. The 26th Infantry Division, the "Yankee" division, was so nicknamed to recognize the six New England states from whose National Guard units the division was raised during World War I. See more photographs |
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THE 26TH INFANTRY DIVISION |
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The 26th Infantry Division was formed in summer 1917, a few months after the United States entered World War I, and participated in several battles in France. In September 1944, the "Yankee" division landed in Normandy at several locations including Utah Beach. The 26th moved quickly through northern France and crossed the Saar River into Germany in early December. During the Battle of the Bulge, it was diverted to Luxembourg to thwart the German offensive. In late March 1945, the 26th crossed the Rhine River, eventually advancing to Thuringia before turning south toward Austria. On May 4, 1945, the division participated in the capture of the city of Linz, Austria. At war's end, the 26th had moved eastward to Czechoslovakia. |
On May 6, 1945, the "Yankee" division overran Gusen concentration camp, which had originally been a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Gusen had been established in 1940 to house Mauthausen prisoners closer to the stone quarries where they were forced to work. As Allied bombing raids on Germany increased in intensity, the Nazi leadership decided to move industrial war production underground, using concentration camp prisoners for labor. At Gusen, the inmates were ordered to hollow out of nearby mountains an elaborate system of tunnels that connected to mammoth subterranean installations for aircraft production. In May 1945, as U.S. troops neared the camp complex, the SS planned to demolish the tunnels with the prisoners inside. The arrival of the 26th Infantry and 11th Armored Divisions prevented the SS from carrying out this atrocity. The 26th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the U.S. Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002. |
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Casualty figures for the 26th Infantry Division, European theater of operations |
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Division nickname |
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Museum
