Engraved on a stone marker atop a destroyed German Bunker on Omaha Beach stands a list of National Guard units who served in the Normandy Invasion June 6-7, 1944. While the 28th Infantry Division would not arrive in Normandy until July 22, well after the initial landings, among the units listed on the marker are several who hail from the Keystone State.
Cleaved from the 28th Division in the dramatic reorganization of the Army for a Second World War, the 190th Field Artillery Group, 190th Field Artillery Battalion and the 200th Field Artillery Battalion provided Pennsylvania’s link to this critical moment in history.
Formed from the 103rd Cavalry of the 28th Division lost to the “triangularization” of the unit in 1941, the 190th Field Artillery of the Pennsylvania National Guard and its subordinate batteries claimed a lineage back to before the American Civil War. With roots leading back to the early militia companies of Bellefonte and Sunbury, Pennsylvania, the 190th claimed an impressive legacy for a unit newly formed in 1941.
Elements of the unit were most well-known for their lengthy interwar service as the state's 103rd Cavalry. Established after World War I by returning veterans of the 53rd Field Artillery Brigade, the unit's motto "Scatter Come Together" was an homage to the spread-out nature of the organization throughout the year, and their annual coming together as a unit for yearly summer training. The insignia and heraldry of the 103rd Cavalry would be reassigned to the 190th to demonstrate its history in the Pennsylvania Guard.
Federalized in January 1941, the regiment trained at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, as part of the short-lived 73rd Field Artillery Brigade alongside the 166th Field Artillery of Pennsylvania (predecessor to today’s 166th Regiment Regional Training Institute) and Louisiana Guard units whose predecessors had faced each other at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
That unit was shipped to Northern Ireland in August 1942, and it was there that the 190th Regiment was again restructured, forming its second battalion into the 200th FAB, and Headquarters into HHB, 190th Field Artillery Group.
The three new units trained day and night with the other commands preparing for the invasion of mainland Europe, but also racked up experience on the gridiron with the top-scoring unit football team in the local league, according to veteran accounts.
The 190th and their 155mm guns would train in the United Kingdom until June 1944, where they would make landfall between June 7-8. The unit would enter combat near Colleville-sur-Mer, firing in support of the Allied invasion.
Veterans reported facing heavy mortar fire their first day in Normandy, and the unit's first casualty, Pfc. Dale Birkenstock of West Milton, Pennsylvania, was suffered after a German aircraft was downed into C Battery, 190th FAB. The unit served as a Corps-level asset and would rotate between the VI Corps, VIII Corps, and later Army-level commands.
Fighting through Operation Cobra and later firing in support of the 28th Division during the bloody fight in the Hurtgen Forest, by the end of the war they had earned battle honors in Normandy (with arrowhead), Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe.
Like the 190th, the 200th would land in the days after the beachhead foothold was secured. After firing in support of the 29th Division of the Maryland and Virginia Guard in Normandy, the 200th would see hard service in the Ardennes attached to the V Corps and would fire in support of beleaguered troopers from the 82nd Airborne and other elements as they broke the final German offensive of the war.
Alongside the 190th the 200th racked up an impressive battle record, moving from corps to corps.
After the war, the 190th and 200th Field Artillery would be reactivated as part of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Just a decade after their last activation the 200th would be mobilized for federal service again, this time to a Germany at peace as part of the 28th Division’s mobilization in Europe during the Korean War.
Through various reorganizations, the remaining elements of these two veteran units would go on to form portions of the 200th Field Artillery Battalion, 229th Field Artillery Battalion and 728th Maintenance Battalion.
Today the only remaining units in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard still drawing lineage from the 190th and 200th are the 728th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion and HHC, 107th Field Artillery. Both units’ colors bear the streamer for “Normandy” with Arrowhead marking their participation in the largest amphibious invasion in the U.S. Army’s history.
(Editor’s note: Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Heft is a former platoon sergeant with 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard. He is currently the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Army National Guard Leader Development Program in Arlington, Va.)