User:Jay fraser4/101st Coast Artillery Battalion (Anti-Aircraft)

101st Coast Artillery Battalion (Anti-Aircraft)

The 101st Separate Coast Artillery Battalion, Antiaircraft was a Georgia National Guard battalion that was activated to activated to federal service and combat ready for anti-aircraft defense on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Within two months of the United States entrance into the World War II, the 101st sailed on the RMS Queen Mary to Sydney Australia, made their way by Train to Brisbane, and landed by boat in Port Moresby, Papua to aide in the months long battle of Port Moresby. 101st defended the 3 mile airstrip from almost daily bombings from the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. The 101st went on to participate in the Battle of Milne Bay and other bases in New Guinea.

Lineage

 * 108th Cavalry Regiment Troop C, 1st Separate Squadron, Georgia Cavalry at Atlanta, Georgia
 * Machine Gun Troop at Atlanta redesignated 12 October 1940 as Battery C, 101st Separate Battalion, Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft).
 * Headquarters, First Squadron at Hinesville redesignated 12 October 1940 as Headquarters, 101st Separate Battalion, Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft).
 * Troop A at Savannah redesignated 12 October 1940 as Battery A, 101st Separate Battalion, Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft).
 * Troop B at Hinesville redesignated 12 October 1940 as Battery B, 101st Separate Battalion, Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft).
 * Medical Department Detachment at New Orleans reorganized 12 October 1940 to form Medical Department Detachments, 101st and 105th Separate Battalions, Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft).
 * "Coastaal Artillery" changed to "Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) Automatic Weapons"
 * 528th consolidated with 101st AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion 19 July 1946
 * 250th, 950th, and 101st consolidated with 214th Artillery 1 July 1959 a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System to consist of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Gun Battalions, the 3rd Automatic Weapons Battalion, and the 5th Detachment.

Creation
On the eve of war, the 108th Cavalry was commanded by Col. Joseph Fraser of Hinesville, Ga. The headquarters staff of the 108th was split between Georgia and Louisiana with the regimental headquarters located in Hinesville. The headquarters of the 108th was formed July 16, 1916 as Headquarters, 2nd Squadron of Cavalry. The unit was mobilized to the Mexican Border in 1916 and remained in federal service until redesignated as the 106th Train and Headquarters and Military Police Company of the 31st Division October 23, 1917. Following World War I, the unit was reorganized as Headquarters, 1st Squadron, 108th Cavalry.

The Machine Gun Troop of the 108th Cavalry, the Governor’s Horse Guards, was organized March 31, 1883. It’s first captain was John Milledge who had served in the Civil War.

Troop A of the 108th Cavalry descended from the Georgia Hussars, which was organized February 13, 1736 by General James Oglethorpe, Governor of Georgia. The Hussars served as Company A, 5th Georgia Cavalry during the American Civil War and surrendered with Gen. Joseph Johnston at Greensboro, N.C. April 26, 1865.

The Liberty Independent Troop which constituted Company B, 108th Cavalry, was organized September 12, 1786. During the American Civil War, the troop served as Troop G, 5th Regiment, Georgia Cavalry.

On Oct. 15, 1940, the Soldiers of the 108th learned that they would not mobilize for war as cavalrymen but would instead guard the skies from enemy aircraft. The 108th was converted to form the 101st Separate Coast Artillery Battalion, Antiaircraft. The unit entered active federal service Feb. 10, 1941 and reported to Camp Stewart for initial training. In addition to the Hussars, Independent Troop and Horse Guards that constituted Batteries A, B and C, the battalion organized Battery D in Bainbridge, Ga.

Preparations
By June, the 101st had completed the 13-week mobilization program which consisted of maneuvers, inspections and classroom instructions. At Fernandina, Fla., the Soldiers trained on AA-mounted .30 machine guns. Gas filled balloons, released over the ocean, provided targets for the men to practice gunnery. The men also honed their skills on the 37 mm antiaircraft gun and learned how to place it in direct-fire mode to serve as an anti-mechanized gun.

Before the sun rose on September 20, the 101st was on the road from Camp Stewart bound for the Carolina Maneuvers. Reaching Augusta, Ga. by 4:00 that afternoon, the men set up a camp at the fairgrounds. The Guardsmen received passes to go to the town for a welcome break from the military training. Those who stayed out late likely didn’t get less sleep than those who remained in the camp where temperatures plunged. The grumbling that accompanied the 4:00 a.m. reveille was soon slaked by gallons of hot, black coffee that took the edge of the night’s chill. The convoy moved out after chow and, late in the afternoon of September 21, the Soldiers reached their permanent camp near Chester, S.C. In contrast to the previous night spent shivering in hastily erected tents, the Soldiers passed a comfortable night on straw filled mattresses. It would be the last good night’s sleep for most as the field problems began in earnest and continued for the next seven weeks. The highlight of the maneuvers for the 101st occurred in late October, when as part of the advance element of Brig. Gen. George Patton’s 1st Armored Division, the men of the 101st captured a convoy of the enemy red troops that included a regimental commander and staff and more than 100 infantrymen.

As the Carolina Maneuvers continued, the 101st gained experience in communication and coordination that would serve them well in the years to come. They had maneuvered their 37 mm antiaircraft guns, or in many cases, wood substitutes which they nicknamed “woodimeters” and listened eagerly to intelligence reports about the progress of the war in Europe and the Pacific.

The maneuvers wrapped up the last day of November, and by Dec. 2, 1941, the men of the 101st had returned to Camp Stewart. For the next several days, the Ga. Guard Soldiers cleaned and inventoried equipment with lightning speed in anticipation of weekend passes. Liberty was granted at noon Dec. 6, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought a premature end to the weekend passes. Men streamed back to Camp Stewart which was on high alert. The days passed at a rapid pace. On February 1, the Soldiers of the 101st loaded their equipment onto trains bound for an unknown destination.

Departing Camp Stewart, the train stopped briefly in Savannah where the men of the 101st had one last view of the city that had been the home of the Georgia Hussars. Many wondered when or if they would see it again.

The next day, the train stopped, and the men detrained into the frigid air of Camp Dix, N.J. That night, the men huddled in freezing tents as the temperature plunged below zero and the meager camp stoves shed little heat. The misery of that cold night gave way to early morning calisthenics, the men breathing geysers of steam into the frozen air as frost clung to their uniforms. Every morning would begin with exercises and be followed variously by bayonet and rifle drill.

Within two weeks of arriving at Fort Dix, the men had received their new M-1 Garand Rifles that replaced their 1903 Springfields. Against a cold rainy backdrop, the men received their mobilization orders February 16. The Soldiers were hustled into coaches and driven out into the dark night; their destination unknown. The dawn light of February 17 was greeted by a thick fog that obscured the landscape as the 101st approached the port of Boston. The men spent the rest of the 17th loading equipment and personnel for a February 18 departure. As the Queen Mary steamed out of Boston Harbor, few of the men knew their ultimate destination, and none could have foretold the events that would add luster to the history of the famed 108th Cavalry.

Voyage on the Queen Mary
The RMS Queen Mary left Boston and sailed first to Key West, Florida, then to Rio de Janeiro. They spent two days there, blockaded by an axis submarine but escaped over a shallow bar at high tide. "A zigzag course was then taken to Capetown, South Africa, during which the ship caught fire three times — all caused, the captain felt, because of the overload on the wiring. They entered the Tasmanian Sea and stopped in Perth, Australia, then disembarked at Sydney and caught trains up through the interior to Brisbane. The following day, Gen. MacArthur arrived."

Defense of Port Moresby
After receiving General MacArthur's Orders in Sydney, Fraser and the 101st Battalion were the first American combat ground troops to go into New Guinea during the New Guinea Campaign in 1942.

With the Japanese rapidly overtaking New Guinea and MacArthur's forces regrouping in Australia, MacArthur told Fraser that they would have little chances of surviving but to hold off Japanese forces as long as they could. A diary entry by Lt. Lester on March 30, 1942, shortly before the battalion sailed to Port Moresby, New Guinea reads, "This is it. The Japanese are moving in toward New Guinea.... Into combat. We’ve been preparing but didn’t really believe it would happen. … We can’t believe that we’re playing for keeps. Col. Joe Fraser and I met and prayed to God last night for guidance and leadership to carry our men through the battles before them. He was crying; his men were going to die. All are willing to go, but what a sinking feeling." (Col. Fraser later told a group in Hinesville that he prayed another hour in his headquarters before leaving for the Jap-infested area).[4]

The battalion sailed unmolested through enemy waters, where they landed safely and fought off repeated air attacks by Japanese Zeros with 50-caliber machine guns over the next few months until the rest of MacArthur's forces returned. Fraser made his gunners frequently relocate the anti-aircraft gun locations so that the Zeros had a hard time determining where to focus each new attack. The 101st played a role in holding what allied territory remained on New Guinea until the Battle of Coral Sea thwarted the Japanese 5-pronged plan of attack on Australia.