27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (United States) - History

History

See also: 27th Infantry Division (United States)

Called into federal service on July 15, 1917, the Twenty-Seventh Division hastily recruited to increase its numbers and late in August, was concentrated at Camp Wadsworth, near Spartanburg, SC, for intensive training. In the spring of 1918, the division began its movement toward embarkation camps. The division’s advance detachment left Hoboken on May 2 and arrived at Brest, France, May 10, 1918. Late in June the last units of the Twenty-Seventh Division had arrived safely overseas.

Until July 24 the division was in the final stages of training under British mentors, in Picardy and Flanders. On July 25, the 27th Division less its artillery brigade and 102nd Ammunition Trains, occupied the Dickebusch Lake and Scherpenberg sectors in Flanders. In just over a month, this operation merged into the Ypres-Lys action, and then, from August 19 to September 3, the 27th was on its own.

The great Somme "push," lasting from September 24 to October 1, saw the 27th engaged in severe fighting along the Saint Quentin Canal Tunnel—one of the out-lying strong points of the supposedly impregnable Hindenburg Line. Following heavy losses, the 27th was placed into reserve for rest and replacements at the conclusion of the first phase of the Somme Push. Six days later the Twenty-Seventh Division was back into action again, moving steadily toward Busigny on the heels of the retiring Germans.

The 27th Division had, in conjunction with British forces and the 30th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, had accomplished the supposedly impossible by cracking the vaunted Hindenburg line wide open.

The 52d Field Artillery Brigade and the 102nd Ammunition Train of the New York Division had not gone with the rest of the Twenty-seventh Division to the British front in Flanders. They had moved up on October 28, to support the Seventy-Ninth Division in the Argonne.

Meanwhile the Twenty-Seventh Division units which had seen heavy action in Flanders, had moved back to an area near the French seaport of Brest.

Composition of the Twenty-Seventh Division in WWI:

• Fifty-third Infantry Brigade:
  • 105th Infantry
  • 106th Infantry
  • 105th Machine Gun Battalion
• Fifty-fourth Infantry Brigade
  • 107th Infantry
  • 108th Infantry
  • 106th Machine Gun Battalion.
• Fifty-second Field Artillery Brigade
  • 104th Field Artillery (75mm)
  • 105th Field Artillery (75mm)
  • 106th Field Artillery (155mm)
  • 102nd Trench Mortar Battery
• Divisional Troops
  • 104th Machine Gun Battalion
  • 102d Engineers
  • 102d Field Signal Battalion
  • Headquarters Troop.
• Trains:
  • 102nd Train Headquarters and Military Police
  • 102nd Ammunition Train
  • 102nd Supply Train
  • 102nd Engineer Train
  • 102nd Sanitary Train.