327th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 327th Infantry Regiment (Bastogne Bulldogs)[1] is an infantry regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) of the United States Army. During World War II, the 327th was a glider-borne regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. It fought during World War I as part of the 82nd Division. It has also been deployed in the Vietnam War, Gulf War, and most recently to Iraq and Afghanistan. The song "Glider Rider" describes (humorously) some of the slights that glider-borne troops felt they received from the Army during World War II; though the regiment's public fame rose with the 1949 movie Battleground about the Siege of Bastogne in late 1944.
327th Infantry Regiment
327th Glider Infantry Regiment
327th Airborne Infantry Regiment
327th Infantry Regiment
1917–1919
1921-1945
1948–1953
1954–
"Bastogne Bulldogs" (BDE)(special designation)[1]
"Honor and Country"
Colonel (Ret) Lou McDonald
CSM (Ret) Joe M. Bossi
Col. Joseph H. Harper 1944
Col. David Hackworth
Col. Charles A. Beckwith
Interwar period[edit]
The 327th Infantry arrived at the port of New York on 19 May 1919 on the USS Walter A. Luckenbach and was demobilized on 26 May 1919 at Camp Upton, New York. It was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve on 24 June 1921, assigned to the 82nd Division, and allotted to the Fourth Corps Area. The regiment was initiated on 7 December 1921 with headquarters at Greenville, South Carolina. Subordinate battalion headquarters were concurrently organized as follows: 1st Battalion at Columbia, South Carolina; 2nd Battalion at Spartanburg, South Carolina; and the 3rd Battalion at Florence, South Carolina. The regimental band was organized in 1926 at Greenville under the leadership of Warrant Officer A.J. Garing, who had spent sixteen years in the United States Marine Band under John Philip Sousa. The regiment conducted summer training most years with the 22nd Infantry Regiment at Fort McPherson, Georgia, and some years with the 8th Infantry Regiment at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, or Fort Screven, Georgia. The regiment also conducted infantry Citizens Military Training Camps some years at Fort Moultrie or Fort Screven as an alternate form of summer training. The primary ROTC "feeder" schools for new Reserve lieutenants for the regiment were Clemson Agricultural College in Clemsom and The Citadel Military College of South Carolina in Charleston.[10]
World War II[edit]
Initial training[edit]
The 82nd Infantry Division was ordered into active military service on 25 March 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. On 15 August 1942, the 82nd Infantry Division was reorganized and redesignated as the 82nd Airborne Division, one of the U.S. Army's first two airborne divisions. The 82nd Airborne Division provided the cadre for the 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on the same day, and the 327th Infantry Regiment was reassigned to the 101st and reorganized as a glider infantry regiment. All equipment and personnel assigned to the regiment were designed to be carried in the Waco CG-4A glider.
Normandy[edit]
Although a glider infantry regiment, the majority of the 327th landed by sea on Utah Beach in the afternoon of 7 June 1944, because of a shortage of planes to tow its gliders. Some elements did reach shore on D-Day, 6 June, but because of rough seas, beach traffic, and the fact that the paratroopers of the 101st had already achieved many of their objectives, the landing was delayed. The 327th suffered a few casualties going ashore from enemy fire and were strafed by enemy aircraft. Near Saint-Côme-du-Mont (southeast of the village), the 327th was camped right next to German paratroopers, separated by thick hedgerows. German-speaking soldiers in the 327th engaged in taunting the enemy. The 327th took several casualties by enemy mortars. By 8 June, the 327th had entered the front line, largely in reserve of the 506th until crossing the Douve River near Carentan. First and Second Battalions guarded Utah Beachhead's left flank northeast of Carentan. Company C was hit hard by friendly fire mortars while crossing the Douve. Official findings blamed enemy mines. Company B also suffered casualties in the incident.
The 327th suffered heavy casualties while advancing on Carentan via what is now the city Marina from a northeast direction and other casualties approaching Carentan from the east. G Company led the attack on the west bank of the marina canal. A Company of the attached 401st Glider Infantry Regiment was on the east bank of the canal. Concealed German machine guns and mortars inflicted the most casualties. Chaplain Gordon Cosby earned a Silver Star for bravery in the face of the enemy for assisting wounded glider men in front of heavily armed German soldiers. The 327th played a pivotal role with the 501st and 506th of the 101st in taking Carentan. The 327th marched through the town and East to be possibly the first unit of the Utah Beachhead to link up with the Omaha Beachhead around the four-villages area of le Fourchette, le Mesnil, le Rocher and Cotz. It was then directed South between the bulk of the 101st and the 75th Infantry Division of the Omaha Beachhead.
The unit was commanded by Col. George S. Wear through 10 June, when command was turned over to Col. Joseph H. Harper. Although not official, the men of the 327th understood that Wear was replaced because of friendly-fire artillery casualties while crossing the Douve River. Officially, enemy mortars were blamed.
The Netherlands[edit]
The regiment played a pivotal role in Operation Market Garden battle near Best, in the Netherlands, encircling a large German force which had been pressured from the west by the tank-supported 502nd of the 101st. Sgt. Manuel Hidalgo and Lt. Hibbard of G Company risked their lives in a humanitarian effort to get the enemy to surrender before being annihilated by the 327th. In the Market Garden operations, some companies in the 327th suffered two-thirds casualty rates before arriving at Opheusden. 2nd Battalion, especially Company G, suffered heavy casualties from a brutal shelling in the churchyard at Veghel. The large artillery shells were launched from the Erp vicinity. Dutch collaborators aided German scouts and were executed by the Dutch underground after the shelling.
At Opheusden, the 327th withstood repeated assaults by the enemy and heavy artillery barrages. In Rendezvous with Destiny, Rapport and Arthur cite British officers that indicated that the barrage suffered by the 327 was as intense as anything they had seen, and rivaled what the British pummeled the Germans with at El Alamein in North Africa. The fighting along the west and northwest perimeter in the Ophuesden (the Island) area was as intense as any fighting in the area. E Company engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy near the railroad track switch house south of Opheusden. The enemy repeatedly hurled their units unsuccessfully at the glider men and suffered high casualties.
Post WWII[edit]
Inactivated on 30 November 1945 in France, the regiment was redesignated as the 516th Airborne Infantry Regiment on 18 June 1948 and active from 6 July 1948 to 1 April 1949 and from 25 August 1950 to 1 December 1953 at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky. As was the case with many combat divisions of World War II fame, the colors of the 101st Airborne Division and its subordinate elements were active only as training units and were not organized as parachute or glider units.
On 27 April 1954 the 516th was relieved from assignment to the 101st Airborne Division and activated at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on 15 May 1954, again as a training unit. On 1 July 1956 it was reorganized and redesignated as the 327th Airborne Infantry Regiment, an element of the 101st. On 25 April 1957 the colors of Company A, 327AIR were reorganized and redesignated as HHC, 1st Airborne Battle Group, 327th Infantry, and remained assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (organic elements concurrently constituted and activated). This was the only active element of the 327th Infantry during the Pentomic era. When the Army abandoned battle groups for brigades and battalions, the unit was reorganized and redesignated on 3 February 1963 as the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, an element of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
On 21 January 1964 the lineage of the former Company B, 327AIR was redesignated as HHC, 2d Battalion, 327th Infantry, assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (organic elements concurrently constituted) and activated on 3 February 1963, also as an element of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
Vietnam[edit]
As elements of the 1st Brigade, the 1st and 2nd Battalions 327th Infantry deployed to South Vietnam on 29 July 1965, where they were joined by the rest of the division in late 1967.
In November 1965 Major David Hackworth organized Tiger Force a platoon-sized long-range reconnaissance patrol unit within the 1st Battalion.[11] Tiger Force was later accused of extensive war crimes against South Vietnamese civilians.[12]
In October 1968 the 1st Battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[13]
On 28 November 1971 a CH-47 carrying five crew and 28 soldiers from the Regiment on a flight from Da Nang to Phu Bai Combat Base crashed into high ground, killing all aboard.[14][15]
The 2nd Battalion was the last unit of the 101st Airborne to leave Vietnam, departing in April 1972, making it the longest serving unit in combat during the Vietnam War.
Operation Desert Storm[edit]
In 1990 the 1st BCT (including the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 327th) was deployed to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield. The 1st BCT established defensive positions north of Tap Line Road approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of the Iraq border. On 17 January the 327th Infantry Regiment conducted a ground movement to Camp Eagle II in preparation for deployment into Iraq. Over the course of the next week the regiment regrouped and by C-130 and ground convey repositioned to RaFa in northern Saudi Arabia and further into TAA Campbell where it remained for approximately 30 days. With the commencement of ground operations, under the command of Colonel Tom Hill the 327th conducted the deepest and largest air assault operation in history establishing FOB Cobra approximately 85 miles (137 km) inside Iraq. Subordinate elements were 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Battalion commanded by LTC Frank R Hancock, 2nd Battalion, 327th commanded by LTC Charles Garey Thomas, 3rd Battalion 327th commanded by LTC (P) Gary J. Bridges and 1st Battalion 502nd commanded by LTC Jim Donald. 2nd Battalion 320 FA artillery was commanded by LTC Lynn Hartsell. The 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment conducted a second air assault operation to seize FOB White under the command of 2nd Brigade 101st Airborne Division for further seal the defeat of Iraqi forces. Not a single 101st Airborne Division soldier was lost. For its actions at FOB Cobra the 1-327th was award the Valorous Unit Award.
Post-GWOT[edit]
1BCT, 101st Airborne Division deployed to the EUCOM AOR in March of 2023 in support of Operation European Assure, Deter and Reinforce in wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine organized under V Corps and 10th Mountain Division.
In Popular Culture[edit]
The regiment was depicted in the 1949 film Battleground starring Van Johnson and John Hodiak. The film is renowned for its faithful depiction of American soldiers as they were during the war, including their bravery and vulnerabilities.