34th Infantry Division Red Bulls: Iowa Time Machine February 10, 1941

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On February 10, 1941, the 34th Infantry Division Red Bulls were activated for service in World War 2. Thousands of farm boys, shopkeepers, and factory workers from Iowa and across the Upper Midwest found their weekend warrior duties transformed into something far more serious ten months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The 34th Infantry Division traced its lineage to National Guard units formed across Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the years following World War I. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, these part-time soldiers drilled once a month on weekends and attended summer training camps, never imagining they would become full-time warriors. The division's distinctive red bull insignia represented the energy and determination of the Upper Midwest, a region that had sent its sons to every American conflict since the Civil War.

As Europe plunged deeper into war and Nazi Germany conquered nation after nation, President Franklin Roosevelt began calling up National Guard divisions to bolster America's woefully unprepared military. The 34th received its activation orders in January 1941, becoming one of the first Guard divisions mobilized. In February, the units assembled at Camp Claiborne in Louisiana. Men who had been drilling in armories in towns like Des Moines, Sioux City, and Waterloo suddenly found themselves in a massive military camp alongside thousands of fellow guardsmen. Over the next year, the men learned infantry tactics, weapons handling, and unit cohesion under the sweltering Louisiana sun. Officers who had led small-town Guard units now commanded battalions and regiments preparing for actual warfare.

The 34th Infantry Division went on to spend 517 days in combat across North Africa and Italy, earning the distinction of being the first American division to engage German forces in ground combat and among the last to see action in Europe. Today, the division continues its mission as the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard, with units still drawing from Iowa and neighboring states. #Iowa #OTD #Military #WorldWar2 #History