I have a little more light hearted fair for our military history nerds here.
I bought up the United State's
Victory Plan which was generated before Pearl Harbor. In it, the War and Navy Departments were asked by the Roosevelt administration to lay out the United States long term strategic planning to defeat Germany including but not limited to industrial time tables and mobilization, naval production, force structure, and aircraft procurement. In short the plan called for what forces and resources would be needed to defeat Nazi Germany in the event of a Soviet collapse. There for the Army believed it would need 215 divisions to smash the Reich.
In all the Ground Forces allocations called for the following:
61 armored divisions
61 mechanized divisions
54 infantry divisions
10 mountain divisions
4 cavalry divisions
7 airborne divisions
What we got in reality was a lot smaller, leaner, and less complex. The 90 division gamble saw Army Ground Forces field: 16 armored divisions, 66 infantry divisions, 1 mountain division, 2 cavalry divisions, and 5 airborne divisions. No mechanized divisions were every raised, and as far as I'm aware no tables of organization were ever created for them. This reduce force is what is known by historians as the 90 division gamble.
Anyways, that's all preamble. What I am curious about is what unit designations we can come up with for some of these divisions. In Army lineage parlance, this is called a
special unit designation and is basically the divisional nickname. For example, the 1st Infantry Division is nicknames 'The Big Red One." The 3rd Armored Division is called 'Spearhead." And so forth. A list of existing divisional nicknames can be found
here. The nickname can be inspired by the unit's insignia, where the division was raised (often in connection to National Guard divisions, or a division originally constituted in World War 1 as part of the National Army and made up of conscripts from a particular region), related to it's ordinal number (Big Red One, Fighting 69th), or mostly random.
So, I guess let's come up with some division nicknames! It's time we indulge on some smaller scale, light hearted alternate history.
Note cavalry and armored divisions have historical had separate ordinal numbering sequences. Infantry, airborne, mountain, and mechanized divisions shared the same sequence. Some irregularities in the armored division sequencing occurred from re flagged National Guard Divisions. Also, certain sequences of numbers were originally set aside for different Army components and this is most apparent in the Infantry sequence. 1 through 25 was originally reserved for Regular Army divisions, 26 through 75 for the National Guard, and 76 on for National Army (Organized Reserves interwar) during the World War 1 era. During World War 2 the Army of the United States replaced the National Army and some divisions below 76 came from the AUS (63rd, 65th, 66th, 69th, 70th, and 71st). The prewar Army had reserve component Cavalry Divisions (21st to 24th for the Guard, and 61st to 66th for the AUS), this suggests that blocks 1 to 20 were set aside for the Regular Army, 21 to 60 for the National Guard, and 61+ for OR/AUS/NA components.
Anything that we come up with I'll add to the list!
Armored Divisions
1st Armored Division: Old Ironsides- named by it's first commander after USS
Constitution
2nd Armored Division: Hell on Wheels - bestowed by Patton during maneuvers in 1941
3rd Armored Division: Spearhead - in recognition of the division's role as a spearhead in France '44
4th Armored Division: none
5th Armored Division: Victory - probably from the Roman numeral V, and V for Victory
6th Armored Division: Super Sixth
7th Armored Division: Lucky Seventh
8th Armored Division: Thundering Herd
9th Armored Division: Phantom - supposedly from the Germans
10th Armored Division: Tiger Division - from first divisional commander
11th Armored Division: Thunderbolt
12th Armored Division: Hellcat Division
13th Armored Division: Black Cat
14th Armored Division: Liberators
20th Armored Division: Armoraiders
27th Armored Division: Empire (post-war New York National Guard division, converted from 27th ID)
30th Armored Division: Volunteers (formed from the Tennessee portion of the 30th ID post war)
40th Armored Division: Grizzly (post-war California National Guard division, converted from 40th ID)
48th Armored Division: Hurricane (post-war Florida and Georgia NG division)
49th Armored Division: Lone Star (post-war Texas NG division)
50th Armored Division: Jersey Blues (post-war NJ NG division)
Cavalry Divisions
1st Cavalry Division: The First Team
2nd Cavalry Division: Buffalo Soldiers - Division largely made up of African American units. Broken up during the war.
Infantry, Airborne, Mountain, and Mechanized Divisions
Regular Army
1st Infantry Division: The Big Red One
2nd Infantry Division: Indian Head/Warrior Division
3rd Infantry Division: Rock of the Marne
4th Infantry Division: Ivy- from Roman numeral "IV"
5th Infantry Division: Red Diamonds- from unit insignia
6th Infantry Division: Sightseeing Sixth
7th Infantry Division: Bayonet Division
8th Infantry Division: Pathfinder Division - named in honor of John Fremont, namesake of original divisional base, Camp Fremont
9th Infantry Division: Varsity/Old Reliables
10th Mountain Division: Mountaineers
11th Airborne Division: The Angels
12th Infantry Division/Philippine Division: Carabao
13th Airborne Division: Golden Unicorns
17th Airborne Division: Golden Talons - from the division's insignia
Americal/23rd Infantry Division: Division formed overseas from separate NG Regiments. From
American forces on New
Caledonia.
24th Infantry Division: Taro Division- division formed from the Prewar Hawaiian Division.
25th Infantry Division: Tropic Lightning - division formed from the Prewar Hawaiian Division
National Guard
26th Infantry Division: Yankee- division from MA
27th Infantry Division: New York Division
28th Infantry Division: Keystone Division- division from PA
29th Infantry Division: Blue and Gray- so named since component parts are from states the fought for opposite sides in the ACW
30th Infantry Division: Old Hickory- from NC/SC/TN and named after Andrew Jackson
31st Infantry Division: Dixie- division formed from NG units from all over the South.
32nd Infantry Division: Red Arrow - from divisional insignia
33rd Infantry Division: Golden Cross - from divisional insignia
34th Infantry Division: Red Bull - from divisional insignia
35th Infantry Division: Santa Fe-named after the Santa Fe trail, which cuts across it's home states
36th Infantry Division: Texas/Arrowhead - Texas' NG division; arrowhead from divisional insignia
37th Infantry Division: Buckeye - Ohio's NG division
38th Infantry Division: Cyclone - named after a tornado that hit the division's training grounds in 1917
39th Infantry Division: Delta Division - named after the Mississippi Delta, disbanded in the interwar period
40th Infantry Division: Sunburst- after divisional insignia depicting a sun.
41st Infantry Division: Sunset - after the divisional insignia depicting a sun setting on the Pacific
42nd Infantry Division: Rainbow- named by MacArthur in WW1, as it was made up of NG troops forming a "rainbow" across the country
43rd Infantry Division: Winged Victory.... no fucking clue
44th Infantry Division: none known, but predominately formed from NJ and NY NG
45th Infantry Division: Thunderbird
46th Infantry Division: Ironfist Division, postwar NG formation
47th Infantry Division: Viking Division, so named since it was MN post-war formation
48th Infantry Division: See 48th Armored Division
49th Infantry Division: 49'ers, Argonauts- named in honor of CA's gold rush. Postwar formation
51st Infantry Division: Rattlesnake Division- Fucked if I know know but maybe has something to do with it's homestates of FL and SC. Postwar division
52nd Infantry Division: See 49th Infantry Division
Army of the United States/Organized Reserve
63rd Infantry Division: Blood and Fire Division
65th Infantry Division: Battle-Axe
66th Infantry Division: Black Panther Division
69th Infantry Division: Fightin' 69th
70th Infantry Division: Trailblazers
71st Infantry Division: The Red Circle- from the unit's insignia
75th Infantry Division:
76th Infantry Division: Onaway Division - no idea, but it was originally a NA division from New England
77th Infantry Division: Statue of Liberty Division- originally NA division from NYC metro area
78th Infantry Division: Lightning Division
79th Infantry Division: Cross of Lorraine- from action in WW1
80th Infantry Division: Blue Ridge - Originally NA division from states along the Blue Ridge Mtns
81st Infantry Division: Wildcats
82nd Airborne Division: All-Americans- named as an WW1 NA division with conscripts from every state
83rd Infantry Division: Thunderbolt/Ohio Division -Ohio comes from it's origins as an NA division in WW1
84th Infantry Division: The Railsplitters, named after Lincoln since as an NA division it drew from IL and KY
85th Infantry Division: Custer Division, named after Custer since as an NA division it drew from MI and WI
86th Infantry Division: Blackhawk Division, named after Black Hawk
87th Infantry Division: Golden Acorn, from unit insignia
88th Infantry Division: Fighting Blue Devils/Clover Lead Division
89th Infantry Division: The Rolling W, from unit insignia
90th Infantry Division: Tough' Ombres, from Texas/Oklahoma it's NA source of conscripts
91st Infantry Division: Wild West Division, from NA source of conscripts (the West)
92nd Infantry Division: Buffalo Soldiers, from the fact it was made up of African Americans
93rd Infantry Division: The Blue Helmets, from the Adrian helmets it wore fighting with the French in WW1
94th Infantry Division: Pilgrim Division, from the NA source of conscripts (New England)
95th Infantry Division: Iron Men of Metz, for WW2 service
96th Infantry Division: Deadeye Division
97th Infantry Division: Trident, from unit insignia
98th Infantry Division: Iroquois, from NA source of conscripts (Upstate NY)
99th Infantry Division: Checkerboard, from unit insignia
100th Infantry Division: Century Division
101st Airborne Division: Screaming Eagles, named after a
fucking bird. Seriously.
102nd Infantry Division: Ozark, from its OR states
103rd Infantry Division: Cactus Division, from its OR states
104th Infantry Division: Timber-wolf Division
106th Infantry Division: Golden Lion, from it's insignia
108th Airborne Division: Golden Griffins, post-war OR formation