The current 34th Infantry Regiment was organized at El Paso, Texas on 15 July 1916, four months into the Pancho Villa Expedition led by General John Pershing. The 34th’s original cadre was drawn from the 7th, 20th, and 23rd Regiments. The regiment was assigned to border patrol and National Guard training duties.
With the American entry into World War I in April 1917 the Army expanded and shifted to preparation for war in Europe. The 34th was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division, which arrived in France on 27 August 1918. On 9 October the division went into line around Lorraine, with the 34th on its left flank. It saw action in the Puvenelle sector before the armistice on the 11th of November. With the rest of the division, the 34th then took up occupation duty in Germany during negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles. The regiment returned to the United States in June 1919.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the 34th Infantry was based at Fort Meade in Maryland, where it served as the Army’s first test of a motorized infantry regiment.
On 28 July 1932 regular forces were assembled in Washington, D.C. under the direct command of the General Douglas MacArthur to break up the Bonus Army, a protest group largely made up of unemployed World War I veterans seeking pensions from the Herbert Hoover administration. A battalion of the 34th was in reserve while the main action was conducted by the 3rd Cavalry Regiment and 12th Infantry Regiment.
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 Infantry 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 December 21st. The 34th was put in department reserve and assigned to the defense of the island. The 34th would spend much of their time training and building defenses on the north side of the island.
On June 12, 1943 the 34th was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division, replacing the 298th Infantry Regiment, 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. 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.
On October 20, 1944, the men of the 24th Infantry Division, alongside the 1st Cavalry Divison, were selected to lead the assault to retake the Philippines. The 34th Regiment landed on Red Beach under heavy fire. Red Beach was defended by the Japanese occupying a number of large, well-camouflaged pillboxes. Immediately after their landing, the leading elements of the 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry were pinned down by heavy machine gun and rifle fire. The Regimental Commander, Colonel Aubrey S. Newman, arrived on the beach and, taking in the situation at a glance, shouted to his men: ‘Get up and get moving! Follow me!’ The division would spend the next three months here and the men of the 34th Infantry Regiment earned many personal awards, including the Presidential Unit Citation for the 1st Battalions role during the horrific fighting on Kilay Ridge, as well as three Medal of Honors.
In January of 1945, the 34th Infantry Regiment was again on the move. They were to be attached to the 38th Infantry Division for an assault on the Bataan Peninsula. The regiment landed at San Antonio, Luzon on January 29, 1945. The regiment marched on to Olongapo and Subic Bay. The 38th Infantry Division was the first to face the Japanese here and were turned back in Zig-Zag Pass. The 34th Infantry Regiment was sent into the fray on February 2, 1945. After just three days, and without seeing the enemy, the 34th was pulled back off the line. The 2nd Battalion suffered horrendous casualties from the precise artillery and machine gun fire of the Japanese defenders. The 1st Battalion also suffered minor casualties primarily in B and C Company.
In April of 1945, the Division was on the move from Mindoro Island. They were to participate in the retaking of the last Japanese stronghold in the Philippines, the southernmost island of Mindanao. 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 April 17th to August 15, 1945, 820 American soldiers were killed in eastern Mindanao and a further 2,880 were wounded; many more deaths and injuries were post 15 August. The 34th Infantry would leave Mindanao in October of 1945. Their next destination would be the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. The 34th Infantry Regiment took over occupational duties from the 41st Infantry Division.
The Division would remain stationed in various locations throughout southern Japan from 1946 to 1950. The 24th Infantry Division was one of just a few full strength division’s who had remained overseas since hostilities ceased in 1945. In June of 1950, the Korean War broke out, and the elements of the Division were sent to Korea and named “Task Force Smith”. Their job was to hold of the Chinese attackers until further support could arrive from the Continental United States. The 34th Infantry Regiment was the first full regiment to arrive in Korea in the final days of June 1950. They would soon be thrown into the line where they heroically fought to keep the American lines alive. As the 34th suffered very heavy casualties in July and August of 1950, many elements of the regiment were dispersed to the other regiments of the division, the 19th and 21st Infantry Regiments.
"A Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division" World War II 