When Adolph Hitler and the Wermacht (pronounced "vairmokt") invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939, America was watching and waiting. After the quiet interlude of early 1940 (called the "phony war") in France and the eventual defeat and withdrawal of Allied Forces (French and British) at Dunkirk, President Roosevelt offered material support through the "Lend Lease" thereby ensuring the survival of Great Britain during the dark days of World War Two.
Knowing the woefully inadequate preparedness of the United States Army and Navy for war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a national emergency and mobilized all National Guard units for one year of federal service on December 23rd, 1940. The draft had been enacted by Congress three months prior in September 1940. Towns and cities all across Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska saw off their National Guardsmen with brass bands as they boarded troop trains to head to the Army camps. Husbands, fathers, brothers all said goodbye to their loved ones at hundreds of train stations, town halls, National Guard Armories, and bus depots throughout the Midwest. It was only to be for a year and then the boys would be home again to resume their lives as farmers, machinists, schoolteachers, mechanics, doctors, students, et cetera.
But December 7th, 1941 changed all that. With less than a month left in their term of service, our boys (and America) were called to war. With the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, the nation was plunged into the chaos of World War Two. Now those Kansas farmboys, and those St. Louis store clerks and the hundreds of other young American kids would not be seeing their homes and families for a long time. Some would never return. Imagine the anguish and grief the young mothers felt when a year earlier (at the local Armory or train station) the young husbands said their teary-eyed goodbyes. Some of them not knowing that young Tommy, or Jimmy would never return. That is how many National Guard units throughout the United States entered the war.
The Division at that time consisted of the 134th, 137th, 138th, and 140th Infantry Regiments from Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. The Division trained at Camp Robinson, Arkansas and participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the nation was in a panic and feared that the West Coast of California was next stop for the Japanese invasion. The 35th Division was transferred to Camp Merriam at San Luis Obispo, California where it performed coastal defense duties and trained for war. It was on March 1st, 1942 during their posting to California that the 35th Division was re-organized and re-designated as the 35th "Infantry" Division. The new organization called for a three-regiment Division and the 138th Infantry Regiment was re-assigned to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska Territory.
In March 1943, the Division was transferred to Camp Rucker, Alabama and participated in the Tennessee Maneuvers. On May 25th, 1944, the 35th ID arrived in England where it began preparations for the invasion of France (June 6th, 1944....D-Day, aka the Normandy Invasion). The 35th landed on French soil approximately one month after the intial landings at "bloody" Omaha Beach from July 5th to the 7th, 1944 and entered combat shortly thereafter on July 11th, 1944.