91st Infantry Division “PowderRiver”

The history of the 91st Infantry Division is one of the most remarkable stories associated with Camp Adair, Oregon. Known as the “Powder River Division” and later as the “Wild West Division,” the 91st was a western division with a proud heritage dating back to World War I. During World War II, its soldiers trained throughout the American West before being sent to Europe, where they fought their way through Italy from the beaches and hills south of Rome to the Po Valley and the final collapse of German forces in northern Italy.

For Camp Adair, the story of the 91st is particularly important. The division arrived at Camp Adair in November 1943, remained there through March 1944, and conducted some of its final intensive preparations for overseas combat on the Oregon training grounds.

Origins of the Powder River Division

The 91st Infantry Division had originally been organized during World War I and had served in France in 1918–1919. Its distinctive identity was closely associated with the American West.

The division was reactivated for World War II on August 15, 1942, at Camp White, Oregon, near Medford. Major General Charles H. Gerhardt initially commanded the division, followed by Major General William G. Livesay, who assumed command in July 1943.

The division's shoulder insignia was a green fir tree, representing the western states from which many of its soldiers came. Its famous battle cry, “Powder River! Let’er Buck!”, reflected its western identity and became one of the most recognizable traditions associated with the division.

The wartime division consisted of the:

- 361st Infantry Regiment

- 362nd Infantry Regiment

- 363rd Infantry Regiment

Supporting these infantry regiments were the division artillery, engineers, medical units, reconnaissance, signal, quartermaster, ordnance and other specialized organizations. Among them were the 316th Engineer Combat Battalion, 316th Medical Battalion, 91st Reconnaissance Troop, 91st Signal Company, 91st Quartermaster Company and 791st Ordnance Light Maintenance Company.

Training in Oregon

After activation at Camp White, the division began an extensive training program.

In September 1943, the 91st moved to the Bend Maneuver Area in central Oregon. The large-scale maneuvers provided the division with an opportunity to test its organization and training under field conditions.

The experience at Bend was important. Officers and soldiers studied the problems revealed during the exercises and worked to correct weaknesses before the division went overseas.

From Bend, the division moved north to Camp Adair, near Corvallis and Albany, Oregon.

Camp Adair — November 1943 to March 1944

The 91st Infantry Division began moving into Camp Adair in early November 1943, with the division closing into camp on approximately November 4. Local Camp Adair histories give November 2 as the beginning of the movement.

The arrival of the 91st was significant because it became the second infantry division to occupy the northern portion of Camp Adair, following the 96th Infantry Division.

For the next several months, Camp Adair became the home of thousands of Powder River soldiers.

The division's training at Camp Adair was intense. The lessons learned during the Bend maneuvers were analyzed and corrected, while the division worked to bring its personnel, equipment and training to the level required for overseas combat.

Camp Adair's enormous training area gave the 91st room to conduct realistic exercises involving infantry, artillery, engineers, communications and supporting units. The Army had designed the Willamette Valley training area specifically to provide conditions suitable for large-scale ground combat training. The installation ultimately contained more than 1,700 buildings and included extensive ranges and maneuver areas.

For the men of the 91st, however, Camp Adair was more than a collection of training fields.

It was where they lived together as a division.

They occupied barracks, ate in mess halls, attended religious services, visited the PX and service facilities, received mail, trained on the ranges and participated in the daily routine of an enormous wartime Army installation.

The Alert

The division's time at Camp Adair was shortened by the rapidly approaching overseas movement.

On January 20, 1944, the 91st received an alert ordering it to prepare for movement overseas. The division was instructed to intensify training, complete firing requirements, conduct inspections and correct shortages in personnel and equipment.

The months that followed were a race against the calendar.

The men knew they were going overseas, although many did not know exactly where they would go or what kind of fighting awaited them.

Leaving Camp Adair

The movement east began in March.

On March 14, 1944, an advance detachment left Camp Adair. Other elements began moving toward the East Coast, with the division's personnel and equipment being transported by rail.

The division's first echelon left Camp Adair on March 21, while the final elements departed on March 29. The division subsequently closed at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, on April 3.

For Camp Adair, the departure of the 91st was historically important.

The division had arrived as a highly trained American infantry organization. It left Oregon as a combat-ready division preparing to fight in a war thousands of miles away.

In April 1944, the Powder River Division sailed for North Africa.

North Africa

The division arrived in French Morocco between April 18 and May 10, 1944.

Instead of immediately entering combat, the 91st underwent additional intensive training in North Africa. Training areas around Arzew and Renan were used to prepare the soldiers for the conditions they would encounter in the Mediterranean theater.

This additional preparation proved valuable.

The division was not destined for northern Europe. Instead, it would fight in one of the most difficult environments of the war: the mountains, valleys and fortified defensive lines of Italy.

Into Italy

The first major elements of the division entered Italy in June 1944.

The 361st Regimental Combat Team was detached from the division and sent ahead. It landed at Anzio on June 1, 1944, and entered combat south of Rome.

The regiment fought alongside other Allied formations during the advance toward Rome.

Rome fell to Allied forces on June 4.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the 91st was moving into Italy. The division was eventually reunited and began operations as a complete formation.

The 91st's combat journey had begun.

The Arno River Campaign

The division's next major objective was the advance north toward the Arno River.

The 363rd Infantry Regiment entered combat near Riparbella in early July. On July 12, the 91st fought as a division near Chianni for the high ground overlooking the Arno.

The advance continued.

The 363rd participated in the capture of Livorno on July 19, and elements of the division moved rapidly northward. Two units entered Pisa on July 24.

By late July, the 91st had reached the Arno.

The division then spent several weeks along the river while preparing for the next phase of the campaign.

The terrain was becoming increasingly difficult.

The Germans were withdrawing toward a massive defensive system that stretched across northern Italy.

It was known as the Gothic Line.

The Gothic Line

In September 1944, the Fifth Army resumed its offensive northward.

The 91st was positioned in the mountains north of Florence, where the famous Gothic Line blocked the Allied advance toward Bologna and the Po Valley.

The German defenses incorporated mountains, ridges, fortified positions, machine-gun nests, artillery positions and natural obstacles.

The Powder River Division attacked.

In September, the 91st fought its way through the Gothic Line, capturing important positions including Monte Monticelli and ultimately Futa Pass, one of the critical mountain passes leading toward Bologna.

The fighting was extremely difficult.

The terrain itself became an enemy.

Steep slopes, rocky escarpments, narrow roads, forests, rain and increasingly poor weather made every advance difficult. German resistance was determined, and the fighting was often close and brutal.

Yet the 91st continued forward.

The division eventually captured Livergnano in October after some of the most difficult fighting of its Italian campaign.

The capture of the Livergnano area represented another major step toward Bologna.

But the Allied advance slowed.

Winter in the Italian Mountains

By late October and November, the 91st found itself in defensive positions south of Bologna.

The soldiers remained in the mountains through the winter of 1944–45.

For many men, this was a different kind of battle.

There were patrols, artillery exchanges, snipers and occasional German attacks, but there was no major Allied breakthrough.

The soldiers endured cold, rain, mud and difficult living conditions.

The division remained on the defensive until March 1945, when preparations began for the final Allied offensive in Italy.

The men who had trained in the Oregon rain and mud at Camp Adair were now experiencing the very different but equally miserable winter conditions of the northern Italian mountains.

The Final Offensive

The final Allied offensive began in April 1945.

The 91st attacked northward toward Bologna.

The German Army in Italy was collapsing, but the fighting was not yet over.

The Powder River Division captured key positions and continued toward the Po Valley. On April 21, the 91st entered Bologna.

The advance continued.

The division crossed the Po River on April 23–24 and then pushed rapidly northeast across northern Italy. It crossed the Adige River and reached Treviso near the end of April.

The campaign had transformed the division.

Less than a year earlier, many of these soldiers had been training at Camp Adair.

Now they were veterans who had fought from central Italy through the Apennines and into the Po Valley.

Victory in Italy

German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2, 1945.

The 91st's combat campaign was over.

The division had participated in the major campaigns of:

- Rome–Arno

- North Apennines

- Po Valley

Its wartime record included the fighting around Anzio, the advance to the Arno, the Gothic Line, Futa Pass, Livergnano, Bologna and the final drive across northern Italy.

The 91st had fought for approximately eleven months in Italy.

It had entered combat in June 1944 and remained in the fighting until the German surrender in May 1945.

After Victory

Following the German surrender in Italy, the 91st remained in the theater for a period while the Army reorganized and began the enormous process of returning veterans to the United States.

The war had ended, but the division still had responsibilities.

The men who had spent months fighting through Italy now faced demobilization and the long journey home.

Eventually the 91st returned to the United States.

The division was sent to Camp Rucker, Alabama, where it was officially inactivated in December 1945.

The wartime career of the Powder River Division had come to an end.

From Camp Adair to Victory

The story of the 91st Infantry Division is an important part of Camp Adair's history because the division's time in Oregon represented the final preparation for a campaign that would take its soldiers across an ocean and into some of the hardest fighting in the European war.

At Camp Adair, the soldiers trained.

In North Africa, they prepared.

At Anzio, they entered combat.

At the Arno, they advanced.

At the Gothic Line, they fought through the mountains.

At Futa Pass and Livergnano, they broke through German defenses.

At Bologna, they entered the city.

At the Po River, they helped destroy the remaining German defenses in northern Italy.

And at the end of the war, the Powder River Division stood victorious in northern Italy.

The journey had begun in Oregon.

The 91st Infantry Division's Wartime Journey

Camp White, Oregon

August 15, 1942 — Division reactivated.

Bend Maneuver Area, Oregon

September–October 1943 — Large-scale field maneuvers.

Camp Adair, Oregon

November 1943–March 1944 — Final intensive training and preparation for overseas movement.

Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia

March–April 1944 — Staging for overseas deployment.

French Morocco

April–June 1944 — Additional combat training.

Italy — Anzio

June 1944 — 361st Regimental Combat Team enters combat.

Central Italy / Arno River

June–July 1944 — Division moves north and reaches the Arno.

Gothic Line / Futa Pass

September–October 1944 — Major offensive through the German mountain defenses.

Livergnano

October 1944 — Heavy fighting in the Apennines.

Winter Line / Apennines

November 1944–March 1945 — Defensive operations and preparation for final offensive.

Bologna

April 21, 1945 — Division enters Bologna.

Po River / Northern Italy

April 1945 — Rapid advance across the Po Valley.

Treviso / Northern Italy

Late April 1945 — Final advance before German surrender.

Italian surrender

May 2, 1945 — Fighting in Italy ends.

United States / Camp Rucker, Alabama

December 1945 — 91st Infantry Division inactivated.

The Camp Adair Connection

When visitors walk across the remaining foundations of Camp Adair today, they are walking through places that were part of this story.

The 91st Infantry Division lived at Camp Adair during the winter of 1943–44. Its soldiers used the barracks, mess halls, chapels, recreation facilities, PXs, training areas and ranges that made up the enormous wartime cantonment.

The division's departure in March 1944 was one of the final major movements of a combat division from Camp Adair.

By the end of July 1944, the Army had largely finished using Camp Adair as a divisional training center. Four infantry divisions had passed through the installation, but the 91st was the last of those divisions to leave for overseas combat.

The men of the 91st carried the fir tree of the Powder River Division from Oregon to Italy.