34th Infantry Regiment (United States) - World War II

World War II

On 15 July 1940, following maneuvers in Tennessee in which the 1st Battalion had served as a tank battalion, cadre from the 34th Infantry formed the 70th Tank Battalion, now the 70th Armor Regiment. That same month, the 34th became part of the 8th Infantry Division when that unit was activated at Fort Jackson. The 34th was designated the outstanding regiment of the Carolina Maneuvers of 1941.

In November 1941 the regiment was detached from 8th Division and assigned to the Philippine Department to reinforce the islands, as the prospects of war with Japan increased. The 34th was at San Francisco awaiting embarkation on 7 December when the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. The regiment was reassigned to the Hawaiian Department and its convoy rerouted to Oahu, where it arrived on 21 December. The 34th was put in department reserve and assigned to the defense of the island.

On 12 June 1943 the 34th was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division, replacing the 298th Infantry, a Hawaiian National Guard unit that had been severely depleted the previous year when its ethnic Japanese soldiers were reassigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate). In September the division shipped out to Australia for training.

The 34th served as division reserve during the Operation Reckless landings at Tanahmerah Bay, Netherlands New Guinea on 22 April 1944. The regiment was brought ashore and assisted in mopping-up operations around the Hollandia airdrome.

In early June the 34th was attached to the 41st Infantry Division, whose assault on Biak Island was meeting unexpected resistance. A two-day assault by the 34th captured Sorido and Brooke airdromes, major objectives in the campaign.

The end was nearer than they thought

According to Stephen J. Lofgren who prepared the pamphlet, Southern Philippines in the U.S. Army’s Center of Military History series The US Army Campaigns of WWII, “The Southern Philippines Campaign usually is given short shrift in popular histories of World War II.” The campaign, which the U.S. Army recognizes as ending on 4 July 1945, actually lasted until Imperial Japanese forces received the news of the Japanese total defeat from Tokyo in September. Operation VICTOR V of the Southern Philippines Campaign was waged with primary objective of eradicating Japanese military power on Mindanao in the Philippine Islands and liberating the Filipino people.

The 34th Infantry, operating as an element of the 24th Infantry Division participated in some of the most horrific combat under the most insufferable weather and terrain conditions of the War in the Pacific. Yet for the entire campaign U.S. forces losses were minimal. The mopping up activities on the island of Mindanao lasting into September 1945 would result in 22,000 Japanese soldiers emerging from the central Mindanao jungles to surrender. More than 10,000 Japanese died in combat on Mindanao, while 8,000 or more died from starvation or disease during the campaign. From 17 April to 15 August 1945, 820 U.S. soldiers were killed in eastern Mindanao and 2,880 were wounded; many more deaths and injuries were post 15 August. The 34th Infantry would go on to occupy the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.

Three 34th Infantry soldiers received the Medal of Honor for service in World War II, all posthumously:

• Captain Francis B. Wai, Leyte, 20 October 1944
• Private Harold H. Moon, Jr., Leyte, 21 October 1944
• Sergeant Charles E. Mower, Capoacan, Leyte, 3 November 1944