24 Dec 2021 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

Hurtgen Forest, December 1944

Information

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[Daan Kemp]

Main job?

[Mark in Rochester]

Main job?

World War II
During World War II, Military Police schools were established at Camp Gordon, Fort Benjamin Harrison, with the Military Police Replacement Center established at Fort Custer. MPs also trained for port security at Fort McHenry. Military Police soldiers moved traffic along the Burma Road, supported amphibious operations on Normandy beachheads, and managed enemy prisoners of war from Italy to the South Pacific.

When the Red Ball Express (a supply route stemming from Normandy to the front lines) was established in August 1944, MP performed route reconnaissance and security to keep the trucks and supplies flowing. This was the 793rd Military Police Battalion's (disbanded 2014) first mission in theater and commemorated this in their coat of arms and unit insignia; which consists of a field of green, a yellow road, and two red disks symbolizing the famed route.



Thanks to the actions of First lieutenant John Hyde and his detachment of MP, The Corps was heralded for gallantry at Remagen, as a fighting force in numerous combat actions and as peacekeepers at war's end. In 1944, the Army again saw the need for a unit to investigate crime involving soldiers in Europe. The United States Army Criminal Investigation Division was established as a branch of the Provost Marshal General's Office and has continued investigative activity since.

After the war ended, cavalry units in Germany were utilized to form the United States Constabulary, a police-like patrol organization. It was disbanded in the 1950s.

In 1949, the newly formed Defense Department was in the process of reorganizing the Army and plans were developed to disband the Military Police Corps. But when Congress passed the Army Reorganization Act in May 1950, the Corps survived, remaining a separate branch of the Army.