Field Artillery Battalions

Mortar Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Roy W. Muth, Companies B and C fired for regiments of the 5th Division Company D supported the 417th Infantry, 76th Division, attached to the 5 th Division for the operation and the two platoons of Company A supported, respectively, the 905th and 314th Field Artillery Battalions of the 80th Division. 

May also saw the battalion undergo a two-and-a-half-week period of intensive training while attached to a field artillery group. There was no time for amphibious training before the invasion, and as a conse> quence the zd did not participate in the initial landings. Nor did the 86th Battalion receive assault training in time for D-day activity. 

Field artillery officers were impressed by the amount of effective fire produced by a chemical mortar company as compared to that of an artillery unit. Maj. John D. Tolman, who commanded the 8zd Chemical Mortar Battalion from 26 April until the close of the Luzon Campaign, disclosed that infantry commanders felt they could not "properly accomplish [their] mission [without] 4.2-inch mortar sup-... 

---