General Orders

Army Regulation mandated an order numbering system. They required that units issue consecutively number orders beginning each year with order number 1. For example: the first order issued in January, regardless of date, would be labeled: GENERAL ORDER NUMBER 1. The next order, which came on January 15, 1944, was named: GENERAL ORDER NUMBER 2.

The last order issued for the year, i.e. December 31, 1944, contained a notation specifying that this was the last order. The first order of the next year would indicate the last order number for the preceding year was the last in the series for that year, in this case 1944.

General Orders during World War II were used to award individual and unit decorations, activate, inactivate, organize, reorganize, designate, and assign General Staff.

The 103d Infantry Division (Cactus) World War II Association is extremely fortunate to have acquired the General Orders for the Division for the period from activation, November, 1942 through September 1, 1945. This period covered training at Camp Caliborne, Camp Howze, movement to Camp Shanks, movement overseas, and the entire period of combat from November 11, 1944 through V-E Day May 8, 1945.

Orders are presented in Microsoft Excel, which is a searchable database, by name, by date, by award, and by unit. Also included are instructions relative to abbreviations used in the database and the unit designation protocol.

In addition to the Microsoft Excel database, we have put the sections into a PDF file which is accessible by name, date, award, unit, and the instruction sheet.

To access the Microsoft Excel database, Click Here.

Access the PDF files by:

For those who are searching for a specific name, or awards, or units, look up the specific information you seek on one of the above database files. Once you find the date and General Order number, you can then find a copy of the General Order. This is particularly helpful for awards, such as the Silver Star, Soldier's Medal, and Bronze Star as it allows the researcher to pull up a copy of the General Order and read the citation for that award.

Notice some of the sections are broken into Months, others Weeks, and yet others Days. The reason for this was the file size and to keep them small enough to open quicker.

General Orders For 1942

General Orders For 1943

January --- August

September --- December

General Orders For 1944